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Chapter 32
The business card left Amelia-Rose in no doubt of what Terence wanted her to sign up to. Without hesitation she rushed downstairs, grabbed the £1,000 he had left her and chased down the path to hand it back. She knew with total certainty that she was not willing to do what he wanted at any price.
Terence's car was still there and Terence was standing beside it. But he was not alone. A thick set man with a heavy black beard and scruffy hair was standing in front of him. Amelia-Rose just caught the tail end of what Terence was saying.
"Don't be a fool, man. I'm sure we can come to terms. How much money you want. Whatever you want, I will double it. You want women, I will get them for you. You want more guns, it's easy - they are yours. Just put the gun down and well talk..."
The thickset man in a combat jacket was almost snarling and spoke through gritted teeth.
"The only thing I want from your dark soul is the pleasure of knowing you are dead with all the others. You can take it easy or you can take it hard. It's all the same to me. This is my cottage. Those that stay will pay ... Those that stay will pay!"
He hardly had time to get these words out before Amelia-Rose cannoned into him.
"He's the one who must have wrecked my wedding dress she seethed, seeming oblivious to his gun. The man swung round at her.
"Leave me be ... I'll deal with you later," he said gruffly. The gun suddenly made a popping sound and Terence was pushed backwards with the force of the bullet.
The thickset man then smashed the side of the gun against Amelia-Rose 's face and she staggered back blinded. With a snarl, he launched himself onto her, punching her repeatedly in her face.
There was another popping sound and the man on Amelia-Rose howled in agony as a bullet tore into his shoulder. He turned to see where the bullet had come from and found Terence lying curled in pain on his side but with the rifle pointing at him. The man's only thought then was to escape and running as fast as he could, he disappeared into the growing dusk shouting hysterically ...
"You'll see, I'll be back!"
Amelia-Rose struggled over to where Terence was lying.
"I'll be all right," he grimaced. "He's the one you need to be concerned about. You need to put him out of action if you're ever going to live here in peace. Take the gun and follow him. I can call for the ambulance on my mobile phone."
Amelia-Rose stayed just long enough to make sure that he could make the call and then left running in the direction the man with the combat jacket had taken. Fortunately, it was easy enough to follow him because of the trail of blood.
He started by going up the hill in the direction of Ralph's caravan but then cut away into the undergrowth. It was nearly completely dark and Amelia-Rose strained her eyes to see where he had gone, his gun in her hands at the ready.
Suddenly, there was a huge snarling sound as if the ground had opened up and all the monsters in the earth had roared at the same time. In the middle of the snarls, a man's high-pitched scream quavered in the air, choked, screamed again and then suddenly died. The snarls continued as the animals began a feeding frenzy.
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