Page 34 of A Princess, Stolen (A Kiss of Revenge, Blood, and Love #1)

N athan took a deep breath. “He used to be very different from how he is now,” he said, looking absentmindedly for a few moments as if he was peering into the past. “Even though he was always different, we shared a certain moral code. There were things we would never have done, like physically hurting someone when we stole or something. That was always taboo. We didn’t have to discuss it, it was an unspoken rule. A moral anchor so to speak.”

“What’s happening?” I was still whispering even though the hatches to the companionways were closed and no one could hear us.

“I want to stop him from coming on board.” The pale light of the bulb glowed in his eyes, which now looked pitch black.

He raised his arm and paused, and for a moment, I thought he wanted to touch me through the bars, but he obviously changed his mind and brushed a strand of hair off his face.

“Isaac was only supposed to join us at the end. When everything was wrapped up. That was the plan, my condition. I only became involved in this whole thing because I knew he would be on land most of the time. I thought that once everything was sorted out, maybe it would…appease him.”

“Appease?” I felt like I was being snubbed. “Why does he even need to be appeased?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Same old story again! I am going to go crazy soon! “ And why is he different now than he was before?” I asked just to find out something.

“Prison changed him, turned him around.” I remembered Troy saying that Nathan had signed on with trawlers when his brother was in prison. At the time, I didn’t know who Isaac truly was. Nathan looked at me piercingly. “He was in Rikers Island. Allegedly for drug possession.”

“Rikers Island? The second Alcatraz,” I said anxiously. “One of the worst prisons in the USA. It’s going to be closed because there have been so many attacks by guards on inmates and so much violence between inmates.”

Nathan seemed surprised. “You’re not as naive as you seem, are you?”

I shook my head. “Rikers Island is in New York. Everyone knows it. Besides, Dad and I watched a documentary about Kalief Browder.”

“The boy who committed suicide after his stay there.”

I nodded. Rikers Island was a horror trip for any inmate.

I didn’t want to imagine what Isaac had experienced there and it terrified me that he had even been there.

They said you go in as a man and emerge a monster.

I suddenly was freezing. I pulled the blanket that Nathan had put in front of the bars into the cell and wrapped myself in it.

“You said you wanted to prevent him from even coming on board. How are you going to do that?”

Nathan’s cheek muscle twitched. “Let that be my concern.”

“So, what is the decision that demands a lot from me? Can’t you at least tell me that?”

Nathan sighed deeply. “By taking off the blindfold you changed everything, you know that.” He paused briefly.

“Originally, we wanted to just drop you off on the mainland after three weeks, but obviously that’s no longer possible.

The men need time to change their appearance a little and to go into hiding.

During that time, I wanted to take you to the bayous and stay there with you until everyone had sorted out their affairs.

But that was before your father refused our demands.

That makes everything more complicated, so now I don’t know what Isaac has planned. ”

In the flickering neon light, I stared at him, sorting his words in my mind. Two things became clear to me. I would have been alone with him for a long time and he knew how dangerous his brother was. “You’re afraid of him,” I stated.

Nathan laughed harshly. “No. I’m not afraid of him!”

I felt something even more horrifying. “You’re afraid for me?”

Seconds passed in which he didn’t answer.

“Say it!”

“Yes.” He looked me straight in the eyes. “I’m afraid for you.”

I swallowed dryly. “Why? What is he planning?”

“He chose his crew like I did. Men who helped him organize everything on land. Some of them are unscrupulous.”

“From Coldville?”

“Mostly. Only one is from New York, an IT specialist who can encrypt cell phone signals and things like that. Isaac met him on Rikers Island. But I’m more worried about another.”

Biller-Miller-The-Killer .

“It would be an understatement to call him unscrupulous. Unfortunately, he’s the best sniper I know.”

“From Coldville?”

“A hunter, yes.”

I pressed my hand against my stomach. Isaac had men too. That was something I’d never considered.

Nathan looked at me through the bars, his eyes flickering with worry. “If you think this crew hates you, pray that you never meet Isaac’s.”

