"What?" he roared. He looked across the room at her.

"Calm down Kyle." She replied indignantly.

"I will not calm down! And what's more Susan, I will not be told to calm down in my own house!"

She rocked back in the sofa, his outburst obviously startling her.

He paced the floor in front of the gas fire, his brows deep in a combination of anger and worry. Susan, his sister-in-law, had been living with them for three months, and the first time his wife is out of town, something like this happens. The last thing his wife Corryn had asked him to do, was 'keep an eye on my baby sister'.

"You come here at four in the morning and tell me that you got arrested for possession?"

"Well not quite arrested."

He stopped pacing and gave her a stern look. She shared most of her good looks with her sister Corryn, but her long dark hair was wavier, more curly. When they were together, it was obvious they were sisters; show stoppers, both of them.

"Ok then Susan, 'not quite arrested', but you were still taken in for questioning. What's your sister going to say when she gets back?"

"What can she say? It's not as though she doesn't smoke a little pot herself, is it?"

He crossed the room to her.

"Corryn has never been in trouble for it though!"

"You mean she's just never been caught. Come on Kyle, it was just bad luck!" She folded her arms, across her loose yellow blouse, crushing her pert breasts. Usually he noticed these things, tonight he was too mad to care. "Come on Kyle. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Which wrong place were you at?"

"The Club." He knew the 'Club' well, even drank there sometimes and the live bands were the best, but it was not the ideal place for a young girl to hang out.

"But that's for over twenty-one's; you're just nineteen!"

"Oh yeah, and you never drank underage did you?"

Susan's high handed manner was beginning to piss him off. It was, after all, four in the fucking morning.

"Who else was there with you?"

"I was drinking with Tony."

"And who or what is Tony?"

"He's one of the managers there. What is this? 'Twenty Questions'? Why do I have to explain myself to you? You're only my big sister's husband!"

His hand whipped out and his finger shook in front of her nose.

"I also happen to be the person who pays for the roof above your head at the moment!"

Slowly a smile swept across her face. From a sitting position, she twisted her body and slipped down the sofa till she lay flat on it, her head resting on one sofa arm, her feet perched on the other.

She was a teasing minx, Kyle had known that before Corryn had arranged her stay with them. Susan believed that her body was her passport to the stars, and some said that she wasn't afraid to use it either.

Kyle ignored her and began his pacing again.

"So what happened?"

He watched her smile at his apparent disregard for her figure. He had seen it alright. He just had too much on his mind right now.

"At the Club?"

"No! I'm not interested about the Club; it got raided, you got caught in possession."

He turned to face her again, his hands behind his back, warming at the fire. Although the house was centrally heated, the thermostat was automatically lower at night, it was quite chilly. "I'm interested in what happened at the police station. How come they let you go?"

"Well," she said, her hands now clasped behind her head. "It's a long story..."

"I don't have fucking time for a long story Susan! I'm working in the morning!" He looked at his watch. "Four hours from now! Just cut to the chase... Just give me the details."

She looked slightly disappointed, but carried on quickly.

"The thing is..."

"Yes?"

"They've dropped the charge for possession, and in return, I phone them every once in a while if anything happens at the Club that looks illegal."

Kyle almost exploded.

"You've become a police informer?" Disbelief clouded his face.

"Come on Kyle, what choice did I have? It was either that or go to jail!"

"They can't put you in jail for a little 'blow'. It's just your first offence, they'd let you off with a caution or some suspended sentence."

"No Kyle, you don't understand." For the first time in the evening Susan looked contrite. She bit her lip nervously.

"What don't I understand?"

"In Seattle, I got arrested for supplying marijuana."

"What?"

"I'm already on a suspended sentence. This time they'd put me away, I can't take that."

So that was why she'd suddenly appeared on their doorstep three months ago! Kyle wondered if Corryn knew anything about this earlier offence.

"You can't do it Susan."

"Can't do what?" she asked, a surprised look on her face.

"You can't grass on the Club. They'd kill you if they found out."

"Oh come on Kyle, don't go over the top here."

In one fluid movement, he advanced on her, dropping down to sit by her waist. His side squashed her body into the back of the sofa. Her hands had instinctively swung round to shield her face.

