The hood of a police cruiser that had been sitting in the sun all morning. Audrey's cheeks sizzled against it. She tried to turn her head. Lawson's hand pressed harder. Don't move.
Greer grabbed Nicole by both shoulders and slammed her down next to her sister. Nicole's forehead hit the hood. She gasped, not from the impact, but from the heat. Her hands flew up instinctively. Greer caught both wrists and pinned them behind her back.
Please, you're hurting me. Good. Then hold still. Thornton stood three feet behind them, arms crossed, watching. He wasn't sweating.
He was standing in the shade of the cruiser's open door. Cuff him. Lawson pulled out his handcuffs. The metal clicked around Audrey's right wrist first, then the left. Too tight.
She felt the edge cutting into the bone. She didn't say anything. She knew from 8 years of investigating cops that asking them to loosen handcuffs only made them tighten more. Greer cuffed Nicole. She flinched when the metal touched her skin.
The cuffs had been sitting in Greer's belt, baking in the sun all morning. They burned. "What are we being charged with?" Nicole's voice was shaking, but the words came out clear. Years in a courtroom had trained her to speak, even when her body wanted to collapse. Thornton laughed.
"Charged? Who said anything about charges?" "You can't detain us without probable cause. That's lady." Thornon took one step forward. Do I look like I care about your big words? Nicole turned her head on the hood.
What you're doing right now is illegal. This is unlawful detention, and I will. Thornton put his hand on the back of Nicole's neck, not squeezing, just resting, heavy. His palm covered from her hairline to the top of her spine. He leaned down until his mouth was near her ear.
Say one more word. I dare you. Nicole went silent, her lips pressed together so tight they turned white. She could feel his breath on her neck, warm, wet, smelling like cigarettes and something sour. He held his hand there.
5 Seconds, six, seven. Then he pulled back and wiped his palm on his pants like he'd touched something dirty. That's better. Audrey lay still, her hands cuffed behind her back. The pendant pressed against her chest, trapped between her body and the scorching metal.
She'd pressed it the moment Thornton threw their IDs on the ground. That was 9 minutes ago. Every 30 seconds, her GPS coordinates pulsed to FBI dispatch in Atlanta. A small red light blinked beneath her black tea, invisible against the dark fabric. Nobody saw it.
9 Minutes. The field team was already in their vehicles, maybe on the highway. She just needed to keep things calm long enough, but keeping things calm wasn't up to her. A car passed on the two-lane road, a white sedan. The driver slowed down, saw two black women cuffed and pressed onto a police cruiser, three officers around them, looked for two seconds, then drove on.
A red pickup, same thing. Slow down. Look, keep going. Nobody stopped. Nobody rolled down a window.