Excerpt from Gemma (Continued)

noise like a train whistle. "Whoohoo!" he says, pumpin his fist up and down in the air. "Go to town."

And while Hazen's puttin away his wallet, Buddy leans over me, smile gone now. No smile now, eyes like ice picks, chop right through me. "You be good," he says, hand slid under my hair, squeezin the back of my neck. Squeezin it hard, real hard, making my eyes fill up. "Hazen's boss now, you hear? You do whatever he says, you hear? Whatever he says. He'll bring you home when he's done, and I don't want to hear about you giving him any flak. You hear me?"

And I'm tryin to keep my head upright, tryin not to let on how much it's hurtin. How humiliatin it is, for him to be doin this kind of thing in public. "You hear?" Gives me a shake, speakin low, through his teeth, nobody but me, me and Hazen can hear him.

"I hear you," I say. "I hear you." And he gives me one last shake for emphasis, then lets me go,

and his friend Hazen is laughin, shakin his head. "You got her trained good," he says admiringly, like I'm a dog or somethin. "You got her trained real good."

Next thing I know, Buddy's gone. Didn't fill out no application for no waitressin job. Don't know how to get home from here. Got no idea. Stuck with Hazen, not sure why. Not sure, but I got a feelin. I got a sick kinda feelin in my belly. Stuck here with this Hazen guy, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna cry.

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