Carnal Innocence

going.”
    “What is it?” She’d seen that look in his eyes before. When he’d been sprawled on top of her while glass was shattering. When he’d asked her if she had a gun. This man wouldn’t need his big brother or anyone else to fight his battles. She heard the roar of Billy T.’s Glasspacks and turned. “What is it, Tucker?”
    “Nothing to concern you. Go on home, Caroline.” He slid off the hood just as Billy T. screamed to a stop.
    She gathered up the puppy and stood her ground.
    “Hey, Fucker … I mean Tucker.” Billy T. grinned around a toothpick at his own witticism. He wasn’t in a sunny mood. His head still ached, and his pride had suffered a more serious blow than his skull. He was in a kick-ass frame of mind.
    “Billy T.” Hands snug in his pockets, Tucker strolled across the road. “Heard you had a little incident this morning.”
    His eyes slitted. “What the fuck’s it to you?”
    “Just making conversation. You know, as it happens, I was just sitting here waiting for you to come along.”
    “That so?”
    “Yeah.” Out of the corner of his eye Tucker saw that Caroline had crossed the road as well. Though she stood several feet back, it annoyed the hell out of him. “A little something I’d like to clear up. If you’ve got the time.”
    Before Billy T. realized the intention, Tucker hadreached in and snatched the keys from the ignition. People often forgot he could move faster than a crawl.
    “Or if you don’t,” Tucker added complacently.
    “Shit for brains.” Billy T. shoved the door open. “I guess you’re hoping for another black eye.”
    “Well, we’ll talk about that. Caroline, if you come a step closer, I’m going to be mighty unhappy with you.”
    Billy T. slanted Caroline a leer, letting his gaze crawl up her legs, slide over her belly and breasts. “Leave her be, Tuck. Maybe after I’ve finished smearing you over the road, she’d like to come on and have a beer with a real man.”
    That brought her chin up. “The only thing I see out here are a couple of sulky schoolboys. Tucker, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I’d like you to drive me home. Right now.”
    Billy T. grinned and flipped away the toothpick. “Got you pussy-whipped already? Getting your plookie regular, Tuck?”
    Outraged, Caroline stepped forward, only to be brought up short by the arm Tucker shot out.
    “Now, that’s no way to talk about a lady, Billy T., but we’ll get to that in a minute. I figured we should have a word about my car.”
    “Heard your car was down in Jackson getting the pleats ironed out of it.”
    “You heard correctly. You and me, we never got along too well. And I don’t figure we’ll get along in the future, but I just can’t let what you did to my car go by.”
    Billy T. snorted and spat. “Way I heard it, you wrecked that car.”
    “Yeah, after you snuck into Sweetwater like a polecat and diddled with it.” Tucker knew Billy T.’s brain wasn’t his strong point, and lied with clear eyes. “Darleen let on how you poked those holes in the lines. Guess that wasn’t very loyal of her, after you gave her Josie’s lipstick.”
    “She’s nothing but a lying slut.”
    “That may be, but I reckon she’s telling the truth about this.”
    Billy T. swung back the hair that fell across hisforehead. “And what if she is? You can’t prove it.” His lips stretched over his teeth in a sneer. “I can stand right here and tell you that I done it. I walked right down your fancy lane and poked holes in your fancy car. Darleen was feeling blue about your breaking Edda Lou’s heart, so I did it to make her feel better. And because I hate your ever-fucking guts. But you ain’t going to prove it.”
    As if considering, Tucker took out a cigarette. “You may have a point there, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get off clean.” He broke off the tip of the cigarette, lighted it. Caroline took a step back. She recognized that tone, and that look. “It occurred to me that maybe somebody in my family might have taken my car out that morning. Maybe one of them who doesn’t handle the wheel as well as I do. You know, Billy T., that just pisses me off.”
    “You want to do something about it?”
    Tucker studied the tip of his cigarette. “I guess I do. I gotta say I don’t care for the idea of getting my face pounded on again.”
    “You always was a chickenshit.” Grinning, Billy T. spread his arms. “Go ahead, take your best