“Miller,” he called out as he crossed back over to the driver’s side. “Can you come here, please?”
The female cop who’d been at the station when we were last there strode over. They had a conversation out of earshot with a lot of gesturing and frowning on both their parts.
“What are they doing?” Tenley asked in a whisper.
“Cross is probably trying to find a way to arrest me for having a dent in my hood.”
“He can’t do that, can he?” She crushed the package of tissues in her hand.
I took them from her and pulled another free, wiping under her eyes in a useless attempt to get rid of the smudges.
“No, kitten. There’s no law against having dents in your car.”
“I just want to go home.”
“I know. Me, too. This shouldn’t take long.”
In my peripheral vision, Cross hiked up his pants and head toward my door while Miller approached the passenger side.
“Step out of the car, Mr. Stryker.”
“I haven’t had a drink in hours.”
“Out of the car. Now.” Cross’s hard tone left no room for argument.
“Hayden?” Tenley gripped my forearm. “What’s going on?”
I squeezed her hand as I leaned in and dropped a kiss on her trembling lips. “It’s okay, kitten. This’ll just take a minute. They probably want to check my blood alcohol level.”
I doubted that was Cross’s motivation.
“I’m not asking again, Stryker,” Cross snapped.
I unbuckled my seat belt and climbed out into the cold night air. The temperature had dropped again and white flakes had begun to fall.
Tenley started to open her door, but Cross stopped her. “Stay in the car, Miss Page.” He turned to me. “Put your hands on the car and spread your legs.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Officer Miller stared at me from across the roof of the car, her expression grim.
“You question one more direct order and I’m going to charge you.”
“This is bullshit,” I said, but I did as I was told. I was already drawing too much attention; a few of the other officers checking cars had stopped to observe the interaction with Cross.
Officer Milled rapped on Tenley’s window and she rolled it down. Miller looked concerned as she leaned in, her hand on the doorframe. I could only hear Tenley’s nervous tone, not her actual replies to the questions asked.
I imagined how it looked from Officer Miller’s perspective. Aside from the tiny diamond stud in her nose, Tenley projected a girl-next-door vibe. With her outfit tonight, that was magnified. Someone like her hanging out with someone like me would be an immediate red flag for a lot of people.
Cross frisked me, searching for weapons or contraband I didn’t have.
“Come with me, please.”
“What about Tenley?”
“Officer Miller will stay with her.”
I didn’t ask any more questions because I wasn’t going to get answers. Cross went through the standard tests to check for drunkenness, making me repeat them twice because he wanted to piss me off.
Cross led me to a cruiser and opened the rear door. “Get in.”
“What for?”
“I want you to take a Breathalyzer test.”
“Why do I need to get in a cruiser for that?”
“You’re trying my patience, boy. Get. In. I won’t ask again.”
I dropped into the seat and folded my legs in the cramped space. Cross closed the door and claustrophobia set in immediately. Panic hit me like a sledgehammer, taking me back seven years to the night my parents were murdered. It was the only other time I ended up in the back of a police car. The interrogation followed.
I couldn’t separate that situation from this one, and the bad place in my head got worse, dragging me down into the past I kept buried. There was no way out of the backseat unless Cross let me out. Logically, I knew nothing could happen to me, but it didn’t stop my throat from closing up.
Behind the driver’s seat was a panel of bulletproof glass, with a thick, black mesh barrier of metal on the passenger side. Cross sat in front of the bulletproof panel and took his time setting up the Breathalyzer machine. He fed the tube through a gap in the mesh, forcing me to lean forward until my nose hit the divider. I exhaled into the little mouthpiece.
It registered a zero blood-alcohol level.
“Do it again.”
“I blew under.”
“Do. It. Again.”
I shook my head but complied. Again, it came back clean. “Satisfied? Can I take my girlfriend home now?”
She was standing beside the Camaro; shoeless with her arms wrapped around herself as the wind blew her hair around her face. She glanced over her shoulder ever few seconds, her eyes on the car that formed my prison. Miller put a hand on her shoulder and Tenley jumped, her attention moving back to the officer. There were questions and some gesturing aimed at Tenley’s feet. Miller was frowning; whatever excuse Tenley had come up with probably wasn’t very good.
She was helped back into the Camaro. The door stayed open, though, and Miller crouched down in front of her, her expression somber. A Breathalyzer test was administered once, a second time.
Cross relaxed in his seat and stared at me through the rearview mirror. “Would you like to tell me what happened to your car?”
“Last I heard, you can’t detain someone for a dent.”
“I can if you fled the scene of an accident.”
“I already told you, we weren’t in an accident.”
He sneered. “It’s obvious something happened to your car recently, though. Would I be right?”
I stayed silent.
“What time did you leave your aunt’s tonight?”
“Around nine thirty.”
“That’s more than an hour and a half ago.”
“We made a stop on the way home.” I shifted on the hard plastic seat.
“You don’t say. Is that when the damage to your car happened?”
I sighed. “Is there a point to this?”
Cross inspected his stubby fingers. “Most people would take good care of a ride like that. The last time I saw it, it was in pristine condition. Now, it kind of looks like someone had a throwdown on the hood.”
When I didn’t respond, he took a different approach. “You know, Tenley’s not looking so good these days.”
“The past few weeks have been hard for her. You know, what with her entire family being dead and it being the holidays and all.” I shot him a condescending look.
He returned the glare with a hateful one of his own. “Maybe she should find someone who can take better care of her.”
“I can take care of Tenley just fine.”
“Judging by her condition tonight, I’m going to disagree.”
“You need to back off.”
“Or what?”
“Fuck you,” I spat.
He turned around, sneer firmly in place. “Go ahead, Stryker. Threaten me. It would be my pleasure to take you down to the precinct so you can get what’s coming to you.”
“What’s coming to me? I’m taking my girlfriend home from a family dinner. I don’t see that as a criminal offense.”
“What the hell do you do at family dinners that would make her look the way she does?”
“She’s had an emotional day.”
“And you thought you’d make it better for her by using her as a hood ornament?”
“That’s not—”
Cross slammed his palm against the divider, making it rattle. “Shut your fucking mouth, you little prick. You think I don’t know what happened? You think I can’t see what’s right in front of me? She’s a fucking disaster. You won’t be happy until you’ve dragged that girl down into your bottomless pit of shit.”