The ground went out from under her. She shoved herself to her feet. “Liar.”
“You stupid chit.” A black, ugly laugh bubbled past his lips. “You married him before you were twenty without my consent.” He gave a mocking bow. “And I’d sooner send the both of you to the devil than consent to my whore daughter marrying an Englishmen who is trying to destroy the Irish republic.”
Georgina folded her arms across her stomach, every muscle in her body tight with the ugly truth of his words. She’d never been married to Adam. She closed her eyes. How very glad he would be when he found out.
Jamie cried out. “No!”
Georgina’s eyes flew open and her heart froze. Her father leveled his pistol at her breast.
“How does it feel knowing you spread your legs for the enemy, all without the benefit of marriage?”
She’d always known he would eventually kill her but had hoped she would be brave when the time came. A shudder wracked her frame. Then another. And another.
In spite of all the misery she’d known, she would always choose life. She wanted to live, to see Adam one more time, to smell the salty Bristol sea air. She didn’t want to die alone on this warehouse floor. She held out a hand. “Please, Father.”
He slapped her across the cheek.
Georgina landed hard on her knees. Blood trickled from the corner of her split lip. She scrambled away, attempting to put distance between them.
Father laughed and kicked her in the small of her back.
Georgina’s body screamed with agony. She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek refusing to beg this man for mercy.
Adam. God. Anyone.
Father pressed the pistol against her temple.
She closed her eyes, scenes playing out in her mind like the one Drury Lane production she’d seen in her life: Adam twirling her about his cell. Around the ballroom. Adam laying her tenderly on the bed, his eyes and body for her alone.
The crack of a gunshot filled her ears.
She touched her fingers to her head. There was no pain. Or blood.
Her eyes flew open.
The gun slipped from Father’s fingers as he crumpled to the floor. Georgina’s gaze fixed on the small round hole in his head.
“I had to,” Jamie said, his voice hoarse. His gun remained pointed where her father had last stood.
“Georgina,” Adam cried.
Georgina fought back the cobwebs that cluttered her brain. Her eyes strayed back to Father’s dead body. Shouldn’t she feel more than this peculiar numbness?
“Georgina.”
There it was again. Adam’s voice. Jerking her eyes away from Father’s body, she searched for Adam. Except…why would Adam be here? Adam didn’t love her. He didn’t even like her.
Her husband charged forward. The emerald green of his irises glinted with emotion.
Tears flooded her eyes, blinding her. “Why are you here?” she called out.
“I don’t want you,” Adam said. “Do you hear?”
Her heart plummeted. His words cut through her like the tip of a rapier but then he stuck a finger in Jamie’s direction. “I want her,” Adam finished.
Her ears were playing cruel tricks on her. In her plunge into madness, she had dreamed the possessive undertone to Adam’s pronouncement. Tears seeped down her cheeks and she let them fall, the salty drops filling her mouth, choking her with the bitter taste of regret.
I want to go back to the first day. I want to walk into his chamber and tell him who I truly am. I want to begin without this wall of lies between us.
Jamie’s already-fired pistol lay uselessly at his feet. “She’s mine,” he hissed.
Adam waved the gun in his hand at Jamie’s chest. “By God, I’m not walking out of here without her by my side. Leave, Hunter, while you can.”
A cold smile twisted Jamie’s handsome face into a mask of terror. “You’re going to have to kill me. Because I’m taking her. She belongs to me.” Jamie grappled for Georgina and she shrank away from him.
Adam cocked his pistol…
Click.
Jamie’s eyes widened. A demonic laugh ripped from his chest.
Adam tried again. The useless weapon clicked.
Georgina’s heart raced. She inched away from Jamie, seemingly forgotten as he reached into his boot. Even in the dim warehouse, the silver handle of his pistol glinted.
He lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “I told you she’s mine, Markham,” he said, glee laced his words. He pointed his gun at Adam’s chest and the world came to a screeching, silent halt.
Adam’s gaze alternated between her and the barrel of Jamie’s pistol. His throat bobbed up and down but was it fear? Regret?
“Forgive me, Georgina,” he said hoarsely. “It was my duty to protect you.”
Georgina shook her head, unable to speak past the emotion that clogged her throat. “No.” He couldn’t die. Not like this. Not at Jamie’s hands, attempting to rescue her. She didn’t want him to blame himself. Not if these were to be his final moments. “I love you, Adam.”
Adam closed his eyes. “Georgina—”
“Silence,” Jamie snapped, and waved the pistol from her to Adam as if he hadn’t yet made up his mind who he wanted dead first. “Don’t worry, Markham. I’ll take good care of your lovely wife. Wait a moment. How could I forget? She’s not your wife.”
Fury sparked in Adam’s emerald gaze. “What are you talking about?”
She inched closer, dimly registering Jamie’s words. So close. She was almost there.
Jamie spoke, making her freeze. “Ahh, but then you don’t know. Of course you don’t.” Jamie inclined his head, gesturing broadly at Georgina with his free hand. “Why, you aren’t married.”
Adam blanched. His skin went an ashen gray.
She’d not allow Jamie the twisted joy in repeating the whole sordid story. “I had not yet reached my majority when we wed. We required my father’s consent.”
Adam held her stare. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll marry again.”
A sob bubbled up from her throat. Why would he marry her? Why, when he hated her so?
Jamie roared, leveling his gun on Adam.
Then the world righted and began spinning only this time it was moving out of control, in fast-moving circles. Georgina shoved to her feet. “No,” she cried, tripping over her skirts in her haste to get to Adam. She leaped in front of him.
The sharp retort of the pistol echoed off the warehouse rafters, followed by another, and another.
Georgina’s body jerked in stunned surprise. Oh God. She’d always imagined her father and Jamie receiving the justice they deserved, but to witness it, to see her father fall beneath the weight of the bullet, and now…this. Jamie dying before her eyes. A sharp twinge in her chest made breathing difficult.
Jamie clasped a hand to the blood blossoming on the front of his jacket as it turned the sapphire fabric black. “I love you,” he choked out. Blood spewed forth with his hideous pronouncement. He slumped to the ground, coughing and gurgling.
Georgina swayed, lightheaded from the sight of Jamie dying. A stabbing pain radiated out to her chest.
Adam took her against his side and pressed her face in his chest.
Georgina pulled back as Jamie pitched forward.
Dead.
Chapter 28