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I’d have to take that up with his supervisor. No wonder those people are always shooting each other.” He dragged in what Shelby hoped was a calming breath, then stabbed his key into the ignition and asked her, “Where to?”
    “My parents’ place,” she said, but then, suddenly unsure, she corrected herself. “Oh, well, maybe not. I don’t know how this bodyguard deal is supposed to work. Their place is up in Michigan. It’s about a five hour trip, so maybe that’s too far. Maybe you’re not even authorized to leave the state.”
    “Michigan,” he grumbled.
    “Well, if that’s such a problem...”
    “No,” he said. “It’s not a problem. It’s as good a place as any, I guess.” He started the car. “I just need to stop by my place first to pick up a few things.”
    “So you can leave town just like that?” She snapped her fingers.
    “Yeah. Just like that.”
    “What about your family?” she asked. “What about your job?”
    “No family. And right now you’re my job.” Then he added under his breath a distinctly snarky, “Such as it is.”
    His enthusiasm was pretty underwhelming, Shelby thought. Even a little insulting. More than a little.
Such as it is!
Hell. She hadn’t asked for this, after all. It wasn’t her idea. She wasn’t going
anyplace
with
him
.
    He hadn’t put the car in gear yet, so she reached for the door handle. “You know, on second thought, I don’t want to go to Michigan. I don’t really want to go anywhere, Callahan. Especially with you. I’ll be just fine right here.”
    She wrenched open the door and got her right foot out and onto the pavement, but the rest of her wasn’t fast enough to escape Callahan’s grasp.
    “Let me go, dammit.” The harder she tried to pull away, the more his grip tightened on her upper arm.
    “Settle down,” he yelled at her.
    “I will not.”
    His voice dropped to a menacing level. “Get back in the car and close the goddamned door.” Then he shouted again. “Please.”
    “No. Let me go, Callahan. I mean it.” She felt like screaming bloody murder, and she almost did when she told him, “I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping. Or police brutality. Or...Or...” Hell. She couldn’t think of any other appropriate charges. “Or terrorism.”
    “Go ahead,” he said, daring her and still not letting her go. “Be my guest.”
    “Hey, Ms. Simon?” It was Joe, calling to Shelby from a distance of fifteen or twenty feet across the sidewalk. “Can I help you or anything?”
    Heaven help her. In the two hours or so that Mick Callahan had been her protector, three different men— Dave the Doorman, Mo, and now Joe—had offered their assistance. She didn’t need any help. She needed to get out of this stupid car, away from this maniac.
    “No. That’s okay,” she shouted out the window. “Thanks anyway. I’m...”
    Joe’s rolling mail cart exploded with a horrific blast that sent black smoke and bright flames in every direction. His lanky body went pinwheeling backward down the sidewalk, bowling over half a dozen oncoming pedestrians, and flaming mail began raining down on the pavement.
    Shelby might have screamed. She wasn’t sure. But she was sure that she’d been forcefully yanked back into the seat and Callahan had lunged across her to close her door, then pulled away from the curb with a frightful, almost sickening screech. In less than a few seconds, the Mus-tang was gunning southbound on North State while its driver was barking instructions on his cell phone.
    Through the rear window, she could see several people staggering through the smoke and burning bits of paper. Poor Joe! Oh, my God.
    “We need to go back and help them,” she said. “Help’s on the way. Do me a favor and scoot down in the seat, will you?”
    “But I...”
    “Just do it,” he yelled.
    Shelby slid down, and as she did she heard sirens screaming up the opposite side of the street. She tried to peek up through the windshield, but a firm