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

Of course, she has only my word that I am who I say I am.

Carefully, Callum tipped her chin up until she was compelled to look him in the eye.

“I won’t allow him to get you. Not you,” he assured her, his voice clipped and low.

Mallory couldn’t speak past the huge well of emotion that lodged in her throat and threatened to choke her. All she could do was gulp.

Rather than step away, as any sane and sensible man would do, Callum slid a hand through her hair to cup the back of her head. Tugging her gently forward, he placed a gentle kiss onto her lips that was over as soon as it had started.

What stunned them both was the sharp fission of awareness that curled around them both. It made them both stop and stare at each other warily. It was as though they were each aware of the changes the presence of the other would bring to their lives, but there was nothing they could do. They were both helpless to fight the tide of awareness that connected them. It bound them together in silken bonds which refused to be released. Neither of them felt the need to say anything. Instead, Callum placed a tender acknowledgement of their union onto her lips once more before he forced himself to step back.

This time, when Callum caught her hand in his, Mallory edged closer to him. Together, they turned to face the road with a solidarity that was startling. In those few short moments, they had changed from a man and a woman, relative strangers and partners in their escape, to a strong unit, and yes, a couple, prepared to fight whatever life threw at them.

I barely know him, yet I know he is someone I can put my faith in.

Her instincts assured her that Callum was a man she could trust with her life. He wouldn’t let her down. If she ever doubted him, she only had to contemplate what he had done to thwart Melrose and this thugs in the last day or so.

As if to prove just how much danger Melrose posed to not just Mallory and Callum, but the rest of the Star Elite as well, a loud blast of gunfire interrupted the tender peace.

Callum jerked and immediately backed Mallory against the closest wall, pressing himself in front of her so that he could act as a physical barrier to whatever danger threatened them.

Mallory buried her head in his neck, clutched at his shirt, and waited. She wondered if he realised

just how much his instinctively protective actions revealed about him, and what he felt about her, but doubted it. Callum’s attention was now locked firmly on something happening within a derelict building further down the street.

“Do you think it is one of your friends?”

As if to answer, a strange disjointed whistle broke the silence.

“Damn it. Something is wrong.”

Callum immediately emitted a burst of whistles that were unlike any animal Mallory had ever heard.

“Stay here,” Callum ordered only to then realise that he couldn’t simply abandon her at the side of the road for Melrose to pick up.

All it would take was for Melrose in his carriage to rumble into the street and Mallory would be snatched again just as effectively as she had been taken the first time. But Rhys and Will were in danger. One of them had sent out the call that they had been injured; either of them, or maybe both.

“Damn.” Callum tugged her across the street.

As they approached the building, Oliver appeared on the other side of the aged black front door. He signalled that Niall and Phillip were going around the back. Callum knew that he was going to be needed to help search the place, which left him with the problem of what he could do to protect Mallory at the same time. The last thing he could do was allow her to be with him and his colleagues when they entered the unfamiliar structure.

“You have to come with us,” Callum growled.

“Are we going in there?”

Even before they were at the door the sound of brutal fighting became audible. Thankfully, there was no more gunfire but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible.

“We have to. One of us has been injured. We have to get to him.”

Callum checked the street but suspected that Melrose didn’t have many men left to fight, even if he was stupid enough to put himself inside the building for the Star Elite to find.

“Stay away from the doors. Come in only when I shout your name. Don’t, and I repeat don’t, stay out here alone. They will snatch you again if you do. Stay close but keep out of the way of the fighting. Preferably stand with your back to a wall and keep an eye on what is going on, so you don’t get caught by any stray bullets. Promise me, Mallory.”

Mallory nodded. As a silent and unwilling accomplice, Mallory watched Oliver kick the front door in. The resounding bang it made as the fragile wood shattered beneath the heavy weight of his boot made her jump. She watched him point his gun into the gloom and step inside. When no gunshots greeted him, Callum edged toward the door. Seconds later, he too disappeared inside before he popped his head back out again and tugged her into the building with him.

“Stand there. Don’t move. Don’t speak, and don’t do anything except call out if someone else comes through the door.”

Callum nudged her backward until she was pressed firmly against the nearest wall. She cupped her elbows in her hands and watched him. In that moment, Mallory was struck by such conflicting emotions she wasn’t at all sure what she should feel.