Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“We don’t know that other victims haven’t been taken from elsewhere by this same gang. Other women have gone missing, but there are only one or two. There is one in Gloucestershire we know about, but her husband is a drunkard and, we suspect, the killer. There is another one in Norfolk, but the house she lived in was on the coast. There is nothing to say she didn’t slip and fall into the sea as she was walking or something. There is also another in Scotland, but we have no links to anybody who might wish her harm. However, in Leicestershire and Derbyshire several women have disappeared within a few miles of each other. It all points to the same person having snatched them all. Someone who is living close enough to know where to find them and knows the area well enough to get them out undetected.”

“Denzel,” Molly and Oscar said together with such certainty they stared at each other in disbelief.

“It looks like it,” Jasper mused. “That makes Denzel one very wanted man, and you two in more danger than ever.”

“You don’t sound all that bothered about it,” Molly muttered. It wasn’t until she had spoken that she realised just how much she had betrayed by making that statement.

His colleagues did given the smirks on their faces. Jasper grinned at her.

“That

’s because I know we can keep you safe.” Jasper’s voice dipped to a husky whispered and turned more into a sensual promise than a professional declaration of determination.

Molly shivered at the awareness that surged through her. She gazed into his eyes, as mesmerised by the look he was giving her as she was by the deep timbre of his husky voice.

“What happens now?” Oscar asked, oblivious to what was going on between his sister and the lawman. “I have told you everything I know.”

Sir Hugo shoved his notebook at him. “Can you draw the layout of the house you were in?”

While Oscar began to draw, Molly continued to study Jasper.

“Now, we set to work,” Jasper replied simply.

He refused to divulge too much detail about the next steps of the investigation, but the men knew they would raid the house, recover the captives, and return them to the safe house so they too could be protected by the Star Elite.

Molly suspected she knew what they were going to do, especially when she caught the furtive looks the men gave each other. Eventually, when it became apparent that they weren’t going to discuss anything further with her and Oscar in the room, she suggested to her brother that they move into the front parlour where they could sit beside the fireplace, and Oscar had more room to draw the floor plan of the house in Rigley Row.

When the door closed behind them, Jasper sighed and ran a weary hand down his face. He stared at his boss through his fingers, half expecting Sir Hugo to reprimand him for allowing his personal life into his professional one. What Sir Hugo did was peer at him and mutter something about ‘good work’ before he started to detail his plans for the raid they were going to carry out.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Several hours later, when he was sure Molly and Oscar were fast asleep, Jasper crept out of the house with several of his colleagues and left Harry on night watch. The hour was late, the air crisp and cold, but none of it registered on Jasper, who felt as alive as if it were the middle of the day. Outwardly, he was as professional as his friends. Inwardly, he was as reluctant as it was possible to get because he didn’t want to leave Molly behind. He wanted to be the one to protect her. While he didn’t doubt Harry’s capabilities, Jasper suspected he was not going to be able to ease the tension thrumming through him until this mission was all over, and he could see for himself that Molly was fine. Her safety mattered to him more than anything ever had before. He hated to even contemplate what his life would be like without her in it now, and he had only known her for a few days.

“This is what marriage is like,” Angus drawled.

Jasper jerked and looked over at his colleague, Angus, who rode alongside him. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t realised Angus was so close – or had read his thoughts.

“What is?” Jasper asked anyway.

“Worrying about them being back at home,” Angus said. “It gets worse when you have a child.”

“What makes you think I am worrying about her?” Jasper asked stoically.

“Besides the fact that you have not stopped scowling since she went off to bed?” Angus teased. “Or your blatant change in demeanour whenever she is around. Right now, you are the Jasper we have all come to know, work with and respect. When you are around your Molly you never stop smiling. You are also very protective of her, in a way I have never seen you be with any other woman you have ever met.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Jasper muttered, but he did. He truly did.

“It is all right. You are just in denial right now, but you can’t keep your hands off her. You are more doomed than you realise,” Angus warned wryly.

“I can keep my hands to myself,” Jasper protested.

“Of course you can.” Disbelief was rife in Angus’s voice.

“I can,” Jasper insisted.

“It looked like it.”

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Jasper grumbled.