Romancing the Rogue (104 page)

~~~~

Georgina clambered to her feet, taking a step toward him. “Adam!”

His gun didn’t waver from the man who’d held him captive, who’d beaten and bloodied him. He moved his gaze from Hunter to his wife, and for one endless moment, swore her eyes radiated love, joy in seeing him, and something odd
—
relief.

Adam tightened his grip on the pistol to keep from tossing her over his shoulder and storming off like a conquering lord from long ago. The male part of him, blinded by hot jealousy, said be damned with how Georgina felt about Jamie. It mattered not at all when faced with his hungering love for her.

Except Adam had spent the better part of the past month reconciling himself to the truth about his wife’s loyalties. He forced himself to look away from Georgina. No, it was better to look at the snake Hunter who held his wife’s heart.

“We meet again, Hunter,” Adam drawled.

Hunter made a move to open the front of his jacket.

Adam waved his gun. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…
but then, perhaps it is. I’d like nothing better than to shoot you through your heart.”

The other man paled. “P-please.” His badly shaking hands fell uselessly to his sides.

Energized by the terror etched on Hunter’s face, Adam lowered the pistol, pointing the barrel at the front flap of Hunter’s breeches. “Do you know, every day you held me captive I would spend my time imagining all the ways I would eventually kill you? Some days I decided I would do it quickly, so I could rid the earth of your evil.” Adam dropped his voice to a near whisper, relishing the way Hunter’s body quaked. “Most days, though, I decided I would take my time and make your death a slow, painful one.”

Like a cornered rat, Hunter’s gaze flitted between Adam’s pistol and the door.

Adam grinned. “Are we expecting company, Hunter? Is it perhaps my dear father-in-law who you expect to step through the doors and rescue you?” His gaze landed on his wife. Her soulful brown eyes made wide circles in her face, and her skin had the same deathly pallor as Hunter’s.

You made me fall in love with you and you broke my heart, Georgina.

His grip tightened on the pistol. He’d not utter those words aloud and give Hunter any bit of victory in these final moments.

Georgina moved toward him, but Hunter captured her wrist, pulling her to his side. “Surely Georgina means enough to you that you’d let me live?” Hunter wheedled.

Georgina made a move to free herself from his grip. “Adam, I love you,” she rasped. “Do not listen to him!” She looked at him with pleading eyes.

God, how he wanted to believe her. Wanted to trust her words.

Then Hunter pulled her sweet buttocks against the vee of his thighs, and leaned down close so his lips fairly brushed her ear. “You would abandon me to save yourself, Georgina?” His voice broke. “After all we’ve shared, you would betray me, too?” He looked at Adam, pain reflected in his eyes. “Do you know Georgina can sing? She has sung to me every day since we met. She has a voice like an angel.”

Adam winced as he remembered waltzing her around his small prison. He’d once thought the very same thing about sweet, harmless Georgina.

Georgina swatted at Hunter’s hand. “You lie,” she cried, her face contorted with rage, quashing all memories of the innocent young maid who’d come to Adam’s rooms and cared for him.

Hunter continued. “She would cook for me. She knew my favorite dish was lamb and every night would—”

Adam held his hand up. He couldn’t take anymore. Not if he were to retain any semblance of his sanity. Georgina’s willingness to transfer her affections from Hunter drove her betrayal home like a nail through his heart.

For the first time in a very long time, Adam didn’t want to kill Hunter. Instead, he felt a remarkable kinship with this man who loved Georgina too. He, like Hunter, knew what it was to love a woman so self-serving she’d say and do anything to achieve her goals…
and her father’s goals.

Adam lowered his pistol. “Get out,” he commanded hoarsely.

Hunter’s eyes went wide.

