Adam shouted the words again, tossing them over his swollen lips. “She’s just a woman. Nothing to this.”
“Nothin’ but a witness.”
The voice was a confirmation. Nacknel, a ship captain, Uncle’s fixer.Was the lumberer in the back Johnson, Uncle’s partner in his firm?
Adam seized a breath. Emboldened like his father, he jerked up. “How dare you? I’m the son of a peer. The wages of sin is your death. Don’t add to your judgment by killing innocents.”
Someone shoved him, but the laughter had stopped.
There were at least one or two men who might fear judgment.
Soulden wiped his hands of Adam’s blood. “Finish him.”
“What’s the matter, Uncle? Not man enough to do it yourself?”
“The ledgers, boy. We know you copied them. Where are they?”
“Don’t know what you mean, Uncle. Beating me or her won’t make me remember.”
Dark hair and eyes, the man shouldn’t look anything like Adam’s father, but he did.
Uncle spit on him.
Adam couldn’t wipe his face. The ropes to his neck kept him from even brushing against his jacket. The high-collared knot of his cravat was probably the only thing keeping him from suffocating. “Your fellow embezzler. Show your face. Let me know who’s to blame.”
Soulden picked up a stick and cracked it across Adam’s back. “Tie him good, Nacknel. I don’t want to hear his voice again.”
“Lord Wycliff!” Adam shouted the name three times. “He’ll pay a ransom if you let us live. The truth will out.”
Adam lunged again. He was thin, but strong like a lion. He headbutted one of them. The man fell to the ground.
Curses and orders ensued.
Wrenching an arm free, Adam scrambled.Pow.He punched one man in the nose then rammed closer to Ruth, almost near enough to wrench her away.
His effort was for naught.
A henchman seized him again, the ropes growing tighter and tighter about his neck, dragging him back.
The distance between Adam and Ruth was like a river, wide and flowing with his blood.
Another punch landed on his gut, doubling him over.
That poor organ, that wise organ. He should’ve listened.
Lord, he knew better.
Ruth’s happiness had been his weakness. Now it would be his death.
Blam.A knock upside his head spun him to the left.
Adam coughed then vomited.
Swoop.
He wouldn’t beg.
He refused to scream. “To hell with you all.”
