Gentry's face flushed a deep, angry red. His pride was wounded, and in his line of work, a wounded ego often led to catastrophic mistakes.
"You think you can threaten a police officer?" he spat. "Turn around and put your hands behind your back. You're under arrest for resisting and suspected burglary."
"I am standing still on my own property," Nadine fired back, her voice finally rising, ringing out across the manicured lawns.
"Turn around!" Gentry lunged forward, grabbing Nadine's left wrist violently.
The sudden physical contact shocked her. He wrenched her arm, trying to force it behind her back. Nadine gasped, planting her feet, using her body weight to resist the pull.
"Let go of me!" she demanded.
"Stop resisting!" Gentry yelled—the classic phrase used to justify whatever violence was about to follow.
Beatrice Langley was still filming from the sidewalk, her hand covering her mouth in shock. Gentry yanked Nadine's arm harder, raising his other hand, holding the cold steel handcuffs, ready to clamp them down on her wrist. The injustice of it all burned in Nadine's chest: the sheer, humiliating reality that all her success, all her education, and all her wealth couldn't protect her from a man who looked at her and saw a criminal.
But what Officer Gentry didn't know, what he couldn't possibly fathom as he tried to wrestle a black mother to the ground on her own driveway, was that Nadine Brooks wasn't just wealthy: she was powerful. And her very important meeting wasn't a conference call.
Just as Gentry raised the cuffs, the heavy custom-built oak front door of the mansion swung wide open.
"Nadine?" a deep, commanding voice called out from the doorway. "Is everything all right out here? The connection to the server just dropped, and we were—"
The voice belonged to a tall man in a tailored charcoal suit. He had distinguished silver hair and an unmistakable, authoritative presence. He stepped out onto the front portico holding a crystal glass of sparkling water, followed closely by two massive men in dark suits with earpieces: his state-appointed security detail.