For Love Alone (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 8)

‘It’s her.’ His voice was gruff. While his hand was gentle the nudge that he gave her shoulder wasn’t.

Carlotta gasped in shock when something pushed roughly against her shoulder. She looked up and immediately cowered away from the large man towering over her. It took her several moments for her exhaustion fogged mind to realise that it was Phillip.

‘Get up,’ he growled. Without giving her the chance to move, he grabbed her by the cloak and hauled her to her feet. ‘Move.’

Carlotta stumbled because he pushed her again before she could find her balance. She staggered forward and was stopped from having a nasty fall by the man she had been told was called Justin. Clinging to him, she looked back at Phillip only to gasp when a large wave slammed into the spot where she had been sleeping. Phillip barely had the chance to jump out of the way and got soaked by the retreating ocean.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked quietly when Phillip had clambered over the rocks to join them.

Phillip glared accusingly at her. ‘I could ask you the same thing. I do believe I left you in the sodding safe house,’ he growled. ‘Do you have any bloody idea how worried we have been about you?’

Without giving her the chance to answer, he grabbed her wrist and tugged her toward the perilous cliff path. ‘Stay close to the cliff face and use the foliage to pull yourself up. It’s treacherous because the stones are wet. We must get off this sodding beach before we all get swept away. You are bloody lucky the stones didn’t drop you onto the damned rocks at the base of this cliff so you could get carried out to sea.’

Phillip was shaking because of how close he had come to being swept out to sea again. He struggled to control his fury that it might have happened to Carlotta. The thought of it was enough to make him want to punch something. Instead, he retreated behind a cold wall of stoic silence and growled: ‘Move,’ in her direction.

‘I did make the trip down here, you know,’ she snapped, with a dark glare. ‘I know how slippery it is.’

‘You go first.’ Justin waved her up the cliff path before him. He too dodged out of the way when a wave crashed and splashed toward him.

Carlotta, glad to have someone between her and Phillip’s temper, hurriedly climbed the cliff path. Her boots were woefully inadequate for the climb; their lack of grip caused her to slip several times. It was only the men behind her who stopped her from falling to her death. Eventually, she reached the top only to find herself swung off her feet and unceremoniously carried into the house. All Carlotta could do was cling miserably to him and try to think of something to say.

Kicking the kitchen door closed, Phillip lowered her to her feet. Thankfully, his colleagues had decided to find other things to do, giving him time to have a private word with her. ‘I think we need to be honest with each other now, Carlotta,’ he began, his voice nothing more than a husky growl.

‘I have been honest with you. It is a shame that you chose not to be honest with me,’ she retorted.

‘I have.’

‘Have you?’ she challenged.

‘I have made you no promises,’ he snapped.

‘I know.’ Carlotta struggled to contain the urge to cry. ‘I didn’t ask for your help.’

‘I know. But you should consider the situation you have put me in. I work for the War Office. The Star Elite. We have a duty to protect people we know are in trouble or being threatened. I know there is a problem with your father. What I want to know is if you have been honest with me about what’s wrong between you and him.’

Carlotta’s stomach lurched. She immediately forced aside all memories of that day but when it came to reply to him, she couldn’t bring herself to meet his steady stare. ‘I have told you the situation with my father.’

‘There is nothing else?’ Phillip knew she was lying to him from the careful way she avoided his gaze. Stepping closer, he tipped her chin up and forced her to look at him. ‘Tell me.’ It wasn’t until he touched her that he realised just how cold she was, but he didn’t allow her to move. ‘Tell me.’ This time, his voice was far harder; unyielding even. ‘I cannot help you if you do not tell me what is wrong.’

‘What do you know about the law?’ she began. ‘How the law stands regarding young ladies like me?’

‘In what sense? Have you robbed someone? Stolen something? Murdered someone?’ Phillip challenged.

Before she could reply, he captured her hand and tugged her toward the study. Once there, he closed the door and lit the fire before taking a seat opposite her. He braced his elbows on his knees and stared at her.

‘Tell me the truth, Carlotta. Have you stolen something? Murdered someone?’

Carlotta mentally winced. ‘No.’

Phillip allowed a heavy silence to settle between them. He knew it was making her uncomfortable because she sighed, looked at the fire, then sighed once again.

‘How long have you worked for the Star Elite?’ she asked eventually.

‘I joined the army and fought in the war. We all did. When the war ended, we joined the Star Elite and started to fight criminals in the country but on a larger scale.’

‘Like the gang of kidnappers,’ Carlotta whispered.

‘Yes. It is what we do, Carlotta. The men we fight work in large gangs, are often violent and have no respect for the law, or law-abiding citizens in this country. Our work is dangerous, requires us to wor