The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(346)

Adam grabbed the shuddering girl and was about to snap her neck like a twig when she clawed his hands with her now-bared fingernails. She went tumbling onto the ground once more as Blake launched himself at Adam. They struggled for a moment.



Then Adam skirted around Blake to the saddle of his horse, and pulled out the musket he used for hunting. He aimed it straight at Blake's chest.



Arabella threw herself against Adam's knees and sent him toppling sideways. The weapon fell near a puddle of mire. Blake and Adam sprawled on the ground, struggling like two enraged tigers.



Blake let his emotions get the better of him. He hauled Adam up off the ground by his shirt front and tried to beat to a pulp the man who had harmed his wife. But Adam was almost superhuman in his strength and desperation, and began to pummel Blake around the head unmercifully with his fists.



Blake knew this was a fight to the death for them both unless help came soon. Death for him, and perhaps a fate worse than death for Arabella if he didn't stop her cousin.



Blake tried to summon up all of his soldierly fighting skills, but Adam was like a wild animal. He rained blow after blow upon Blake's face, ears, stomach, until he was flattened against the marble wall of the folly and the only thing he could do was defend himself ever more weakly.



Arabella screamed and tried to pull Adam off her husband. He was too strong for her and flung her off like a tiny clinging kitten. Then with one smooth dive he rolled and brought up the musket once more.



Blake raised his hands and hissed through bloodied lips, "You won't get away with any of this. The magistrates know all of it. Oliver told them everything. How you murdered Rosalie and Leonore, raped those women, drugged them. Killed them. That powder stops the kidneys from functioning.



"You thought you were having a bit of fun in your own sick mind. But you've left a trail of injured and dead women everywhere you've been. No one could possibly think it was me now. Even having that poor maid Molly steal my cufflinks and leaving them in their beds didn't convince them. You're going to hang! You'll never have Arabella or her money."



Adam smirked. "If I'm going to hang anyway, then one more murder won't make any difference, now will it? And I can still have her in the time it takes them to get here." He leered. "Have her again the way I did the last time."



Blake shook his head. "Oliver told me the truth about that as well. How your back was injured and you can't manage to consummate relationships. You beat Arabella, groped her, but you never raped her.



"It's all over for you. And none of it was worth it, now was it? You still didn't get back what you lost, and now you and your brother are going to prison as well."



Adam paused for a moment. "Oliver didn't do anything. It was all me. I did it. I beat them, killed them. He never knew I dumped the bodies. He never knew about Leonore and Rosalie."



Blake shrugged. "Glad to see you have some decency left after all. But you were going to let me hang, and I never did you any harm."



Adam scowled blackly. "You got in my way, made a fool of me!"



"I loved him all along. It wasn't to make a fool of you!" Arabella shouted, trying to knock him over again.



He stood as solidly as a rock. "Well, I may not get Arabella, but you two won't have each other either."



"No! No! I'll go with you, I'll do anything you ask, only please don't kill him," Arabella begged, grabbing his left arm as he brought the barrel up inexorably to level it at Blake's head.



"I need you a widow, dear. All his money, and yours. All mine. Sorry, old sport. You should have just let me have her in the first place. I'd have let you have her once I grew tired of her. But now I have more than I ever dreamed of, so I guess I have to thank you."



"No!"



Blake lurched forward to grab the barrel, try to deflect the shot. Adam pulled the trigger, and the stench of burning powder filled their nostrils. Arabella expected a gasp from her husband, for him to fall to the ground, but there was nothing except a surprised look on his face and no blood.



"This musket never was worth a damn," Adam muttered, before bringing it up sideways with both hands to smash Blake in the face. Blake went flying backwards, and crashed into the marble wall.



"But it will work just as well as a club."



He took the barrel in both hands, and swung it straight for Blake's head to crack it like a walnut.



Arabella screamed and grabbed Adam's elbow, trying to deflect the vicious blow.



Suddenly there was a crash and then a huge roar, and she could feel herself flying backwards.



Then she was flat on her back looking up at the sky, hardly able to breathe. She was partly pinned under a huge heavy weight, and pushed with all her might at Adam, who had landed on top of her, his back against her chest.