Page 39 of A Princess, Stolen (A Kiss of Revenge, Blood, and Love #1)

I thought about my close relationship with Dad, no matter what was going on. “Sounds even lonelier.” We remained silent for a moment, but neither of us made a move to continue onward. At some point, I gathered up my courage. “Could Isaac have lied about the demands?”

Surprised, Nathan glanced at me. “Why would he?”

“I…I have no idea. To provoke the men? Or maybe so you’d let him come on board to discuss the new situation?”

Nathan shook his head firmly. “I know it’s true.”

“We’re at sea. How can you be sure? All you have is Isaac’s word.”

“I just know.”

“But…”

“Wake up already, Willa. Your father is not the saint you believe he is.”

“I never said he was a saint!” I wanted to shake him, but at the same time, it bothered me that he looked so damn good in his turtleneck.

My stomach did somersaults. I felt so strange every time I faced him, full of feelings that didn’t fit inside me because they were so great.

They made it almost impossible for me to betray him.

It would be easier if he were angry with me again.

Maybe that was why I folded my arms across my chest. Or maybe because I didn’t want to leave this cutter without knowing his secret. “Tucekilemeur,” I blurted out. “Why can’t I say it without you freaking out? What does it mean?”

He closed himself off as if on cue. “You already know.”

“What do I know?”

“It’s French,” he replied, and I could literally feel him shutting himself off inside, blocking any feeling and hiding it behind anger. “Tous ceux qu’il aime meurent. Everyone he loves dies.”

I swallowed and looked at him.

His eyes sparkled. “Are you happy now, princess? Can you buy yourself something nice with that?” With those words, he stalked past me, leaving me completely perplexed.

Everyone he loves dies .

The words sank in as if they had to settle.

It sounded cruel and infinitely sad. Heavy on the soul.

Was that why he always wore black? Because he was grieving?

And what did everyone mean? He once said that my father had taken everyone he loved from him, but I hadn’t believed him, or at least, I hadn’t thought Dad could.

But regardless of whether Dad was involved or not, it would mean that he had also lost his mom and dad. And Lea, his sister.

Something dark enveloped me like a shroud.

How did one survive that? How did one continue to live with such losses? Mom’s death had shattered me emotionally. It had taken away my ability to speak for weeks and turned me into a bit of a zombie. I felt like the living dead. Empty. Aimless. Like a person abandoned alone on an alien planet.

How did he feel?

For a few seconds, I stood there stiffly, realizing the force with which he suppressed his grief with anger. His grief operated like a breaker against a stone wall without ever razing it. It must have been eating him up inside. And, at the same time, I understood something else entirely.

His brother was the only one he had left. The only one remaining.

That was exactly why Nathan would never turn against Isaac.

And he claimed he didn’t care about me. But, even if that was a lie, he had known Isaac all his life whereas he had only known me for a few weeks.

As bitter as that was, I understood that he would choose his brother if he ever had to choose.

So, another reason to leave the Agamemnon and as quickly as possible.

By that afternoon, I still hadn’t managed to speak to Sparta alone, so I hung around the bow where I’d last seen him. The water was choppy and I braced myself with one hand on the man-sized anchor winch. A dark roar filled the air and the wind blew whitecaps off the waves.

The weather was bad for my plan. With or without a raft, I couldn’t imagine how it would be possible to get away from here.

With a feeling of menace, I stared at the churning ocean when I heard footsteps and turned.

“You’ve thought about it.” Sparta was standing in front of one of the yellow fishing cranes that flanked the bow. He didn’t seem ready to travel or prepared in any way, but I nodded anyway, although weakly enough that I could have denied it if necessary.

“Tomorrow morning,” he said, watching me as I approached, “we’ll pass relatively close to the Outer Banks.”

“We’re near North Carolina?” I asked far too loudly, stunned.

“Quiet!” Sparta hissed and glanced about, but no one was around, and the roar of wind and waves muffled every word like a pillow.

He nodded toward the railing and we stood under the roof, invisible to the men on the bridge.

“We traveled this route beforehand with the transponder switched on so we could assess the ship traffic. There are loads of excursion boats near the Outer Banks, fishing trips for tourists, especially in the early morning hours.”

“So, how do you imagine the whole thing? Should I jump overboard on a whim? What if none of the tourist boats spot me?” I thought of my daring plan with the trawler, which, in retrospect, seemed like a suicide mission.

