Cold Comfort (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 5)

“Someone helpfully left her here for us to find. She has been killed recently as well.” Rhys lowered his head respectfully for a moment before he pushed to his feet and entered the room. “I don’t care what you think, Oliver, we need to move on Smidgley as soon as he goes to the Red Lion.”

“At least we have a couple of days to plan,” Harry replied.

“Give me a hand with her. We can put her in the barn for now,” Oliver murmured.

Harry dutifully helped Oliver carry the young woman into the barn whereupon the men set her down on the floor of the massive space and covered her over with a blanket. They then took a moment to contemplate the corpse at their feet before Harry broke the somewhat thoughtful silence.

“Are they warning us that they will kill all the victims if we keep probing? Or are they warning us that this could be us?”

“I think they are warning us that they can kill anybody they choose whenever they want. They may be sending a warning to Emmeline in that she can be snatched and killed just as easily. We have, after all, snatched two of their men and their carriage. In retaliation, one of the women they have already kidnapped winds up dead only this time is delivered to our door,” Oliver whispered in deference to anybody who might have stayed around to watch the Star Elite’s reaction.

“One thing is certain; we are going to have to make sure we are careful when we move base,” Harry warned quietly.

Oliver nodded. Carefully, he removed the blanket from the dead woman’s neck and studied the ligature marks covering the pale flesh of her throat.

“God, he likes strangling, doesn’t he?”

“Which one?” Harry asked dryly. “It could be either one of them who is killing them.”

“Or one of the thugs they employ.” Oliver covered the body over again. “Any ideas which one she is?”

“Not without looking at the files again. I am sure she is one of them but has been killed by Smidgley to prove a point to us, not because of anything she has done.”

“Time is ticking,” Oliver warned. “The longer we wait to put our plan into action the more women are likely to die at Smidgley’s hands, whichever one is the killer.”

Harry nodded. When he looked up, his gaze met Oliver’s. “Emmeline has to come with us.”

Oliver nodded. He had absolutely no intention of ever allowing Emmeline to stay anywhere unprotected. While the men didn’t have the manpower to guard her all the time, they could do everything possible to ensure that she stayed hidden while they worked to get the Smidgleys off the streets.

“She has to vanish too, I agree,” Oliver whispered.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Do you want to tell her or shall I?”

“I will.”

Together, the men set off for the house. Oliver didn’t need to look for Emmeline. When he entered the kitchen, she was standing before the fireplace with a worried frown on her brow.

“Is she one of the kidnap victims?”

Oliver nodded. He could see no reason to lie to her.

Emmeline closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down. She felt sick with fear at the thought that the killer had been so very close to her while she had been asleep. The thought of what might have happened to her if she had been successfully snatched from her house yesterday was enough to make her want to race across the room and launch herself at the safety of Oliver’s arms. But Emmeline couldn’t get her shaking knees to move so had to slump into the chair beside the fireplace instead.

“I need a word with you, Emmeline.”

Emmeline’s stomach dipped further when she looked up and met Oliver’s solemn gaze. She suspected that he intended to tell her he would drop her off at home before he put his plans to capture one of the Smidgley brothers into action. Emmeline glanced wildly around the kitchen in search of something she could use as a diversion. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. What she found herself doing, though, was dutifully standing up and following him into the parlour.

“We don’t have much time. We are going to move, so as quickly as you can go upstairs and pack your things. We aren’t coming back here so make sure you take all your possessions. Then put on something dark, and a cloak if you have brought one with you. If you haven’t got a cloak with you then I will lend you one, but make sure your hair is covered. We are going to get the horses ready and will be ready to leave in about ten minutes.” Oliver kept his voice low, but it lost none of its urgency.

“You aren’t dropping me off at home then?”

Oliver tutted and sighed. “No, Emmeline. We are not going to leave you at home, or anywhere else for that matter.”

Emmeline nodded, hugely relieved that they didn’t intend to abandon her. She wanted to ask so many questions that she hesitated, but suspected that Oliver wouldn’t answer them even if she tried asking him. Still, something compelled her to stay in the room with him.

His handsome face was stern, his shoulders rigidly tense. Emmeline wondered if she had imagined the kiss they had shared yesterday. The Oliver standing before her now was so far removed from the man who had been so loving that she had to question just how many sides there were to him. The man before her now was, she didn’t doubt, the hardened warrior who fought so valiantly for the Star Elite and his colleagues. This was the fighter who would do whatever it took to ensure his investigation came to fruition and his target was vanquished. He was, without question, good at his job but that was also worrying because there was absolutely no trace of the gentle, loving man she had met oh, so very briefly. He had disappeared just as swiftly and effortlessly as he had planned to make the Smidgleys disappear. Emmeline had to contemplate if it was at all possible to ever get the old Oliver back; her Oliver, the kind, thoughtful, gentle and loving Oliver who was as attracted to her as she was to him.

God, I hope so.