Page 33

Thirty-Three

A fter Ace left, I spent the remainder of the day thumbing through a few books on the shelves. Rowan surprised me with copies of Shakespeare and Cervantes. I didn’t peg him as a romantic but more of a trolls and sea monsters type.

Shrug continued guarding my door as if I might turn into smoke and creep out under his nose. Every few hours, he’d escort me to the deck and walk me around like a trained monkey.

Vane’s sails loomed in the distance, keeping us in his line of sight, as promised. I caught up with Rowan on deck and asked if Max had recovered from the jump. I received a dismissive grunt.

Ace brought me a slice of the pig, promising it was from the best section, not the part the flies landed on. I ate a few bites only because my stomach rumbled, but I mainly stuck to the fruit, dried meats, and biscuits.

I paced the room, racking my brain for a plan until moonlight streamed in through my window. My giant shadow, cast on the walls by candlelight and moonbeams, followed me like an agitated bird flapping her wings in distress.

I was wasting time trapped in this floating box. Vane had a map. Sasha knew how to get it but lacked the muscle needed to fight her way out if she got caught. Maybe I could bash Shrug over the head with the empty bottle of rum.

I ran my fingers over the books in the bookcase and stopped on A Cruising Voyage Round the World by Woodes Rogers. And then, like the flip of a light switch, Gertie’s voice rang so loud in my head that I thought she was standing next to me. “It happens here. If you can change this, you’ll change the timeline and Marco’s fate.”

I yanked the book off the shelf and opened it. “Thank you, Gertie. I have to find a way to stall Vane until the time is right.”

A thud sounded in the hall. I put thoughts of my imaginative insurgence on hold as my door rattled and the lock tumbled. It swung open and a man stood in the shadows. I stepped backward, stifling a scream.

Caiyan stepped over the threshold. His hair had gone all dark and wild, like Medusa impersonating a serial killer from a B-rated Halloween movie.

“Jen, are ye all right?”

“Jeez, what happened to your hair?” I lowered my hand from my chest. “It looks like a nest of snakes.”

He paused, the worried look on his face quickly replaced by two forked lines between his eyes. He ran a hand over his dreadlocks, smoothing the braids.

He clicked the door shut. “I came as soon as I could. The guards dinnae give me much chance to escape unnoticed.”

“Where’s my guard dog, Shrug?”

“I allowed him to take a nap. Most of the crew is asleep. A good time for me to slip oot.” Caiyan took in my cabin and the open book on the table.

“Are ye reading?” His tone hinted he’d never seen me read a book before.

OK. Maybe he hadn’t.

“I haven’t been allowed to leave my cabin except for a short walk on the deck. What took you so long?”

“I was gathering information, listening to the pirates chatter among themselves.”

“So, you know Mortas jumped ship to play pirates with Captain Vane.” I crossed my arms and stared him down, wondering what he had planned to get us out of this mess.

“Aye.” Caiyan moved to my washstand. He looked at himself in the mirror. The candlelight bathed him in a golden glow. “What do ye think? I make a handsome pirate, yeah?”

Oh, brother. “Sure.” It wasn’t a lie. Even with dreadlocks and dirty clothes, he was still romance-cover-worthy.

He washed his hands and face. Removing a strip of leather from his pocket, he tied the top of his hair back away from his face. He smiled at me in the mirror, and his sexy pirate ranking soared.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Did those words leave my lips? I was mad at him, but I couldn’t help myself. He oozed provocative pirate fantasy, and my body was all in.

He walked over to me, cupping my face in his palm and skimming a thumb across my cheek. “I missed ye.”

My insides went all gooey. What was it about this man that turned me to mush? I reminded myself I was irritated with his latest mischief, but my eyes drank in the curve of his lips, the line of his jaw, and that place in the hollow of his throat where only my kisses were allowed. I leaned into the soft touch on my cheek. “I’ve missed you, too.”

I tiptoed to meet his mouth and tasted rum and sweet. He’d had the pineapple at dinner, too. He wrapped his arms around me and teased my tongue with his. A fireball ignited down south of my belly button. If I didn’t stop kissing him, I’d be naked on the swinging bed, my secret discovered, and Shrug would be back at duty.

“Caiyan, we can’t.” I wiggled free of his arms.

He glanced at the swinging bed, and the strain against his breeches seemed to lessen. I agreed. It would take some skill to make anything happen there. Not that Caiyan wasn’t up for the challenge, but we were pressed for time.

I moved behind the chair, resting my hands on the back. The smooth wood calmed me and put some distance between us. “What’s the plan?”

“I’ve no plan.”

My jaw hung open, hovering and then snapping shut. “What do you mean you don’t have a plan?”

Caiyan always had a plan. He wasn’t a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy. Even when caught behind enemy lines, he was running scenarios in his mind, developing a plan to save everyone. And now, nothing.

“This was never the plan.” He tornadoed his index finger at the room. “I planned to lead Mortas astray, find Marco and Sasha, and locate the King’s key.”

