Jack nodded. But if the sergeant didn’t know where Bleven had taken Maddie, then the trail was cold. He would never find her.
“You could try his town house,” Valentine suggested. “It’s unlikely, but one of the servants might know something.”
Jack nodded. “Fetch my horse!” he ordered one of his footmen. The man jumped to attention and rushed toward the mews.
“Give me a moment,” Valentine said. “I’ll come with you.”
Jack shook his head. “You have a promising political career ahead of you, my lord. You don’t want your name mixed up in this.”
“My career be damned. This is Maddie we’re talking about, not to mention arson and the kidnapping of an innocent woman.”
“No,” Jack said, striding toward his mews, where the footman was helping a groom saddle his best horse. “When I find Bleven, this will be murder.”
He mounted the horse, yelled for the gate to be opened, and rode away.
Chapter Twenty-two
When the carriage stopped, the door flew open and one of Bleven’s thugs grabbed Maddie by the hair, pulling her out. Her feet tangled in her skirts and she fell hard to her knees. The other thug yanked her to her feet and dragged her through the warehouse door.
It was dark and smelled moldy inside. Maddie’s heart kicked in her chest. This was it. Whatever Bleven had planned would happen here. And with her hands tied, she was completely helpless. The letter opener secreted in her pocket might as well still be on Jack’s desk.
Jack.
Oh, please God. Please let him be safe, she prayed. But she knew that if anything happened to her, he would never recover. He’d never forgive himself, though this was no more his fault than his mother’s death had been. She knew she had to stay alive, not just for herself, but for Jack.
Resolution making her strong, she twisted away from Bleven’s man and swung around to face the Black Duke. He was standing in the doorway, the sunlight shining around him in a deceptive halo. Maddie hoped he could see her face. She willed him to see the contempt and the challenge in her eyes. Was he so much of a coward that he kept her, a defenseless woman, bound and gagged?
“You do have spirit left, don’t you?” Bleven said. He entered the warehouse, and the door closed with a loud thud behind him. One of the men lit a candle, and Maddie took a quick inventory of her surroundings. There wasn’t much to see: a few crates, a scarred table where the candle burned, and an old mattress in one corner of the room.
Maddie’s belly lurched violently when she saw the mattress. It was dirty and stained with something that looked very much like blood. She swallowed the rising nausea.
Everything would work out. Everything would be fine. Jack would find her.
“Free her,” Bleven ordered his thug, and Maddie quickly ducked her head. She didn’t want Bleven to see how pleased she was.
The lackey, a blond man with light brown eyes and a large forehead, yanked the rope hard, and Maddie stifled a gasp. A few more tugs and her hands were free.
Pushing the man away, she loosened her gag and pulled it down.
“There, isn’t this much more civilized?” Bleven motioned his men toward the door. “Out.”
“But you said we could watch,” the blond thug complained. “And we could have her when you were done.”
Bleven rounded on them, and both men stepped back. “Get out.”
The men obeyed, and when the door thudded closed, Bleven turned to face her. “Now, Lady Blackthorne, shall we do this the painful way or the more painful way? I want to hear you scream.”
JACK SMASHED HIS FIST into the butler’s face. The servant’s nose broke this time, splattering blood on Jack’s tailcoat. The man howled and tried to crawl away, but Jack hauled him back, clutching him by the throat. Jack tried to ignore the river of viscous liquid pouring from the man’s nose and coating his hand with crimson.
“Now, I’ll ask you one more time,” Jack said quietly to the butler. “And I’ll ask you nicely. But if you don’t answer me, you give me no choice but to show you my nasty side. I don’t think you’ll like it.”
The man whimpered.
“Where is your master?”
The servant opened his mouth, and Jack held a finger up. “Do not tell me you don’t know.”
He tightened his hand on the man’s throat, the blood making their contact slick and sticky. “But he’ll kill me, sir,” the butler whined.
