Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“People who stumble out of the taverns late at night will invariably cross paths with the occupants of Rigley Row and will have their pockets emptied because of it, mostly because they will be vulnerable and weak from the ale they have consumed. The drunkards are the weak targets that lot will make full use of,” Niall warned.

“There are also the rich couples who are returning home from their posh parties. Their carriages will be stopped if they don’t move fast enough. They too can have their pockets emptied before they get home,” Jasper added.

“Or their houses burgled while they are gone,” Oliver agreed.

“God. How do you do it? How do you live and work fighting people like that?” Molly whispered, as horrified as she was awestruck by what they faced everyday and seemed to accept as normal. Given what she had seen tonight, it was impressive that they had all managed to survive for as long as they had.

Molly knew that to survive skirmishes with such fiends, the Star Elite had to be as ruthless if not more so than the brigands they fought. While she knew she should feel considerably safer, Molly couldn’t help but wonder what she had landed herself in the middle of. More importantly, it made her aware that she had a lot to learn about Jasper.

“We are all soldiers who have fought in the war,” Harry informed her. “While most soldiers were happy to return to their families after the war, for whatever reason some of us couldn’t. We joined the Star Elite. Rather than rage wars against foreign lands, we fight a war against the criminal element in our own country.”

“The ethos is the same,” Jasper replied with a shrug. “We come from all walks of life. Some are incredibly wealthy, others were mere foot soldiers in the war but have earned their living in the Star Elite. Because we don’t have much time to spend on the frivolities in life, we have retained most of what we have earned and are now wealthy in our own right. We have just earnt it the hard way.”

“Fighting. It is what we do,” Oliver added.

He had no qualms about discussing such things out in the open where anybody could hear them. If there was anybody from Rigley Row nearby, listening to what they were saying, they would carry the true extent of the men they were fighting back to their friends and would hopefully be warier about challenging them because of it.

“I am sorry I didn’t trust you,” Molly murmured, a little humbled by the thought of what she had put them through.

“You were right not to trust us. We could have been anybody,” Niall replied.

“We would have been more alarmed if you had trusted us without question from the outset,” Oliver assured her. “At least you fought us. Some don’t.”

Molly looked at Jasper, who immediately smiled at her. She couldn’t prevent a tell-tale blush of pleasure from staining her cheeks. Her gaze slid away, but not for long. When their gazes met a second time, a wild flurry of something warm and wonderful began to sweep through her. It made her feel closer to Jasper in a way she had never felt close to anybody before, not even Oscar. It was wildly thrilling, if a little troubling. She had no idea what it was, where it came from, or why it should flourish with Jasper and in this uninvitingly dangerous place, but it was there nonetheless, and made her want to smile.

“Let’s get you home. We are going to go back to the safe house. It will take us a little longer than it ought because we have to make sure nobody follows us,” Jasper suggested.

Molly nodded, but there wasn’t any question Jasper expected her to do as he suggested.

“We all go back,” Oliver warned.

“We aren’t going to search the place tonight?” Niall asked, his brows lifting in surprise.

“I don’t think it is wise given we have already been noticed,” Jasper whispered. “We need to come back and find another way in here.”

“The thicket might be the best way to get in here undetected, if only we can find it from the other side,?

? Niall suggested.

“We need reinforcements.” Harry glared menacingly at the youths who had been joined by a third person while they had been talking.

“Later,” Niall murmured and began to amble down the road toward the corner of the warehouse Oscar had disappeared behind earlier.

They watched Niall turn to the right at the end of the road and disappear with a speed that was shocking. Molly was about to look up at Jasper only for movement at the end of the street to capture her attention. Her eyes widened. Her heart picked up pace. She wasn’t even aware of the fierce hold she had on Jasper until he looked down at her with a frown of concern.

“What is it?” he murmured when he sensed her tension.

“Later,” Harry whispered, and set off after Niall. At the end of the road, he turned to the left and disappeared just as effectively as Niall.

“I know him,” Molly breathed, her eyes locked on the man moving toward them. She blinked and tried to focus. “It can’t be.”

“What?” Jasper prompted.

Molly stared in horror at Denzel’s familiar face. “It is him,” she whispered in disbelief.

“Who?” When Jasper looked in the direction of Molly’s stare his gaze fell on the stranger. “Do you know him?”

Molly didn’t dare take her eyes off Denzel and nodded absently.