Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite Book 4) Read online

  “I have lost my bag,” she whispered. It had only been small, and hadn’t contained very much at all, but the odd coin or two that were inside it were precious to her. She couldn’t afford to lose a single penny if she had any hope of surviving this terrifying life she lived.

  “Did you have your house key in it?” Jasper asked. “We can still get you in to your house if you have lost your key.”

  Molly frowned at him. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to get back into the tiny room she had managed to find in the hovel of a lodging house. It was dank, decrepit, and the most miserable place she had ever seen in her life, but it was all she could afford.

  Jasper saw the reticence in her eye and knew she still didn’t trust them.

  “You two need to get out of here,” Oliver growled.

  “Did you find him?” Jasper asked Oliver. Their gazes met. Oliver slowly shook his head.

  “Kieran and Niall are looking. He slunk off just as soon as you hit the water.”

  Jasper looked back at the woman in his arms. His gut warned him that she could be trusted. Not only had her behaviour been about as innocent as it could be, but there was no secrecy in her direct gaze, or hesitancy in her declarations that she knew nothing of the man who had chased her thus far. As yet, nobody had any idea what the man wanted with her, but Jasper knew he was more than just an opportunist thug.

  “Let’s get you two out of here. If you sit here any longer you are going to be frozen to the spot.” Oliver helped Molly to her feet.

  The reluctance that slammed into Jasper when he was forced to release her was enough to leave him staring thoughtfully the carriage waiting to take them to safety. He wanted nothing more than to sweep her into its warmth, but he didn’t have the energy to. Instead, he followed closely behind Oliver, who guided her into the warm confines of their transportation.

  “Tell me who you are,” Jasper began as the carriage lurched into motion.

  “I have already told you,” she replied.

  “Molly what?”

  “Molly Egerton.” Given the number of people who inhabited London, Molly didn’t think he would be able to locate her again if he proved untrustworthy. After all, she didn’t actually originate from London.

  Nobody knows where I am.

  That thought brought forth another wave of isolation within Molly that was unsettling. She almost wished she was back on the riverbank with him, wrapped securely in his arms once more. It stopped her from thinking too much. She felt instead. Felt his warm arms. Felt his comforting embrace. Felt the protection of someone who was stronger and considerably more capable than she could ever be. Felt the security of knowing she had someone with her who gave a damn.

  “Egerton. My name is Molly Egerton,” she told him.

  “Where do you live?”

  “Why?” She squinted suspiciously at him.

  “Because the coachman needs to know where to take us,” Jasper reminded her.

  Once again, Molly felt foolish. Her cheeks flooded with colour. Her mind raced, but she couldn’t see any alternative but to tell him the truth. There was little likelihood he would leave her by the side of the road close to her lodgings even if she insisted, but the thought of him knowing just how dire her current situation was made her acutely embarrassed.

  “Camden,” she whispered.

  “Where in Camden?”

  “Crawley Road.”

  Jasper knew then that she was in dire straits if she lived in one of the most impoverished areas of London. The cramped housing there was barely fit for habitation.

  “God in Hell,” he whispered, shaken at the thought of someone like her living in such a God awful place.

  Molly’s discomfort increased at the disgust in his voice. Deep inside, a small prick of indignation began to build but she could understand his sentiments. They echoed her own because when she had first set eyes on the only dwelling she was able to afford she had been filled with disgust as well. The alternative had been to face life on the streets, though, and that was something she couldn’t do, not until she absolutely had to.

  Suddenly, a loud cry from outside the carriage shattered the silence. Men raced past the window when a loud bang made it shake. Molly flinched and tried to curl instinctively against Jasper, but he had already stuck his head out of the window and was giving the driver an address that Molly didn’t recognise. When he resumed his seat, he slid a protective arm along the back of her seat.

  “Where are we going?” Molly asked when she became aware that they were not heading to Camden, but toward the opposite end of the city instead.

  “You have to come with us,” Jasper replied absently.

  Molly froze. Briefly, she felt incredibly disappointed, in herself for being foolish enough to trust this man, and in him for not being as trustworthy as she had believed him to be.

  “I am not coming with you,” she whispered.

  “You have to,” Jasper replied firmly in a tone that didn’t invite argument.

  Molly looked down at their legs pressed shockingly close together, as was the rest of them. Immediately, she sat upright, put a little distance between them and straightened her sodden skirt. That inch or so gap was enough to make her shiver once more, but she refused to allow the tiny space to be bridged again.

  Jasper looked at her and mentally cursed when he saw the way she was now studying the handle of the door beside her.

  “Jump out of this carriage and I will damned well tie you up,” he bit out.

  “Who are you?” she whispered.

  “I am someone you can trust. I am trying to protect you, if you stop throwing yourself into danger long enough to work it out,” Jasper snapped. “Or didn’t you notice the way I came into that raging river to fetch you?”

  “Of course I did,” Molly retorted. “I was there, remember?”

  “Well, maybe you should consider that before you start to look for another way to get yourself killed,” Jasper replied sharply.

  “I haven’t done anything,” Molly protested.

  “You were going to.” Jasper threw her a dark look.

