Read Where the Heart Is for Free Online Page B

twelve-inch black-and-white with a vertical problem.
    Finally, he had walked to the high school where he waited and swatted at mosquitoes that left welts on his face and neck.
    But Jolene wasn’t early; she wasn’t even on time. She pulled in at a quarter after nine, driving too fast and without any lights. She missed the school driveway by a foot, jumped the curb and smacked the front bumper against an iron railing that lined the sidewalk.
    “Where the fuck have you been?” he yelled.
    “I got tied up.”
    Willy Jack started for the driver’s side of the car.
    “Go around,” she said. “I’ll drive.”
    “Like hell.” He jerked the door open and she slid over.
    “Did you get the money?”
    “Sure.”
    “How much?”
    “Two hundred eighteen,” she said.
    Willy Jack leaned over to her then as if he were about to whisper, so she bent toward him. But his hand shot out, grabbed the back of her head, twisted a thick hank of hair between his fingers. He yanked her head to his, mashed his face against hers, his nose pressed flat into her cheek.
    Then, staring into her eyes, he ground his lips against hers and forced her mouth open with his teeth, his tongue. He pushed between her lips, his tongue ripping into her mouth, pushing, probing until he found what he was after. And when he did, his tongue began to fondle her there, in that empty space where she had no teeth, stroking the ridge of her gums, sliding across, slipping into and out of that Where the Heart Is
    place . . . moving in and out, back and forth, rocking her head forward and back . . . his mouth hot against hers, filling her with his heat . . .
    and then he made a sound, some dark sound back in his throat, and his mouth went slack as his tongue slipped out, slipped free.
    Moments later, he twisted away from her, pushing her away, back against the seat.
    “Give it to me,” he said.
    “What?”
    “The money.” The girl stiffened at something she heard in his voice, something jagged and sharp, like words torn by the blade of a knife.
    She pulled the money out of her purse and put it in his hand. He didn’t look at the bills, didn’t count them, just stuffed them in his pocket, then started the car and pulled away.
    He was quiet until they reached the edge of town when he saw the neon sign over the bar where he had met the girl.
    “Who’s Tom Pony?” Willy Jack asked.
    “My daddy.”
    He laughed. “Don’t suppose you’d like to stop in and say goodbye.”
    She didn’t answer him, only slumped down a little as they drove past.
    Out on the highway, Willy Jack opened it up and took the big Plymouth up to seventy-five, then he stretched out, putting his arm up on the seat, his hand resting just above the girl’s shoulder. She pulled herself nearer the door.
    “What’s the matter with you?” he asked. “Think I’m gonna hurt you?”
    She didn’t look at him, but kept her eyes on the road.
    “Tell me something. Are you a virgin?”
    “Hell no,” she said too quickly.
    “You are!” He grinned. “Well, I’ll be damned.” Then he let his hand slide down the seat, across her shoulder and onto her chest where he ran his fingers across her breast and around her nipple.
    ‘“I’ll just be damned. Got me a virgin! Well, we’ll have to do something about that, won’t we?”
    And that’s when he saw the lights flashing in his rearview mirror.
    He slowed, hoping the vehicle would go around him, hoping it was after someone else, but he knew better. Then they heard the siren.
    “Oh, shit,” the girl said.
    Willy Jack pulled onto the shoulder and stopped, then waited while the sheriff crawled out of his car and walked up to the Plymouth.
    “Like to see your driver’s license, sir.”
    Willy Jack reached into his back pocket and got his wallet.
    “Thought you got that stole,” the girl whispered.
    Willy Jack scowled at her as he handed his license through the window and waited while the sheriff studied it in the beam of his