Cold Comfort (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 5)

“That is the story you are going to put out about me, and that is what you will stick to,” Oliver said. It wasn’t a question and didn’t need either of the Smidgley brothers to confirm that they were going to deny having kidnapped him and brought him to their home to threaten and beat to death. “But you forget, gentlemen, I have a sterling reputation for being a reliable operative of the Star Elite. It is a very stupid thing to do to try to condemn me. Anybody who knows me, and there are many in the Star Elite and War Office who do, knows I am no liar, not apt to flights of fancy, or delusions, and I most certainly would not pass on any information to anybody if I wasn’t certain about its accuracy.”

“You have no idea where you are,” Rupert Smidgley snorted.

Oliver squinted at him. He sighed. “Well, let me see now. Where would a liar, a fraudster, a thief, and a charlatan who hides behind brainless thugs take someone whose life they had just stolen? Where would they then stash them while they issued a ridiculous warning they couldn’t hope to bring to fruition? Why would you bother dimming the lights and blacking out a rather large and airy room like this if it wasn’t in your miserable hovel of a house called Smidgley Hall? I don’t doubt if I got out of this chair and left through that door, I would find myself in the servant’s quarters somewhere, or in one of the disused parts of the house you emptied – sorry, sold the contents of – several months back when money became tight.”

“Shut your filthy mouth,” Ernest snarled.

“I don’t think so,” Oliver countered almost conversationally.

When the thug took another step forward and lifted a fist to strike him for a third time, Oliver stood up and in one smooth motion, threw the rope around the thug’s neck. Using the man’s brawn as leverage, Oliver jumped up and kicked out, planting his booted feet squarely in Ernest’s narrow chest. The considerably lighter man was propelled off his feet and into the darkness he had hidden in. The crashing of something he landed against shattered the silence within the room, which was interspersed with the frantic grunts of the thug who was struggling to break free of the tight rope around his neck.

Oliver lifted the rope as high as he could and slammed one, two, three punches against the man’s jaw, cheek, and head. To add to the onslaught, he stepped back and kicked the thug in the crotch. The thug slid to his knees with a heartfelt groan and didn’t even see Oliver’s boot which kicked him squarely between the eyes. The thug slammed face first onto the floor with a heavy thud. Sensing movement behind him, Oliver braced himself for another attack. The second thug was taller yet no more of a threat. Before he could launch an assault, Oliver used the shadows his opponents had so thoroughly enjoyed and waited.

“Where?” the thug demanded.

He watched Rupert lifted his hands palms up as if to say that he had no idea. The thug edged toward the darkness Oliver was in. He side-stepped to try to find the shadows himself only for a heavy boot to stop him. The crunch of bones breaking in the man’s knee Oliver kicked was loud and accompanied by a yowl of pain from the man who fell heavily to the floor. Once he was down and clutching his wounded limb, Oliver rammed another boot into the side of the thug’s head and watched him fall lifelessly to the floor. Before Rupert could launch an attack, Oliver raced for the door.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Don’t let him leave the house,” Rupert bellowed as he charged after Oliver.

Oliver ducked when a large boom broke the silence and the plasterwork on the wall beside him exploded into powdery dust, but he didn’t break his stride.

Rupert, his voice laden with panic, continued to shout. “We know how to find you, and that woman. She will die, just like her sister.”

Oliver slammed to a stop. His chest heaved from the exertion of the last few moments, and the effort it had taken to shake off the lingering effects of the chloroform.

“Caroline Elkins is dead. You killed her, Smidgley.” Oliver glared malevolently at the criminal. “Or else how would you know about her? Her death hasn’t hit the broadsheets yet.”

Smidgley’s lip curled. “I am not talking about Caroline. I am talking about that prettier sister of hers. She is of much more use to us than that wastrel whore she was related to,” Rupert snarled.

“You were using them for the services they could provide your friends.” Oliver spoke the words he thought. They tumbled out of his mouth as more of a wild guess than anything founded in any truthful certainty, but he knew without doubt that he was right. “You were actually snatching innocent young women off the street and forcing them to provide your sordid little friends with services.”

Rupert shrugged unconcernedly. “You have no idea how much some of these aristocrats will pay to use the services of a virgin, especially one who puts up a fight.”

