Page 34 (1/1)
"It was an accident," I explained, wrinklingI looked distressed rather than like I was sniffing so "I have no idea what happened"
He just scowled back atot lane one up and running again, and now you kids"--he eyeballed Siier behind his greasy cheeks--"you coain Do you kno odda our shoes She kept glancing toward the door and then back at the people--at the crowd that was gathering around us--and back to htened animal, which irritatedon her to have h, and he finally tried to ss over "Look, we don’t want any trouble Can’t ork soht that would be the end of it He would buy our way out of this
NattyI did, and she took a step toward uy didn’t even blink He wasn’t interested inany deal with us
When I reached for e sparked behind his eyes He’d had enough of us goddaers closing aroundNot super strong like h, and when he squeezed, I felt ?" he sneered in a hor cash was going to get us out of here unnoticed
"Get your hands off her!" Siuy off as he tried to shove him away from me But Simon couldn’t stop what had already started, and the scene ere causingas several uy started dragging me toward the shoe rental counter "We’ll see what the sheriff has to say ’bout all this" He nodded to the pimply-faced kid who’d taken our shoes "Call Sheriff Hudson Tell hiot trouble here"
When the kid picked up the phone, it felt like the guy had just wrapped his hands around my throat instead of my wrist I couldn’t s I couldn’t breathe
If they called the sheriff on us, eventually soht realize eren’t who our IDs said ere They ent Tru in our way, and not just Simon and Natty, but a full-blown cro too I wondered why none of theuy he’d crossed a line by irl, but they all just stood there, gaping with morbid fascination
Chicken shits! I wanted to screa our faces With every second that passed, the chances they could identify us grew
The guy didn’t slow, and as much as I wanted to try, I was afraid that if I did try to hit hiht not be able to controlball incident all over again What if I hurt hiave these people even nize us?
"Please She didn’tto slow him down
But Natty was no roadblock, not for this whale of a guy, and shein the path of a car He swept her aside with his free ar backward Her headher on the ground like that triggered so rip "I can explain This was all a big ed to do was make hi you kids in here" You kids We were all alike to this guy "Little fuckers are always s up, thinkin’ you can call your daddies and have ’eged me "Not this time This time you can answer to the law"
Hot sparks exploded behind h, not this sensation It was sheer-complete-utter panic
Above us, theerratically
Soether loudly The jarring and unexpected sound was followed i, then another and another And after each crash, there was the mechanical whir of the automatic pin machines as they worked to set the fallen pins up onceall the pins to collapse, but the lanes were all deserted since everyone had gathered around us
Noeren’talley
"What the--" he whispered, but instead of loosening, his grip onto turn us in and Agent Truman would put us under a microscopebody part by body part