Free 3 Nowhere to Go and All Day to Get There by Gar Anthony Haywood Page B

take this girl's head off? That what I gotta do to make you move?"
    "All right, all right! I'm goin'!" the trooper said, showing Ryback the palms of his hands as he slowly backpedaled, moving in the general direction of his car. "Take it easy, take it easy!"
    Ryback watched him retreat, then spun around when one of the men in line took a hesitant step toward him. "I tell you to move, mister? I don't remember tellin' you to move!" He was pointing his gun directly at the bearded potbellied man's startled face.
    The man shook his head and stepped back to his original position in the line.
    "Lewis, let's go," Ryback's woman said, sounding so hurt and fearful for him, it almost broke your heart. "You gonna get yourself killed!"
    "Ain't nobody gonna get killed. We gonna get what we came here to get an' leave. Right now." He had said it not so much to quiet her but to soothe her nerves. His tone with her was light and gentle, like he was talking to a child who'd just awakened from a bad dream.
    It was suddenly hard to tell which of these two people loved each other more.
    "Son," Big Joe said, as Ryback snatched the money out of the casher's hand and shoved it into his pants pocket, "your woman there's right. You go on with this, you're gonna get yourself shot. That trooper out there's calling for backup right now. In about thirty seconds, this place is going to be crawling with police. Now, you give yourself up before they get here—"
    "I told you to shut up, old man," Ryback said.
    "Lewis, please! Listen to him!" Cee pleaded.
    "Honey, it's gonna be okay. Trust me. We're gonna take one of these folks along, and we're gonna walk right out of here. I promise."
    "Oh, my God!" the crybaby behind Joe and me bawled. Like there was one chance in a million Ryback would take her hostage—the most woeful and annoying woman in the entire state of Texas.
    "You. Come over here," Ryback said. He was looking straight at me.
    "Me?"
    "Yeah, you. Get over here. Hurry up."
    I started to comply, but Joe put an arm out to stop me cold and said, "You're gonna take somebody, son, you're gonna take me. Not her. She's not goin' anywhere with you."
    Ryback's eyes lit up like a pair of road flares. Up until now, I'd had my doubts he could shoot anybody, but those eyes made me reconsider. Judging by the look on his face now, he was capable of almost anything, if properly provoked.
    "Joe, it's okay. I'm going to be all right," I said, lifting my husband's massive arm away from my chest so that I might step around it.
    "Dottie—"
    "He's not going to hurt me, we do what he says. But if we don't..."
    "If you don't, I'll kill you both right now," Ryback said, trying to divide his attention evenly between us and the trooper outside. It didn't sound like a bluff to me.
    "Then that's what you're gonna have to do," Big Joe said.
    "Joe, no! " I protested. "Just because we're prepared to die, that doesn't mean all these other people are. This man starts shooting in here, he may never stop. We have to do what he says."
    I moved away from him before he could stop me again and went over to where Ryback was standing. I didn't want to, but I did.
    "You're a smart lady," Ryback said. He looked over at his lady friend, Cee, and said, "Forget the food, honey. We gotta go now—"
    The wide-eyed look of surprise that suddenly came over her face caused him to turn, just in time to see two blue-and-white police cars pull into the gas station's driveway, dome lights flashing like crazy. A pair of uniformed policemen poured out of each vehicle, three of the four men brandishing shotguns, and immediately began to confer with the state trooper, who had rushed over to brief them on the situation.
    We all knew this was only the first wave of an onslaught yet to come.
    "Lewis, we got to give up," Cee said, her eyes filling with tears. "There's too many of 'em out there now. They gonna kill you for sure, we don't give up."
    "No. No! It's gonna be okay. You'll see." He pulled her to him