caught her by the hair, and wrenched her back against him, using her as a human shield.
The cold kiss of the pistol against her temple matched the metallic taste of fear in her mouth.
“Either we both get out of this alive. Or neither of us will,” he yelled to the unseen gunman before whispering to her. “Not that you deserve to live.”
He dragged her so his back was against the stone wall, clutching her to his front with an arm locked around her neck.
Any tighter and she’d choke.
“I didn’t kill George,” she panted, both hands pulling at his arm to keep her throat from being compressed. “I swear. There’s no reason to hurt me.”
“I’ve known that all along, you idiot cunt. Who do you think plunged the knife through his neck?”
Shock sent Prudence’s limbs completely slack.
It made sense. William had found her. He’d been so keen to point the finger at her.
Because it got him off, scot-free.
“He was…your—your closest friend!” she cried.
“The friend who fucked my wife.” Hatred dropped like acid from his words.
“What?”
“Don’t be too sore at Honoria,” he said in a voice as dry as sawdust. “She had her scruples. When I told her I was going to set up a match between you and George, she protested most ferociously. Until finally I sussed out why. She was bending over for him at least three times a month. It disgusted and disturbed her, to think of her lover fucking her sister.”
Prudence fought for breath, her panic flaring to a fever pitch as they neared the doors out to the docks. Honoria? And George? The betrayal of her sister sliced through her worse than any pain George might have caused her.
“I told her if you ever found out about them, I’d ruin you in a way she hadn’t yet conceived of. And she knew me well enough to believe me.”
“But, I’ve done nothing to you,” Pru said in a broken voice.
He’d finally made it to the far corner of the warehouse, and he dared to peek up to see if he could open the door without a hand blowing off.
The air remained still but for the clamor outside. “All wars have collateral damage, I’m afraid.” His voice echoed off the cold stone walls. “Besides, you deserve it now. That bloody husband of yours has been getting in my way. Confiscating my goods. Arresting my brokers and interrupting my supply chain all to clear your name.”
“The cocaine,” she realized aloud. “You were smuggling it in my father’s ships?”
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “I care not for the stuff,” he said. “I was going to boil the frog slowly, establish the vulgar shipments to smuggle in goods, make a tidy fortune. Then, tip off the police so the Baron would be arrested. George too, as I forged his name on the papers. And I’d walk away with your father’s wealth as well.”
“But you killed him instead? On our wedding day?”
He made a noise of derision. “Did you know, by the time you were to marry, George was actually besotted with you? That he was thinking of trying at being a decent man. That’s when I knew, he didn’t get to claim happiness. None of them get to. And I ended him. Now open the fucking door.”
She reached out and fumbled with the latch, her fingers weak and cold from lack of blood. Wait, she paused. “None of whom?”
“The men my slag of a wife fucked beneath my own roof!” he roared.
Prudence froze. “The Stags of St. James,” she whispered.
“Whores!” Panic and rage, it seemed, was making him maniacal. “My wife paid whores. They defamed her. They turned her into a creature of vile lusts and tempted her to stray. Men like them, like George, cunning and handsome and charismatic.”
“So you…murdered them?”
“If only to make her pay twice. Thrice, even. She had bruises where no one can see. She has wounds that will never heal. I made sure of it. But still she wouldn’t keep to my bed. She didn’t obey me. She didn’t fear me! And so, she forced my hand. I’ve put every man who touched my wife into the ground. As a warning to her…she has no ground to run to, not even after we make our getaway. I’ll come for her. I will—”
“Why not take me now?” The door swung open, and the gun ground into Prudence’s head with devastating force.
At the sound of Honoria’s voice, William cinched his arm so tight, little stars danced in Prudence’s