He waved his gun. “Before I change my mind. You two are deserving of the Crown’s punishment, however it will not be at my hands.”

Right or wrong, I love you too much, Georgina, to turn you and your lover over.

He’d sooner wrap the noose about his own neck than watch anyone do that to her, even if that was what his deceitful wife had coming.

Hunter reacted first. He took Georgina by the arm and pulled her toward the doorway, beating a hasty retreat around Adam.

Georgina dug her heels in. She gave her curls a frantic shake. “Adam, y-you—”

He jerked his chin toward the door. “Go!” he barked.

Go! Before I change my mind, kill Hunter, and take you with me.

Hunter leaned down and whispered something close to her ear.

As if she’d stared the mythical Medusa in the eyes, Georgina went motionless. A small, quivering smile turned her lips. “Goodbye,” she said hoarsely then walked out beside Hunter, Adam’s bruised and bloodied heart going right out the door with them.

Adam stepped out of the warehouse and squinted against the brightness of the day. He pulled his watch fob out and consulted the time. Funny, it felt like he’d spent eternity in the bowels of hell, when it had been but a thirty-minute exchange.

He scanned the busy surroundings, searching for his coach. It sat motionless across the seat, waiting for him, but Adam turned on his heel and walked away. He needed to walk. With a heavy tread, he made the long trek down the street, his pace slow. He concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other, because if he didn’t, he would go mad at the loss of Georgina.

Adam had thought he’d loved Grace, but that had been nothing compared to this all-consuming fire that licked at him and scorched him from the inside out. His love for Georgina was so great he’d betrayed his country, The Brethren, and his own family. Even knowing she would go off and continue her work against the Crown hadn’t been enough to turn her over to his superiors, because when he imagined a world without her smiling in it, he knew he would go mad.

Mayhap he already had. He paused, glancing back at the empty warehouse. Where would she go? Would she ever think of him? Or had she truly only used him to serve her own purposes? The questions swirled through his brain until it felt like he was running in dizzying circles. A carriage pulled up alongside him, spraying him with bits of gravel and refuse from the street.

The door opened. “Get in.”

Adam stared up at the Duke of Aubrey.

Aubrey glared down at him. “I said, get in.”

Adam’s numbed hurt gave way to fast-growing rage. He welcomed any diversion that would keep him from thinking of Georgina, even if for just a moment.

Aubrey held up a hand, displaying the familiar signet belonging to The Brethren.

Adam climbed into the coach.

Into the very crowded coach. Across from him, Aubrey sat beside Bennett and another man. This one a stranger.

The carriage lurched forward.

Aubrey wasted no time with social niceties. “You may know me as the Sovereign.”

Adam started. So this was the infamous leader of the organization: the powerful Duke of Aubrey, whose name appeared in scandal sheets linking him with notoriously disreputable widows. It was a stroke of genius. Who would ever suspect that one of the most notable rogues in London served in one of the most exalted positions with the Crown?

“What do you want?” Adam growled. He’d already deduced the reason for Aubrey’s unexpected appearance—the Sovereign wanted Fox and Hunter…and Georgina. His superior had surely come for Georgina.

Aubrey drummed his fingertips along the edge of his knee, giving him an air of relaxed calm. The stiff tension in his broad shoulders and the hard set to his hard square jaw belied the duke’s attempt at feigned nonchalance. “I spoke to Fitzmorris earlier this morn,” Aubrey said. “He claims he requested several audiences. Did you meet with him?”

Adam shook his head. He’d been otherwise engaged uncovering the truth of his wife’s deception.

Aubrey cursed. “Where is she?” he barked.

“I don’t suppose you’re speaking about my mother, the countess of Whitehaven?” he asked with forced levity.

