Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

She looked around the street balefully and made no attempt to hide her disgust of the place. London was the epitome of the misery human life could bring upon itself. The streets were littered with waste and were so crowded people had started to turn in on themselves. A dank atmosphere and sense of gloom hung over everyone who hustled about rushing from one place to the next with nary a look in another’s direction. They were so immersed in getting through their own lives safely that they didn’t register anything other than their own need to protect what was theirs. It was saddening, and so contrasting to the life she had grown up in that Molly yearned to be free of London’s smoggy streets, and back in the countryside where she could savour the clean air and freedom. She suspected it was going to be a long time yet before she was able to feel as though she had washed London’s gloom away.

“I am not staying here,” Molly whispered.

She physically shook with hunger but forced herself to stand upright and at least try to walk away.

Phillip watched her but then set out after her.

“What are you doing?” Molly asked quietly.

“Following you. It is what I am here to do,” Phillip assured her. “You have a habit of getting yourself into trouble. Besides, your aunt’s lover has been following you all night. I am not sure what he is waiting for, but suspect he is waiting for you to return home, so he knows where to find you.”

“Where is he?” Molly stopped and whirled to face him. She felt sick at the thought that she could have been accosted at any point during the last several hours and end up being forced back to Leicestershire after all.

Or, worse, end up like those kidnap victims only there is nobody at home to report my disappearance.

Molly shuddered. She continued to walk for a while only to stop when she needed to cross the road.

Phillip was still following.

“Will you just go away?” Molly cried.

?

?Sorry,” Phillip replied with a slow shake of his head. “Everywhere you go I go.”

“I am nothing to do with you,” Molly replied.

“I am afraid that the day you walked into the middle of our investigation you made yourself our business. You are under our protection, so here I am, here to protect.”

“But I don’t need your protection,” Molly informed him.

“I beg to differ. You don’t know these streets. You have no idea where you are going. I mean, don’t take this personally but since I have known you it is clear to me that you are lucky you don’t die from your mistakes. You have lost your money and your clothing, your little brother has disappeared – again - and you have been followed by at least two of us without realising. Oh, and you have been attacked and nearly drowned. Apart from that, you are doing a sterling job of looking after yourself.” Phillip waved a hand at the street before her. “Do please carry on. I shall be just here – watching and waiting and protecting.”

He rubbed his fingernails on his shirt and studied them carefully. He felt awful when he saw tears gather on her lashes. She looked so lost and forlorn that he wondered if she was going to sit down right there and then and wail. Instead, she stared blankly at him as though only just realising how out of her depth she truly was but was thoroughly defeated by it all. Eventually, she sucked in a huge breath and gave herself a stern shake. To his surprise, she spun on her heel and walked away. Shaking his head, Phillip had no choice but to follow.

Regardless of her determination to get away, Molly realised how foolish it was to keep walking just for Phillip, and Denzel probably, to follow. It seemed as though she was achieving nothing but leading them on a merry dance to nowhere.

“God, will you just stop?” she demanded eventually.

When she turned around, though, Phillip wasn’t behind her. She froze and lifted her brows, a little worried that he wasn’t there.

“Phillip?” she asked.

Molly glanced around the nearly empty street. It was unnerving that she had no idea where he had gone, or when he had stopped following her. It was odd that she should feel abandoned. She stared at the empty space where she had expected him to be and felt a heaviness in her heart that was simply overwhelming. All she could do was stare blankly into space while she tried to comprehend that she truly was all by herself, and there was nothing she could do to sort herself out.

After a moment or two, Molly began to amble through the street. She didn’t glance at anybody she passed and didn’t care if it was Denzel or any of his associates. All she could think about was Jasper, and the way she had run from him last night. God only knew where he was now, or how annoyed he was at her. It was telling that he hadn’t been the one to come after her, though.

The kisses meant nothing to him.

She knew that now. More than anything in her life that kept going wrong, she regretted that more. She regretted that she wasn’t the kind of woman who could attract someone like him.

Suddenly, a solid wall of masculinity blocked her way. She froze when the path before her changed into a pair of boots. Her gaze slid upward of the long, long length of towering male standing directly before her. Molly gulped when her gaze met Jasper’s challenging glare. It wasn’t the fury in his eyes that captured her attention and teased her mercilessly. It was the sight of the large meat pie he slowly bit into. Her stomach rumbled hungrily when the bite he took released a heavy scent of cooked beef and gravy that tortured her. She stared lasciviously at the bounty and tried to will herself not to react, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from that juicy meat, especially when Jasper took another bit of it and another heady waft of gravy assaulted her.

“Morning,” Jasper murmured, licking his lips.

“Where is Phillip?” Molly whispered.

Jasper worked hard to ignore the wild flurry of jealousy that slammed into him at her concern for his colleague. Regardless, he nodded to Phillip, whose hips were propped casually on the small wall she had been sitting beside him on before she had taken her random walk in a giant circle.