Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“I won’t hurt you,” Jasper promised.

“I don’t know him,” she confirmed.

Jasper nodded. “Just do as I tell you. I will keep you safe.”

Molly wanted to believe him, more than anything she needed to be able to believe him. She knew she couldn’t. This was London. He was part of the city, one of the people in the street who had just ignored her being dragged to her death. He was as much a stranger to her as the rest of them. There was no reason he would want to help her any more than those other people who had carefully looked away as though nothing untoward was happening.

“I won’t do it,” she protested.

“Don’t do anything rash,” Jasper warned.

Given the way her face had changed over the last few minutes, Jasper knew that this young woman wasn’t going to be easy to persuade to trust him. It was impossible to cajole her to come out by herself. There was no choice but to go in there after her. But when Jasper stepped toward her, she immediately stepped back. The horses shifted again in protest.

Molly ducked to try to avoid the crushing force of the heavy animals that had nearly suffocated her the last time they had slammed together in fear. It was when she was bent over at the waist that she saw a way out of her predicament. Before she could consider the wisdom of it, she immediately stood up and slapped the rumps of both horses before instantly throwing herself back onto the floor. Crouching low, she curled into a tight ball and began to pray.

Jasper cursed violently when the horses jostled and surged forward. He jumped to one side, only to be slammed forcefully out of the way by the heavy bulk of the horse closest to him as it stomped angrily down the street. Jasper staggered to his feet and glanced around for the woman. His heart raced wildly at the thought of her being caught beneath the wheels. The crowd suddenly shifted and gasped as the carriage rumbled into motion and revealed the young woman crouched on the floor.

Molly sensed the horses had gone and lifted her head. Her gaze fell immediately on the empty street ahead. Without even bothering to glance back at the onlookers, she shoved to her feet, lifted her skirt and ran. She ignored the startled cries and howls of protest from the people she left behind. Fear propelled her to keep running even when her lungs burned, and the streets began to fade into a shadowed darkness that began to whirl alarmingly. She sucked in as much air as she could, but it still didn’t seem to be enough because her body craved more. Her feet hurt from the uneven surface of the pot-holed streets she raced down, her sides hurt from the exertion of her flight, but nowhere near as much as her legs ached from running for so long.

“Go!” Callum snapped.

While Jasper sprang into action, Callum spun around and raced back down the street, but not toward the yard and his colleagues. He knew that if the woman turned right at the end of the road he could cut her off by using one of the many alleys on his side of the street and be waiting for her to pass him. Hopefully, Jasper would do the rest.

Jasper still charged after her. He didn’t bother to acknowledge the thug as he shoved him out of the way b

ut glanced back in time to watch the large man slam into the ground with a loud thump and a startled ‘oomph’ of surprise. With a grin, Jasper made good use of

his long legs, and turned his determined gaze on the young woman before him whose perilous fight with the man, the carriage horses, and now her own fear, were going to get her killed.

CHAPTER THREE

Molly had no idea how long she ran for or where she was going but refused to stop. Each pounding step she took fanned the flames of panic. She ran and ran even with nowhere in particular to go, but she still refused to stop or even allow herself to look back to see if anybody was bothering to chase her. Tears coursed down her cheeks making it impossible to see much of anything except for the large bank of water lying directly before her which snaked around the dead-end road.

Eventually, despite her reluctance to do so, Molly had to stop. When she did, she turned around. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw not one but three men racing toward her. Not only was the incredibly handsome man chasing her, but his friend – the man she had seen him talking to – was running down a side street to her right. Molly backstepped until her bottom hit the rail that ran along the length of the river.

“Don’t,” Jasper yelled when he saw her panicked glance over her shoulder. The currents of the Thames could be lethal and carry even a strong swimmer away within seconds. Someone as delicate as this young woman, encumbered by her skirts as she would be, would drown within minutes.

“Just stay still. I will not hurt you,” Jasper assured her.

He slowed to a walk even though he could hear the heavy thuds of the thug’s booted feet somewhere behind him. The man was bulky, though, and was heaving and gasping with the exertion of having to run so hard. Jasper had half expected him to give up and go away and select another victim. It was telling that he had persisted. It warned Jasper, a well-trained, very experienced member of the Star Elite, that the woman before him had a value to the thug. A very high value that the man was willing to pay.

Something within Jasper paused and even flinched when his gaze met that of the young woman’s again. There was a soulless look of desperation in the depths of her dark green eyes, set amidst what could only be described as a timeless beauty, that warned Jasper she was prepared to jump. Boldly, she tipped her chin up and stared defiantly at him, stoically, calmly challenging him to goad her.

“Don’t,” Jasper whispered, praying and hoping that he would be able to lure her with a hint of gentleness. Together, he and Callum crept closer, ever so slowly, step by painfully quiet step. “Just stay and talk to us. We can help you.”

“You can’t help me,” Molly whispered. Tears blurred her vision, but she hastily swiped them away because she daren’t allow herself to be rendered blind by them, not even for a second.

“Nobody is beyond help,” Callum warned.

“You can’t do anything,” Molly shouted. “You can’t stop him. Look, he is here.”

She pointed a shaking hand at the thug, who was leaning against the wall of a pub on the corner of the street. His chest was heaving, and he was bent over at the waist from the exertion of the last few moments, but he was still there, posing as much of a threat as he had when he had tried to drag her into the warehouse yard. With the presence of the two strong, agile, and determined men now edging closer to her, Molly knew she would need a fine miracle indeed if she had any hope of escaping all of them.

“I don’t believe in miracles,” she whispered. “They don’t happen.”

As she talked, her gaze flickered to the busy landscape on the opposite side of the river. The heavy cluster of buildings of all shapes and sizes seated beneath a heavy cloud of soot and smog nestled beside a large, wildly flowing river was shockingly claustrophobic enough; defeating enough that Molly knew she could spend the rest of her life searching it for Oscar and might never find him. Even if he was there, she had no idea which of those houses he might be in, or even if he was outside somewhere. She had spent the last several weeks looking for him but had so far not found even a hint of where he might be. He certainly hadn’t turned up at Uncle Barry’s old house, or was living on the streets in the area, as far as she could tell, or was staying even temporarily with any of Uncle Barry’s closest friends. The thought that Molly might never find her brother was as terrifying as it was overwhelmingly depressing.

“I am looking for a needle in a haystack,” she whispered, more to herself than to the men.