“Don’t play games,” Bennett snapped. “Where is she?”

Adam bit back a stinging retort. His entire world had been blown to pieces, and why? Because he’d devoted everything he was to The Brethren. They wanted Georgina. Well they were going to have to wait until the good Lord came again, because he wasn’t turning her over. The Duke of Aubrey, Bennett, and the nameless bastard could all go hang.

“Markham?” Aubrey urged.

Adam prayed Georgina had had enough time to make her escape, because The Brethren had discovered her deception.

“You have nothing to fear from Georgina Wilcox. She’s not here. She’s gone,” Adam said woodenly.

Bennett and the stranger exchanged looks, and the first frisson of doubt unfurled in Adam’s gut, along with the awful feeling that he’d committed some irreparable harm.

“What do you mean, gone?” the unfamiliar figure pressed.

“Who are you?” Adam asked the nameless stranger.

The man waved his hand as though to say it didn’t matter who the hell he was. “I said, where is she?”

Adam had exhausted his store of patience for that day. “Go to hell,” he spat.

The man reached across the carriage and gripped him by the lapels of his coat, jerking his frame against the squabs of the coach. He gave him a hard shake. “By Christ, you’ll answer me!”

Aubrey settled a hand on his shoulder but he shrugged it off.

Adam remained stoically silent. He’d not give Georgina over to this ruthless bastard.

He released Adam with a black curse and reached for the handle of the still-moving carriage. Panic made Adam’s heart speed. This stranger was so determined to get his hands upon Georgina he’d risk life and limb by jumping from a moving conveyance.

“She’s not here,” Adam barked, effectively ending the stranger’s intentions of climbing out and hunting Georgina like a cornered beast.

Aubrey spoke. “Where is she?”

Adam met the duke’s icy stare. “I freed her.”

The tension seemed to drain out of the duke’s stiff shoulders.

“Finally something’s gone right,” Bennett mumbled in his gravelly tone. “Where is she then?”

Adam stared back at the expectant expressions of the three men.

Something isn’t making sense.

Why would The Brethren want Georgina freed? Unless to lead them deeper into the web of traitors…

“Markham?” Aubrey prompted.

“She’s with Hunter,” he said, between clenched teeth.

A deathly silence filled the carriage. Only the clip clop of the horses’ hooves split the quiet.

The stranger roared and launched himself across the cramped coach. “By God, I’ll kill you!”

Bennett wrestled him off Adam and shoved him back into his seat.

“Enough!” the duke commanded.

Adam looked through narrowed eyes at his superior. “She is my wife! Surely you cannot think I’d turn her over to you?”

Aubrey ran his fingers through immaculate black hair. “You didn’t know. I expressly forbade Fitzmorris from meeting with you, but he defied my wishes. But you never met him.”

Adam had already said as much. The swirling in his gut spiked.

“Why did Fitzmorris want to see me?” When the duke did not answer fast enough, Adam demanded again. “Why did he want to see me?”

“She didn’t tell him,” the duke muttered.

The tall stranger swiped a hand across his eyes and shook his head. “Of course she didn’t tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Adam demanded of the duke. “Tell me what?” he directed at Bennett when Aubrey didn’t respond.

“That she is working for us,” the stranger spat.

A dull humming filled his ears. Nausea roiled in Adam’s stomach, bile climbing up his throat. No, he’d heard wrong. That was all. Georgina wouldn’t be helping The Brethren. She was a traitor—

“We enlisted her help,” Aubrey finally answered, his tone quiet.

Even if they spoke the truth and Georgina was now in fact helping the Brethren, that hadn’t always been the case. Adam’s jaw hardened. “That doesn’t pardon her of the wrongs she’s committed. She has probably only done so to save her own neck.” He’d not be so foolish where Georgina was concerned. Not again.

The stranger spoke. “You have it wrong. Miss Wilcox has been helping us for many years now.”

The last shred of Adam’s patience fell away. “Who the hell are you?”

