Dee glanced at her watch and then back to the boy who had murdered her father. “It’ll be here. Stop tapping your foot. You’re driving me nuts.”

Mark Stinson took a slow drag from his Marlboro then blew out a steady stream of smoke, which seemed to hang in the cool air impossibly long before dissipating. “I’m not the nervous one, Puss ‘n Boots. I’m just waiting.”

“You’re tapping.” She couldn’t look him in the eyes. She hadn’t been able to since she watched him clean the blood from his hands with her mother’s dish towel. “You keep tapping and it’s—“

“That Oasis song,” he said. “The one from the radio the other night. Got that damn thing stuck in my fuckin’ brain, Puss. That shit’s startin’ to grow on me.” He noticed Dee checking her watch again. He never wore one. Time was irrelevant. “What time is it anyway?”

“It’ll be here.”

“I said what fuckin’ time is it? Am I gonna have to ask again, Puss?”

She was glad she couldn’t see his eyes. He was a different man when he was angry. “It’s almost two.”

“So we got what? Five hours or so ‘til the maid shows up?” He put his cigarette out on the tractor tire they were sitting on and stared at her for a moment. She was getting scared. Maybe too scared. He sincerely hoped he wouldn’t be forced to do anything about it.

“Maybe six,” she said. “She comes between 7 and 8, depending on whether she’s carpooling other kids or not. Either way, we’ll be hours away by then.”

Mark chuckled and stretched.

“What’s funny?”

“That look,” he said.

She looked up at him, but focused on his lips. “What look?”

“Your old man’s. I guess he thought I was there fucking you or something. Like surprised first, then mad and shit. I think he thought he was gonna kick my ass. Then, when I stuck him, his eyes went all scared.”

“I don’t want to hear this.” She pulled her knees up close to her chest.

“His mouth was open like he wanted to say something, but all he could get out was this whistle. I guess I got all the way into his lungs.”

“I said I don’t want to hear it.”

Mark jumped up and kicked her hard in the side. She fell off the giant tire and landed elbow first on the gravel of the train yard. She stayed put, cringing in the fear that he wasn’t through with her.

“I killed him for you, bitch! Don’t act like the good little daddy’s girl now!”

“I’m not. I just—“

“He beat your mom, you said. Put her in the fuckin’ hospital. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s that, Puss?”

“Yes!”

He sat back down on the tire and pulled another cigarette out of his pack. “So stop acting like something’s wrong. You had a problem, you came to me, and I fixed it for you. End of story.”

“Yeah.” She stood up, dusted herself off and sat beside him again. Staying on the ground would only have made him angrier.

“He must have been a real asshole, too, or you wouldn’t have let me do all that nasty shit to you to pay for the job.”

He grabbed her knee. Dee flinched, but managed not to jerk away from him.

“You and me, we’ll get out of here, find some new IDs and shit.”

She nodded.

“And you’ll keep your fucking mouth shut, Dee, so I don’t have to stick you, too.”

“I will. I promise.”

“I know, Puss. I know. Just so long as you know.”

She nodded again.

“You’re mom is safe, now. That was the deal. You, though, you gotta stick it out with me.”

She finally managed to look him in the eyes, searching for the answer before she asked the question. “You’re gonna kill me, too, aren’t you, Mark? When you’re done with me?”

He blew on the lit end of his cigarette, staring into its orange glow. In the distance, the banshee wail of a train resounded. He looked back at her and gave her a smile.

“Someday, sure. But not today, Puss. And not anytime soon.”