The Earl of Morrey (The League of Rogues #13) - Lauren Smith Page 0,64
find if you don’t talk, and we’ll still get the information we want. Now where’s the woman?”
Adam blinked again. Pain radiated from his back in heavy waves. They would probably flay him open by the end. But he tried not to think about that; he forced his mind onto Letty. She must be on Tyburn’s land by now, if she had stayed near the road. He prayed she was safe. So long as the men who’d gone after her didn’t return triumphant, he could hold out hope.
“I do like it when someone makes it hard to get what I want.” Gent’s cold smile made Adam’s stomach turn. “Another five lashes.Pain is a special friend of mine.” The whip cracked even before Gent finished speaking.
Adam shouted with each blow. The men took turns whipping him, but Gent’s frustration was beginning to mount. Adam could see him pacing the length of the barn, growling at his men to strike harder, before finally, annoyed, he called a halt to the lashing. Gent produced a knife and made sure that Adam saw it.
“I warned you.” It was all he said before he started carving small lines in Adam’s back. Adam hadn’t been ready for that. He cried out at the pain. At some point, a flask was pressed to his lips. He tried to turn his head away.
“It’s brandy. Drink,” Gent commanded. “Drink, or it goes on your back.”
Brandy. God, I could use that. He drank deeply until the flask was pulled away.
Adam had always been strong, even as a boy, but this was a hell unlike anything he’d experienced before. It was even harder not to think, to blink past the stinging sweat that poured into his eyes. He sagged in his bonds as time seemed to speed away, leaving him in a hellish purgatory as he languished against the post.
Suddenly, a sweet voice intruded upon his listless, drifting thoughts.
“My love . . .” The sweet voice spoke in his ear. “You’re safe now.”
“I created a distraction, let loose their horses. I snuck into the barn to save you. It’s all right now. Tell me where we can go to be safe,” she pleaded.
His words slurred, and he tried to open his eyes but couldn’t. “Not . . . here. Can’t . . .” Why couldn’t he open his eyes?
“Where can we go to be safe? I can’t go on without you. They’ll be back any minute. Tell me where I should go.”
“Letty . . .”
“Yes?”
He saw her face in his mind, and then he heard his words. “You swore to me that you would do as I said when it matters.” Why didshe come back? “You shouldn’t be here.”
“But I don’t know where to go. Tell me where I should go. Tell me.” There was an edge to Letty’s voice now. Something felt off.
He struggled to open his eyes again. His lashes fluttered, and he saw the face close to his was not his wife’s, but a different young woman. The maid who had been serving drinks at the inn. Fire surged through his veins, and his muscles fluttered. Fear and rage rose within him, tempered only by the drug-addled confusion from the brandy. This wasn’t Letty. He wouldn’t speak, wouldn’t say a word.
“Ask him again.” Gent’s voice cut through Adam’s still-scattered thoughts. The girl caressed Adam’s cheek.
“Please, husband, tell me where to go so I can be safe—”
“Gent, this isn’t working,” someone snapped.
The maid was shoved away. “Take the lass back inside and see that she doesn’t tell anyone about this.”
Gent loomed large before Adam. Adam stared back at him, quivering with pain and rage as Gent assessed him. Gent finally shrugged and looked at the other men nearby awaiting orders.
“We don’t need him anyway. He’s only a guardian. We’ll find the woman’s location some other way. Take him into the woods and finish him.”
The rope around Adam’s wrists was loosened, and he collapsed, his knees hitting the hay-strewn floor of the stables. Hands jerked him up and dragged him out into the chilly night. The cold Scottish breeze drifted into his face, making him more alert than he had been before. Soon he was released, his body hitting the ground.
“He’ll be eaten by scavengers before anyone finds him,” one of the men carrying him said with a dark chuckle.
“Still, take no chances. Cut his throat.”
A foot pressed down on Adam’s back, digging into his wounds. He cried out as the