Read Little Miss and the Law for Free Online Page B

what?” Jake played dumb.
     
    “Jake....”
     
    “Okay fine, it is in my bag,” Jake confessed.
     
    “Get it out and give it to me.”
     
    Muttering and rubbing her bottom with one hand, Jake obliged, pulling out a cigarette case full of weed.
     
    “Where did you get this?” Mackenzie demanded.
     
    “In Oz.”
     
    Mackenzie's eyes grew wide. “You bought this through customs?”
     
    Jake shrugged. “Yeah.”
     
    Forced to restrain herself from beating the brat again, Mackenzie struggled to regain a measure of calm.
     
    “Jake, this could have got you a jail term. It could still get you a jail term. It could get me a jail term, not to mention being disbarred. Do you understand how silly it was to bring this into the country?”
     
    “Everyone...”
     
    “Do not tell me everyone does it!” Mackenzie interrupted.
     
    “Well everyone does!” Jake yelled.
     
    “No, they do not. Go to your room.” Mackenzie ordered in a tone that suggested Jake would very much regret disobeying the order.
     
    Spinning on her heel in a manner reminiscent of her Aunt, Jake obeyed, stomping off to her room and slamming the door behind her.
     
    “What are you going to do with that?” Stephanie asked.
     
    “I'm going to flush it.”
     
    “I meant the screaming hell-spawn,” Stephanie replied dryly.
     
    “It's too late to flush her, I'm afraid.”
     
    Stephanie giggled. Mackenzie did not so much as crack a smile.
     
    ***
     
    Jake got over her spanking. As Mackenzie had predicted, she soon bounced back from the paddling and returned to her usual boisterous self. She took a liking to Stephanie, which was fortunate given that Stephanie was becoming a regular fixture in Mackenzie's life. For a time, all seemed calm. But inevitably, the tides of karma brought with them the flotsam of past sins and trouble lurked around the corner on even the brightest of days.
     
    “Cards?” Jake arched a brow at Stephanie and grinned, tossing her head to clear her eyes of the strands of blonde hair that fell into them and threatened to blind her.
     
    Stephanie laughed. “Name the game.”
     
    “Hold 'em Texas,” Jake drawled, her accent half way passably southern.
     
    “What are we playing for?”
     
    “Your virtue,” Jake teased.
     
    “Jake! Enough!” Mackenzie called from her office.
     
    “Just kidding,” Jake yelled back.
     
    Mackenzie shook her head, frowning down at the brief on her laptop screen. Work, work, there was always more work. Briefly she contemplated shutting the firm down and taking up residence on an uncharted island. At least the weather would be more clement, she thought as she gazed out the large floor to ceiling window. From sunny beginnings, the day turned cold and chilly. Clouds were gathering on the horizon and rolling in with speed with a wind that howled through the trees below, making them sway like blades of grass. Though she was quite warm, Mackenzie shivered.
     
    The intercom connected to the front door buzzed innocuously and Mackenzie answered it with the relief that comes with having a reason to stop performing an odious task.
     
    “Hello.”
     
    “Mack, let me up.”
     
    A voice from the past crackled over the intercom. Mackenzie turned pale. Archer. There was a voice she would have paid good money not to have heard again.
     
    For a moment, she considered not opening the door, but if Archer was here, there had to be a good reason for it. A reason Mackenzie knew from experience it was best to be aware of before the trouble started.
     
    “Come on up,” she said curtly, pressing the buzzer for the door.
     
    It didn't take Archer long to make her way upstairs. There was an elevator, but Mackenzie knew Archer would be taking the stairs. Archer wasn't one to open herself to the possibility of being cornered in a small space.
     
    “I won't be long sweetie,” Mackenzie assured Stephanie on her way past to open the front door.
     
    “No problem,” Stephanie replied