Page 82 of He Should Be Mine

The point is, Molly said something about trains. He bitched about them. Said they were stupidly expensive. He couldn’t believe anyone ever used them.

Molly doesn’t have a car. He is not stupid enough to hire one because he knows it is easy for the Ajellos to track. So no car, no train.

It has to be a coach.

I tear out of the parking lot. Victoria Coach Station. It is my best bet.

It seems to take millennia to get there, but my watch tells me I made it in record time. There is nowhere to park, noteven illegally, so I throw my car onto the pavement a few blocks away and I run.

Coaches leave all the time. I could already be too late. I have no idea what part of the West Country Molly is from and it is a large area. If he is already on a coach, I’ve lost him forever.

The Ajellos will find him though. They have all the resources. They will get to Molly long before I do and he will be given to Dante and there will not be a thing I could do about it.

Dante wants me to be heir, but he will not defy orders until I’m in place. He is not daft enough to risk his neck. He will torture and murder Molly and I won’t be able to stop it.

I burst through the doors of the coach station. My eyes frantically search the crowd. I begin wading through all the people. Shoving them out of my way.

And then…there!

Gray hoodie with the hood up. Plain blue jeans. Large sunglasses obscuring half his face. Large black backpack on his back.

Molly.

I would know him anywhere. It’s far more than the small, slender shape of him. It is the fact that his presence calls to me. He is the other half of my soul. I could find him in a dark, silent room.

I push through the crowd. He is glaring at the bus gate and the sign that says ‘Delayed.’

I grab his upper arm before he even sees me approaching. He jolts at my touch. His blue eyes are enormous even through his dark glasses. He opens his mouth.

We are surrounded by people. There are two Transport Police officers by the far exit. I can’t intimidate my way out of this with my gun.

Molly can shout and scream, and even though this is London, people will probably intervene. They will help. The police will whisk him away and arrest me.

Then Molly really, really will be a dead man walking. You don’t get to live after pulling a stunt like that. The British Police are no match for the Ajello family. We have dirty cops in every department.

He stares at me. The crowd mills around us. Time freezes. I can see Molly frantically weighing up his options. Going through the facts exactly as I just did.

“Trust me,” I say.

His eyes grow even wider. I hold his gaze steadily and silently implore him to see the truth in my soul.

“Trust me,” I whisper again.

His pink tongue runs over his bottom lip. The rest of the world fades away until it is only me and Molly. A little bubble where we stand. My hand on his arm. My plea hanging in the air between us. My fate in his hands.

Then he nods. Small, sharp and decisive.

A wave of dizziness washes over me. It might be relief. It could be joy. It should be shame that I’m taking him back to his gilded cage.

But I already know that I’m going to do anything I can to keep him.

So I keep a hold of Molly’s arm, and I lead him away.

Chapter twenty-three

Molly

As soon as I set foot back in the apartment, all my good sense comes rushing back. What the hell was I thinking, letting a pair of handsome, pleading eyes sway me? I’m so stupid!