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

“Do you think we should just leave now? I can drive. You can get some sleep.”

“I won’t sleep. We are going to be even more vulnerable than we are here if we travel anywhere right now. At least here we have food.”

Will slowly shook his head. “We still have some food left in the basket Phillip packed. It is in Sir Hugo’s room. The tavern owner was going to bring us some more but hasn’t.”

“So, we have a little food, but our transportation out of here isn’t available at the moment, and we have shadows moving about us,” Callum hissed. “How much shot do you have?”

Will dug around in his pockets and revealed two heavy bags of shot.

“I have about the same,” Callum said.

“The best we can do is keep watch front and back. There is no side alley so the gates are going to be the only way into the yard, and we can see them from here,” Will said.

“Yes, but we are visible to anybody out on the street,” Callum countered.

“I’ll keep watch over the street,” Will announced, taking up position beside the window closest to the yard doors.

“I will keep watch over the back yard then,” Callum said.

He turned to open the door only for the door to suddenly slam open so fiercely it bounced against the wall and fell off its hinges. Before Callum could step out of the way, a thick, burly figure dressed completely in black charged into the room. Callum cursed as he was taken down in a flying tackle and slammed into the floor with such brutal force it stole his breath. Dazed, he was at first helpless to do anything to defend himself against the beefy fist that slammed into his face, or the second. Will’s boot kicking his assailant in the side of the head prevented the third.

With his attacker unbalanced, Callum turned over and levered himself upright enough to land a punch under the thug’s chin that made his head snap back. Will kicked him again but was distracted by a second attacker who raced through the door and tried to take Will down in a tackle. But Will stepped out of the way and landed several punches in quick succession that rendered his assailant useless.

Both Callum and Will managed to free themselves in time to watch a third man enter the room.

Will removed the gun from his belt. Just as the attacker reached him, he took aim and shot the man in the stomach at point-blank range. The man grunted and began to gurgle before slithering slowly to the floor. Will stepped over him and looked at Callum who was now eyeing the door behind his attacker, and Mallory’s room beyond it, with a ruthless purpose that made his opponent blink.

Mallory launched off the bed when she heard the first loud blast. It was so unexpected that she was physically shaking by the time she reached the door. Rather than yank it open, she eased it open just enough to be able to see around it. What she saw made her blanche and immediately close it again.

Once inside the room, she looked wildly around for something – anything – she could use to defend herself. Her worst fears had come true: her attackers had arrived to fetch her.

“The last thing I am ever going to do is go with you anywhere,” she hissed.

Mallory grew strength from the knowledge that Callum was just across the hallway. Given the grunts and groans she could hear coming from the room across the corridor, he too was fighting – a physical battle with the man who had burst into the tavern: Edward. She would recognise that gnarled, spiteful face anywhere. It was one she truly disliked, or rather the person behind it was. Edward was cruel; by far the worst of Melrose’s employees because of his cruelty and yen for physical violence toward the helpless.

“Well, not this time,” Mallory seethed.

Hating the fact that she was cowering in a room doing little to help Callum, Mallory looked about the room for something she could use as a weapon. Her gaze fell upon the only thing that was of use: a poker. Hefting it, she marched resolutely across the room, and eased the door open once more.

She cried aloud when she saw Callum in the doorway of the room opposite, being slammed bodily into the ground by a large, beefy man, whose pudgy fingers then curled tightly around Callum’s throat. Callum clawed at the man’s wrists but couldn’t dislodge him. Edward, meanwhile, was brawling with Will, who was doing his best to get Edward in a headlock. The men were so busy physically wrestling that they didn’t notice Mallory leave her bed chamber, or Sir Hugo leave his.

When she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, Mallory look at him. Sir Hugo put his finger to her lips and cocked his gun. He tried to take aim, but the men were moving around too much for him to be confident of taking a shot that wouldn’t hit his colleagues. For now, all he could do was watch them brawl, and hope the men from the Star Elite were better fighters.

Callum cursed when he clawed at the thick wrist but couldn’t get the man to let go of his neck. The heavy bulk of the man’s weight was enough to suck the life out of him without the cruel hold the man had on his throat. Callum tried to reach his knife in his boot but could not reach past the man’s girth. Instead, he was left to fumble in the man’s pocket. Thankfully, the man hadn’t been as clever as he thought he was and had left his gun in his pocket. While the thug was determinedly trying to strangle him, Callum slid the gun free of its confines and cocked it.

Thankfully, the grunts and curses of Will and his opponent fighting beside them blocked the sound of Callum’s gun. The beefy thug trying to strangle the life out of Callum didn’t even feel the steel press into the side of his head, he was so transfixed on claiming his victim’s life. Callum tightened his finger on the trigger and prayed that the gun was loaded.

The loud blast of gunfire immediately eased the pressure of the man’s hands off his throat leaving Callum free to breathe. Unfortunately, Callum was then stuck beneath the dead man’s bulk, vulnerable to Edward, who stepped forward and immediately kicked him in the head. All Callum could do was try to protect his head from Edward’s second boot.

Mallory watched Edward kick Callum and felt a fury that came from her soul overwhelm her. Without thinking, she lifted her poker and charged forward. The force with which she brought the iron rod down on Edward’s back was enough to make even Sir Hugo wince, but Mallory didn’t stop. She slammed the poker down on Edward over, and over, again until finally, she cracked him on the side of his head so hard that Edward had no choice but to stumble out of the way. Mallory kept hitting him, even when Edward fell to his knees and curled up to protect himself.

Callum launched to his feet. When Mallory would have hit him again, he caught the poker and gently took it off her.

“That’s enough,” he murmured. “You can’t kill him.”

It took Mallory a few moments to snap out of her horror and realise what she had been doing. In the time Mallory had been hitting Edward, Will had dispatched his opponent and had stepped closer, but hadn’t intervened. He knew that Mallory had been dealing with the trauma Edward had brought her.

“You know him, don’t you, Mallory?” Sir Hugo asked quietly from the doorway.