“Jesus, you soulless bastard,” Oliver hissed, disgusted at the callous brutality of the thug.

Rupert smirked. “You have no idea who our clients are. They pay a pretty penny, even when we don’t provide the most innocent. They pay whatever we ask of them because there is nothing that they won’t do to preserve their reputations. If there is one thing you must remember about our kind, it is that our family names and reputations matter. There is nothing us aristocrats won’t do to protect each other. I have many men in high places whose marriages, indeed lives, would be ruined if it ever came out that they paid for the services of whores; especially kidnapped ones, and they know it.”

“You are blackmailing the men who pay to use them,” Oliver whispered. “You really think you can blackmail them into paying you whatever you ask of them and use their reputations to force them to keep coughing up money. If they refuse you can use their activities to force them.”

“A little whispered word in a shell-like ear will destroy any good marriage,” Smidgley smiled. “And a few reputations to go with it. You see, these men see each other at every social outing they go to. They have to look their – associates – in the eye, well aware that others know what they have been up to when their wives’ backs are turned. They all must keep their mouths shut or they will all topple like dominoes. It has worked for us for a while now and has been incredibly lucrative. So, you see, our friends and connections have a lot to lose and most certainly will never allow your pathetic Sir Hugo to destroy so many fine, upstanding gentlemen.”

Oliver stared at him as he absorbed the magnitude of what the Star Elite had to conquer. It was troubling enough to realise that, for the first time in his entire career with the War Office, Oliver truly doubted the Star Elite could ever successfully make arrests in this investigation. If Smidgley was telling the truth, and many influential men were involved, it was going to be damned impossible to prove it. Getting one to talk would mean destroying not just another man’s life, family, name, reputation and that of his family, but many others would be destroyed as well. Nobody was going to willingly talk.

If we did get anybody to talk, the bastard who named names would be better off dead. By the time ton had done with him, he would be as good as dead anyway.

“It never occurred to you that you could fail, did it?” Smidgley murmured around an arrogant smirk. “You are welcome to join us, you know.”

Oliver’s thoughts immediately turned to Emmeline. The thought of the kind of ordeal she might face was enough to make him feel sick. He hated to even think of her being snatched and the terror she would feel. If he was honest, he had been scared being snatched and he was used to a life fighting for the Star Elite.

God only knows how Emmeline would cope.

He placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. “No criminal is infallible. Even the most careful bandits must face justice, you know that, Smidgley. What makes you think the Star Elite won’t topple a hundred aristocrats if we need to? What makes you think that even the supposed highest in society are going to remain untouchable? Because they are all guilty of raping kidnap victims? That is how the law will see it, you know. They can’t be considered high society of they behave like common criminals. Those women have had their lives stolen and are being forced into prostitution. It doesn’t matter who their clients are. Rape is rape and kidnap is kidnap. You will not evade justice, and neither will your clientele. God, you are one sick bastard, Smidgley.” Oliver shook his head and was about to turn around when Ernest stumbled into the hallway behind his brother. He was bent over at the waist, holding a palm against the wet patch of blood on his shirt. Whatever he had crashed into had left him battered and bloody and stumbling around as if dumbstruck. All he could do was glare at Oliver in a way that left Oliver in little doubt that if he had been capable, Ernest would have given him a sound thrashing.

“We are going to keep your little friend as collateral,” Rupert informed him smoothly. In contrast to his dishevelled brother behind him, Rupert, still as dapper as ever, tugged on his sleeves and straightened his jacket as if just concluding a business meeting. “You know, just until we get Sir Hugo out of his job and are free to go about our business.”

“Stealing lives of innocent women,” Oliver finished for him. “Rape, kidnap, blackmail, coercion, theft, intimidation. Need I go on? Oh, and by the way, I know you cannot touch Caroline’s sister because she is under our protection. Now, if you don’t mind, I have work to do. I think it is time we in the Star Elite started at the top of your little social ladder and began to make our way down to little grunts like you. You will keep, Smidgley, for now, but I warn you that your little empire is going to crumble, no matter how many men you have working for you, who your contacts are, or how much you try to threaten those around you to stay quiet. The Star Elite are not going to be blackmailed or defeated by any ignorant, thieving, manipulative little scroat like you. Besides, how do you know that one of your – customers – won’t spill the beans on you just to stop having to pay you?”