  Molly’s brows shot skyward. “How do you know?”

  “I know,” Jasper grumbled. “Do you deny it?”

  Molly couldn’t, because she had been considering how to jump out of the carriage once it slowed down a little. It wasn’t going all that fast, but unfortunately even that was too quickly for her to jump down while it was still in motion. If she tried it, even at the relatively slow pace they were going, there was a chance she would fall beneath the large wheels.

  The next time I might not be so lucky, she mused. It was enough to make her settle back in her seat.

  “Who are you? You expect me to tell you who I am and where I live, but you are not willing to answer my questions. Why is that?” She studied him but found herself working hard to keep all trace of emotion from her face while she waited for him to answer. Whenever he looked at her in that deeply thoughtful way of his she suspected he could see right into her soul. It was as disconcerting as the wild fluttery feeling of anticipation that swept through her whenever their gazes met.

  “I will explain more when we get to where we are going. For now, just sit back and try to keep warm,” Jasper advised.

  He studied her pale features in the darkness of the carriage. She was soaked, frozen, quite clearly terrified, but was so vitally alive that she was simply breath taking. He had never met anybody like her before. No woman had ever had this effect on him while doing so little. In such circumstances, he should never be experiencing the kind of thoughts he was having about her, or about them as a couple for that matter. But he was. He just couldn’t understand why now, or why her. Why today of all days, especially given the circumstances she presented him with. Miss Molly Egerton was, by far, the very last bundle of feminine trouble he needed in his life right now, but she was blasted her way into his existence, completely unexpectedly, and had thrown his entire world into chaos if she but knew it.
r />   Which she doesn’t and hopefully never will.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Oscar!”

  Jasper jerked when Molly practically threw herself out of the still moving carriage. He stared blankly at the empty doorway for a moment before he launched himself after her swearing bitterly. When he hit the pavement, he was just in time to see her darting around the other pedestrians on the street after a young boy with dark hair.

  “Wait! Molly, wait!”

  But she didn’t stop. Jasper lengthened his stride, his gaze pinned on his quarry.

  Molly heard him but couldn’t, wouldn’t, daren’t take her gaze off Oscar.

  “Oscar! Wait!”

  Molly was seething that her younger brother wasn’t going to stop, if only to have a quick word with her. Yet, another deeper part of her fully understood his determination not to return to Edith’s.

  “Wait,” she wailed pitifully when she felt the last of her waning strength leave her.

  She had no choice but to slow to a stumbling walk, and her determination vanished completely when she watched Oscar dart around a corner of a building and disappear into an inky blackness that was completely devoid of light.

  “God, I hate you right now,” she whispered as she fell slowly to her knees in the middle of the pavement. Molly physically shook from head to toe so violently that she thought she was going to throw up. All she could do was stay on her knees, with her gaze locked on the spot she had last seen her brother, and suck in as much air as her starved lungs wanted.

  “What in the Hell do you think you are doing?” Jasper yelled when he eventually reached her.

  For a second, he had truly believed he had lost her, until he had rounded the corner and recognised the sodden bundle of clothing now hunched on the floor. His heart had jerked violently in his chest as he had contemplated what could have happened to her in even a short space of time on London’s streets without him. For those few brief moments that he had truly believed she had left him, Jasper had felt an inner misery the likes of which he knew he should never feel for someone he barely knew. It was a stark warning that Miss Molly Egerton posed more of a risk to him than anybody or any situation he had ever faced before in his life, and he would be a fool to encourage her further. If only he knew of a way to stop himself having these deep feelings of possessiveness for her, Jasper knew everything would be all right. Unfortunately, it was damned hard to do given she kept getting herself into trouble and proved that she needed him.

  “Damn you,” he growled when he reached her.

  Jasper was oblivious to anything other than his anger, at himself, at her, at the ludicrous way she kept putting herself in danger. He was ignorant of everything but the fact that he had found her again and felt nothing more than a profound relief that made him incredibly angry.

  Hauling her onto her feet, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her once, very firmly.

  “Just what in the Hell do you think you are doing?” he snapped. “Do you have any idea what danger you are in right now?”

  He knew because while Molly’s home might be in one of the disreputable areas of London, she was now standing in the most dangerous. It would be a miracle if they managed to get out of the street they were in alive.

  Molly opened her mouth to answer him, but she didn’t get the chance to say a word before Jasper hauled her away from the shadowed street and back into the well-lit main street several feet away. The stilted silence between them was fraught with tension, but all Molly could think was that her brother was in that impenetrable, menacing darkness, all alone.

  “Oscar,” she screamed.

  Jasper yanked her around until she faced him. While they weren’t as safe as he wanted them to be, they were at least in an area where they could see each other.

  “Who is Oscar?” Jasper demanded. “Is he your lover? Your husband? Your boyfriend? Who? Answer me, damn it!”

  “He-” Molly shook her head, torn between the need to tell him and her determination to keep Jasper out of Oscar’s troubles. She had brought him enough problems already.

