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

“You forced people into covering for you by blackmailing them.”

It wasn’t a question.

“They willingly helped me,” Melrose boasted. “They received some of the profits as well.”

“From prostitution,” Sir Hugo sneered.

“Our little enterprise was quite profitable,” Melrose boasted. “For a while at least.”

Mallory had never hated anybody in her life, but she did Melrose. Right there and then she wished she had a gun because, although by nature not a physically violent person, she would have shot him herself. His utter contempt for human life was deplorable.

“Where is Mann? We know he was helping you?”

“Mann is a damned pig,” Melrose snorted. “You will find him at home.”

Sir Hugo knew that Melrose’s information was imparted because Mann was beyond helping the Star Elite.

“You are prepared to end the lives of the people who have helped you as well, are you?”

Melrose didn’t answer.

Sir Hugo knew that he wasn’t going to get much out of the man on the bridge. He had seemingly lost his grip on his ability to contemplate things rationally and on a civilised level.

“You have lowered yourself into blood and violence against innocent people in a way that you can never recover from. I could let you rot away quietly in prison, and rightly so given you are happy to steal the lives of other people. However, I am not prepared to risk that someone else you have blackmailed might be prepared to take underhand steps to get you free again.”

Melrose looked up and met the eyes of his biggest adversary.

Sir Hugo stared at him down the barrel of his gun and made sure that the shot was aimed directly between Melrose’s eyes.

At the last moment, though, Sir Hugo knew he just couldn’t do it. He wanted to, more than anything, but he wasn’t a murderer. To kill Melrose in cold blood would be tantamount to murder, and Melrose knew it. However, Sir Hugo wasn’t prepared to allow Melrose off the hook completely either and so at the last moment, he lowered his gun and shot Melrose in the shoulder instead.

Melrose stumbled backward from the force of the blast at such close quarters. The back of his knees slammed into the stone wall at the side of the bridge. Melrose jerked backward and tried to flail his arms to regain his balance but was already teetering precariously over the water. Gravity compelled him to topple over the stone wall that had once protected him. At the last moment, he twisted around and grabbed a hold of the top of the wall to stop himself from falling into the raving river. His gun fell into the water, leaving Melrose hopelessly disadvantaged. Melrose threw a desperate look at the water and tightened his hold while he tried to think of a way to get himself free of the mess that he was in.

Sir Hugo ambled closer.

“It looks like you have gotten yourself into a sorry mess,” he drawled.

Before he managed to take three steps, the brittle stonework beneath Melrose’s hands began to crumble. Scrabbling for a better grip, Melrose wriggled and squirmed like a fish on a hook, but his desperate clawing at the aged stone only made it crumble faster.

“I would stay still if I were you,” Sir Hugo taunted. “Do you know something? I want nothing more than to be the one to walk you into the county gaol and leave you there. Believe me when I tell you that because you are one of our high-risk prisoners only a handful of people are going to know where you will spend the rest of your miserable days. You shall have the indignity of fading into obscurity as someone most people would rather forget.”

Melrose cursed roundly and tried to haul himself back onto the bridge, b

ut his weight only moved the uppermost stone even more until it broke free of the bridge, propelling Melrose into the water. Melrose, still staring at Sir Hugo with wide, horrified eyes, fell into the raging river still clutching the stone to his chest. Rather than being swept away by the swirling current, Melrose was pinned several feet below the surface while he took his last breath.

Sir Hugo hurried forward and looked over the side of the bridge to the spot where Melrose lay.

“Damn,” he snapped with a disgusted huff.

“Boss?” Oliver asked from the riverbank.

Before he could ask Sir Hugo if he wanted him to jump in and try to get the man free, gunfire exploded once more.

Callum moved through the trees but was pinned down by the gunfire and prevented from getting to Mallory. Sir Hugo hadn’t forgotten her, though, or the gunman who was closest to her. Ducking low, he slowly eased to the edge of the bridge and took up position where he waited for the gunman to reach her. The second Melrose’s guard stepped free of his hiding place; Sir Hugo took his shot.

Mallory cowered when she heard another dull thud. She looked at Callum who crawled, slithered, and slipped across the bridge toward her. Sir Hugo remained where he was, and watched Callum defy the odds to reach her. He then turned his attention to helping his men remove the last of Melrose’s gunmen.

“You may as well surrender. Your boss cannot pay you now. He is dead,” Sir Hugo called. “Put your weapons down.”