Page 92 of Dukes Are Forever
Rip his fucking head off.
But that was not the correct answer. That was not what the Duke of Malloryn would do. It was what the monster inside him—stirred to protective lengths somehow—wanted to do.
Malloryn leaned into the caress of her fingers, easing out a steady breath.
Why did she affect him like this?
It was more than the usual protective urge he felt toward women.
More than Balfour's hovering presence.
No. This had everything to do with Adele, and nothing to do with Balfour's plots.
"Malloryn?" she whispered, brushing her thumb against his lip.
"I'm going to ask him a few questions," he managed to say. "And then I'm going to see that he is guillotined very, very publicly."
There was one nice thing about being friends with the queen.
"He'll hate that."
"I know."
"Good," she said, a little viciously.
But nothing about this situation was ‘good'.
What the hell was wrong with him?
Chapter 19
"Go to hell, Malloryn." Corvus spat a mouthful of bloodied mucus at him as Malloryn strode inside the cell he'd been granted inside Thorne Tower, home to political enemies, traitors, and criminals of the important kind. "I'm not going to tell you a damned thing."
The muscle in Malloryn's jaw ticked. Corvus had been the one who'd molested Adele the night she trapped him into marriage, and she'd managed to escape only by using a knife on him.
But he was no longer in the grip of the craving. No longer ruled by the hunger and the heat of his emotions.
Somehow, holding Adele in his arms all the way home had managed to soothe the raging beast inside him, so he could damned well start thinking again.
Malloryn knelt down, a fresh set of trousers pulling taut over his thighs as he eyed the bastard. "I think you will."
"I think he will too," said Byrnes, tossing a knife up and down nonchalantly. "Indeed, I'm willing to bet good money on it."
Gemmatskedunder her breath. "Boys. There's no need to make threats. I'm sure Lord Corvus understands the gravity of the situation he's found himself in. The queen wants the head of any traitor, after all."
"She don't need to know he's even in here," Byrnes murmured.
Lord Corvus sneered. "I'm an earl. If you touch one hair on my head, the entire Echelon will be up in arms. You think you're so high and mighty? You think the queen's name cowsme? Well, you're going to get what's coming for you soon. There are those of us right beneath your nose. You'll never see them coming. You'll never know—"
"You mean all the lords listed on these pages?" Malloryn tugged the membership list out of his coat and proffered it elegantly.
Corvus froze.
"It was very considerate of you to write them all down for us. Saves me the hassle of having to torture my way through your cohort." He glanced at the first couple of names. "Coded, of course, but Gemma managed to crack it in under half an hour. Sloppy work, Corvus. Adele mentioned the Four Horsemen, and I see you've even given metheirnames too. Practically giftwrapped. The leaders of this little resurrection of the Rising Sons, I presume?"
"Conquest," Byrnes snorted, looming over the sniveling lordling. "He named himself Conquest. Who does that?"
"Conquest had another name," Gemma murmured. "I think 'Pestilence' suits the earl better."
