Beneath the Neon Moon by Theda Black Page B

what?"
    "No."
    "Yeah, I think you are. Wow."
    "Can you just drop it?"
    "Yeah. Okay. Dropping it. Damn, I got a splinter from that shitty wooden rail. You'd think they'd maintain the place better." Mal picked at his thumb. "Those guys are pretty arrogant."
    "Well, if you didn’t notice, they’re pretty strong, too."
    Mal frowned at him. "They put all their faith in their chains. Did you notice the lock on the door up there? It's one of those where you turn the button in the middle."
    "Yeah. That's a spring lock. It's not hard to get open."
    Mal's eyes narrowed. "Think you could open it?"
    "Yeah, the knife would probably do it. A credit card for sure." Zach smiled tiredly. "All we have to do is get me off this chain."
    "That's all, huh?"
    "Yep."
    "Someday I'll ask why you know so much about locks."
    "I don't know much about locks. You just don't know anything about them."
    Mal quieted a moment. "Ow."
    "Sorry."
    "Aaron's strong, you know. They both are. Neither one of us had much of a chance."
    "Mal."
    "I'm just saying."
    Zach looked at him.
    "Okay, okay. Sorry. We'll talk about something else before laser beams shoot from your eyes and turn me into an ash pile. So … you from around here?"
    Zach looked at him, startled, then threw back his head and laughed. "Unbelievable. You're throwing a pickup line at me after all this?"
    "You picked me up already, remember? So to speak."
    "I think I have that committed to memory, yes. Thanks."
    "Well, what else do we have to do around here but talk?" Mal asked defensively. "Well, and other things, of course. Which we did. Some of them."
    Zach raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Okay, I'll bite. I guess I'm from all over. Dad moved a lot. I was born here, though. Kept coming back over the years. Most of the guys on the construction crew I worked with are from around here, too. The company didn't even hire college boys like they usually do over the summer, but they took me on. And then they ended up laying me off anyway."
    "That sucks. I'm sorry, Zach."
    Zach shrugged again. "I've been coming through town for the past three summers, but I'll find something else. Always do. What about you?"
    "I'm from around here. Parents live on Apple Valley Way, you know it?"
    Zach nodded. "Sure. I've helped build cabins back in the mountains behind there."
    "They were going to pay my way through college until I screwed it up."
    "How'd you do that?"
    "Ah, I played football in high school. Had a really good thing going, probably a scholarship. Then I dropped the ball."
    "Dropped the ball?"
    "So to speak. Fucked it all up." Mal shook his head, staring at the ground. He changed the subject. "What happened to your dad?"
    Zach's immediate inclination was to clam up fast, the way he did with most other people. He didn't want to do that with Mal. "He was at a bar, got into an argument. Got himself shot when I was seventeen."
    "Damn." Mal paused. "Your mother?"
    "I don't remember much about her. Dad said she took off when I was little."
    Mal nodded, thinking, then faced Zach. "What I said about dropping it? Everything, that's what I dropped. I stopped playing football. I stopped getting good grades. I got interested in …" He smiled without humor. "Other things."
    "Yeah? What?"
    "Drinking. Getting high. Parents got pretty pissed at me. Took me a while to get my shit together enough to realize what I really wanted. I got into college a year after that, but not on my parents' dime. You know the state's got that aid program if you keep your grades up? I'm on that, and washing dishes and whatever else they need at a bar on the Strip in my spare time. I get by."
    "You still see your parents?"
    "A little. They're not exactly happy with their golden boy taking such a dive." Mal's broad shoulders hunched with tension, elbows on bent knees. The warm yellow light from the window traced the curve of his cheek, caught on dark stubble. His expression was pensive, shadowed.
    Zach studied him, found himself thinking in an oddly