Page 103 of Claimed By Her Forbidden Duke
She lurched, bile rushing up into her mouth, and she gagged, gasping, but Finley only snarled at her as he snagged her wrist. He yanked her arm up, rendering her helpless. He pressed his body against hers, pinning her to the wall next to the door.
“Finley!” she screamed, trying to kick at him. “Finley, let go of me!”
“I have waited long enough,” he spat.
His other hand moved down her side, and she began to cry, kicking and kicking.
“Please,” she sobbed. “Please, Finley, stop. Do not do this?—”
“Shut up,” he hissed. “You did this so easily for Edmund, did you not?”
She choked on another sob as he fisted his hand in her skirt. But before he could pull the fabric high enough to make her truly ill, the door slammed open.
“Get your hands off her!” a voice growled, one that Penelope had told herself she would be fine if she never heard again. But as soon as she did, her legs gave out, and she crumpled, right as Finley was knocked off her.
A fist swung for Finley’s face, and when she blinked, Edmund towered over her brother on the floor. His face was so contorted into anger, disgust, and hatred as his lips pulled back into a snarl.
“How could you?” he barked, his fist clenching and unclenching as Finley scrabbled to his feet.
Finley spat blood at Edmund, but the Duke only slammed him against the wall. Finley’s head bounced off it sickeningly.
Edmund’s piercing gaze flicked to Penelope. “Did he hurt you?”
She could only stare up at him.
“I said, did he hurt you?” he growled.
Penelope shook her head. Finley had not hurt her—not yet. But he…
Her stomach churned again. He would have.
Oh, Heavens, she had been moments away from?—
She could not even think of it.
Edmund looked back at her, long enough for Finley to hiss, “So the ton’s darkest secret comes to save his favorite harlot, is that it? Do you enjoy being mysterious, Edmund?”
Edmund shifted his gaze back to Finley. “How could you betray me, Finley? How could you do that?”
Penelope didn’t know what they were talking about, but she was trembling too violently to pay attention. She wrapped her arms around her knees and drew them to her chest. Distantly, she was aware of their voices. She pieced things together slowly and uncertainly.
The man Edmund had been hunting for was Finley.
Which meant that Finley had arranged Edmund’s kidnapping. Butwhy?
“You will spend every last waking second behind bars, Langwaite,” Edmund hissed. “Cyrus Reed has agreed to testify against you, and Iwillsee you put away for everything you did. The years of pain—do you know what I endured? Do you think you could do even a tenth of what I was forced to do out there? The lives I took, all because you whispered in Logan’s ear that he could hire hitmen. I was not a man you could toy with and test your ambitions on.”
“Oh, but I did, did I not? You were there for years, right where I wanted you. Far, far away from my business here.”
“You endangered my sister,” Edmund snarled, his fingers wrapped around Finley’s throat as he slammed him against the wall once more. Finley coughed around a mouthful of blood that he spat. “You almost had me killed. You—you had me put through hell so I would not tell your secret.”
“Do not act honorable when you have ruined Penelope,” Finley hissed. “Do not accuse me when you are hardly the golden boy your father said you were. He would be ashamed if he knew you had ruined a young woman’s reputation.”
Edmund flinched, but he held his ground. Penelope watched him, feeling as though she was barely in the room, feeling so weightless and light-headed.
“Tell me,” Finley drawled, “how is she, for she sounded beautiful when I overheard?—”
He shouted in pain as Edmund punched him in the face, catching his jaw.
