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

“You will have work, I suppose, but that will at least give you something to do,” Elspeth continued unabated. She knew she was pushing him far too far, but something within her wanted to provoke him, if only so he knew he couldn’t frighten her anymore.

“Aaron gave up his job because of you, because he held your memory dear. God, how wrong could anybody be about someone? We believed you were worth grieving for. We both cried for you.” Elspeth looked back on those dark days and realised that in a way, she had grieved for the loss of her brother and he had died. She didn’t recognise the man behind her. He was someone she didn’t think she could ever call family.

“Aaron is a fool,” Thomas bit out dispassionately.

“I don’t know what you thought you were doing, or what you really expected to achieve by this charade, but I can assure you that I shall never grieve for you again, Thomas. You are no family of mine. You were never this callous before. What happened? You have had plenty of time over the last several years to do something about your unhappiness, and it wouldn’t have to have involved fraud, pretending to die, or trying to kill me. What changed?”

“I met someone,” Thomas snarled. “But she isn’t high and mighty like you.”

“She is a whore,” Elspeth murmured, believing this to be the only reason why Thomas wouldn’t introduce them.

“No. She is a barmaid. She works in

a tavern. But she isn’t someone you would ever want in the house,” Thomas retorted. “Not Miss Prim and Proper like you.”

“How do you know I won’t like her? I have never met her.”

Thomas dipped his head to her ear. “She works in a bawdy house.”

“I am right then. She is a whore,” Elspeth said matter-of-factly. “What? Does your new girlfriend charge you? Is that why you need the money?”

“We were going to leave England and live aboard. Both of us. The money would provide us with a good life, well away from here.”

“You thought you could live a life off the profits from mine?” Elspeth felt sick again.

“You won’t need the money where you are going,” Thomas warned.

“You really do intend to murder me, don’t you? Do you think your little whore will want you when you are a convicted killer? What use are you going to be to her behind bars? I am sure she will have found another customer by then,” Elspeth spat.

Deep inside, she was coldly furious. So much so, she couldn’t withhold her rage. Rather than cave in to it, she held the memory of the fateful night when she had howled at the storm, hungry, cold, destitute, and with no hope of salvation before her like a shield that would ward off the storm she was currently enduring. She had survived those dark days of desolation, which had been brought about by the selfishness of the man behind her. She could survive this, she knew it because she knew she had come out stronger, wiser, and now had Aaron by her side. It was the thought of a future with Aaron that gave Elspeth the courage she needed to face the man she had once thought she knew.

“Go back to your whore, Thomas,” she urged. “If you turn around, walk away from everything that was not yours in the first place, you might have a few days before the Star Elite catch up with you. You can at least explain to her why you must disappear from her life as well. Believe me when I tell you that she won’t thank you for simply vanishing on her.”

Thomas lifted his gun and pointed it straight at her. “You have to die.”

“Why?” Elspeth cried. “Has not destroying what was left of my family not been enough for you?”

“You know too much,” Thomas replied quietly.

“I know nothing more than the men who have investigated you. They know about you as well. Do you intend to kill them too? Killing me won’t solve your problem, Thomas,” Elspeth reasoned.

Thomas dropped his gaze to the ground at her feet. She knew he was thinking everything through.

“How long have you been his lover?” Thomas asked quietly.

“I love him,” Elspeth whispered.

“He has always wanted you. It is the only reason he has been friends with me,” Thomas whispered.

“No, it isn’t. You are childhood friends. He cared about you,” Elspeth argued.

“No.” Thomas shook his head. “He only came to visit me because he really wanted to see you. It was always you he asked about, you he talked about, you he wanted to see. It was always you.”

Elspeth flicked a furtive glance around the graveyard. She still couldn’t see the men. Were they there? She contemplated what to do but knew the only thing she could do was stall Thomas for as long as it took for the men to get there, and make their presence known.

“What property did you have?” she asked but with little interest.

“What?” Thomas scowled at her.