Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

Jasper frowned when he saw her lips move as she talked to herself, but he wasn’t close enough to hear what she had said. He had to wonder if she was in her right mind or so overset by something that she was nonsensical. Given what had just happened to her, fear was understandable. Jasper contemplated what to do. He was helpless to try to find a way to get her to trust him. He looked at Callum who infinitesimally shook his head as if to say he had no idea what to do about her either.

“What is your name?” Jasper murmured gently.

Molly turned her gaze back to him. Her eyes widened when she realised just how close he was. Something deep within her yearned to be able to lean her head against that broad shoulder of his and simply be – if only briefly - so she could regain her strength.

“Molly,” she replied. Her voice was dull with the weight of her defeat. She had no idea why she told him. The words were out before she could prevent them.

“My name is Jasper.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she whispered with a frown of distrust.

“Because I want you to listen to me, Molly. I was in the yard that thug tried to drag you into. Do you know him?”

Molly shook her head.

“Has he asked you for money or possessions? Things you own?” He had no idea if she was compos mentis enough to be able to understand him. Privately, the thought that if someone as beautiful as her was nonsensical, and fit for an asylum, it was a bloody painful waste of human life. So much so, he wanted to howl with rage against it. But he couldn’t do that. What he did instead was force himself to soften his stance.

“No,” Molly replied.

“Have you met him before? Is he a lover?” Jasper persisted. He wanted to know, so he had some idea of what to arrest the blackguard for.

He watched Molly’s eyes widen at the suggestion she might have an illicit liaison. If only temporarily, she had such an outraged look on her face that he wondered if she was going to stop forward and slap him, and he knew then that she was a genteel lady, not a woman of the streets.

Thank God for small mercies.

What he suspected was that someone as gorgeous as the young woman before him would become a lady of the streets if he didn’t get her to safety before the vulture circling behind him had his way.

“No. He is not my lover, and I am offended you should think I had one,” she replied dourly.

Molly inadvertently realised she had started to relax when she found herself slumping against the iron railing behind her. Immediately, she jerked back upright again, her spine rigidly determined. She scowled at the handsome rogue and forced herself to harden her heart against the irresistible lure of the gentleness in his voice.

“Do you know him?”

“I have told you already. No.”

“Did he tell you why he was trying to get you into the warehouse? Did he make any suggestions of any kind? I know I have asked you before but I want you to think carefully about what happened. You were struggling with him and upset at the time. There might have been something you missed,” Jasper phrased his question delicately in case he triggered her fear again and made her do something foolish, like jump into the river. He knew she was contemplating it given the way she kept looking over her shoulder at it, as though privately judging if she should jump, how she should jump, and how she was going to get to where she needed to go if she went in.

“I can promise you that if you go in there you will be dead within a few minutes. There is no way out of that raging tide. It will carry you right out to sea,” Jasper warned.

He mentally prayed that he wouldn’t have to go in there after her, not least because it was bloody cold at the best of times, and full of all sorts of unmentionables. If shock from the icy water didn’t kill him, or the raging tide that would be determined to drag him out to sea, he would be lucky if he didn’t catch some sort of wasting disease that would bring about a long, slow, lingering death.

“I don’t care,” Molly whispered.

In that moment, she truly didn’t. She had no idea where that came from. She had never been someone who caved in easily before, but in this situation, Molly knew she was completely out of her depth – before she jumped into the water. It had been the worst mistake of her life to think she could come to a huge city like London, find her brother, and start afresh somewhere with him in a new home, somewhere away from everything she was familiar with. It had been immature, ignorant of her, and had left her in a more vulnerable position than she had been in at her Aunt Edith’s house.

“Nothing in life can be that bad,” Jasper replied calmly. “You are young. You have your whole life ahead of you. It is there to be lived.”

“You know nothing,” Molly replied.

“I know you are going to do something that will get you killed. Why? What does he want with you? What could you have done that is so bad you would be prepared to kill yourself to avoid him?”

“I haven’t done anything,” Molly protested. “That’s the point. I haven’t done anything to anybody to deserve it, but my life is not my own. My life has been handed over to others to steal, and it isn’t worth carrying on.”

“It has to be,” Jasper warned.

“It isn’t you who can say that,” Molly replied. She tipped her chin up defiantly. “You have choices. You can come and go as you please, make your own decisions and nobody will question you, try to take control and order you about, try to thieve your life, your home, and your very soul. You know nothing.”

“Is he responsible?” Jasper pointed at