“He’s speaking the truth,” Aubrey said. “For more than four years, Miss Wilcox has aided the Brethren. Her efforts have proven invaluable.”

Of a sudden, Adam was beset by a blinding panic that he tried to tamp down. It couldn’t be!

Adam gave his head a frantic shake. “Lies! You lie!” he cried, his voice hoarse. They had to be lies, because if they weren’t, that would mean Georgina had been loyal to him and the Crown. That would mean when she’d insisted on her innocence she’d been telling the truth. And that would mean he had turned her over to Hunter’s clutches.

Oh God, I’m going to be sick.

“Back. We have to go back,” he rasped. “I left her with him.”

Aubrey cursed and banged on the roof of the coach, calling out new orders.

“You bloody fool!” the stranger shouted, his words nothing compared to the daggers of guilt knifing away at Adam’s insides.

He pressed the heel of his palms against his eyes and tried to blot out the horror of what he’d done. This was so very different from the betrayal he’d felt when he’d learned of Georgina’s birth. This was a hell of his own making, born of his insecurities and unwillingness to see his wife for the beautiful gift she was. And because of it, he’d placed her life in the hands of that monster.

Aubrey dropped a hand on his shoulder. “We will get her back.”

“And, God willing, she’ll be alive,” the stranger spat.

Adam’s heart shriveled in his chest.

She has to be alive. She has to.

She had to live because he needed to spend the rest of his life atoning for all the ways in which he’d wronged her.

He closed his eyes and saw her as he’d left her
—
pleading with him in words and through the depth of emotion in her eyes to protect her.

And what had he done? He’d walked out on her, abandoning her to the clutches of Hunter and Fox.

His mind screeched a protest. Unable to bear the images he’d conjured, he banged his head against the back of the carriage in a slow, punishing rhythm. Fox would not kill her. He couldn’t kill her. What manner of man could? That was, if Georgina was even Fox’s daughter.

His eyes popped open. “Is she the daughter of Fox?”

The stranger spat on the carriage floor—a crass reminder of what he thought of Adam. “Is that all you care about?”

“No. I...” At one time, that might have been the case. He swallowed hard, holding his palms up. “No, it isn’t.”

Aubrey took mercy. “An anonymous informant has been notifying The Brethren of Emmet’s plots and plans for a number of years. This person identified Fox and Hunter as key figures for us to watch and follow.”

Georgina.

Georgina was the informant.

“For years we’ve suspected Mrs. Markham’s loyalties were not her father’s. We’d purposefully arranged several missions over the years to ascertain her dependability.”

Adam’s stomach tightened. Bennett and Fitzmorris had dismissed his claims that he’d been drugged and betrayed because they’d known it to be fact. Because they’d orchestrated his capture.

As if sensing the direction of Adam’s thoughts, Bennett gave a curt nod. “We sent you in to determine her faithfulness to the Crown. There was another man before you.” He jerked his chin over at the stranger. “Nathaniel Archer was the first.”

Adam looked at Archer, whose eyes brimmed with loathing. A disgusted laugh bubbled up from Adam’s throat. The other man couldn’t hate him any more than Adam hated himself.

He pulled back the curtain, just as the warehouse came into focus.

He didn’t give a damn about The Brethren or that they’d sacrificed his safety and well-being as part of a mission. There’d be time enough for those recriminations later… For now, all he cared about was getting his wife back.

The carriage hadn’t even drawn to a stop when Adam opened the door and leaped to the ground. He faltered but was on his feet in moments and running toward the factory. The three men followed in his wake.

The crack of a gunshot split the mundane street sounds, and he body jerked to a stop so suddenly that someone crashed into his back, nearly sending him pitching forward.

The echo of the shot danced around his mind. Stars dotted his vision.

Georgina!

