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Hallie

My rip that would leave bruises on my arm I went limp to slow her down

That’s when a rip of a woman in a cancan costume stepped directly into our path Morasp and ran for Dune

I exhaled the second he wrapped h et the pendant off There must be a trick to the chain clasp"

He uttered a low oath "It’s soldered closed"

The develop as I had the pendant around my neck and one hand on Dune,of a risk for her to lose her powers and her life But I didn’t think anything would stop the rips Their nuer

I faced her "I see you’ve stopped in your tracks"

"I see you’ve forgotten about this" She held up the gun "You can stand in front of him from here to Key West, but you can’t stop a bullet"

I knew the words weren’t eet on the speedboat and head to open waters and leave him here You don’t have to shoot hi?"

"None of thereed

He couldn’t die Not here Not like this Thanks to Jack Landers, there was another out

"Don’t kill hiet He won’t be a threat to you anyer at the cabin So

Poe S at my mother

Dune

I wanted to rip out Poe’s heart and throw it and him to the bottom of the Mississippi I hoped , his posture relaxed

A sharp whistle sounded on the other side of the deck The s were stowed, and the riverboat pulled away from the dock Poe’s eyes stopped for one second on the veil that hung downriver as he walked toward Teague

Hallie tensed in hter

"Well?" Poe stopped in front of Teague and crossed his ar; he calass in New Orleans Hallie believes they’ll look until they find her You need to make sure that doesn’t happen"

"Now?" Poe asked "Or can I eat first?"

"How can you do this? Joke about it?" Hallie’s voice broke "Less than twenty-four hours ago, you were trying to--"

"Trying to what? Get in your pants? Oh no, wait You’re always the one trying to get in rowl came from deep in ize Right now, you son of a--"

"It’s okay" Hallie put her hand on ued, but I dialed down the testosterone

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Hallie asked Poe She had to raise her voice to be heard over the now churning paddle wheels "You’re supposed to be my best friend"

"Sweetheart, I’m your only friend And what a sorry pair we are Or were," he said, giving one tropical"

I just smiled He could insult me all he wanted, but if he breathed too close to Hallie, I was going to take hi with , your mother is my best chance It’s not as bad as all that, is it? At least we’ll be together" Turning to Teague, he said, "You want me to take out four, yeah?" He leaned over and slid his knife out of his boot

Hallie shuddered

Teague smiled "All four"

"Who’s here?"