Page 35 of A Princess, Stolen (A Kiss of Revenge, Blood, and Love #1)

Why was there a raft on board? It was barely big enough to hold one or two people.

It could never save the entire crew. I felt the tight ropes that bound the logs together.

It was handcrafted but not finished because there were more logs on the floor.

I was wondering if it would be sturdy enough to serve as a replacement for the lifeboat when I smelled the sharp smell of camphor.

“Take your hands off that immediately!”

Frightened, I let go of the log and turned. “Sparta! W-what are you doing here?”

“I should ask you that.” He came in and closed the door, trapping me in the spacious room with him.

“I’m in charge of the engine and control room. I’m working down here,” he said, not rudely but rather calmly. “I heard a noise.” The reddish-purple pustules on his face glowed even brighter today.

Step by step, he approached.

I automatically backed away and promptly became tangled in a net dangling from a pole structure.

“Do you know what the most insidious thing is about these nets? Or any kind of fishing net?”

“No!” I tried to pull my boot out of the mess but couldn’t. Sparta had almost reached me. “A net is made up of many individual knots and threads, and with every pull and every wriggle, the knots tighten. A deadly trap for anything caught in it.”

“You’re a fisherman from Coldville,” I heard myself say. Troy had told me that Sparta had been to sea several times.

“You don’t have to be a fisherman to kill with a net. Besides, it’s unwise to give away what you know about us so casually.” Again, his eyes glowed like those of a predator targeting its prey.

I hastily jumped back, ripping the entire net off the device.

With a startled cry, I stumbled backward and landed on my butt.

Damn it! I quickly bent over to untie the net from the eyelets of my laced boot but it hung on securely.

So, I plucked at the threads like a madwoman, but the only thing I achieved was that the fine, wiry fabric sliced my palms.

“Do you need help?”

I looked up in pain.

Sparta smiled thinly.

“I’m stuck,” I admitted, my heart pounding as I wiped the blood from my hands on my jeans.

Sparta walked around a net that was stretched between two poles. He was tall. As tall as Nathan, I’m sure. That surprised me because I had never noticed, probably because he looked so gaunt.

He crouched next to me, suddenly at eye level with me. The smell of camphor stung my nose like acetic acid. Maybe he was about to pull a knife and calmly stab me before tossing me out a lower hatch into the ocean. If there was a lower hatch.

Wide-eyed, I watched as he fiddled with the net with his spider-like hands. To my amazement, he untied the threads within seconds. Then, he stood and his look from above was one big threat. “Never come down here again, do you understand?”

I nodded silently.

“If I catch you touching the raft again, I’ll personally throw you into the Atlantic, hand and foot bound.”

I nodded again. For a few seconds, his hungry gaze fell on my ring and a strange expression came over his face. He swallowed loudly. “Go, now!” he said finally.

I quickly rose, giving him a wide berth as I hurried to the door. As I left, I noticed that there was no keyhole, so I wouldn’t be able to hide from Isaac in that room either.

Then, something else occurred to me as I climbed the stairs. Dad’s words. Sparta’s look made me think of it.

“ Everyone has their price .” It had been stupid to ask the men when they were all together.

If I could bribe just one, if he alone received the half a million or more, he might help me escape.

I even knew now that there was a raft that could be used if the coast was nearby.

The only question was; who would I try? My first choice had to be the right one because there would be no second chance.

My plan required that I be nearby when the crew gathered later on deck to drink beer and other liquor. The men were all there except Nathan, who was on the bridge navigating.

The wind had picked up, but Nathan had given me a black turtleneck, a long-sleeved shirt, two pairs of giant socks, and long johns. Now I was wearing everything layered and I was incredibly warm.

I stood near the stairs that led to the lower deck and suddenly felt lonely at the sight of their company.

How I would have loved to talk to Penelope or Delilah now, even about Dad.

And I missed New York. I even missed the smog.

There were no borders on the Atlantic, only the horizon that merged with the Atlantic in the darkness.

Everything was too far, too big, and too distant.

I missed the impenetrable mixture of exhaust fumes and factory emissions that held everything together.

In New York, big city noise and people were trapped under a bell that stored everything.

At sea, everything echoed across the water, lost as if gone forever.