~~~~

Georgina knew particular things with complete certainty. The sun rose every morning. The sun set each evening. Men were driven by avarice and greed.

Adam had walked out on Georgina, abandoning her to Jamie’s evil and, as Jamie tugged her through the empty warehouse, she faced another absolute certainty—her life was forfeit.

Jamie stopped. Shoving her down atop a wooden crate, he said, “Sit!”

Then like an evil spirit materializing through the fog, Father appeared. He didn’t so much as utter a greeting, and Georgina knew enough to remain silent and draw as little attention to herself as possible while Jamie and Father conversed.

The occasional name fluttered to her ears. They mentioned France several times, and Georgina knew they were plotting their escape. She wasn’t so foolish as to believe they’d so freely talk in front of her. That is, unless they didn’t plan on her being alive much longer.

Georgina used the time they spent in distracted conversation searching for anything with which to arm herself, focusing on survival, because if she didn’t, the hurt of Adam’s abandonment would destroy her faster than a bullet to the heart. Except the thought had crept in and there was no shaking it free.

How easily he’d believed the worst in her. Just like everyone else in her life, he’d only seen her failures and shortcomings—in this case, her greatest crime was the blood in her veins. As much as she loved Adam, as much as she would fight the devil himself for him, she meant nothing to her husband.

“You’ve disappointed me, daughter,” Father called out.

Georgina’s lip curled, and she remained seated, hands folded atop her lap. “That is nothing new, Father.”

He tipped his head in acknowledgement. “Your grandmother died at the hands of those English monsters. They took turns raping her and, even with that, you would betray me with the British. You would marry one of those bastards.”

A pang lanced her heart. “What those men did to your mother was unpardonable, but not all Englishmen are like them. My husband is not like them.”

He roared and made a grab for her, but Jamie stayed his efforts. Father was nearly frothing at the mouth. “You slut! All these years stealing information and sending it to the British.”

Georgina sucked in a breath, and her gaze darted around in search of escape.

Jamie continued to restrain him. Father fought against his hold but at his age, he was no match for Jamie’s strength. “Do you know what the best part is, daughter?”

She met his gaze. “No, but I suspect you’ll tell me.”

He licked his lips like a dog savoring a tasty morsel. “You aren’t even married to the bastard.”

The ground went out from under her. She shoved herself to her feet. “Liar!”

“You stupid chit! You married him before you were twenty without my consent.” He gave a mocking bow. “And I’d sooner send the both of you to the devil than consent to my whore daughter marrying an Englishmen who is trying to destroy the Irish republic.”

Georgina folded her arms across her stomach, every muscle in her body tight with the ugly truth of his words. She’d never been married to Adam. She closed her eyes. How very glad he would be when he found out.

“No! Georgie!” Jamie barked.

Georgina’s eyes flew open.

Her heart froze.

Father leveled his pistol at her breast.

“How does it feel knowing you spread your legs for the enemy, all without the benefit of marriage?”

She’d always known he would eventually kill her but had hoped she would be brave when the time came. A shudder wracked her frame. Then another. And another.

In spite of all the misery she’d known, she would always choose life. She wanted to live, to see Adam one more time, to smell the salty Bristol sea air. She didn’t want to die alone on this warehouse floor. She held out a hand. “Please, Father.”

He slapped her across the cheek.

Georgina landed hard on her knees. Blood trickled from the corner of her split lip. She scrambled away, attempting to put distance between them.

Father laughed and kicked her in the small of her back.

Georgina’s body screamed with agony. “Please help me.”

Adam. God. Anyone.

Father pressed the pistol against her temple.

She closed her eyes, scenes playing out in her mind like a staged drama: Adam twirling her about his cell. Around the ballroom. Adam laying her tenderly on the bed, his eyes and body for her alone.

The crack of a gunshot filled her ears.

She touched her fingers to her head. There was no pain. Or blood.

Her eyes flew open.

The gun slipped from Father’s fingers as he crumpled to the floor.

Georgina’s gaze fixed on the small round hole in his head.

“I had to,” Jamie said, his voice hoarse. His gun remained pointed where her father had last stood.

“Georgina!” Adam cried.

Georgina fought back the cobwebs that cluttered her brain. Her eyes strayed back to Father’s dead body. Shouldn’t she feel more than this peculiar numbness?

“Georgina!”

There it was again. Adam’s voice.

Jerking her eyes away from Father’s body, she searched for Adam.

Except…
why would Adam be here? Adam didn’t love her. He didn’t even like her.

Adam charged forward. The emerald green of his irises sparkled with emotion.

Tears flooded her eyes, blinding her. “Why are you here?” she called out.

