by Rebecca King
Joshua folded his arms and smirked. “It depends on who I go and visit.” He slid an insolent, highly sexual look down the entire length of her and watched her cheeks bloom. “All sorts of men and women are awake at that time of night, you know. Albeit not in this village, or they shouldn’t be unless they are up to no good.”
His askance look warned Annalisa that he knew she had been up to no good.
“I struggle to sleep at night,” Annalisa murmured but immediately castigated herself for explaining anything she did in the privacy of her own home to him. “If you don’t want to make yourself look guilty, might I suggest that you are a little more cautious about what you do? I mean, how is going to look to any of the villagers if they see you wandering around in the middle of the night when most decent people are in their beds? Moreover, how it is going to look if you, a relative stranger in this area who arrived at the time the burglaries started, is seen wandering around on the night of a burglary?”
Joshua leaned closer and watched her lean backward. “You had better hope I am neither a burglar or a murderer, or you would be in an incredibly vulnerable position right now.”
Annalisa ignore the wild flurry of attraction that swept through her as she looked him in the eyes only to find her gaze drawn to just how long his eyelashes were.
It’s unfair for any man to have lashes that long.
When bracketing those deep whisky coloured eyes of his they were almost hypnotic. Annalisa certainly struggled to tear her gaze away, even when Joshua narrowed the distance between them. She remained frozen as she waited for that brief touch of his lips. When nothing happened, her heart began to pound. Doubts flooded her. She waited for a little while longer. Just when she felt certain their lips were going to touch, Joshua sucked in a breath and leaned away. He sighed heavily and nodded to the house.
“Are you going to go back inside then or what?”
“Or what?” Annalisa bit out, more than a little shaken at how disappointed she was that he hadn’t felt as compelled to kiss her as she had been to receive his kiss. It was a little humiliating to be fair and was a circumstance she resolved to ensure never happened again.
More than a little annoyed with him, Annalisa issued him with a baleful glare and didn’t even say goodbye to him before she entered her house, closed the door, and slammed the bolt across for good measure. She forced herself not to even look out of the kitchen window as she unpacked the contents of her basket onto the kitchen table before putting the basket away.
It was only when she entered the study several moments later that she realised something was amiss.
The burglar had struck again.
Annalisa stared in horror at the open window. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her gaze slid to the open drawers on the desk, half of which had been emptied. Papers littered every surface. It was clear that someone had searched the room in a hurry and hadn’t cared what damage they had caused to either the desk, or the contents of the rest of the room.
Annalisa glared at the room while she tried to decide what to do. Her first thoughts were that it wasn’t Joshua. He had been with her. But Billy hadn’t. Was his why he had come to ‘warn her’ again? Had he kept her talking outside while his gang had raided her house? She felt sick at the thought that someone had been into her home. An acute sense of vulnerability unlike any other swept over her. It left her feeling dizzy and slightly sick, unable to comprehend that she was no longer safe anywhere.
Before she could even backstep toward the door, Annalisa realised that her nightmare wasn’t over yet. A flurry of movement made her turn around, a cry of horror on her lips, but she didn’t get to utter a single whimper before something slammed painfully into the back of her head and she slumped to the floor.
Joshua stared at the now closed door and felt awful for having caused the disappointment he had seen in her eyes. While her face hadn’t changed, he knew she had been hurt by his refusal to kiss her. He hated having her at odds with him. She mattered to him, more than he cared to admit.
“What in the hell?” With a sigh, Joshua turned around to leave only for something to make him hesitate. He thought he had just heard a dull thud coming from inside the house.
“Annalisa?” Joshua knocked sharply on the door. “Annalisa?”
He moved around to the parlour window and peered inside but couldn’t see her. Curiously, he stepped back and looked up at her bed chamber window, but she wasn’t there either. His gut started to warn him that something was wrong. Cautiously, Joshua removed a knife from his boot and made his way around the house to the study. The second he laid eyes on the open window he knew exactly what had happened. He stared in horror and began to pray as he bolted toward the window and shoved his head into the room.
The sight that greeted him was one that he knew he would never forget. While he couldn’t see all of her, he knew Annalisa’s dress was pale lilac in colour, and that those booted feet he could see pointing to the ceiling were hers.
“Annalisa?” Before he entered the house, Joshua raced around to the safe house and bellowed for his colleagues. Retracing his steps seemed to take a lifetime, but by the time he had returned to the open window, Hamish and Dean were with him.
“Go on,” Dean urged Joshua when he hesitated at the window.
“She is hurt. Go and fetch a doctor,” Joshua growled before entering the house.
He almost dreaded looking at her because of what he might find. He had no idea what he was going to do if she had been murdered like Mr Smitherson. Thankfully, there was no knife sticking out of her back, but her unconsciousness was hardly reassuring. Even when he rolled her over, she didn’t twitch.
“She is still breathing,” Hamish growled. “Let’s get her into the parlour.”
Joshua barely heard him. All he could do was gather her into his arms and hold her as close to his heart as he could. He pressed his mouth against her temple and stared blankly at the wall while making a silent vow that he would catch whoever was responsible.