Even the steady sound of the bow wave seemed surreal to me.

Maybe I’m merely dreaming this , I thought as my gaze wandered over Troy, Pan, and the others. But the strange feeling was surely due to my loneliness.

Even if Troy hadn’t told me, I would have concluded at some point that the men must have known each other for a long time.

It was the nuances of their words, their laughter at things I couldn’t even begin to understand, and even their harmonious silence at times.

They were like a family, stitched together by life stories, their hometown, and perhaps by their hatred for my father and this plan.

Who should I speak to about the ring? Who wouldn’t betray me?

I moved a little closer but stayed out of the moonlight. They knew I was here and that I wasn’t hiding. I looked at each one in turn.

The first shift was more familiar to me, of course.

Troy, the nice skater boy from next door.

Taurus, the bull-headed giant. Pan, the slightly more good-natured colossus who had lost his mom.

Icarus, the magician with the gaunt face.

Delphi, the saint who had always been decent to me, and Sparta, who hated me and whose reddish pustules made me think of Kaposi sarcoma.

I only knew everyone from the second shift superficially.

First, there was Ilias, Pan’s twin. The two hobbits who, as I had since found out, were lovers.

Mykonos, with the spongy skin, who detested me as much as Sparta.

Castor, a man who always muttered to himself but who never stared at me hostilely, and last but not least, Apollo, a good bank clerk type with a side part.

I didn’t know the men from the second shift well enough to judge them for my plan. The hobbits seemed friendly to me, but I couldn’t say anything else about them. Pan’s brother, Ilias, didn’t like me, just as Pan didn’t like me at the beginning.

Basically, there were only the men from the first shift left, of whom I immediately ruled out Delphi and Icarus because I couldn’t judge them well enough either. Out of the remaining, Troy seemed the best choice. He was likable, the least hostile, and didn’t fit in with the rest of the males.

Should I ask Troy? On the other hand, I hadn’t forgotten how incredulous Pan had stared at the ring.

I didn’t rule out Sparta either. His restless look had given me the idea in the first place.

Did money mean more to him than reparations?

Reparations for what? Besides, was Troy perhaps the most loyal to Nathan?

I thought of the moment when he had grabbed my arm even though in retrospect, there had been no reason for it.

Plus, Nathan sometimes put him in charge.

Indecisive, I gnawed my lip. Nathan had ordered the others not to touch the ring. That meant he had doubts about one or two, otherwise, he wouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place. Maybe I simply had to wait until one approached me. Nevertheless, did I have time for that?

“Hey,” I heard someone say. “Join us!” Troy was standing in front of me, a beer bottle in his hand. Now you’re nice again , I thought suspiciously. “I don’t belong here,” I replied. But the issue should have been if I wanted to sit with my captors.

“You saved Nathan’s life and therefore ours too. No one else could have gotten us through this storm safely. Everyone here knows that. You’ve earned a place in our illustrious circle for one evening.” He grinned cheekily.

I looked at him. UCLA was printed on his sweatshirt, which was also burgundy like the one before. Was he a student? I spontaneously decided that it wouldn’t hurt my plan to sit with them for a while, after all, I wanted to find out more about them. “Okay,” I said, giving in.

Troy gestured for me to follow and then moved a box between Pan and himself.

Hesitantly, I sat. The men had fallen silent and were staring at me. I would have preferred to flee back below deck immediately, but Troy broke the ice. “Do you want something to drink?”

I shook my head. “Better not.”

“Yes, princess. You sit, you drink!” Pan said next to me.

He firmly pressed a bottle of liquor into my hand, which he had just unscrewed.

Reluctantly, I took it because I didn’t want to appear rude or condescending, not like the princess they found so hateful.

I sniffed the neck of the bottle carefully. A caustic sting penetrated my nose.

“Good liquor,” Pan confirmed. “Help you sleep. Help you forget.”

Forget . There it was again, that tiny word that weighed as heavily on Nathan as an anchor.

I live and die for no one. At most, for oblivion .

I looked at Pan suspiciously. He was wearing the oxblood-red bandana again, and next to him, Ilias’ hair fell over his face like a wildling. He had also caught my eye. “Drekka,” he prompted. It was the first time he specifically addressed me.