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

“You can bet your life we will,” Justin retorted swiftly. “But it is still a risk you shouldn’t put yourself in.”

“You want this man caught, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” Justin replied.

“So, I have to do it, don’t I? I mean, there is nobody else in this village who will. Nobody truly understands what it is like to have a relation disappear and have no idea where they are or how to find them.” Her voice choked at the last and she fell silent.

Justin sighed when he saw tears gather on her lashes. “I am sorry, Vanessa. I don’t mean to upset you. It is just that I don’t think this is a wise idea at all. I am sure that if we think carefully about everything there will be another way of capturing the kidnapper that we haven’t considered. We can’t think of it just now because everything has happened so fast.”

“But there isn’t the time, Justin. The longer we wait, the further the man might have taken them if they have been kidnapped with the intention of moving them on for slavery or something. We just won’t know what they have been kidnapped for until we have caught him,” she replied.

Justin looked at her with such plea in his eyes that for a moment she had to look away. When he gazed at her like that her will to argue with him faded. She knew she would cave in to him if he made a move toward her.

As though he had just read her mind, Justin suddenly stepped forward.

“What does your father think?” he asked suddenly.

“He thinks it has to be done. We have to know what has happened to Geraldine. He has faith in you,” she replied honestly.

“And you don’t?” Justin countered.

“Of course, I do,” she assured him. “I am just not sure the plan is going to work because it is based on the assumption that the man is from around here, and is able to watch people going about their business. How do we know he isn’t from somewhere else, and just wanders through villagers, snatching people off the streets who fit a particular mould?”

Justin frowned at that. His gaze lifted to her hair. “Does Geraldine have the same hair colour as you?” he asked, eyeing her brown tresses which were, shockingly, very much like the young women’s who had just gone missing.

“No, she has darker hair,” Vanessa replied. “Like my father’s. My hair is like my mother’s.”

Justin shook his head. For a moment, he thought he had a faint tendril of suspicion blossom to life, but it slithered away like a ghost in the night before he could capture it. He knew now why his colleagues had been adamant that Vanessa would fit the bill. While she was older than some of the women who had been captured, she was young, pretty, and lived in the area. It was enough – for the kidnapper at least.

“Where is your father?” he demanded, glancing around the kitchen as though expecting him to pop up at any moment.

“He has gone to the tavern for an ale, and to try to get some idea of what the locals think about the kidnappings,” she replied. She sensed she knew what he was thinking and tried to thwart him. “You won’t sway him, though. He understands why I need to do this.”

“I understand as well, Vanessa,” Justin replied.

“Do you?” she interrupted. “Do you really?”

“I do,” he replied firmly. “I just don’t agree that it has to be you.”

“Why? Because I am a female?” she asked quietly. “Or because you think I am too close to Geraldine?”

“No,” Justin replied instantly.

He suddenly realised that there was so much he wanted to say to her but couldn’t because he struggled to find the right words to describe the emotions coursing through him. Besides he couldn’t tell her that he wasn’t at all certain furthering their acquaintance was a good thing to do but was caught like a fly in a spider’s web.

“It is just a heck of a risk, that’s all,” he murmured with considerably less heat a few moments later.

Vanessa struggled with her disappointment. She couldn’t help but think a very important, and special, moment had just passed them by. One moment ticked past, then another, then another. The silence lengthened.

“Damn it,” he snapped suddenly.

Before Vanessa could do anything more than lift her arms, she was hauled into his embrace. Her lips were caught with his in a branding unlike anything she had ever experienced before. With it came a surge of white hot need that overtook everything. Common sense, logic, reasoning didn’t exist in the wake of the tumultuous emotions that swirled through her. She couldn’t make sense of any of it.

One thing she did know for definite was that she wanted this man, Justin, in her life for good. She didn’t know yet what it was about him that made him so special, but she knew that she would learn everything there was to know about him and it would all work out between them in tie. This connection she felt with him was something she had never expected to feel for anybody. She had seen it, of course, in other couples who communicated through look or touch. While she had no proof, she suspected they too exp

erienced this kind of link with their mate.

Oh, God, he is my mate, she thought with a vague sense of shock. She had wondered if there was someone meant for her, of course she had. She just hadn’t expected her mate to be a man like Justin; someone who didn’t like country life and preferred the city.