Cloaked in Danger by Jeannie Ruesch Page A

are lying!” Her father would never hurt a woman. He would never... With a cry of rage, she flew at him, fingers curled into such tight fists, her nails bit into her flesh. “You killed him! How could you kill him?”
    “Stop this,” he commanded when she landed a blow to his cheek.
    “You killed an innocent man!” She had turned into a screaming, writhing ball of anger.
    “Be still!” he roared.
    Finally, he clamped his arms around her and dragged her against him, until his face was so close to hers she could feel his breath. “Listen to me.” He dropped his arms, letting her stumble back from him. “Thomas held a gun to my sister’s head. The man I allowed to marry her—hell, I gave him my bloody blessing. He made a mockery of their marriage—he used her. Then he destroyed her life, her spirit and almost killed her. I shot him, Aria, and I’d do it again. I killed him to protect my sister. I don’t know who he is to you, but he was not a good man. He caused a tremendous amount of pain to a lot of people.”
    Aria felt dizzy from the wall of undecipherable emotions that hit her, and she pressed her palms against the sides of her head. “You said you killed him. You said you killed my father.”
    Shock swept over Adam’s face. “I said I shot Thomas .”
    His door flung open. An older woman stood there, tying her robe around her waist, her long hair about her shoulders.
    “Adam, what was that awful screaming?” Blythe, Adam’s sister, appeared behind her, a candle in her hands.
    “What is the meaning of this?” the older woman, whom Aria assumed was his mother, asked with a hard edge. “Adam, what have you done?”
    The world shrank to the few steps between her and Adam and his family, and Aria had never been more keenly aware of her lack of clothing. Adam had let go, and she looked frantically along the floor for her gown. Something, anything to cover up.
    “This is not what it appears,” Adam said, which sounded so foolish.
    It was, in fact, far worse.
    Without a word, Blythe brushed past their mother and hurried into Adam’s closet. Seconds later, she came out with a thick navy robe and handed it to Aria.
    She slipped arms into the robe and wrapped it around her. The subtle masculine scent that clung to Adam clung also to his robe. Without thinking, she took in a short sniff, the scene calming her for some ungodly reason, then turned to Adam. “Please tell me what you know.”
    Lady Merewood moved to Aria’s side, put an iron arm about her shoulders, and directed her out. “Blythe, please bring Miss Whitney’s clothing into my room. She will get dressed there, and then we will meet downstairs.”
    Aria looked back frantically. “I need an answer.”
    Adam was shaking his head. “I haven’t seen Gideon Whitney since before he left months ago. I was in Gloucestershire in March, with the rest of my family. I thought you were—”
    “That will be enough.” Adam’s mother firmly closed the door in Adam’s face.
    “No!” She wrenched free. “I can’t—”
    “You will keep your silence right now,” his mother said in a firm, even voice, “so as not to wake the children in this house. I do not wish them to see this.”
    Aria flushed. As far as Adam’s mother and likely the entirety of London was concerned, Aria had done an atrocious thing by standing in Adam’s bedroom. Add to that her state of undress, and she was branded a whore. But that look on Adam’s face when she’d asked about her father...it had seemed genuine, as if he really hadn’t known what she was talking about.
    Instead, he’d been keeping a secret of his own. He didn’t know where her father was.
    A current of bright, lurid pain flashed, blinded her. All of this time...everything was for naught.
    She’d been chasing nothing but air.
    But the earl had not killed her father.
    But Merewood had killed a man. Was that the secret he’d been keeping all this time? Is that why he had refused to answer any of her