Page 46 of Keeper of Secrets

“Please,” she whispered, knowing that it was a foolish thing to say.

His gaze only grew harder.“He told you about me, your duke?”

She shook her head, not looking into his eyes, but staring at a spot on the far wall.The room was sparse, the walls dirty.Fear clutched her heart.

“Nothing?”He leaned over, gripping her chin, his hot breath blowing across her face.“He didn’t warn you that Adam was hunting him?”

Adam?This was the man Ryker thought she was involved with for some reason?And had Ryker said he was hunting him?She forgot the pain as she tried to concentrate.“But…” Her tongue darted out to lick her parched lips, but she instantly pulled it back in when his gaze caught the movement, his eyes darkening.“But why?”

He sneered down at her.“The whole lot of them is full of sin.They are supposed to be our leaders, the men who provide for the masses.What do they do?Waste themselves in liquor, and games, and whores.The filthiest sinners of them all and they deserve to be punished.To be scourged.”

He shoved her face back down, her head bouncing off the bed.He let go of her ankle as well, and for a moment she breathed a sigh of relief until he shrugged off his coat.More fear made her shrink as far back as she could as she desperately searched for an exit.

“Look at you,” he continued, pulling at the knot in his cravat.“Your body on display, participating in vile acts in meeting rooms.Playing a whore for him.”

A gasping sob tore from her lips.

“Please,” she begged again as he yanked off his vest and then began tugging at his shirt.“Whatever you think of me, please don’t hurt me.”Her voice shook and broke as terror threatened to overwhelm her senses.This couldn’t be how she lost her innocence.

He tugged the shirt over his head and dropped it into the wooden chair in the corner before he crossed to a small chest.Her eyes were wide, unable to look away as he pulled out a small whip from its depths.

A tremble so violent that it made her teeth rattle wracked through her.Was he going to rape her?Whip her first?

She realized tears were streaming down her cheeks as he held the whip straight out.It didn’t have one throng but several, balls replacing the crackers.

Her breath pushed out in jagged little huffs, her eyes so wide and still watering of their own volition.

And then he lowered his hand.For a moment she thought he might be relaxing but he only prepared for the upswing, his arm tensing as the whip arched through the air.

Her gaze flew shut then, her body tensing for the hit.

But it never came.

The whip still whistled through the air, she heard it hit, the deep thud of flesh being pummeled filling the room.

Her eyes flew open as the whip moved through the air.But Adam didn’t hesitate, with startling strength, the whip cracked through the air again, slicing into the flesh of his own back.This time she heard his grunt of pain.

Her own gasping sob escaped her lips.

He hit himself two, three, four more times before he looked at her again.

“I’m repenting,” he said to a question she hadn’t asked.“Lustful thoughts.”And his eyes raked over her again.

He stepped over to the side of the bed, the whip hovering over her, close enough that despite its black leather, she could see the shine of deep dark red on the individual balls.His blood…

“You should repent too, Chloe Fairchild.Pain will set you free from your sins.”And then he raised the whip again.

This time, she couldn’t confine her panic ripping through her veins, and she screamed, even while knowing her fear wouldn’t stop the madman.

* * *

Ryker reachedthe delipidated inn and tossed the promised shillings at the driver.“Stay here and I’ll give you another twenty.”From a distance, Ryker had seen Adam’s carriage stop in front of this place, seen him carry the unconscious Chloe through the doors.He was only a minute behind.

But as he entered the inn, he looked at the peg board on the wall.Keys for rooms two, four, five, and eight were missing.

Into which one had Adam taken Chloe?

“Can I help you?”An older woman in a threadbare apron, and frazzled hair coming out of her bonnet, asked in a thick cockney accent.

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