“Lookey what we got here. Want me to do my job, honey?” The car bounced as Jennings wrestled with his seatbelt, then swung his door out and stood.

Lola didn’t know what he was doing at first, but then she saw the girl, standing with her back against the brick building, chewing gum with an open mouth. The girl rolled her eyes and stood with arms akimbo as Jennings approached her: light-skinned and Hispanic, couldn’t have been older than nineteen. Her skirt was just about crotch length and there was no question what she was doing on that corner.

Lola went to open her door, but Jennings put his fat ass in the way. His body eclipsed the girl and the building behind her, so Lola could only listen.

“What’d I tell you about this, Star? Thought I taught you a lesson last time.”

“I ain’t botherin’ nobody, man. Just mindin’ my own business.” Though the girl had attitude, her voice could have been that of a cartoon mouse.

“Is that right?”

Jennings lifted his posterior off the car and Lola saw the girl, Star, back away. Her eyes searched around as if looking for an escape route.

Then Jennings looked right at Lola…and winked. He grabbed Star’s arm at the elbow and swung her body around the front of him. He slammed her against the hood of the cruiser, the girl’s ass sticking straight up and at him.

“What the fuck, man?” Every time Star tried to turn, Jennings forced her back down. Then his other hand found her ass.

Lola had enough. She wouldn’t stand by while a young girl was molested by this fat son of a bitch—just to prove a point to her. She got out of the car, one hand on her gun. “Jennings, what the hell are you doing?”

“This little spick bitch has given me a lot of trouble. I’ve given her enough chances.” His hand probed around under the girl’s skirt, cupping in places, rubbing others.

Lola saw herself bent over the police cruiser, her father running his sticky, filth-covered hands over her body. Star clicked her tongue and widened her nostrils, didn’t seem quite as appalled as Lola felt watching it. And the look on Jennings’s face as he felt around, his heavy breathing, a slight phlegm-rattle in his throat, made Lola grip her pistol harder. Sweat beads rolled down his reddening face.

“That’s enough, goddamnit.” Lola made a move to stop him, to snap his wrist, pull his arm back behind him so far, he could tickle the fat folds on the back of his neck. But she stopped in her tracks.

“That shit ain’t mine, man.” Star struggled beneath Jennings’s thick arm.

Jennings smiled as he showed Lola the crack pipe and bag of rocks. “And the little fucker is out here sellin’ pussy. Can’t have that, can we?”

“Look, take it easy,” Lola said. “We’ll take her in. I’ll finish searching her, okay?” Lola couldn’t stand to watch this obese prick lay his hog hands on this girl for another second, regardless of what she was doing. Nobody deserved that.