The Earl of Morrey (The League of Rogues #13) - Lauren Smith Page 0,63

similar fashion, but he stopped short when he saw the pistol in the man’s hand.

Never in his life had he felt more the fool. He was so far north in Scotland, he had dared to relax his guard. He’d assumed they would be safe this close to Tyburn’s land, and he’d left his pistol in their coach. All he had was a small, flat blade tucked in his boot, too far out of reach.

“No sudden moves, eh?” the man warned.

Adam stared at him, not saying a word. The man he’d hit slowly came around as two more men entered the room. None of them held Letty captive, however, so he could only pray that she’d escaped. He studied the men, assessing whether he might be able to take them all on at the right time. They weren’t hired men from rookeries, not entirely. Those men usually tended to be unshaven, gruff, and the smell that came off them would be enough to subdue a man on its own. These men were clean shaven, decently dressed, and were certainly doing well enough in their current line of work to look as they did. That meant whoever they worked for was successful too.

“The woman escaped. Jordan and Derek are searching the stables. She can’t have gotten far.”

The face of the man who spoke was familiar, but it took Adam a moment to recognize him. With his tall build, light-brown hair, square jaw, and deep-set eyes . . .

“I remember you,” he told the man. “Carlton House. Dressed as a footman. Whose lapdog are you?”

The man’s black eyes hardened. He flexed his hands menacingly. “Take him to the stables and string him up.”

Adam decided to see what sort of men he was dealing with. “You would dare do that to me? I am a peer of the realm, the Earl of Morrey.”

The fauxfootman looked aghast. “My humble apologies, sir. String him up politely, lads.”None of the men seemed intimidated, so they all knew what kind of business they found themselves in, which didn’t bode well for Adam.

Two of the men grabbed Adam by the arms and hauled him through the back door of the inn and out into the night. Luck had abandoned him. If he had been taken through the main taproom, he could have called for those loyal to Tyburn to come to his aid.

Another man rushed out of the barn. “Gent, the woman rode out on a horse a few minutes ago. Sayer and Marley went after her.”

“Good, they’ll catch her,” Gent said.

Adam burned Gent’s face into his memory. Though he was clearly in charge, he worked for another. Adam was left with little time to puzzle out who, however, as he was shoved against one of the wooden posts inside the barn, his coat and shirt ripped from him so he was bare from the chest up. His hands were bound, and the rope was tossed over a beam above his head and pulled tight, stretching him up until he was forced to stand on the tip of his toes. Pain lanced down his body, but he held his scream deep inside.

One of the men pulled a coiled whip off a nail on a nearby post, and Adam closed his eyes. This wasn’t going to be easy. But he would hold his tongue for king, country, and most importantly, Letty.

“I don’t expect you to tell me where she went,” Gent said with a casual menace. “You’ll need some convincing first.” Gent nodded at the man behind Adam who held the whip.

“Five lashes to start,” he ordered.

Adam allowed his body to relax, knowing that any tension in his muscles would only add to the pain. It didn’t make the moment any less brutal when he heard the whip whistle through the air a split second before it struck his back. He hissed and arched in pain, waiting for the next strike. The blows seemed to last forever. When the man finally stopped, Adam’s mind had grown foggy with pain.

“Now—I think you are ready for some questions.” Gent grabbed Adam’s head by his hair and jerked his face up from where he’d let it drop against the beam to rest.

Adam blinked, trying to master the pain radiating through him.

“Where’s the woman?” Gent asked.

Letty’s face appeared so clearly in his mind that it shocked him back into a stronger mental state. He would not yield, not if her life depended on him.

“We won’t leave much of a corpse behind for anyone to