“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.
“I don’t care what you do. Just do it.”
Georgina slid her gaze away. Jamie would violate her. She knew that, knew it with a sick sense of inevitability. The part of her deep down, the part bent on self-preservation, embraced the promise of safety her father dangled before her. She closed her eyes and saw the hard angular planes of Adam’s face, a face too beautiful for words. She saw his long limbs, imagined them twined with hers in thoughts no good, respectable woman should ever have. Her pulse fluttered in remembrance of his thumb stroking the soft skin of her neck. Georgina forced her eyes open. “I won’t do it,” she said in hushed tones. “I’ll care for him, I’ll feed him, but I won’t play this game of treachery.”
Her father growled and took a step toward her.
Georgina’s chin ticked up a notch. She held his flinty stare.
He cursed and spit on the floor. “You’ll do what I tell you to do.”
She wasn’t foolish enough to believe the matter concluded.
“Get up there and care for him. Jamie is untying him now.” He jabbed another finger at her chest. “He is only unbound when one of us is present.” A hard nudge between her shoulder blades propelled her feet forward. “I don’t like keeping him around this long. As soon as I get the information we need, I can get rid of him.”
Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. She swallowed several times before managing to squeeze the words out. “Get rid of him?”
“Don’t worry yourself with that.”
Within moments, Georgina found herself staring at an unbound Adam Markham.
The door closed, the lock settling into place with an ominous click.
Adam’s frame unfurled was more impressive than anything she could have imagined. He towered like the god Apollo, a golden warrior. Her heart missed a beat.
“You are taller than I’d imagined.” She flinched.
Blast it! Shut your mouth, Georgina.
His lips twitched. “You are a tiny thing.”
A startled laugh escaped her. That was the first time she had ever been referred to as tiny. She held up the leather folio in her hands. “I’ve brought you this.”
He crossed the room in three long strides and Georgina panicked. She dropped the sketchpad and took a step backwards. Then another. Until her back met the wall. Her heart thumped wildly.
He froze. “You don’t think I would hurt you?”
“No, I…” She let the words trail off. “Desperate men say and do desperate things.”
Adam studied her. Silence stretched out before them and then he walked toward her. She studied the slow rise and fall of his chest, the indecipherable expression in his eyes as he came to a stop. He reached to caress her reddened cheek. “Who did this?” Barely suppressed violence underlay the whispered question.
Georgina relished the gentleness of his caress. Never had a man touched her with such tenderness. “Please,” she rasped.
…don’t stop touching me.
She was halfway to begging him to hold her in a way no one ever had.
He dropped his hand back to his side as though he’d been burned. “Forgive me,” he murmured.
She wanted to weep at the loss of his touch.
“It was them, wasn’t it?”
She nodded, grateful someone loathed the two men as much as she did.
A growl climbed up his throat and it was too much. This expression of someone caring about her welfare. About her. She clenched her eyes shut, willing back tears. He could not be allowed to see her weakness. A drop slipped down her cheek. Then another. Finally a torrent of long-suppressed grief poured out.
He groaned and pulled her into his arms. She recoiled, but Adam stroked the back of her head and held her to him with a gentle strength. “Shh,” he whispered against her temple.
She sobbed against his chest, this man her father had asked her to betray. She selfishly took all the comfort and support he offered until her tears soaked the front of his rough cambric shirt.
Adam caressed the strands of her hair. “Shh,” he whispered. “They are not worth your tears.”
Except she didn’t cry for them. She cried for the little girl who’d been beaten and forgotten. She cried at the unfairness of being dependent on a man to survive. She cried for Adam, who was as trapped as she was.
They stood that way until her tears drew to a shuddery halt.
Georgina wiped her eyes, suddenly feeling very foolish for her humiliating display of emotion. “Forgive me.”
Adam brushed away a loose curl that hung over her eyes. “You are a brave woman. I meant what I said. If you free me, I will help you.”
Suddenly it was very important that Adam understood.
“There was another man,” she whispered. “I freed him and he…” She squeezed her eyes shut “He paid with his life. And I paid the price, too.” Her father and Jamie had dragged her from the room and beat her until she’d passed out.
Adam cupped her face between his hands. His eyes met hers. “I would rather die than remain in this place.”
His words transported her back to that dark day, when the last captive had lain dead on her kitchen floor. She would not lead him to his death. “No. You don’t mean that,” she rasped.
Adam steadied her. “What is it?”
She shook her head. Her breath came in deep, gasping pants.
He swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed. “What is it?” he whispered.
Adam held her and stroked smooth circles over her back. Georgina wanted it to go on forever. “Thank you. No one has ever…” Her pride prevented her from finishing her sentence.
He frowned. “No one has ever held you? What about your—”
Georgina tripped over the web of lies she’d already spun. To stop the question on his lips, she did the unthinkable. She leaned up to kiss him.