Free The Guardian by Bill Eidson Page A

tell him to try again, no screwing around. But if I get there, and there’s somebody else waiting … baby, I’ll have to shoot your dad. You hear me?”
    “Yes, sir,” she whispered.
    “Sir,” he repeated. “Real smooth, just like your dad.”
     
    There weren’t many cars. She found that he was right—the way the streetlight was, she could see drivers as they went by. She hunched forward, sure that she would miss her dad’s car.
    She thought about what the man had said. Part of her wanted to make him happy, wanted to show him she was doing a good job looking. She felt bad about that, too, felt it was wrong to be helping him see her dad when her dad didn’t know they were watching.
    But she wanted so much to see her father. Wanted so much for it to be over.
    Every set of headlights started her heart thumping.
    After six cars, she felt her lip begin to quiver, and she bit down.
    After the tenth, her bite became painful.
    When the twelfth first came into view, she turned to the man.
    “BMW,” the man said, the mask turning in her direction.
    She couldn’t help herself. There was no stopping her cry of relief as the car swept around the corner and she saw her father’s face in the light. She said, “Daddy.”
    The man started the car. The engine noise was loud, scary. The tires spun in the gravel, and she was pressed back into the seat. The tires made a squealing noise as they went around the corner and the man didn’t say a word as they came sweeping up to her father’s car.
    It looked so small in the big car’s headlights, and suddenly they were very close, and she could see her dad’s head as he looked up into the mirror. Janine was looking at the man’s leg, waiting for him to put on the brake. But when he jammed his foot down hard, the car seemed to gather itself and leap.
    Janine screamed as the woman grabbed at the man and said, “Lee, watch it!”
    He rammed the BMW. Janine’s seat belt held onto her as she snapped forward. She saw her dad’s car swerve off to the side, and she cried out to him. He came back onto the road, the back lights broken.
    “You think that’s bad?” the man screamed at the window. His right foot shoved down again, and he pulled alongside her father’s car. He snapped on the interior light. The electric window slid down beside her, and she could just make out her dad’s face.
    He called her name.
    “Pull it over up there!” the man yelled past her. “Down the dirt road!” He had the gun jammed under her ear, and he pressed hard.
    Janine cried out as he stepped on the brake, and moments later they jostled over rough road. Her father stopped the car up ahead, and the man let the car roll into the BMW again. “Move it!” he yelled out his own window now. “Inside the trees, get away from the road. Kill the headlights and turn on the interiors. And pop that trunk. Do it now!”
    Her father moved the car ahead.
    The man reached down to the floor and pulled up the shotgun he’d used in the store.
    “No!” Janine cried. She grabbed at his arm. “Don’t hurt him. Please, don’t hurt him!”
    The man snapped at the woman, “Hold her right there.” He got out of the car and moved his hand on the gun, and it made a loud clacking sound. Janine threw herself at the window. “Daddy, run, Daddy!”
    “Sssh.” The woman held her shoulders from behind. “Let them work it out, baby. Let them work it out.”
     
     

 
    Chapter 13
     
     
    Greg steadied himself against the door as he got out.
    The man was on him in an instant, grabbing his arm and spinning him around against the side of the car. “I didn’t tell you to get out, fucker.” The man patted Greg down quickly, then looked in the backseat. “That’s it?”
    “Yes. That’s the money. It’s all there.”
    “All right, open the trunk.”
    Greg said, “Show me she’s OK.”
    The man punched Greg in the side. It brought him right to his knees. “You don’t listen, man. That’s the second time