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“You just don’t want me birthing on the boat! Stop being such a tosspot dairy-chaser and admit it!”

“With pride,” he says, bowing toward her. “My new family is all I have in this world, and I’ll move heaven and earth to keep you safe. Happy? Is that what you want to hear?”

“Oh, Ellis,” she whispers, taking his face in her hands. Chub dips his tall wife in his arms and kisses her soundly. As their tongues duel, the crew cheers them on.

I grow green with jealousy. Would the crew have the same reaction if I kissed Betts like that?

I doubt it. To them, I’m another philanderer who is a danger to their captain—and rightly so.

But what about her? Our gazes lock, and the soft smile she gave the couple slides from her face.

She studies my smile, softly curving her lips inward to press them together.

Is she remembering our stolen kiss at the helm, too?

We haven’t breathed a word about it since, so I started to believe it didn’t happen.

It's time to make my move.

“I’d like to put a counter on the floor,” I announce, then pause to collect the gasps of the crew.

“Crew one minute and making demands the next. That’s rich,” grouses Chub. He folds his bulging arms across his chest as a symbol of how easily he could snap me in half.

Undeterred from my purpose, I step into the center of the circle. “I think we must give Chub and Catty a proper send-off—”

“We can do that ashore,” interrupts Chub.

“A proper send-off with all our hearties from Patricia’s Wish .

I’ve learned this boat’s crew is like family because half of it is family.

When the crew fell ill, they parlayed on an island so beautiful, so peaceful, so—” With each adjective, I wander closer to the crew members I suspect were Greenhorn’s childhood companions there.

I end the circle standing before the Master of Swords, who struggles to contain his tears. He’s got to be homesick…

“Home,” finished Greenhorn, swallowing his feelings in a big gulp.

Perfect.

“Home,” repeats Eze in a whisper. My confidence soars as I count the hopeful faces in the crowd.

Whether they are Chub’s hearties from his days with Blackbeard and miss the friends they left behind, or were children of the island who are now adults, three-quarters of the boat seems to agree with me.

“Yes, I say we visit the ones left behind—all Chub’s hearties from Patricia’s Wish . Some of you will visit home. Some of you will reunite with old friends,” I add to make my position crystal clear.

“And some of you will be eaten by Magda,” Chub shouts. “Did you nutmegs forget that we left a she-devil on that island? Do you want to give her the chance to take over this boat? You have no idea the misery it was sailing under her.”

“I have no doubt that Captain Betts will keep possession of the boat. Captain Teeth bequeathed the title to her—”

“Who got his title from Magda!”

“And Branko. I read there were two captains—”

“I don’t need to read about it because I was there!

You have no idea. The only reason you think she’s so great is because she wrote the books you study.

If they were from someone else’s point of view, it would be more accurate.

” Chub’s face is red with frustration. I get why he’s furious.

He’s speaking from a place of fear. He doesn’t want Magda near his baby, and Catalina grows closer to her due date every day.

“It’s a beautiful gesture, Flint,” Betts says in her cool, calm voice. “But I don’t think it’s in the crew’s best interest to stop at the island before we depart with Chub and Catty. Perhaps afterward?”

Oh, how I wish she would join me in the center of the circle to face Chub and his wife.

It feels like two against one, and I’d pick Betts to be my partner over anyone else in the world.

Technically, visiting Chevelle after we ditch Chub and Catalina serves my purpose just as well, but it gives Betts more time to figure out why I must take her there.

I don’t want to start a relationship with her based on secrets, but this is more of a happy surprise… right?

“If you please, ma’am, can you let the crew decide what’s in the crew’s best interest?” Eze’s calm voice might as well have roared like thunder.

Greenhorn glares at Betts with several of his island brothers.

I dangled a temptation that held more power than I should be allowed to wield.

This is out of control. The crew members who nodded at me now sneer at Betts.

How did they turn on her so fast? Murmurs travel around the circle.

I catch bits here and there about a blackspot. How did this escalate so quickly?

Instead of giving her back her tentacles, I may have thrown away her captaincy.

I must stop this…or at least remove Betts from the line of fire. If they vote, and the idea is shot down, then it’s not Betts’s fault. It takes her out of the equation.

“Doesn’t the boat settle everything with a vote?” I ask in a jovial manner as I back out of the circle.

“Yes,” Chub snaps. “I put the motion to visit the she-devil’s island after a parley in central Mexico.”

Old Salt is smart.

His position isn’t a no to what the crew desires, but a method of getting his way nonetheless.

“I second that motion,” Catalina says, dragging Chub back into the circle by his shirt collar.

“Well, all in favor—”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’d like to motion the counterpoint,” Eze says with his fists at his side. No matter how long the pause after he speaks, he doesn’t leave the middle of the circle.

“The counterpoint? Do you not want to visit your home?” Betts’s red eyebrows are pulled low over her squinting eyes.

“I’d like to motion—if I could—please—to go home—first.” Damn, Eze can’t look her in the eyes.

I underestimated his leadership. “I have unfinished business at home, and it didn’t bother me until the idea of returning was presented.

If there is a chance, I can get back—as soon as possible—I must take it,” Eze replies to his feet.

From the looks Catty and Chub exchange, Eze’s unfinished business is news to them.

If the cook and the deck boss don’t know what pulls Eze home, then nobody does.

I scan the deck for knowing smiles or winks.

But murmurs exchanged in groups of two or three pirates have no answers.

The expressions that stare back at me are looking for clues, too.

Betts glares at me as if I knew Eze’s secret.

I can’t win for losing.

“Fine,” Betts says with a syrupy-sweet pitch that in my experience spells death and destruction. “We shall vote. All in favor of visiting your island home after we drop Catty and Chub in Mexico, say aye. Aye,” she says, raising her hand in the affirmative.

“Aye,” shout Catalina and Chub in unison.

One by one, the crew members shake their heads.

“Aye,” says Gunter next to me.

I shake my head at Betts. Her dream must come true, so she will accept that I am hers.

I have too much at stake to wait for Chub’s exit.

Chevelle or someone on the island can deliver a baby.

Hell, the men pissing off Chub right now are living proof.

Catalina will be fine. She’s young and in good health. All will be well.

“All in favor of going home first,” says Eze.

“Aye!” shouts the rest of the crew in unison.

“Then it’s settled,” Betts snaps. Chub and Catalina retreat to the kitchen without a word to anyone. I fear I’ve made an enemy of Chub. Oh well, he didn’t like me anyway.

“Greenhorn to the helm. Hash to the bowstrip. Let’s turn this ship west and sail leeward across the sea. Flint, Eze, follow me to the map room to plot our course.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” I call to earn the scowl I love so much. Pissed as hell or sweet as a rose, I don’t care. Every second I get to spend at her side is a chance to prove my cause. She will see I’m worthy of her if it’s the last thing I do.