Page 66 of Duke of Seduction

“God, I think you broke my nose,” Luke groaned.

“Not yet,” Ezra said pointedly, “but we will break every bone in your body very slowly and painfully until you tell us what you know.”

“Veryslowly,” Duncan agreed. Realizing that he needed to demonstrate to Luke what he meant, he reached for Luke’s right hand and seized his pointer finger. He gave it a violent twist until the bone snapped and Luke screamed from the pain.

“Then we will kill you.” Morgan promised, his blood singing at the thought.

“Fine! Fine! Fine! Oh, God, fine, just let me go!” Luke squealed.

Duncan glanced down at the man’s hand in his palm and caressed it almost lovingly. Then, with the quick twist, he also broke Luke’s middle finger at the knuckle and let go. Luke screamed again in pain, but Morgan clamped his hand over his mouth to muffle the sound.

“Just a warning of what will happen if you try to lie or hide anything from us,” Duncan said with a shrug, taking a step back.

“Talk.” Morgan commanded through gritted teeth. “Now.”He scraped his hand roughly across Luke’s mouth.

“I did not want her. I never wanted her. I mean Iwantedher in the way every man in the ton does,” Luke started to blurt out, his words slurred, rushed and unfiltered, “but I do not want to marry her.”

“Then why did you ask for her hand?” Morgan roared, his voice echoing through the empty street.

He did not know where it came from, but the ferocity poured from him with a vengeance. Luke flinched but answered.

“M-my f-father!” He blurted out, turning as far away from Morgan’s murderous gaze as possible. “H-he set all this up!”

Morgan’s mind suddenly flashed back to the letter Mr. Varley had brought him, and something clicked in his mind. The letter had not belonged to Luke after all.

“This is not the time to be vague, boy,” Ezra hissed, his fingers snaking out to seize Luke’s ear in a painful grip.

“I cannot tell you that,” Luke huffed, his chest beginning to heave in panic once more. “I have begged him to acknowledge me for years. He said this was the only way he would do it. Please, you have no idea what it is like to be ignored by your father, to be cast out of title and home for being a bastard.

“Look, I will stop giving her the tonic, I swear to you. And she can come to London as much as she wants. But I cannot stop this ruse. I need her.”

Morgan’s hand grabbed Luke’s fractured index finger and gave it a quick snap at the top knuckle. A silent scream welled in the man’s chest, his mouth fell agape and his eyes fluttered as though he was about to faint. Morgan slapped him with an open palm, reviving him before he could pass out.

“You are going to tell us who your father is and then you are going to tell us what you have been giving to Helena and why,” he commanded as Luke let out a low, agonizing groan.

“Reuben Knight,” he finally croaked. “He said we needed the girl for insurance. I do not know more than that, I swear!”

The rage eating Morgan alive suddenly ceased as all the clues came together. Reuben had hated them all long before his niece Barbara had married Ambrose. When they married he had openly despised the union, so why would he instruct his son to marry Ambrose’s sister?

“The Whittler is your father.” Morgan said.

The pain in Luke’s eyes was replaced by pure surprise.

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“What the bloody hell?” Duncan roared.

“George was telling the truth,” Morgan muttered, recalling the man’s plea as he was taken away. He had warned them. George Nicholson was arrested one year ago but he was not The Whittler.

“We have got to get to Ambrose and Helena, and someone needs to find Reuben,” Ezra stated, a promise of death evident in his somber voice.

“They are together now,” Luke stated, his eyes wide with panic. It was clear that he no longer wanted anything but to be set free. “At Ambrose’s estate. Having dinner. I was not allowed to attend.”

“Then your fatherdoesknow how foolish you are,” Duncan growled. “Come on, let us go.”

“Not yet,” Morgan said, turning back to Luke with an eerie calm. “This tonic. What is it?”

A look of guilt passed over Luke’s face as he tried to escape Morgan’s commanding gaze.

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