The girl turned her head and made a face like a little girl begging her parents for a toy. “Come on, man. Can’t we work something out?”

“Watch your mouth, girl. You’re in enough trouble as it is,” Lola said. She nudged Jennings aside with her hip and took hold of the girl’s wrists. Lola noted the satisfied grunt as her hip and leg brushed up against him, and a shudder ran up her body.

“Fuck you, bitch. I was talkin’ to him.” She nodded toward Jennings. “He loves getting his dick sucked, ain’t that right?”

Lola raised an eyebrow and turned to face her superior officer. She expected him to laugh it off, tell the girl that telling lies would only get her in deeper trouble—something along those lines. But the fat fuck only smiled and seemed to be re-living some distant memory.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Jennings?”

“What, you believe her?” His words didn’t match the smug look on his face. He bit his lip and locked eyes with Star.

“He knows it’s true. Can hardly find his dick under all that fat. Just like lickin’ a belly button.” She laughed.

Under the circumstances, Lola almost laughed too.

“You little cunt. Let’s see how funny you are after a few months behind bars, huh?” He moved forward like he was going to hit her and Lola shoved him back. Her open palm hit him square in the chest and she felt the air blow out of him.

He bared his teeth and his face glowed even redder. Sweat trickled down his head like grease on a roasting pig. “You’ll be sorry for that. Just wait until we get back to the station, girl.”

“Yeah, let’s take this girl in, let her tell the Chief about your little extra-curricular activities. I think he might like to hear that.” Lola let go of the girl’s wrists, backed away.

Star turned around and glared at Jennings. “I got plenty of stories, man.”

Jennings’s confidence seemed to melt away. His eyes darted from Lola to Star to his feet, or his stomach, whichever he could see. “I don’t need this shit.” He stomped away, taking the drugs he’d confiscated, and slid back into the car.

“Thanks,” Star said. “I wasn’t lying, you know. But it got me outta trouble. More than once.”

“I believe you,” Lola said. “But we can’t prove that. If I were you, I’d stay out of sight for a while. And next time I see you out here on this corner, I’ll take you in myself. And there isn’t anything to suck to get out of it either. Got it?”

Star snorted, rubbed her wrists. “Yeah, whatever.” She stalked down the street, swaying her hips and tossing her hair back and forth.

Lola knew she would catch hell as soon as she got back in the car, could feel Jennings’s stare like laser beams melting the windows and hitting her in the chest. She peered into the passenger window but only saw his hands gripping the steering wheel, his hairy forearms twitching.