Page 117 of I'm Watching You

‘Damn.’

Greenland took a long drink of beer. It still pissed him off the way that coach had cut him loose as if he were nothing.

‘That was one hell of a catch in the Sugar Bowl.’

‘Yeah.’ The memory of that one night made him proud. ‘I was a damn superstar that night.’

‘And rightly so.’

The stranger pulled off the highway and skirted down a rural road. Soon the lights of the interstate vanished. Only the headlights of the van lit the way.

‘Is it going to be much farther?’ Greenland asked. He had to pee.

‘Just another mile or two.’

‘Okay.’ Greenland didn’t like the country. Full of wild animals, snakes and shit.

They pulled off the side road down a gravel driveway. Tall trees hovered over the road. Gravel popped under the tires. It felt as if they’d driven off the face of the earth.

At the end of the road was a clearing. No house.

Greenland leaned forward. ‘Where the hell are we?’

The stranger put the car in park and shut off the engine. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Greenland’s head. ‘The end of the line. Get out.’

‘Hey, man, if this is about robbery, then you’ve got the wrong guy. I don’t have two damn nickels to rub together.’

He cocked the gun. ‘Get out.’

‘Like hell I will.’

Behind the horn-rims, the eyes that had looked old and weary hardened. The stranger fired past Greenland’s head and the cab exploded with sound as the bullet shattered the passenger window. Broken glass nicked the back of Greenland’s skull. He dropped his beer on the floor. ‘Shit!’

Fumbling for the handle, Greenland opened the door and lunged toward the ground. He didn’t know who thehell this freak was, but he wasn’t going to stick around and find out.

The hard rains from Monday had left the normally marshy ground even softer and he slipped in the mud. He struggled to stand. He slipped again. The freak got out and walked around the side of the van.

Greenland pulled himself upright. He held up his hands in defense. ‘Hey, man, I don’t want no damn trouble. Just let me go and we’ll call it even.’

The stranger looked taller, stronger now that he held his shoulders upright. ‘We are far from even.’

Panic knifed Greenland. ‘Who the hell are you?’

‘The Guardian.’ He said it with pride.

‘What the fuck does that mean?’

‘It means, I kill men like you.’

Greenland felt sick. ‘Hey, man, I ain’t never done anything to you.’

Moonlight glinted on the gun barrel. ‘You should have treated your wife with more respect.’ He fired. The bullet sliced into Greenland’s left knee. Pain scorched through his body and he dropped to the cold, soft ground. He clutched his knee.

‘What the fuck!’ Greenland howled. Blood oozed out from under his fingers. ‘Did that bitch wife of mine send you to kill me?’

The Guardian loomed over him. ‘Don’t talk about the mother of your children like that.’

Greenland’s entire body burned. He tried to breathe through the pain like his coaches had taught him in college.Suck it up. But this pain was worse than any lineman’stackle. He could barely think as he rolled on his side into a fetal position.

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