He left without promising to protect me from Isaac. This probably meant that he intended to do it, but he did not know if he would succeed.

Nathan actually stayed awake outside my cell that night, probably because he was afraid I would see ghosts again.

I tossed and turned but couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t until early in the morning after Nathan brought me bread, cheese, and tea and told me that Isaac would need at least three days to get to the Agamemnon that I fell asleep.

When I woke up around noon, I was cold despite the blanket and pillow and my throat hurt when I swallowed, and I felt feverish.

It was pointless to lock myself in and hide.

I still had three days that I had to use.

Maybe I could escape, after all, I had seen the coast. Maybe I could search for a radio on the bridge or make a call on Nathan’s cell phone.

As far as I knew, it was the only cell phone on board, at least, that was what Troy said.

I could call 911 and I wouldn’t even have to enter a passcode. And there was still the life buoy.

I showered and put on the clothes that Nathan had brought along with the food.

Then, I roamed the decks and the corridors like a stray dog, always on guard for Mykonos and Sparta, but I didn’t discover anything I could use.

Even the life preserver was gone. I realized that they were expecting an escape attempt and had prepared for it.

I angrily hit the wrecked lifeboat with my fist.

Nathan may have been nice to me yesterday, but he didn’t trust me and he would stop me from escaping at all costs.

The plan was more important than how he felt about me because, according to him, that wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Logical. Simply because he might like me and I was physically attractive to him, he wouldn’t let me go.

His promise that nothing would happen to me on board was only due to that summer in Louisiana.

We had a connection through Lea and Mom, nothing more.

I climbed to the bridge but Icarus, the man with the greyhound face, blocked the doorway.

“Princess, all the important gauges and gadgetry are in here. Your presence during the storm was an absolute exception! Nathan would kill me if I let you in here.” With these words, he made the compass he had been playing with disappear and pulled it out of the kangaroo pocket of my hoodie.

“Can’t you make me disappear and conjure me up again on the mainland?” I asked harsher than intended and stomped back downstairs in frustration.

In the cell’s corridor, I cautiously opened a few doors, but they were only rooms where the men who were not on duty slept. In one, Mykonos was snoring, and in another, Castor grumbled something and threw a pillow at me.

For the next half hour, I continued searching for ways to escape. We were now moving again. Maybe I could disable the engine and then we would have to go ashore, except that the lifeboat wasn’t ready to use even though Nathan had tried to get it seaworthy. So, that idea was out of the question.

I hesitantly opened a door that led into the belly of the ship.

I knew the engine room was down there because the men had bailed water from there.

I carefully descended the metal stairs not knowing what I was actually searching for.

An emergency hiding place, perhaps—a room with a steel door that I could lock from the inside if Isaac came on board.

The further I descended, the more the bass from the engine thumped in my chest. It thundered with every beat of my heart.

Where are the life jackets? Where is the fire extinguisher?

I can’t swim! And neither can Willa .

The images in my memory pushed to the forefront again as if they were rising the deeper I went. I couldn’t forget how frantically I had screamed for Dad. What had happened after that? What had I seen?

I stopped for a moment and pressed my hands to my eyelids. I didn’t want these memories, no matter how much I had once wanted them. I felt like I had let Mom down. I should have called for her, not Dad.

I dropped my arms and banished the memory by consciously concentrating on the short corridor.

There were three doors: one said control room , the other engine room , and the last one had nothing written on it.

Sweat gathered on the back of my neck because it was sweltering hot.

The hum of the engine still pounded in my chest as if I were reciting mantras in a dark voice.

I hurried to the third door and pushed down the handle.

Darkness yawned at me. I felt for the light switch and found it next to the door.

A bare light bulb flickered on and cast its meager light over a large room in which several fishing nets hung on some poles in the middle of the room and some on the walls.

Most looked like windsocks several yards long with a pointy end and a wider opening, while others consisted of several round sacks sewn together.

I walked past the poles and fixtures and spotted oilskins, buoys, and ropes, even a raft leaning against the wall.