  “Are you married?” Jasper persisted, shaking her roughly when she didn’t immediately tell him. He knew he was being harsh on her but jealousy had taken hold of his common sense. He doubted the young boy she had chased had been any older than fourteen. It was highly unlikely he was anything more than family, but Jasper was getting annoyed at her reluctance to tell him anything about herself. He, meanwhile, was having his emotions, his entire life, turned upside down.

  “No.” Molly gasped.

  “Is he your boyfriend?” Jasper persisted.

  “No. He-” Molly got no further before Jasper hauled her into his arms. She slammed against him with an ‘oomph’ of surprise but couldn’t form any objection before his lips settled over hers.

  The shock of that first touch was enough to render her helpless. She lifted her hands to his chest to object, but once her fingers touched the warmth beneath the fine material of his still sodden shirt she couldn’t find the will to put any distance between them. It would have been impossible should she have tried because his arms had wrapped fiercely around her and held her firmly against him until not an inch of space could be found.

  Passion roared to life. It immediately ensnared them to the point that neither could pull away. Jasper lost all sense of where they were. The street they were in, and the dangers it posed seemed to lose significance standing as they were so intimately embracing. It was shocking that he should ever do such a thing when their lives were in danger. It was foolish, and about the most unprofessional thing he could have ever chosen to do because he had no idea who was creeping up on them. The need to kiss her had been so instinctive, though, that he hadn’t given a second thought to the wisdom of it.

  When he slid a palm into her hair to deepen the smooth glide of their lips, and he felt the icy chill of those wet strands, Jasper gradually became aware of just how cold she was.

  “Jasper.”

  That voice put paid to the special moment of unity and he had no choice but to lift his head to look down into the slumberous, somewhat dazed gaze of the woman pressed so intimately against him.

  “I am not going to apologise for that,” he ground out in a voice that was husky with desire.

  Before she could object, Jasper lifted her off her feet and stalked toward Oliver, who was now seated atop the Star Elite’s carriage several feet away.

  “Just what in the Hell are you doing here? What’s going on?” he demanded when Jasper reached them.

  “Just who is Oscar?” Jasper asked of Molly. He wanted to put her down, not least because he was struggling to gather the energy to keep holding her and remain upright himself, but he daren’t just in case she took flight again.

  “M-my brother,” Molly whispered. “He is eleven. He has run away. He ran here. I saw him from the carriage just how. It was him, I know it was, but he wouldn’t stop to talk to me.”

  Jasper stared at her in disbelief. He looked at Oliver, who was frowning thoughtfully at Rigley Row, the most dangerous street in London.

  “What connection do you have with Rigley Row?” Oliver asked suspiciously.

  “None,” Molly replied. “My now deceased uncle used to live around here when he was alive. I just don’t know why Oscar is here.”

  “Oscar.” Jasper went even colder. “Where do you hail from originally then?”

  Somewhere deep within the answer was already building, surging forth with a certainty that was shocking to both Jasper and Oliver, who looked at each other in disbelief.

  “Leicestershire,” they all said together.

  Molly jerked and looked at them in astonishment.

  “How do you know?” she asked warily.

  Jasper sighed. “We thought your brother had been kidnapped. His disappearance was reported to the magistrate on the day of his disappearance.”

  “Have I been reported missing?” Molly asked weakly.

  Jasper looked at Oliver who shoo
k his head.

  “Have you runaway as well?” Jasper asked, horrified at the thought that she might be that young.

  Molly hesitated. In a way she had, but daren’t tell him that. “My aunt reported Oliver’s disappearance but not mine?”

  “It looks that way,” Oliver replied.

  Molly wondered if it was because Mrs Taunton had seen her leave with a bag. Even so, she had to wonder why Edith hadn’t reported her departure to the magistrate.

  “He was reported missing several weeks ago,” Jasper whispered.

  Molly looked at him. “It isn’t like him to do anything like this. He isn’t the kind of boy to run away.”

  “Why did he then? How do you know he wasn’t kidnapped?” Jasper challenged.

  He knew there was a wealth of information she wasn’t telling either of them right now. He wanted to demand she talk, preferably while she was willing to and before she ran away again. When the shadows in Rigley Row began to move, though, both he and Oliver knew it was time to leave.

  “You have to come with us,” Oliver informed her.

  “Who are you?” Molly demanded. “I am not going anywhere with you until you tell me who you are.”

  “All you need to know is that we are the people looking for the kidnap victims who have been taken from Leicestershire and Derbyshire,” Jasper stated calmly but firmly. “Now get into the carriage and don’t bloody try to run away again.”

  His voice was so rife with disgust that Oliver grinned momentarily before he turned to watch the Rigley Row shadows creep ever closer.

  “Hurry up,” Oliver grumbled when Jasper yanked the door open, but Molly made no attempt to climb aboard. “You are coming with us if I have to arrest you.”

  Molly gasped and looked at him.

  Oliver quietly slid his cloak to one side, so she – and the Rigley Row thugs - could see the gun strapped to his hip.

  “I will use it if I have to,” he warned loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  Molly’s gaze turned to Jasper. It was evident that he wasn’t armed, but she suspected he was no less dangerous.

  The affect this man had on her emotions was enough to drive her out of her mind. She had never felt so overwhelmed, so emotive, being close to anybody before.