Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

When the young woman continued to plead, Jasper hauled her upright and marched her unceremoniously across the room. Pushing her out onto the landing, he met with Niall and Phillip. Together, the men marched her out of the house.

“Where are the rest of the girls?” Jasper demanded.

“What girls?” Marilyn looked about blankly, as though she hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. “Are there more?”

“You tell me,” Jasper replied, but she didn’t.

He didn’t bother to question her right there and then, even though he suspected she was lying. Instead, he propelled her out of the house and toward his colleagues who had a carriage waiting for any victims they managed to recover. Just as soon as the rest of the house was searched, Jasper, Niall and Phillip made their way out of Rigley Row. The battle continued all around them but with the more men that fell the quieter and less determined the fighting was becoming. It was heartening to note that it was the thugs who had sustained the most losses. Several magistrate’s men either lay or sat nursing their injuries, but the dead came from the criminal element of Rigley Row.

Regardless of their success, Jasper remained on watch out of one of the windows of the carriage. Phillip glared out of the other window while Marilyn Alton sat snivelling between them. On the carriage roof sat Niall, whose occasional bursts of gunfire warned them all that danger was trying to follow them. Nobody spoke a word during the several hours of travelling around in random circles they did before the men were confident that they had managed to evade the thugs. Eventually, they rumbled to a stop in the yard of the safe house.

Jasper had never been as glad to see the house before in his life. It was tempting to leave woman in the carriage and go inside to check on Molly before he did anything else. It was only the thought of Marilyn running off that made him stay.

“Out,” Phillip ordered as he yanked the door open.

The young woman dutifully stepped down, and looked around curiously, her previous fear seemingly forgotten. She was no less curious when she stepped into the house moments later.

“Where are we?” she asked as she boldly slid a finger over a large pot beside the door.

“You are safe for now,” Jasper replied.

When the woman turned to face him, she caught her heel in her dress, and stumbled against him. Jasper lifted his hands to her wrists to prise her off him but instantly became aware of movement in the doorway leading to the main body of the house. He cursed when he looked up and saw Molly and Oscar staring in astonishment at him clutching the newcomer.

“Molly,” Jasper groaned.

Molly blinked as she battled to control the wave of jealousy that surged through her. She glared at Jasper and felt like every kind of fool for having placed her faith in a man like him. He clearly had a connection to the young woman practically trying to climb into his breeches.

“This is Marilyn Alton. One of the women who was snatched from Leicestershire,” Jasper snapped, roughly shoving the young woman off him.

She turned to look at Molly with a wide-eyed innocence that only fuelled Molly’s confusion and jealousy.

“She has to stay here for a while,” he added into the deathly silence that followed.

“She is going to have to stay with us until we can close the house down on Rigley Row,” Phillip informed everyone. He stomped into the kitchen and slapped his saddle bag onto the kitchen table before he realised that something was dreadfully wrong. His gaze sharpened as it landed on Jasper, then fell to the woman who didn’t seem able to take her eyes off Molly.

“Do you two know each other?” he asked with a frown pointing one long finger to Molly and then Marilyn.

“No. We do not,” Molly bit out.

“Is this the woman you saw in the house?” Phillip asked Oscar.

“Yes, that’s her.”

Molly looked at her brother. She suspected there was something else he wanted to say but for some reason he didn’t. She lifted a brow at him but didn’t press for details. However, she made a mental note to ask him about it just as soon as she could.

Jasper stepped closer to Molly. “Might I have a word with you please?”

“I am going back to bed,” Molly replied. “I need to get Oscar settled as well. Excuse us, please.”

Jasper opened his mouth to object but found himself staring at an empty doorway. With a curse, he ran a frustrated hand through his hair and turned to glare at the young woman standing far too close beside him for comfort.

“Let’s get you settled in a bed chamber, then you can get some sleep. You are not to leave the house. Men are on guard. You will be arrested if you try to run, do you understand?” Phillip growled.

Marilyn suddenly burst into tears. “You have saved me,” she cried, in a voice loud enough to wake the dead. “How can I ever thank you?”

“Just calm down,” Jasper snorted in disgust.

“But you have saved my life.”