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you."
    "I'm going to break off with David. I really am."
    She lay her head back against the seat and took another drag of her cigarette.
    "I just don't know why you'd want to go out with somebody like me."
    It was a pretty cheap ploy, getting her to tell me what a great and desirable guy I was.
    —Who wouldn't go out with you? she'd say. A strong, handsome, sexy hunk like you? You're the quiet kind, Spence, the kind girls don't notice right away. But when they do notice you...
    But she didn't say that.
    "It was your hand."
    "My hand?"
    "When you touched my eye that night."
    "Oh."
    "Nobody's ever touched me like that before."
    I guess I didn't know what she was talking about.
    "It was like for the first time in my life somebody was really touching me. Like they really understood me. Like you really understood me, Spence."
    I just sat there with my hard-on and my heart scared of being broken and all these crazy dreams about the two of us together.
    "You really think we'll go out?" I said.
    She laughed softly. "Yes, I really do."
    "God."
    "I can't wait until David finally leaves me alone."
    Then she kissed me.
    It happened just that fast, and just that unexpected. She'd managed to put her cigarette out without my knowing it, and then she leaned over and took my face between her two hands, and then she kissed me, her face smelling of cologne and cold and utterly perfect high school flesh, and then she took my right hand and slid it inside her coat and covered one of her breasts with it, and I really thought I was going to lose it right then and there, I was so god damned happy and god damned excited I absolutely didn't know what to do with myself.
    And then it was over, far far sooner than it should have been, and she said, "I better go home."
    "Won't he be there?"
    "Eventually, yeah. But I may as well get it over with."
    "You said he'll try and kill you."
    "If I can make it inside to my dad, I'll be fine. My dad doesn't want me to see him anymore, anyway."
    She leaned back again. "God, I'm just so glad your car was at Pizza Hut when I was running away from him. I saw you riding around the other day and recognized it."
    "You jumped out of his car?"
    "Yes. And just started running. Then I saw your car."
    I started the motor.
    "I'm glad you saw my car, too," I said.
    I stayed to the back streets, taking her home. She lived in the wealthy area of town. Her father ran the stock brokerage downtown. Even against the snowy night, her Tudor-style house looked imposing and snug.
    I took the driveway right up to the front walk.
    "I really appreciate this, Spence."
    "My pleasure."
    She reached over and set her hand on mine. I thought of a colt again, all small-boned and vulnerable.
    "I can't wait to see you again," she said.
    "My pleasure."
    "Night."
    "Night."
    She leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and then got out of the car.
    I watched her let herself into the front door and disappear inside. A light went on, outlined by the mullioned window.
    I backed out and got righted on the street and started driving home and that's when I saw the headlights behind me suddenly.
    I recognized the dark blue Bronco right away. My old friend David Myles.
    He didn't wait long.
    He swept right up behind me and started banging into me hard enough to send me skidding down the street.
    With all his power and traction, he didn't have any problem starting and stopping when he wanted to.
    He controlled me perfectly, letting me stop skidding just long enough to regain control, and then crashing into me again.
    A couple of times, I tried surprise turns, anything to get away from him, but they didn't work. He was quick enough to see what I was up to so he'd hit me on the edge of my rear bumper just as I was going into the turn. Then he'd send me skidding again, fishtailing, even turning around completely a few times.
    The funny thing was, although I was angry and scared, I also saw this as an admission on his part that he'd lost Cindy Brasher.