Mistaken Identity (Saved By Desire 3) (4 page)

“Jess,” Ben whined, but then leaned back when she pointed one long finger at him.

“I am telling you now that if you get yourself arrested, you are on your own. I will have no alternative but to sell up, and shall have to leave the area. If you are so selfish that you will not stop to consider the impact your crimes have on me, then I shall not stop to consider you when it comes to choosing somewhere else to live. For now, there are the vegetables to prepare for dinner so get busy. I don’t expect you to go anywhere until Lloyd has returned to speak with you. And get rid of those pheasants.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she didn’t stop to listen. She spun on her heel and left the room. Once inside her bedroom, she let the tears fall while she tried to decide what to do next.

Marcus ran until he felt as though his lungs were going to burst. He refused to surrender to the desperate need to rest. Instead, he lengthened his stride just that little bit more and forced himself to go faster. Being taller than his quarry gave him an advantage, and he wasn’t prepared to waste it. Every inch gained brought him closer to being able to capture the man racing through the woods ahead of him.

Minutes later, they came upon two tethered horses Marcus suspected had been tethered in the trees so the thieves could leave the area quickly. Sure enough, the man vaulted onto one and wheeled it around. Before he disappeared into the darkness, he untethered the second animal. He tried to slap it on the backside, but the horse danced away and continued to munch the bush it was eating instead.

“Damn it,” the man cursed when he realised Marcus was nearly upon him. Within seconds he vanished into the trees.

“Not while I have breath in my body,” Marcus ground out.

He jumped into the saddle of the second horse and fought with the startled beast for a few precious moments before it suddenly broke into a canter.

The stirrups were too short, so he had no purchase with his feet, but it was of little consequence to Marcus. Nothing mattered except being able to close the distance with the man up ahead.

“Where are you?” he gasped as he studied the path through the trees.

He had hoped that Joe would be somewhere nearby, and able to intercept the fugitive, but there was no sign of him. Had he been taken down by Rawdon Bamber, the man they had just caught stealing some very valuable jewels from the recently murdered Squire’s house?

“God, I hope not,” Marcus cursed, and swore again when a low-lying branch slapped him cruelly in the face.

Settling low in the saddle, he kicked his horse to go faster. He had no idea where he was now, but that didn’t matter. As long as the escapee didn’t vanish, or meet another contact, he and Joe could – and would – follow for as long as they needed to.

“Keep after him,” Joe called suddenly from behind him. “I will see if I can intercept him up ahead.”

“Hurry,” Marcus called after him.

With everybody else back at the Squire’s house, it was now down to him and Joe, to capture Bamber’s associate. He just hoped luck was on his side for once, and he could do so before they got too far away from Framley Meadows.

Now that the organisation had turned its attention to one of London’s most vile gangsters: Terence Sayers, Marcus’ life had been chaotic. Since the investigation had started many months ago, the Star Elite had rapidly learned that Sayers’ network of crime stretched far wider than they had first thought. Investigating his crimes so they could close the network down, and put Sayers before a judge, had rapidly turned into one of the hardest investigations they had ever tackled. It had not only thrown them practically every kind of crime it was possible to commit, but it was seemingly endless work. As soon as one crime was solved, three more were uncovered.

As a result, Marcus had spent the better part of six months racing up and down the country, chasing leads into the man’s seemingly vast network of criminals involved in all sorts of crimes.

“I just wish it weren't so fraught all the time,” Marcus grumbled.

He wiped moisture off his face and shook his head to clear his vision. He was exhausted yet refused to give up. No matter where this lead took him, he would adjust and do whatever was necessary to capture the thief. He would be a veritable treasure-trove of information the Star Elite desperately needed right now.

He just didn’t expect his attempts to capture this particular thief would take so long.

“Curses,” Marcus whispered several hours later.

Even when he yawned widely, he didn’t take his eyes off the man he had been following for what felt like his entire life. Having spent most of the night still in pursuit of the escapee, he was tired, hungry, and in desperate need to get off his horse so they could both rest for a while.

He had no idea what the time was now but was positive that dawn couldn’t be too far away. His head ached from trying to peer through the darkness for so long. His back was numb from the many hours in the hard, unrelenting saddle. The horse kept trying desperately to stop, which made his job as a rider even harder because he had to keep coaxing the animal to carry on.

“What the hell?” he muttered under his breath when he caught sight of a silver sparkle of water up ahead.

It wasn’t only the water that captured his attention. It was the cluster of rooftops alongside it which drew his horrified gaze. He had no idea which village it was, but that was insignificant given the dangers that could lie within the shadowed and unfamiliar streets. If the man lived in the village, he would undoubtedly know every nook and cranny, hiding hole and shadow anyone could hide in. That would give their quarry a distinct advantage, and potentially leave Marcus and Joe unable to find him again, especially since neither had seen the man’s face.

As yet, Marcus had only ever seen the back of him, so he had no idea what hair or eye colour he had. In a village the size of the one up ahead, it would be impossible to find someone he had only ever seen from the back, on a horse, shrouded by a voluminous cloak.

“The last thing we need is a blasted village,” he grunted.

Joe cursed and studied the area around them.

“I don’t know how much longer we can carry on,” he murmured. “These horses are exhausted.”

Marcus had to agree with him. He was weary as well. So tired, in fact, that it was difficult to stay upright in the saddle. The work of late had involved long, arduous hours, and the strain was starting to show on all of the men from the Star Elite.

“What the hell?” he growled as he frowned off into the distance, and tried to remember when he had last slept.

“What’s that?” Joe asked, tugging the hood of his cloak over his head to protect himself from the rain that had started to fall around them.

“I am just trying to remember when I last had a good night’s sleep.” He stared into space as he counted the number of nights it had been since had been at Jeb’s father’s house. “I can’t remember.”

