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

“Who are you?” she asked him, her voice tremulous with the strength of the betrayal she now faced. “What has happened to you?”

She knew from the way he continued to stare at her with icy disdain that she had lost her brother, the stolid, dependable man she had thought she had known. The man before her now was a cold, callous, dangerous stranger.

“Where did you go? Why did you let me believe you were dead?” she demanded, her voice weak and uncertain.

“I am telling you to sign the damned form.” Frederick stepped away from the fireplace.

It was the signal Thomas gave him that made Elspeth cry out in disbelief. The brief nod had been so minute that if she hadn’t been staring at her brother, Elspeth knew she would have missed it. But she had seen it, and now knew the truth that was her brother.

“Why? Why would you do this to me?” she hissed.

Thomas snorted contemptuously. “Just sign the damned form.”

“But I don’t own the house. You do. You are still alive,” Elspeth replied.

Thomas surged toward her and grabbed her by the front of her dress. The tearing of the material barely registered on Elspeth, who gasped in shock but could do little more than clutch at Thomas’s tight fist as she was swung toward the desk.

“Sit down,” Thomas snarled.

Elspeth found herself being slammed into the chair behind the desk anyway. She stared blankly at the table before her but struggled to know what to do.

“Why do I have to sign?” she persisted. She tried to come up with a reasonable suggestion as to why Thomas was so insistent she should sign papers that were really nothing to do with her.

“You own the damned house,” Thomas hissed through gritted teeth. He shoved the papers toward her and leaned over the desk. “Now sign the papers.”

Elspeth slowly picked the papers up. She forced herself to lean her forearms onto the desk, so her hands didn’t shake as much when she read the script. At fir

st glance, the papers appeared to be the ownership deeds to the property. Slowly, carefully, she read the document.

“It’s been mine all along?” she whispered when she read the section that listed her as the current owner, who had inherited it from her father five years previously. “But you told me you owned it.”

“It should have been mine,” Thomas shouted. “It all should have been mine and would have been if it weren’t for you. None of this should have happened. It is all down to you. All because you are a bloody female.”

“What?” Elspeth looked from Thomas to Frederick and back again.

Slowly, she turned the page and read the second sheet.

“You expect me to hand over the deeds to the house for no money at all? Seriously? You are out of your mind. How do you expect to get that past the solicitor?” Elspeth heard the quiet click of the gun being cocked. When she looked up she felt the cold press of the metal of the gun in between her eyes.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, now that she had had the opportunity to regain her bearings, Elspeth began to lose her temper. The disbelief she had felt only moments ago was starting to turn into a deep fury that gave her the strength to glare at the man before her, as though there was no gun levelled on her.

“Kill me. I promise you that you shall never rest easy,” she whispered vehemently. “I shall haunt your worthless carcass for the rest of my life in eternity.”

“Sign,” Thomas snarled.

Elspeth tipped her head to one side and continued to read the papers carefully. She was stalling for time, hoping that Aaron would reappear.

“Have you seen him? Aaron? Do you know he has left his work with the Star Elite all because of a selfish, ignorant, greedy man like you?” Elspeth spat, making no attempt to hide her disgust. “God, you are a bastard.”

“Nobody asked him to get himself involved,” Thomas shrugged unconcernedly.

“You went to his boss. Sir Hugo,” Elspeth retorted. “Do you think he is going to let you off the hook when I end up dead? He already knows Frederick is guilty of trying to break in here. He won’t settle until you are behind bars, you idiot.”

The more Elspeth thought about the men’s machinations, the more furious she became.

“God, Aaron matters nothing to you either, does he? He thought you were his friend,” Elspeth snapped.

“He has his own life in London. He hasn’t given a damn about me for years. Most of the time we got together he came here, don’t forget, but only because he was sniffing around you. It had nothing to do with me,” Thomas said dismissively. “He isn’t any friend of mine.”