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Someplace a dog growled at the commotion. The Starkeys' new shepherd? He could go there for helpbut in the time it would take, they would kill Terry. One of them was pushing her into the open, a hand knotted in her hair. |
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Calvin finally freed his hands, sticky now with blood. He ducked into the shadows again. His adrenalin was pumping, so strong he could scarcely feel his wound. |
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He cut along the edge of the woods, just inside them. The blond was at the side of the pool gasping for air. Raiders was on his knees holding him up, his back to Calvin. He could see Terry on her knees in the middle of the lawn, her head pushed to the side by the force of the man's grip. The sound from her escalated Calvin's fury. But that was their purposeto draw him out. They figured he wouldn't leave her behind. |
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"I know you're in there," the man said. "Come out or I'm going to take pieces off her while you watch." He turned so Calvin could see the knife held to Terry's face. |
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Calvin stepped out of the woods. From behind him the fourth man punched him, hard, in the kidneys. |
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"Take them out," ordered the blond from the pool's edge. "Right goddamn now." |
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Raiders tossed the silenced automatic to the other, who pulled Terry by the hair into the woods, Calvin forced to watch the black swallow her. |
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Calvin then looked back. The man's gun had no silencer. If he shot him, the woods would rock. |
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Calvin started to walk, but just as he passed the blond pulling himself up, he turned and, hard as he could manage, kicked him in the face. The blond's head snapped backward and he went under. |
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Calvin turned around to catch the barrel across the back of the head, and pancaked onto the grass, just as from inside the woods he heard a muffled gunshot. |
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Another shot. Two more. No way Terry could have escaped, tied up as she was . . . |
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Calvin felt himself jerked to his feet. A hand clamped his mouth, a cold gun barrel pressed into the soft pocket at the base of his skull. There was commotion at the pool, trying to find the blond guy in the |
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