Betrayal of Innocence (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 1)

“Do you think he saw us?” Vanessa whispered.

“I think he knows he locked the door and wonders who has unlocked it. Stand still because we cannot move until we know he has gone,” Justin warned.

He shifted to ease the ache in his back, the remnants of a not-so-forgotten wound, and almost groaned when he rubbed intimately against her.

Vanessa did her best to quell the blush in her cheeks but could do little with Justin practically wrapped around her as he was.

“What on earth possessed you to come here?” he growled. “Did you not consider this kind of situation could happen?”

Vanessa sighed.

“You know we are going to look into your claims he might have had a hand in Geraldine’s disappearance. Do you not think us capable of searching this place ourselves?”

Vanessa looked at him. “Firstly, I don’t know who you are. I know you come from London, but Weeks is competent, but not excellent. He has a dubious reputation amongst the villagers because he has sometimes got his version of events wrong. He isn’t a bad magistrate but isn’t a good one either. How do we know you are not the same?”

“Nobody trusts him,” Justin murmured.

Vanessa shook her head. “Nobody will trust you either. Everyone is suspicious of the magistrate. They won’t tell on anybody in this village given the scurrilous gossip it would cause if Weeks was indiscrete. I am not saying he would be, but the villagers are wary. Weeks is still classed as new to the village.”

“How long has he been here?”

Vanessa looked at him a little ruefully. “Three years.”

Justin rolled his eyes. He suspected as much. It was often the case in villages like Bicester.

“We, the Star Elite, work for the War Office,” Justin breathed. “That’s all you need to know. Weeks wrote to our boss asking for help when he heard from the magistrate in Derbyshire that several people had vanished from that county as well. Both magistrates suspect a serial kidnapper is in the area, and so called for assistance because they can’t search both counties with their limited manpower.”

Vanessa listened, but knew immediately there was a lot he wasn’t telling her.

“You think there are more victims, don’t you?”

Justin sighed. “We deal with large-scale crime, including serial crime, gangs and the like. Magistrates usually deal with more petty crime. You know, sheep theft, pick-pocketing, drunks on a Saturday night, that kind of thing.”

“But you are used to dealing with gangs of criminals, not groups of missing people,” Vanessa protested.

“Keep your voice down,” Justin warned when she spoke a little too loudly. “He might still be downstairs you know.”

Personally, he was glad they were having a conversation because it helped keep his mind off what his lips truly wanted to do.

“You think they have been kidnapped and forced into slavery or something, don’t you?” she gasped in horror.

Justin pursed his lips. “We cannot be sure but can’t discount the possibility that a gang of criminals might be behind this. That being the case, your sister may not be dead but held captive somewhere. Now, don’t get all upset. I am not saying that for definite, you understand? It is just highly unusual for so many almost identical people to disappear? Why are they all around the same age, with the same hair colour?”

Vanessa was already shaking her head.

“You don’t think so?” Justin lifted his brows. He wanted to ask her what authority she had on the subject but didn’t want to offend her.

“Geraldine is strong, Justin,” she murmured, dutifully keeping her voice low. Vanessa used his first name without thinking about how natural it felt. Given the situation they were in, and how tightly pressed against her he was, formalities seemed ridiculous.

“Maybe so,” Justin replied doubtfully.

“She would have kicked up a ruckus like you wouldn’t believe if she had been kidnapped. While she wasn’t a huge woman, she was strong willed and would have fought.”

“Unless she had been rendered incapable of doing so,” Justin countered solemnly. While he didn’t want to alarm her, he couldn’t allow her to live in ignorance either.

“You mean like knocking her unconscious,” Vanessa whispered tearfully.

Justin hugged her close for a moment, silently offering her support. He didn’t whisper platitudes like most people would in a situation like this. While he empathised, he couldn’t allow her to live with false hopes that Geraldine might walk through the door unscathed. Given what he had learned already, he doubted she would still be alive by now, but he couldn’t tell Vanessa that.