Dark Deceptions: A Regency and Medieval Collection of Dark Romances(8)

Adam’s brow wrinkled. “Those are unusual words for a young woman. Women like you are supposed to be starry-eyed and dreaming of a handsome, young man to carry you away.”

Bitterness made her laugh. “My dreams of fairy tale endings have long come and gone. There is no such thing as love.” At least not for me.

He didn’t counter her words. Instead, he eyed her with that warm concern that was chipping away at the defensive wall she’d constructed around her heart. He was dangerous to the self-protection she’d spent the better part of her life perfecting.

Georgina scrambled to her feet so quickly she upended her chair. She bit the inside of her cheek hard, drawing blood. She bound his hands and retrieved the sketchpad. “I have to go.”

“Georgina!”

She raced from his room and down the stairs, sinking into a heap at the bottom step. She dropped her head into her hands. “What are you doing?” she mouthed into her palms.

The longer Adam Markham remained in her father’s lair, the more she had to confront her own weaknesses in preventing his evil. This man, another stranger required her help in attaining his freedom. To not aid him would ultimately mean his death. Georgina captured her lower lip between her teeth. How could she manage to free him while taking care to avoid her father’s retribution? Ah God help her. She could not fail. Not again. Not as she had before.

Her body trembled as the image of the stranger killed by her father’s hand slipped into her mind’s eye. He’d been the one to give her the contact information for key figures in the Home Office. In the end, Georgina had been unable to help him. She had sworn she’d never again be responsible for another man’s death. Georgina folded her arms tight across her midsection as the stranger’s face took shape—only this time it was Adam on the floor. Adam’s chest painted red with blood. Adam’s—

“What’s the matter with you?”

She picked her head up and stared at her father’s corpulent form. He stood over her, a dark frown etched on his face. She’d be damned if he saw just how much his presence unnerved her. He’d always taken a perverse delight in her fear.

Georgina schooled her features. “Forgive me, but watching a man suffer needlessly doesn’t sit well with me.” She rose to her feet and faced him.

Father chortled so deeply he broke into a fit of coughing. His rotund frame shook under the depth of his amusement.

Gooseflesh dotted her skin. How could she share the same blood as this loathsome creature?

His bushy, white brows dipped. “You got that look in your eyes, Georgie.”

Georgina couldn’t imagine her father knew her well enough to recognize any kind of look about her. “What look is that, Father?”

“The one that reminds me how you betrayed us in the past.” Georgina did not answer fast enough for his liking and he launched into a stinging diatribe. “Did you forget about the soldiers who raped your grandmother and then slit her throat? Are those the people you are loyal to, daughter?”

Her heart ached for the faceless woman she’d never known, but Mr. Markham was alive now. “Mr. Markham is not guilty of those crimes, Father.”

He slapped her hard. Blood filled her mouth where her teeth cut the inside of her cheek, and stars danced behind her eyes. She fought the urge to cradle her face, too proud to show him the hurt he’d caused. But she’d be damned if she allowed him to see even a smidgeon of the pain he’d caused.

Black rage danced in his eyes, giving him the look of a feral animal. He jabbed a finger in her direction. “You’ll do what I tell you to do!” His rough hands closed painfully on her shoulders. “Now listen to me. You will make that bastard upstairs fall in love with you.”

A haze of confusion descended. “You want me to what?”

“Stupid girl,” he muttered. “We’ve tried beating the truth out of him. We’ve gotten nowhere. I want you to find out who his leader is. I want the names of all the men in his organization. They are the ones hunting down our members. We need to get to them before they get to us.” A heinous smile tilted the corner of his lips and chilled her through.

Now it made sense—father’s willingness to trust her with Adam even after she’d set his last prisoner free. She folded her arms and attempted to rub warmth into them. “And if I say no?”

Father’s lips turned up in a black smile. “If you do, I’ll let Jamie have at you.”

Ice filled her veins. Having born witness to enough of his sins, she didn’t doubt that vile pledge.

“Come, gel. You think I don’t see the way he’s panting after you? Why do you think he hasn’t had you yet?”

Only, she’d believed her father at least valued her enough as a daughter to preserve her honor. Apparently, there were no redeeming aspects about him. He was a monster. Didn’t you already know that? Haven’t you witnessed the lengths he will go to achieve his goals? “Even with what happened to your mother, you would do that to me, your own daughter?”

He leaned close, fury dancing in his eyes. “I made a pledge to see Ireland liberated.”

She gritted her teeth in thinly veiled hatred. Could she betray Mr. Markham to save herself from Jamie? “And how do you propose I make your captive fall in love with me?” The achingly beautiful woman in the sketchpad surfaced in her memory.