“I don’t want you,” Adam said. “Do you hear?”

Her heart plummeted. His words cut through her like the tip of a rapier but then he stuck a finger in Jamie’s direction. “I want her,” Adam finished.

Her ears were playing cruel tricks on her. In her plunge into madness, she had dreamed the possessive undertone to Adam’s pronouncement. Tears seeped down her cheeks and she let them fall, the salty drops filling her mouth, choking her with the bitter taste of regret.

I want to go back to the first day. I want to walk into his chamber and tell him who I truly am. I want to begin without this wall of lies between us.

Jamie’s already-fired pistol lay uselessly at his feet. “She’s mine,” he hissed.

Adam waved the gun in his hand at Jamie’s chest. “By God, I’m not walking out of here without her by my side. Leave, Hunter, while you can.”

A cold smile twisted Jamie’s handsome face into a mask of terror. “You’re going to have to kill me. Because I’m taking her. She belongs to me.” Jamie grappled for Georgina, and she shrank away from him.

Adam cocked his pistol…

Click
.

Jamie’s eyes widened. A demonic laugh ripped from his chest.

Adam tried again. The useless weapon clicked.

Georgina’s heart raced. She inched away from Jamie, seeming forgotten as he reached into his boot. Even in the dim warehouse, the silver handle of his pistol glinted.

He lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “I told you she’s mine, Markham,” he said, glee laced his words. He pointed his gun at Adam’s chest, and the world came to a screeching, silent halt.

Adam’s gaze alternated between her and the barrel of Jamie’s pistol. His throat bobbed up and down but was it fear? Regret?

“Forgive me, Georgina,” he said hoarsely. “It was my duty to protect you.”

Georgina shook her head, unable to speak past the emotion that clogged her throat. “No.” He couldn’t die. Not like this. Not at Jamie’s hands, attempting to rescue her. She didn’t want him to blame himself. Not if these were to be his final moments. “I love you, Adam.”

Adam closed his eyes. “Georgina—”

“Silence,” Jamie snapped, and waved the pistol from her to Adam as if he hadn’t yet made up his mind who he wanted dead first. “Don’t worry, Markham. I’ll take good care of your lovely wife. Wait a moment. How could I forget? She’s not your wife.”

Fury sparked in Adam’s emerald gaze. “What are you talking about?”

She inched closer, dimly registering Jamie’s words. So close. She was almost there.

Jamie spoke, making her freeze. “Ahh, but then you don’t know. Of course you don’t.” Jamie inclined his head, gesturing broadly at Georgina with his free hand. “Why, you aren’t married.”

Adam blanched. His skin went an ashen grey.

She’d not allow Jamie the twisted joy in repeating the whole sordid story. “I had not yet reached my majority when we wed. We required my father’s consent.”

Adam held her stare. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll marry again.”

A sob bubbled up from her throat. Why would he marry her? Why, when he hated her so?

Jamie roared, leveling his gun on Adam.

Then the world righted and began spinning only this time it was moving out of control, in fast-moving circles. Georgina shoved to her feet. “No,” she cried, tripping over skirts in her haste to get to Adam. She leaped in front of him.

The sharp retort of the pistol echoed off the warehouse rafters, followed by another, and another.

Georgina’s body jerked in stunned surprise. Oh God. She’d always imagined her father and Jamie receiving the justice they deserved, but to witness it, to see her father fall beneath the weight of the bullet, and now…this. Jamie dying before her eyes. A sharp twinge in her chest made breathing difficult.

Jamie clasped a hand to the blood blossoming on the front of his jacket as it turned the sapphire fabric black. “I love you,” he choked out. Blood spewed forth with his hideous pronouncement. He slumped to the ground, coughing and gurgling.

Georgina swayed, lightheaded from the sight of Jamie dying. A stabbing pain radiated out to her chest.

Adam took her against his side and pressed her face in his chest.

Georgina pulled back as Jamie pitched forward.

Dead.