Sparta looked at me as if I was mentally retarded. “I’ll pass on our position to the Buxton sea rescue team beforehand without anyone noticing. And I’ll send out an SOS.”

“And how are you going to do that? Nathan is always on the bridge.”

“I’ll make sure he won’t be there, besides, he also sleeps now and then.”

“And if you can’t get rid of him tomorrow morning?”

Sparta didn’t react and continued talking.

“Just before five, I’ll switch our transponder to receive, contact Buxton, and send an SOS.

Then, I’ll switch it off again immediately.

Nobody will be the wiser, and even if someone else is there, they won’t know enough about it, and the Coast Guard will conclude the cutter has sunk. ”

“Then what? It’ll take the Coast Guard forever to get out that far.”

“Coast Guard ships are on constant patrol, but every sailor is also obliged to provide assistance in an emergency. Every captain must constantly monitor the maritime distress radio frequencies. In our case, the tourist boats are certainly the ones that can reach us the fastest. It shouldn’t take long, but in any case, we’ll use the raft in the meantime. ”

I was tempted to remind him that he vetoed the raft, but his plan sounded too sensible for me to upset him.

And he said we . He would accompany me and he would only do that if he weren’t concerned about his plan.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that he might push me off the raft and drown me.

“So, how are you going to get the raft into the water unnoticed? Even if you do it tonight, someone will notice!” I added.

Sparta grinned mirthlessly. “The raft is already floating in the water, tied to a rope, being towed by the Agamemnon. I finished it this afternoon and told Nathan I wanted to test it.”

“He didn’t suspect anything?”

“No.”

Why had he built a raft in the first place?

Sparta looked past me. He wasn’t telling me everything, which meant, I was getting involved in something I didn’t fully understand.

On the other hand, according to Troy, Sparta had been to sea many times.

He was a fisherman who knew everything about navigation, sea conditions, and probably the maritime distress radio frequency.

Everything suggested that his plan was well thought out, even the raft suggested that.

And I didn’t want to wait for a tour boat surrounded by sharks.

I wouldn’t get a better opportunity… If only I could be certain he wouldn’t hurt me.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked bluntly. “You hate me.”

He looked at me with his hungry eyes and threw back his dreadlocks.

“I no longer believe in the plan. I always believed that the men underestimated your father, that he’d find ways and means…

I think these men will fail, and then we and our families will receive no compensation, no damages.

That ring on your hand will provide for my wife and son. ”

“You have a family?” I asked, perplexed, not knowing why it confused me so much.

“Imagine that, yes. But without a job, I can’t give them what they deserve.”

Perhaps Sparta wasn’t such a bad guy after all if he cared so much about his wife and son. I also remembered the moment when he insisted on giving Nathan his life jacket and how Nathan reacted.

I chewed my lip thoughtfully. “But you won’t get the ring until I’m sitting alive in a tourist boat,” I finally said, braver than I felt. “Before that, I’ll hold it in my hand, and should you attack me, I’ll drop it. Then it’ll sink to the bottom of the sea, never to be seen again. Is that clear?”

Sparta pulled down one corner of her mouth. “Crystal, princess.”

“So, when do we start?”

“Tomorrow morning, five o’clock sharp, at the railing, amidships, starboard.

” He grinned broadly, and for the first time, I saw that two teeth were missing further back, something that was unthinkable where I came from.

Now he nodded toward the water. “The early morning fog will be on our side and we’ll only have a slight swell. ”

I swallowed because the plan was now in place and seemed so final. “What is starboard?”

Sparta ran his hands through his hair as if in disbelief. “The right side of a ship, princess. Good Lord, I should go without you! Do you even have a watch?”

“There’s one in the room.”

“Be on time!”

As he left, I watched him and a sense of menace grew within me. A hundred things could go wrong, only the raft gave me security.

Wanting to distract myself, I helped Pan and Icarus paint the railing on the port side since the storm waves had knocked the paint off. When they fought each other, pretending their brushes were lightsabers, I couldn’t help but smile despite my agitated state.

Afterward, I watched Troy and Taurus as they attempted to repair the crane again and became tangled in the fishing nets, much to everyone’s amusement. Sparta finally helped them untangle the two trawling nets.