Fallen Hero (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 3)

“Damn,” Aaron whispered.

Oliver threw Aaron his cloak. “Get ready. We are going to capture the bastard.”

There was such an air of certainty in Oliver’s voice that Aaron knew the men were ready to do whatever it took to capture their quarry, even if it meant killing the man. Aaron didn’t mind. As far as he was concerned, Horvat had brought enough people abject misery. It was time he was put out of action.

Aaron crept back into the bed chamber and heaved a sigh of relief to find Elspeth still asleep. He didn’t want to wake her for fear of worrying her while he was gone. Minutes later, he reached the hallway downstairs just in time to find the men waiting for him.

“Is nobody going to stay to keep watch?” he asked warily when he realised everyone was ready to leave.

He wanted to go after Horvat with them but not at the expense of Elspeth’s safety.

“The house is secured. The shutters are locked tight. All the locks have been reinforced. It would take a blasted miracle to get in here,” Oliver informed him briskly.

“Besides, Frederick is likely to have gone home to lick his wounds, don’t you think? Now that he has lost Voss, he isn’t going be half as confident as he was this morning,” Jasper warned.

“We aren’t going to be long,” Sir Hugo assured him. “We know where Horvat is. There is a team already watching his house, but we must hurry. We are adding support, that’s all.”

“Well, why don’t the team mount the attack and save us the trouble?” Aaron demanded.

“They need reinforcements,” Sir Hugo replied coldly. “We have lost this bastard several times already. Don’t you think it is time we threw everything at capturing him? I want him behind bars. Here. Today. No excuses.”

Aaron swore. “I am staying here,” he declared flatly.

“Don’t you want to see the bastard drop?” Oliver demanded.

“Are we killing or arresting?” Aaron demanded.

“Arresting,” Sir Hugo murmured. “We can’t kill him because we don’t know where the victims are. We need to be able to interrogate him to find out what he has done with the victims once he has snatched them.”

“With us there the Star Elite have enough men to surround the property. Horvat won’t be able to get through us. Ten men, that’s all we have. Given how slippery Horvat is, even that may not be enough unless we have the element of surprise on our side for once,” Jasper warned.

Aaron nodded but knew Jasper had just directly quoted what Sir Hugo had said to him.

“We need every man on this, Aaron, and time is short. We must move now while we know where he is. One hour, that’s all this should take. If Elspeth stays in the house there is no reason for her to be in any danger, is there?” Sir Hugo argued.

Aaron sighed. He contemplated Elspeth upstairs, tucked up in bed, and suspected she was going to be there for more than an hour. He hoped so in any case.

“Let me leave her a note telling her to stay inside and not to answer the door to anybody,” Aaron said.

Without another word, he let himself into the study, quickly wrote a note, and hurried upstairs to leave it propped on the small table next to the bed. When he was assured she remained undisturbed, he raced downstairs to join his colleagues.

Seconds later, Aaron rode through the village with his colleagues to the house Horvat, for the time being at least, called home.

“Horvat has done what he did in St Magdaline, hasn’t he?” Jasper murmured when they were all studying the house that was most definitely not Horvat’s.

“What? Done away with the house’s elderly resident so he can live there? Looks like it,” Sir Hugo snorted in disgust. “We will find the owner’s body, but only once that evil fiend is out of the way.”

He waved a hand at the assembled men who all took up positions around the perimeter of the house. They all studied the property’s entrance points. Each man had a point of entry and it was different to the man beside him. There would be some men who would remain outside in case Horvat tried to escape. They would also work to keep the public away while the worst

of the chaos settled down. Horvat, hopefully, wouldn’t know what had hit him until it was all over.

Sir Hugo lifted his hand.

Seconds ticked by.

Aaron readied his gun. He tensed. While he waited for the signal to storm the house, his thoughts strayed to Elspeth. He wished he was back at the house, so he could be the one to wake her. The last thing he had anticipated was having to leave her to wake alone. It felt wrong, especially given what they had shared, and the significant changes it brought to both of their lives. Still, his consolation was that if they could capture Horvat, the investigation would then lose some of its danger because it would become a recovery mission to try to find Horvat’s victims. That could only allay Elspeth’s fears about his work with the Star Elite, couldn’t it? Aaron certainly hoped so, because he suspected he couldn’t give up his work for the War Office any more than he could surrender his love for Elspeth.

Sir Hugo suddenly lowered his hand.