“Swear it to me.”
Annoyance tightened her features.“You know I can’t do that anymore than you would be able to.However, I’ll admit I shouldn’t have gone to Wrengate’s without telling you.I’ll also promise to be more careful with my own safety in future.”
It wasn’t nearly enough but he knew it was all he would get.She was a trained spy.A woman raised to engage in battle, not sit in a parlor and knit.It was what made her his perfect match, but damn it all, it would also be the thing that made him go grey before he reached his next birthday.
He muttered a curse and raked his hair with his fingers.A gentle knock at the door alerted him to Murry’s return.The valet entered with the meat he’d collected from the kitchen and helped Samantha place it against her knee.
“Please send for Doctor Moore at once,” Adrian told Murry.“Mrs.Croft needs to be examined.”
“That’s really not necessary,” Samantha said.
“I disagree.”Adrian sent Murry a firm look, and the valet left to see to the task.Returning his attention to his stubborn wife, he said, “Tell me about the men who attacked you.”
Maybe he could hunt them down and give them the thrashing they deserved for daring to hurt her.
“I only got a good look at one of them and the darkness obscured his features.But I could tell he was young and beautiful in a way that made my skin crawl.Honestly, if Lucifer walks among us, that man is what I’d imagine he looks like.”She sucked in a breath and released it as she adjusted the slab of meat.“He was also quick on his feet.Managed to block me before I was able to push my blade into his gut.That takes excellent reflexes and skill, so he’s not a simple gutter-rat who crawled out of the slums in the hope of usurping power.”
The weight on Adrian’s shoulders bore down even harder.“What makes you think he wants power?”
“Because of the message he asked me to deliver.”She turned her head to meet his gaze more directly.‘“Tell your husband Finn O’Leary has come to Town and he’s planning to stay.”’
Time slowed to a halt at those words.Adrian couldn’t move.Hell, he could barely breathe.
Samantha arched a brow.“Looks like it might be your turn to come clean with me.Who is Finn O’Leary exactly?”
“Um…” He drew a deep breath, cleared his throat, and flexed his fingers.“I need a drink.”
“Pour one for me as well.”
“Right.”He crossed to the sideboard and paused, his mind filling with memories.Horrible ones he’d boxed away years ago.They rose to the surface now – a humbling reminder that deeds from the past could easily come back to haunt you.
“Adrian?”
He scrubbed his jaw and blinked, forced himself to reach for the crystal decanter.Liquid splashed into the awaiting tumblers.A slight tremor in his right hand made it spill as he set that first glass to his lips and drank.Brandy flowed down his throat, forging a hot path that helped calm his nerves.He re-filled the glass, then picked both up and offered one to Samantha.
She frowned at him.“I don’t like that look in your eyes.Considering some of the things you’ve witnessed – what I know you have done – it troubles me greatly to see you unravel in response to O’Leary’s name.”
Adrian sank to a crouch before her and placed one hand over the slab of meat she was holding.“Is this helping?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
He sighed.“I don’t even want to know how that man managed to find you in some dark lane as you ran from Wrengate.”That it had been so damn easy for O’Leary to confront her was what terrified Adrian most.It made him feel unsafe for the first time since he was a child, when he’d feared his father’s mistreatment of his mother.
“He may have been watching our house and seen me leave, though tracking me would have been hard since I kept to the rooftops.He and his colleague would have had to be swift on their feet.”
“And capable of avoiding your detection.”
“That might not have been much of a challenge.My focus was on getting to Wrengate House, not on the possibility someone might follow me there or wait for me to re-emerge.”
“He may have had information that helped him put two and two together when your paths crossed by chance.If he’s done his research, he’ll know I married a woman who’s capable of holding her own against other men at Reed’s.He’ll be aware of the part you played in helping me escape from the prison transport and later clearing my name.”
“But you’re guessing?”
Adrian took a sip of his drink and set his glass on the floor beside him.“Truth is I don’t know Finn O’Leary.Never met him before in my life.”
“But—”
“Michael O’Leary, however, was a very important business associate of my father’s some…twenty years ago.A powerful Irishman who built his own empire from the ground up.”Unlike the Crofts for whom it had taken generations of hard work and increasingly underhanded deals.Michael O’Leary, by contrast, had gone straight into smuggling and counterfeiting as soon as the chance to do so availed itself.
