Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“You do?” Molly’s cheeks flooded with colour at the thought that he had seen the state of her lodgings. The safe house was pure luxury in comparison.

“Do you have a moment?” Jasper asked. He opened the door and waited for her to pass through it.

Out in the hallway, Molly paused and turned to look at Jasper.

“In the kitchen,” he murmured quietly.

Molly heaved a sigh of relief when she saw her carpet bag.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Your pouch is inside.” Jasper handed her the bag, but then stacked the boxes he had brought before he held them out to her. “These are for you.”

“What are they?” she whispered.

“I shall take them up to your room for you, but you might want to have a look at them before dinner. If there is anything wrong, let me know and I can get them altered,” Jasper replied.

Molly paused and lifted her brows at him. It was easier to talk to him when they were alone. He seemed to come alive as a person and was far less officious than he was when he was with his colleagues.

“You really don’t like answering questions, do you?”

Jasper grinned. “It is a habit, I am afraid. Nothing personal.”

Dutifully, Molly led the way up to the bed chamber she now called home and stood back to allow him to carry the mysterious boxes into the room.

“Thank you, for whatever it is they are,” she murmured politely when he had dropped them onto the bed.

“You are welcome. When you have had a look at them, come back downstairs for dinner. Then we have to talk about something that happened while I was gone,” Jasper replied.

Molly froze. “Oscar?”

Jasper looked at her contritely. “I am sorry, but no, not about Oscar. I will tell you what we plan to do about him later. This is about something that happened when Niall and I left your lodgings.”

“What?”

“Later,” Jasper promised.

With that, he let himself out of the room before he did something rash, like kiss her again. Until he could think about the strength of the emotions that she made him feel, he knew it would be wise to keep his distance from her.

Its damned difficult, though, because I enjoy being with her.

With a sigh, Jasper ambled back downstairs. It was a surprise to find Harry, Niall, Oliver and Al already around the table.

“We are having a briefing. It won’t take long,” Oliver warned. “Callum and Kieran will be here in a moment.”

As if they had been lingering outside waiting to hear those words, Callum and Kieran burst into the kitchen. They were so deep in conversation they didn’t realise they were no longer alone, until Oliver coughed discretely. Contritely, they removed their cloaks and joined their colleagues around the large table.

“Look, we have to be careful about going into Rigley Row. Nobody new can move around in that street without being watched by at least half a dozen people,” Oliver warned.

“Did Horvat have any connections in Rigley Row, do we know?” Niall asked.

“Nobody knows,” Jasper replied. “He isn’t around anymore to ask.”

“His associates are, though,” Niall warned.

“And they are in Rigley Row,” Harry murmured thoughtfully. “Well, we have to get in there somehow, don’t we?”

“Do you think we might do better to use Molly to lure her brother out? As soon as we get our hands on him then he can tell us what he knows,” Callum replied. “Hopefully about where we can find the rest of the kidnap victims.”