“Neither can I,” Joe sighed.

“What do we do?” Marcus whispered.

The man, now several feet away, took a bend in the path that led to the village.

“It appears that our boy is heading home,” Joe murmured softly.

“Or he is going for a change of horses?” Marcus replied.

He wished he could ride up ahead, get the man off his horse, hand him over to the magistrate, and then go to sleep for a while.

“Smothey,” Joe murmured, nodding toward the small road sign nestled in the undergrowth beside them.

Marcus barely gave it a second look. His gaze remained on the man who had just turned into the yard of a small inn up ahead.

The village was deathly quiet. The only sound they could hear was the soft snicker of a horse in the stable yard. Was the thief waiting for them to ride past? Did he plan to try to ambush them?

Marcus checked his gun, and flicked his cloak back so that it was accessible should he need it. With a nod to Joe, they quickly dismounted and hurried on foot toward the tavern. Thankfully, the gates had been left open, which afforded them a good view of the interior without venturing too close.

Either the villagers are extremely trusting, or the tavern owner is expecting someone to arrive in the middle of the night,
Marcus noted thoughtfully.

He crossed the quiet street and buried himself in the shadows as close to the tavern entrance as he could get. His annoyance grew when he took a look inside the cobbled courtyard and found it empty.

“For the love of -” He listened for the sound of footsteps, but there were none.

Wondering if the man had decided to spend the night in a stable, Marcus swiftly crossed the road again. Before he got half way across, he caught sight of the flurry of movement at the far end of the street.

The man stopped still in the middle of the road and stared at him. Marcus wondered if he was taunting him. Before he could move, the man spun around and disappeared down a side street. Joe immediately left the shadows further down the road and went after him.

Marcus stopped only long enough to check the stables. As soon as he saw that the tavern yard was empty, and only horses lurked in the stables, he hurried after Joe.

It was a good half hour by the time he caught up with him, bent over at the waist, panting heavily on the far edge of the village. He knew from the look on his face that Joe had lost the man in the dense woods on the other side of the stream.

Without searching the undergrowth, there was nothing they could do unless they waited and hoped the man would reappear. He could, of course, go through the woods and come out on the other side. Neither man wanted to admit it, but they had effectively lost their target.

“I have no idea where we are,” Joe whispered. “I don’t know this area at all.”

“Neither do I. However, our man does. He knew these woods were here. He knew what would be at the end of this road, and it would give him the best place to hide.”

Joe had to agree with Marcus’ reasoning. If he had been in the man’s position, he would have done the same thing. Marcus would too, he knew it.

“Was there anyone out and about at the tavern?” Joe asked.

Marcus shook his head. “No. The entire village is as quiet as the graveyard.”

As if to prove his point, absolute silence settled about them.

“Someone is watching us,” Marcus whispered.

“You feel it too, do you?” Joe replied, his lips barely moving.

Was their quarry waiting for them to leave the area so that he could continue on his journey without them?

“Well, we have his mount. He abandoned it in the tavern yard,” Marcus whispered. “Unless he is up for a bit of horse theft, which is something we can arrest him for, he has to either try to get his horse back or take a long walk. Either way, he is doomed to failure.”

“If he is waiting -”

“Oh, but he is waiting,” Marcus drawled.

Now that the game had changed, all of his previous exhaustion had vanished in an instant. In its place was a ruthless determined not to give in. 

“What do you want to do?” As Joe spoke, he scoured the trees for signs of movement.

“It is, I think, an hour before dawn. We are going to find somewhere to hide, and will lie in wait. If our man doesn’t make an appearance, then it is safe to say that we have lost him,” Marcus replied. “However, we have to assume that he lives around these parts somewhere. For now, all we need to do is find out where.”

“He has the box on him,” Joe warned.

“I know,” Marcus replied. “So he has to meet someone to hand it over, doesn’t he? At some point, he has to come out of the undergrowth. When he does, we will be waiting.”

“How do we know that the woods are wide, but not very deep?” Joe asked with a frown.

“Because you are going to lie in wait for him here and I am going to go down the road. Then I will double back, take a good look at those woods, and see what is on the other side. If I see him, I will try to flush the bastard out.” He didn’t wait for his colleague to reply and stalked back toward the village. Within seconds he had vanished into the shadows.

Marcus set to work. Keeping to the shadows, he manoeuvred his way around a long row of houses which bordered the edge of the woods. He vaulted over a low stone wall and quietly made his way into the trees to begin his search.

It didn’t take long to find his quarry. Luckily, the man was walking steadily through the trees toward him. Marcus buried himself in the undergrowth and waited. Rather than approach, he eased closer and tried to get a good look at the man’s face. To his disgust, the tree cover thwarted him. It was too dark. With still no idea of whom the man was Marcus decided to follow to see where he went. He needed to know which house he occupied in the village because from the confident way the man strode through the undergrowth; there could be little doubt he was a resident.

“Now, where did you get those from?” he whispered, eyeing the dead rabbits slung over one shoulder. “How did you get those so quickly?”

Something wasn’t right. The cloak the man wore was the same. The build exactly right, but there was something wrong with this man only Marcus couldn’t decide what it was.

Why was he walking around in the middle of the night if he wasn’t their escapee, though? As soon as he had reached the village, why did he not lie low somewhere and wait until morning?

It was highly unlikely that there would be more than one man walking around a village like this in the middle of the night,
Marcus mused.

“It has to be him,” he breathed.

If it wasn’t the man he was after, why was he walking around in the middle of the night, using the woods as protection? It was certainly an unusual time to be hunting game.

Marcus watched the man stop, and take a careful look around. Once assured he was alone, the man resumed his journey. Minutes later, he disappeared into the back of a somewhat run-down house on the outskirts of the village.