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The click was only gentle, but Caroline reacted as if a bomb had gone off. A moment or two later, though, she realised she could still hear the sound of her own breathing.
A second click.
Before her brain could come to the conclusion that the gun had failed to fire, she felt a sudden searing pain as Smallwood slammed the butt of the rifle into the back of her head, leaving her wailing and writhing in agony.
The instinct to try and get to her feet hadn’t even reached her as Smallwood wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled backwards, tensing his muscles as his arm began to crush her windpipe.
A sudden moment of clarity came to her. This was how it ended. This was how it had ended for Roger and Arthur Clifton, and it was how it would end for her too. The blow to the back of the he
