Dark Deceptions: A Regency and Medieval Collection of Dark Romances(31)

Adam fed him the same rote answer his superior Fitzmorris had drilled into him. “I was traveling. I spent time on the canals of Italy…”

“Fine,” Nick interjected. “Then what happened to you while you were there? You are a different man. I hardly recognize you.”

That made two of them, because Adam hardly recognized the half-savage he’d become.

His brother spoke haltingly. “Is this about a woman?”

Georgina—her cheeks rosy with mirth as he waltzed her around his prison cell—flooded his mind. God, the memory of her hurt worse than the physical abuse he’d suffered at Fox and Hunter’s hands. He needed to speak of her. “There was a woman.”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Ahh, I see.”

Adam didn’t want to sit here and listen to his older brother march out an array of inaccurate theories. “She married another man.” It wasn’t altogether untrue. Grace had married another.

“I’m so sorry, Adam.”

Adam took a step. His brother mimicked him. He stepped the other way. Nick did the same.

“I need a drink,” Adam said hoarsely. And he did. For the past months, his strength had been found at the bottom of a bottle. His need for the drink was a physical craving.

Nick placed a hand on his shoulder. “Enough. It is time you move on. We’ll get through this. I promise you.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he snapped. It would never be all right.

Not as long as Georgina is out there, alone and unprotected. Or worse…

His gut clenched at an image of her lifeless body.

Nick seemed unaware of the wicked fears ravaging Adam. He stroked his jaw with his thumb and forefinger. “I don’t expect you to tell me the truth, but I do think there is more to your surly behavior. You’ve never indulged in spirits like this. You are a different man. I suspect if I press you, all you’ll do is feed me more lies about canals and museums.”

Adam froze.

Nick sighed. “You need a diversion. Why don’t you take a mistress?”

Georgina’s face flashed behind his eyes. He sucked in a breath. The thought of betraying her memory by taking some nameless woman into his bed sickened him. “I don’t need a mistress.”

A small smile tilted one corner of Nick’s lips. “I wasn’t referring to you taking a mistress. I was referring to you finding something else to do with your time.” He glanced at the empty whiskey bottle on the table. “That is, something other than drinking and gaming.” Disapproval underlined his words.

He swiped a hand over his eyes. “I don’t need to be saved, Nick,” he growled, hating the lie that pounded at his breast. He did need saving, but it was not the kind his brother could help with. Adam had failed Georgina and nothing could make it right.

“I can help you, Adam.”

A denial sprung to his lips but he couldn’t force the words out. Adam blamed his blurred vision on the alcohol he’d consumed. “I missed you, Nick.”

And just like that long ago day of their childhood when Adam had been freed from the armoire, Nick folded him in his arms. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’re safe.”

Adam trembled. It was like the faint rumblings of a distant thunderstorm that grew, and grew, until it opened up into a fantastic display that cracked the sky and shook the ground. He sobbed. Tears poured from him like a deluge.

“G-god, I-I missed you,” he choked out between the great, gasping gulps.

Nick just held him and allowed him to cry.

Adam cried for the loss of the simple, uncomplicated love he’d known with Grace. He cried for the time he would never be able to recapture. He cried for the abuse he’d suffered at Fox and Hunter’s hands.

And he cried for Georgina. He cried until his body ached. Until there was nothing left but a shell of the boy who’d been locked away in an armoire.

Nick ushered him over to the leather sofa and helped him down. Then, as if he were a valet, and not the powerful Earl of Whitehaven, he proceeded to tug Adam’s boots free.

“We’ll sort this out, little brother. I promise.” Nick turned to leave.

He couldn’t be alone. “Please.” He held a hand out. “Don’t.

His brother returned to his side. “I’ll stay with you.”

Adam closed his eyes. “There was a woman.” He yawned.

The leather wingback chair opposite Adam groaned in protest, indicating that Nick had taken a seat. “Oh?”

“Her name was Georgina.”





Emmet is concerned by the apparent leak of information. The persons suspected of the leak are known as The Brethren of the Lords—a group of English nobles who are acting as spies for the Crown. A plan is in place to determine the identity of other members of The Brethren.



Signed,

A Loyal British Subject





Chapter 9




A dull pounding filled Adam’s ears. He squinted into the bright sunlight and glared up at the towering fa?ade of the imposing white structure. When he’d awakened several hours ago, he’d convinced himself he’d imagined the emotional exchange with his brother, the haunting memories of Georgina, and the promise to join Nick at Middlesex Hospital where the earl served on the Board of Directors.