"Have you any idea what kind of people own the Club? Have you?"

"It's a club Kyle!" she squealed, as he grabbed her wrists, pinning them to the arm of the sofa behind her head.

"Have you any idea?" he repeated, roaring at her, almost point blank. "Do you really have any understanding of who owns the Club?"

Susan was frightened now. She cowered from his tirade, but made no reply.

"I'll fucking tell you then. Will I?"

He let her wrists go, but still leant over her.

"They're crooks Susan." His voice much quieter now, but the timbre gave import to his words. "The worst kind. If they find out you're a police grass, you'll be a sorry, sorry girl. If you're still alive of course."

He watched her swallow.

"But Tony..." She started.

"Tony's a fucking killer! Ok, he was never caught, but that just makes him more dangerous. Why do you think he was given the job as manager over there? He's as hard as shit, and breaks fingers for fun!"

He leant back slightly, giving her room to breath.

"Girl, do you know what they'd do to you if they could hear us now?"

"I'd just tell them they're wrong. That I'm not a police informant!"

"Oh yeah, and they'd just say... "cool Susan, sorry we got you wrong, here's a drink on the house?". Do you think they'd stop there?"

He flicked his fingers at her face, dodging her flailing hands, catching her cheeks every time.

"Admit it, you're a grass!" he asked, still slapping her lightly.

"Stop it Kyle! I'm harder than you think!"

"Oh, now she's hard!" he said to the room. "Now she can take whatever they throw at her!"

His repeated flicks began to annoy her, and she stabbed his chest with her fist in retaliation.

"Admit it! You're a grass!"

"Fuck you!" she retorted. She was getting a few punches home now. Swiftly he grabbed her wrists again, then transferred them both to one hand. With only a slight struggle, he managed to pin her wrists behind her head again. His slaps to her cheeks continued, despite the thrashing about of her head.

"Come on. Admit it. You're a grass to the pigs!"

"Fuck you Kyle! I'll never admit it!"

She was wriggling beside him now, and for the first time in the evening, he noticed her breasts, moving behind her blouse. He paused, his thoughts suddenly not on what he was doing.

"See!" she snapped. "I'd never admit it. They couldn't make me!"

With a twist of her body, she brought her knee crashing into his side. The sudden pain shocked him for a second, then when the next blow came, her knee thumping harder, he was brought back to his senses.

Keeping his grip on her wrists, he raised his body off the sofa slightly, then sat firmly down on top of her thighs; effectively pinning her down. Her struggles increased at his apparent victory. She squirmed under him like a snake.

"They couldn't make you eh?"

He slapped her harder.

"I'll fucking make you!"

"Never!"

He slapped her again, more force this time, then gripped her face.

"You fucking work for the cops, don't you?" he snarled at her.

"No way asshole!"

He seized her necklace; some cheap string of gaudy beads she enjoyed wearing, then twisted his hand in it. Irate beyond words, Kyle hoped that it would break, and she would give in.

"Admit it bitch! You work for the fucking Feds, don't you?"

He pulled tighter on the necklace, waiting for it to break. Her neck came off the arm of the sofa, the beads digging into the flesh of her neck.

"Fuck you!" she said, in a voice hoarse and forced. Her defiant snarl made him pull all the more.

"Come on. Break!" he shouted, watching her face go red.

"Never!" she screamed. "You'll never break me!"

Kyle had shouted 'break' at the necklace, but Susan had misinterpreted him.

"Break you bitch!"

But the string of beads held, so he pulled tighter. The more he pulled, the tighter it became around her neck, choking her.

"Never!" she croaked.

For a few seconds he looked down at her face, contorted in pain, then Kyle's resolve broke. He could not strangle his sister-in-law to prove a point. With a sigh of frustration, he released the necklace and wiped his hand over his brow. With the sudden realisation of where the argument had been heading, he looked at the marks of the individual beads imprinted across Susan's neck, like a hangman's noose.

"I fucking told you that you couldn't break me!" she snarled at him.

With a forward flick of her head she spat at him. Like a rabbit caught in headlights, Kyle slowly brought his fingers across his face, lifting her sputum, examining it.