“Joshua.”
The impatience in Hamish’s voice was enough to jerk Joshua out of his reverie. He blinked at his colleague who waved an airy hand toward the hallway.
“Move her. Now.”
The order in Hamish’s voice was enough to force Joshua to look down at her in his arms. It was then that he noticed the small smear of darkness on the floor. He reached out to touch it but already knew what it was: blood.
“She is hurt,” he whispered, more to confirm the fact to himself than inform Hamish.
“Get her somewhere more comfortable. I need to check the house.” Hamish disappeared leaving Joshua to carry Annalisa into the parlour.
Once there, though, the chaise didn’t look all that inviting. In fact, it looked hard and uncomfortable.
“Let’s get you somewhere more comfortable,” he murmured, retracing his steps to the hallway.
Joshua lowered Annalisa onto a large bed in the bed chamber he had seen her sitting in. From his position he could see straight into the spare room in Mr Richardson’s house, but Joshua already knew that. Settling her onto the bed, he covered her over with a large blanket draped over the end of the bed before he turned his attention to checking her wounds.
“How is she?” Hamish asked moments later.
Joshua barely looked at him. He paused for a moment and clenched a fist to try to stop the shaking.
“She has been hit on the back of the head. There is a small gash that might need stitches. Who in the hell would do this to her?”
“She must have disturbed the thief.”
Joshua bit out a curse.
“At least he didn’t stab her like he did Mr Smitherson,” Hamish offered, but knew this was no comfort.
Joshua looked fiercely angry. So much so, Hamish was almost glad the thief was long gone. He didn’t relish being present when Joshua got his hands on whoever had attacked Annalisa, the woman whom he now knew Joshua cared about.
“It has to be Bi
lly,” Joshua whispered.
“Until she wakes up we don’t know what she has witnessed.”
“I just left her. How could he have done this to her and gotten out of the house without me seeing him?”
“You were at the back of the house, weren’t you? Look at how the intruder got in. He must have seen you and knew you would go to Mr Richardson’s house via the back when you went home. You wouldn’t see him if he went in through the study window.”
“The thief knows the layout of the house.” It wasn’t a question but Hamish nodded.
“Who, though?”
“Billy wasn’t responsible because he is in the trees being followed by Dean. However, there is nothing to say that one of Billy’s gang wouldn’t break in,” Hamish warned.
Joshua tried to contemplate that but couldn’t get his mind to work past the thought that he had been the one to practically force Annalisa into the house; the very last place she was safe.
“I should have come inside with her,” he whispered.
“You would have risked ruining her reputation,” Hamish warned. “What would her aunt think if she had caught you here alone with her niece?”
“I don’t give a damn what her aunt thinks. Look at her, Hamish. I told her to get inside where I thought she was safe.”
“Unless you did a perimeter search of the house, there was no way you could have known it wasn’t safe. I may be mistaken, but this is the first time the thief has struck in the daytime.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“We don’t really know. What we do know is that Annalisa must have interrupted the thief and got knocked unconscious so she couldn’t alert you to the fact that there was a problem. What we don’t know is if the thief got away with anything.”
Joshua puffed out his cheeks. In that moment, Roger appeared.
“Well, we know we have made our presence known to the culprit. It looks like our thief was deliberately avoiding us,” he murmured once he had seen the thief’s route into the house. “It’s the same cretin alright.”
“We have to keep watch on the whole house now,” Hamish growled.
“Well, he won’t come back now, will he?” Joshua snorted.
“We can’t be sure of that. He may want to come and finish what he started, especially if he suspects that Annalisa has seen him and can identify him,” Hamish warned.
Roger nodded at Annalisa. “What are her injuries?”
Joshua told him.
“It appears that our thief has thrown down the gauntlet, gentlemen. Are you up for the fight?” Roger asked his men, who had all gathered in the bed chamber.
“Of course we are. It is what we are here for, isn’t it?” Joshua snapped.
“I think it is time we set ourselves a little trap. It seems that Miss Carrington and her aunt are no longer safe in this house. Rather than have our thief silence her like he did Mr Julian, I think we need to move her and her aunt to the safe house for the time being. Joshua, you are to guard her. Hamish, you guard the aunt. But, make sure that nobody knows anything is amiss. I want a patrol in those woods making sure that nobody is watching the house. Anybody who tries is to be arrested immediately and taken to gaol, do you understand?”
Everyone nodded, their faces grim.
“I think we should accept the killer’s challenge and throw him one or two of our own. Now, where is that aunt of Annalisa’s?”
Joshua told him.
“Hamish, you wait here for Yvette to return and then get her to pack up and move next door. Joshua, take Annalisa next door and call off the doctor. Yvette can pack what Annalisa might need. Before either woman is moved, I want men in those woods. Make sure nobody is around to see us moving the women. Joshua, once Annalisa is settled, go into the village and flash the money around,” Roger ordered.
Joshua hesitated.
