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

Callum cursed bitterly when he saw movement in the trees a few feet away from Mallory. Melrose temporarily forgotten, Callum took aim and waited for those shadows to inch closer. He couldn’t alert Mallory to the looming danger. All Callum could do was hope and pray that whoever was moving the bushes would step out so he could get a clear shot at them before she noticed she was no longer alone.

Thankfully, they did.

One shot was all it took.

Mallory screamed when she heard a dull thud behind her. She turned around and gasped in horror when she saw a man lying face up on the ground. She didn’t need to look too closely at him to know that he was one of Melrose’s men. None of the Star Elite would ever look that unkempt and surly. In fact, now that she came to think about it the men from the Star Elite usually looked like urbane gentlemen. It was difficult to see them and believe that any one of them might engage in a deadly gun battle like they were at present.

Shuffling around, Mallory turned to look at Callum again, but he was distracted by the presence of another of Melrose’s men creeping toward Melrose on the bridge. Mallory knew she couldn’t stay where she was. Moreover, she knew that the man had seen Callum. In horror, she watched Melrose’s man lift his gun straight at Callum.

Jumping to her feet, Mallory screamed: “Callum!”

Callum jerked and looked at her. The gunman fired. Callum flinched and ducked low. The bullet whizzed past his ear.

Mallory stared in horror as she saw Callum fall to his knees. The gunman who had just shot at him then turned his attention to her. Mallory stared at him and backed away as he edged closer. Oliver tried to hit him but missed.

“Mallory, get down!” Oliver commanded.

But Mallory had no intention of falling to the floor. She prepared to run.

In that moment, though, so did Melrose. He fired, not one gun but two. Together. At the Star Elite men, who fired back but could do little to stop his backstepping off the bridge unless they killed him. That was something Sir Hugo had ordered them not to do.

“Sir?” Oliver demanded.

“Not yet.”

Oliver swore because he knew that Melrose was going for Mallory.

“Sir.” Oliver glared at his boss.

Sir Hugo shuffled toward the end of the bridge and pointed his gun at Melrose.

“Stay right where you are, Melrose,” Sir Hugo commanded coldly.

Callum wondered if Sir Hugo wanted to be assassinated. Any of Melrose’s men could take a shot right now and would kill the boss of the Star Elite.

“Well, well, so you do have nine lives. Well, eight now,” Melrose sneered.

He lifted a hand to warn his men not to fire upon the boss of the Star Elite – for now at least.

“I have to confess, I thought my men had done a better job of getting rid of you,” Melrose called.

“You should know that I am indestructible. If you get rid of me there are plenty of men who are more than willing to take my place. The Star Elite will survive,” Sir Hugo replied. “You, however, will not.”

Melrose slowly, and quite purposefully, re-loaded his gun.

Sir Hugo cocked his and waited, but wasn’t prepared to allow Melrose to escape, or kill him.

“Why did you do it? You have money. You have connections. You had everything going for you. Why would you turn you back on all of it to steal lives of women?” Sir Hugo demanded.

“Because I can,” Melrose announced. “Why not? Who in the Hell wants to spend their lives bowing and curtseying to all and sundry? Do you want me to associate with people who are nothing more than whores themselves? They whore themselves for their fortune, for the right to be able to call themselves aristocracy, and for what? They are no better than any tramp or doxy in the backstreets of London.”

“But it wasn’t the aristocracy whose lives you stole, Melrose. You stole the lives of people who didn’t have much to steal in the first place. It is hardly a fair fight or anything to boast about. For God’s sake, man, you have been picking on women. Do you have any idea how damned weak that makes you look?”

Melrose glared at him.

“You really did expect half of the aristocracy to lie to protect you, didn’t you?”

“I have been born into ton. I know things about people in high places that would ruin them in society in a way that they would never recover from.”