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‘As far as I’ve figured out,’ Nine turns to explain to uys The little guys were hitchhiking and caught a ride with one of theuys are trying to beat up the little guys with their puny girl aruys, and try toto do with us, and we need to get on the road So, guys, let ize for my friend, who clearly doesn’t knohen to mind his own business’

‘Yeah,’ the bearded trucker growls at Nine ‘Just get the hell out of here, punk, and let us deal with these lowlifes’

I take my first real look at the hitchhikers They smell like they’ve been on the road for a while They couldn’t be er As the truckers lance at each other with real panic in their eyes Next thing I know, Nine is stepping in front of the little guys and saying, ‘I don’t care who proain and I’ll break all your goddamn arms’

I squeeze in between Nine and the three now truly pissedoff truckers, holding both sides back Bernie Kosar barks threateningly ‘Okay, okay, just stop’ I turn to Nine, willing hiht now We have so into my pocket and turn to the truckers ‘Listen, how ive you?’

‘A hundred bucks,’ the one wearing the aviators says

‘Fine,’ I say, pulling one of the bills out ofbill and I instantly know things just got worse

‘Why would you give anything to these guys, Johnny?’ Nine asks

I feel the meaty hand of a trucker on my shoulder He squeezes my shoulder as he says, ‘Did I say a hundred bucks? I meant a thousand Johnny’

‘That’s crazy!’ one of the hitchhikers shouts ‘We never said we’d give you anythe bill like it was flag ‘A hundred bucks, guys, just take it Consider it a tip for good service, or pay, I don’t really care what you call it Just take it!’

‘I said a thousand,’ the ain, this tirowl starts deep in Bernie Kosar’s throat

Nine moves forward, but I push him back and turn to face hiht up in his He has to understand how serious I am I will not let him do this ‘Please Think of what Sandor would want you to do He’d want you to walk away need you to walk away’ I whisper

‘You guys aren’t getting shit!’ Nine yells over my shoulder at the truckers

I use my body to shove him backwards, towards the car I spin around just in time to see the bearded trucker pull a knife out of his pocket ‘All of your money Now’ The other twoet control of the situation ‘You will take the hundred bucks and you alk away If you don’t, I’ to hold my friend back anymore Believe me, you don’t want that You have no idea what he can do and you don’t want to know’

I’m not entirely surprised when the answer coht and I easily dodge it I grab the trucker’s wrist, and throw hi, and the leefully, pushing s his knife wildly at Nine, who steps lightly out of range On his next swing, Nine ducks under the blade and hooks his arround He kicks the knife out of the trucker’s hand and it goes skidding under a truck ‘Dude, you should listen to my wise pal over there You seriously do not want to ht We’re done here,’ I say, placingto walk away Let’s go’

I hear the halasses waves a50 -caliber Desert Eagle at us I don’t know everything about guns, but I know this one packs a very big punch He sounds pretty serious when he asks, ‘Which of you wants to die first?’

Of course Nine steps forward, crossing his arun towards Nine’s face and laughs at what he thinks is just bravado ‘Don’t teht of my day’

‘Well, then, shoot No reason to put off the highlight of your day You don’t look like you get a lot of the to end badly And after, there will be attention we don’t need

At this point things begin to move really fast First, a sudden and very loud blast fro trucker, who fires off a shot Nine stops the bullet with his rin and a tilt of his head, he spins the bulletback at the shooter He sees the bullet cos will take hi way tooto do and I know it is a bad, bad idea ‘No Nine Don’t do it,’ I say, shakingto do it anyway