“All right. Hamish, you do it once Yvette is moved,” Roger corrected when he saw the objection on Joshua’s face together with the possessive hold he had on the young woman on the bed.
Inwardly, he was delighted that Joshua had found Annalisa because it increased the odds that Joshua would want to stay in the area when the investigation was over. That made Annalisa considerably valuable, but it had nothing to do with the Star Elite’s investigation.
This was personal because Annalisa was now effectively one of the Star Elite and had to be protected at all costs.
CHAPTER NINE
Annalisa fought a heavy ache in her head and forced herself to open her eyes. She gasped when she realised she was in a masculine room that was horribly unfamiliar. Panic overwhelmed her. It rose out of nowhere, like a seething dragon waiting to breathe fire and turn her to ash. It stole all her logic and propelled her to try to sit upright regardless of how she felt.
“Thank goodness you are awake,” Joshua murmured with heartfelt relief.
Annalisa jerked and immediately winced when she was met with a shaft of pain which snapped down her spine and made her flop back down again.
“What happened?” she whispered.
Joshua looked so incredibly handsome sitting beside the bed that all Annalisa could do was stare at him. The first thing that struck her was that he looked exhausted. He was paler than she could remember with dark circles beneath his eyes and a faint trace of stubble on his chin. In addition, he looked incredibly angry. So much so, a muscle ticked steadily in his jaw, which she suspected was clamped shut to stop him saying what he really wanted to say.
“Where am I?”
“In Mr Richardson’s house.” Joshua sat on the side of the bed slowly so he didn’t jostle her. “How is your head?”
“Sore, otherwise I am fine. Why am I here? I thought-” She tried to grab a faint memory of something important but it hovered just out of reach, teasing her with shadows and dancing shapes none of which made any sense.
“Can you remember what happened?”
“I can remember talking to Billy in the garden and then you on the doorstep.”
“Nothing after that.” It wasn’t a question.
Annalisa shook her head. “Why? What happened? What’s wrong with me?”
When Annalisa tried to push her fingers into the hair at the base of her neck, Joshua stopped her.
“Where is my aunt?”
“She is on her way. Hamish has gone to fetch her. She must stay here with you for the time being. I am afraid that neither of you can go home.”
“What’s going on, Joshua?”
Joshua picked her hand up and cradled it between his while he tried to find the words that would tell her but not scare the living daylights out of her. Word by word, he felt her tense until all he could see when he did look her in the eye was fear. A bone deep, icy, horrifying fear.
“I am sorry, Annalisa. All I can say is that you came far too close to having your life ended for us to take the risk of leaving you at your house. You are under armed guard here. Nobody will be able to get to you now. You have no choice but to stay here. Your aunt will have to stay as well, although there is no reason to suspect the thief would be interested in trying to attack the house again seeing as he didn’t find anything of much value. However, we cannot just assume anything. People like this thief generally don’t live by the same rules as everyone else, or else he wouldn’t be committing crimes and thinking he can escape justice.”
“Joshua, why us? The thief hasn’t ever struck two houses next door to each other before,” Annalisa whispered.
“We think the burglars might be Billy and his gang. They are the only group around here we know of who work together. It seems that Billy made sure you were distracted long enough for his friends to get into your house. Unfortunately, you returned home in time to catch one of the gang in the study and he knocked you out.”
“That’s right, I remember now,” Annalisa breathed. “I heard movement behind me but barely turned around when I got knocked out.”
“You were lucky you weren’t stabbed,” Joshua muttered.
He was so shaken by just how close Annalisa had been to becoming another murder victim that Joshua just had to gather her into his arms. It was wholly reassuring that Annalisa immediately slid an arm around his waist and settled against his side as if she was meant to be there. Together, they sat in silence and exchanged the comfort only being together could bring.
“Roger is trying to arrange for more men to help arrest Billy and his gang. Once they are behind bars, we will interrogate them and find out who is responsible for what happened to you.”
“What if it isn’t them?” Annalisa whispered. “What if it is one of the villagers?”
“Did you see who it was?” Joshua forced himself to remain relaxed while he waited for Annalisa to answer.
Annalisa contemplated what she could remember. She forced her mind to clear and remember as much as possible of what happened. It was there, she was sure of it, the hazy memory of who it had been standing behind the door. Slowly but surely, she coaxed it forward until she began to piece together what happened.
“He was behind the door,” she whispered.
“It was a man.” Joshua forced himself to keep his voice low. He didn’t want to disturb her and stop her forgetting something important.
“Yes. He was behind the door in the study. I went into the room and stood before the desk. I knew what had happened when I saw the window. There were papers everywhere, but nothing of any value is kept in that desk, so I know nothing was stolen.”
“What about money?” Joshua asked.
“It’s always kept in a small safe my aunt has in the back of the pantry. We never keep money in the drawers. Whoever broke in got nothing. I won’t know for definite without checking the rest of the house, or the safe, though.”
“I can do that,” Joshua assured her. “I have wandered around the house but there is nothing obviously missing. Your aunt should be able to confirm it for us. Don’t worry about it.”
