Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“I am perfectly capable of getting some myself, thank you very much,” Molly replied pertly.

I just wish I knew how.

Still, she had to think of something between now and the morning, when Oscar would be bursting with energy and demanding she make good on her promise. Unfortunately, Molly had no idea what she was going to do then because the last thing she wanted, or needed, was to walk away from Jasper, even though she knew it was foolish to harbour any affection or connection to a man who clearly had the morals of an alley cat.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Several very long and trying days later, Molly and Oscar studied each other across the kitchen table in the safe house in disbelief. They listened to the petulant pleading of the young woman in the sitting room with dismay.

“God, does she never end?” Niall growled in disgust. He shook his head when he heard Sir Hugo rumble something back at the young woman, but whatever he said clearly didn’t please the somewhat spoilt young woman who merely replied with another list of demands that increased in volume and ended with a dire threat should he not provide her with what she wanted.

“Please, make her stop,” Oscar pleaded. “I want to leave here.”

“Don’t you start,” Molly snapped. “One spoilt brat in this house is enough, thank you very much.”

Oscar suddenly sat upright in his seat and glared across the table at her. “I am not like her.”

“I am not saying you are, but you will make yourself like her if you start demanding things as well. I won’t have it, do you hear? So, don’t even start.”

“Why can’t she just get sent home? Her parents can have her,” Oscar asked hopefully.

“She has to help with the investigation. We have said we will help her as well, just like we promised you we would help you when we have found everyone involved in the criminal activity in Rigley Row,” Jasper assured them.

Molly squinted at him. It was difficult to know what to think because after their initial closeness, Jasper had distanced himself in a way that she struggled to understand. Not only that but since her conversation with Oscar about leaving, neither she or her brother had been afforded any time alone together. Every time either of them ventured off into a room alone, one of the men arrived to sit with them. There was no place either of them was able to go without company. It was the reason why Molly and her brother were still there.

It has happened since Marilyn arrived. As soon as she appeared, Jasper decided he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore but has retreated behind his duties and decided to protect both me and Oscar all the time.

“Surely you have arrested everyone by now?” Oscar retorted.

“We haven’t. Some disappeared on the night we recovered Marilyn. We are still trying to find them,” Jasper replied.

He studied Molly, especially the dark circles she now had beneath her eyes. He knew they hadn’t been there a week ago, not least because he had long since memorised every detail of her fine porcelain beauty. Each time he closed his eyes at night, the mental image of her, perfect in all its glory, was there waiting to escort him into a night crammed full of sensuous dreams that did little to aid a good night’s sleep. It had become so bad over the last couple of days that Jasper had opted to take the night shift, if only so he was exhausted whenever he returned to the safe house to try to get some rest, like he was doing now. He needed to go to bed, but stubbornly refused to give in to the exhaustion that clawed at him because he wanted to spend at least an hour of his day with the woman who occupied so much of his thoughts: Molly. Unfortunately, it was difficult to know if he was the result of her sleepless nights, or the plans she kept making to escape that the Star Elite kept thwarting.

Suddenly, the conversation in the front parlour increased in volume.

“She has it, I tell you,” Marilyn all but screeched. “Go and ask her if you don’t believe me.”

Molly knew then that the conversation Marilyn was having with Sir Hugo and his men was about her, and it wasn’t pleasant. There was a slightly hysterical tone to Marilyn’s voice that made Molly feel sick.

“What is she talking about?” Oscar whispered.

“I wish I knew,” Molly replied. “But whatever it is it sounds like we are in some sort of trouble.”

“Well, I am not going to sit here and listen to her whining,” Oscar grumbled. He shoved away from his seat but rather than leave the room paused beside her chair. “Are you coming?”

Molly contemplated the voices. When her gaze turned to Jasper it was to find him staring noncommittally down at the table. She knew that staying to talk to him would be just as uncomfortable as staying in the house over the last several days had been.

“Yes, I think I need to,” she sighed. With that they both left the room, but only to go to Molly’s bed chamber.

“We have to leave soon and thwart them whatever it takes, don’t we?” There was something in the tone of Oscar’s voice that made Molly look at him sharply. Quietly, she closed the bed chamber door behind her. She contemplated what to say. It sounded as if he was dreading it now. Still, he bravely tipped his chin up as he met her gaze, evidently prepared to do whatever it took to keep out of everyone’s clutches.

“Yes, I think we do,” Molly whispered, horrified yet relieved at the same time that matters seemed to be coming to a head and forcing them to go.

Molly glanced worriedly at the door when the voices in the hallway grew louder and were clearly coming up the stairs.

“If anything does happen to me, promise you will get out of here, Oscar. Don’t stay with them, especially with her here.”

“I told you that I don’t trust her. She is mean and spiteful,” Oscar replied bluntly.