To Have A Heart (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 7)

But he did. Without even stopping to explain to her where he was going, Callum slithered through the bush and disappeared.

Once at the edge of the path, Callum emitted a low guttural noise he knew his colleagues would understand.

“Shot,” he whispered when Oliver appeared on the other side of the path.

A small bag was immediately launched into the air and landed with a dull thud directly in front of Callum. Heaving a sigh of relief, Callum immediately picked it up and shuffled backward. When he glanced up, he could see the figure still atop the horse. He nodded at it and lifted his brows at Oliver, who shrugged to say that he hadn’t been able to see who it was either.

“Do you mind not just leaving me like that?” Mallory grumbled when Callum finally reappeared before her.

Callum smiled at her, reloaded his gun, and took aim, but as he joined in with the next gun battle, he assessed the area.

“The field Horace is in is to the right of here. We have to stay off the path but can still reach him.”

Before Mallory could reply, the loud snap of a twig made Callum immediately roll over so that he was between her and the intruder. Mallory stared at the leg that appeared just inches from her nose. She was so horrified by how close it was that she couldn’t tear her gaze away from it. Hardly daring to breathe, she waited for that inevitable bang that would end her life. When the shot came, Mallory jerked so badly she almost stood up, but she hadn’t been shot. Nor had Callum. She watched a guard look blankly at her before slowly dropping his stunned gaze to the gaping hole in his chest. As if uncomprehending of what he saw, he gurgled before trying to look up. The effort unbalanced him. He teetered on the balls of his feet before, like a fallen tree, he fell face forward in the dirt with a heavy thud.

Mallory wasn’t the only one who had watched the man’s demise. Another guard nearby suddenly lunged to his feet, but rather than race toward Mallory he ran in the other direction, clearly no longer prepared to risk his life for Melrose.

A single gunshot ended his flight.

“Why? Why would your colleagues kill him? He was running away?” Mallory cried tearfully.

“They wouldn’t. Melrose’s guards would. To them, he is a traitor. They are ruthless. They will cut him down because they won’t want him telling anybody who they are and what they are up to,” Callum said.

“They will kill each other?”

Callum looked at her.

“It’s incomprehensible how heinous they are, isn’t it? They have been ordered to get you no matter what the cost to themselves, and if that means they have to behave like a pack of feral dogs then they will.”

Mallory understood then that it wasn’t just her who had been caught up in Melrose’s brutality. If anybody wanted their lives to themselves while Melrose was about they faced death, and that included people willingly in Melrose’s employ.

“Melrose should be behind bars.” Mallory had never meant anything more strongly in her life. “But his men shouldn’t die like dogs to get him there.”

Callum threw her a sharp look.

“Do you think that someone who is prepared to kill is going to be easy to take to gaol, or his men for that matter?”

“No, but to keep killing each other like this isn’t going to solve anything, is it? I mean, Melrose will just employ more men when this lot are dead, won’t he?”

“Do you want me to put down my gun so we can go back to Melrose House with them, or what is left of it? I am sure Melrose won’t mind showing you what he did to Jemima, or explaining why he sadistically murdered her,” Callum snapped.

Mallory stared at him. He had a point. Melrose would indeed have no problem showing her what he had done to Jemima, and just as slowly and painful as well.

“I am sorry,” she whispered.

She knew that Callum hadn’t asked to be dragged into any of this. It was wrong to criticise him, or his colleagues. He was involved because he had been told to fight to the death to carry out his orders, but his mission was completely different to that of Melrose’s guards. They were criminals. Callum wasn’t. He was fighting for a good cause. Melrose’s men were not. Even though Callum was fighting for a good cause, the possible loss of his life seemed a hideous price to pay for her freedom.

This time, Mallory couldn’t stop her tears from trickling steadily down her face. She stared helplessly at the ground beneath her boots because she thought it was the only place that she could look that wouldn’t remind her of the death all around her. Unfortunately, when she looked at her boots, she saw the twigs and leaves covered in splatters of blood, and it brought a fresh wave of tears to her eyes that trickled after the first.

“Callum!” Oliver bellowed.

“Yes.”

“Remember what Archie used to do?”

“Yes.” Callum grinned.