“With Marco’s map?” I asked in my snarky I-know-your-secrets tone.

He sighed. “I might as well tell ye, since yer here and no following orders to leave.”

I cocked an I don’t take orders on my mission eyebrow.

“I meant, leave when I asked ye.” He slid into the chair opposite me. “The map Marco sent ye in the chest is part of a bigger map.”

“I know about the maps.” I crossed my arms and gave him a steely glare.

“Of course, ye do. Yer smarter than I give ye credit.”

“ Sasha knows you have a piece of the map. Mortas and Marco know.” I frowned at him and wished there was more rum in the bottle. “ I didn’t know you had a piece of the map. In fact, I didn’t know anything about a map.”

“Dinnae start with me now, Sunshine. We’re too close to the finish line to be at each other’s throats.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasnae necessary to involve ye. The day Rogue died he let me see Sasha’s map before he gave it to her. He wanted us to work together to find the King’s key. Then Sasha left with the eye. I didnae have the eye or Elma’s map. I’ve no clue where ’tis.”

I knew where it was, but I wasn’t giving up my intel. Not yet.

“After he died, it became more important for me to put the pieces together. Marco rejected the idea at first, until Sasha jumped to Nassau. Mortas was open to it.”

“And when Marco sent the map in the treasure chest, you knew he was close.”

“I did.”

“But you still kept it from me.”

He dropped his head into his hands. “I’m sorry. Ye deserve better than me.”

I moved closer, knelt beside him, and met his eyes. “I want to help. I want to be with you.”

He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in tight, kissing the top of my head.

“My grandfather gave me his piece when I gained my power. He told me the map wasnae any good because he had already tossed the eye. I can only assume Marco’s grandfather did the same.”

I knew from his grandfather’s journals that he had found the eye after he had taken Lidiya from Rogue. “Why didn’t James try to find the King’s key? He had the eye for a short time, right?”

“I assume he searched for it, but withoot all the pieces of the map, came up empty. He told me the four who held the other pieces wouldnae unite, but I should keep it in case the eye resurfaced.”

“And you hoped to find Marco and Sasha together.” I sat in the chair across from him. It was my turn to help devise a plan.

“Aye, pool our pieces of the map. See if it gave us a clue to the location of the King’s key. I didnae count on Vane holding Marco prisoner. I didnae count on Vane having a piece of the map. I thought Sasha had the map Lidiya stole from the Mafusos.”

“Did you find her?”

He nodded. “She’s still on board, but now that the crew knows she’s a woman, she’s hiding. She passed by my cell. Her disguise is disturbing. It took me a minute to realize she wasnae a cabin boy. She was scoping oot the bars. No sure if she was deciding they would hold me or if she could break me oot.”

“Yeah, tough decision.” I joked, hoping to change his mood. I needed the guy who saved the world, not this brooding pirate who talked like the game was over.

“’Tis aboot a day’s sail from where Marco told Vane the treasure exists.”

I leaned back and raised a cynical eyebrow. “Does the treasure exist?”

“Aye, but our ability to retrieve it might be more difficult. We don’t have the proper equipment to locate treasure at the bottom of the ocean. We can swim down, scrape around in the sand, and see if we come up with anything, but the ocean is vast. Finding even one piece of eight weel be a challenge.”

“What will happen when we arrive at this Bone Island and find no treasure?” I knew one thing for sure, Charles Vane was not gonna be a happy camper.

“Could be veera bad news.” He stood, grumbled, and clenched his fists. “We’re so close. If the map ’tis truly a map to the King’s key, we need all the pieces.”

“What if you don’t get all the pieces? Are you going to put the three you have together and hope to connect the dots?”

“Aye. I need to see Marco’s map, hope Sasha will share Rogue’s. Then get my hands on the one Vane holds.”

“The only reason we’re here is because Marco was following Sasha. He didn’t give a rat’s behind about that map.”

“He thinks Sasha is here for the key, but now we know she was looking for Lidiya.”

“She might have been looking for her mother, but don’t underestimate her. She’s got her eye on the prize.” I leaned forward, tapping the wood with my fingers, contemplating sharing my map news.

“We’re going in partially blind.” He leaned back and huffed his doubt at completing the mission. “I believe Marco drew his map from memory, but I have no way of knowing until we can speak to him. Sasha’s like the wind, and I dinna ken where Vane keeps Lidiya’s map.”

“He keeps it in his coat pocket.”

Caiyan’s eyebrows raised.

“Sasha told me. She saw him unroll it but wasn’t close enough to see the details.”

His shoulders slumped. “Weel be more difficult to obtain if he has it on his person.”

“Do you think Mortas has seen it?” I asked.

“Naugh unless ’tis recent. He didn’t know its location before we escaped the Nassau harbor.”

“What are we going to do?”

“There’s too many men to fight our way oot. When the boat stops at the location, I’m asking—no, begging—ye to jump home.”

“I won’t do it. This is my mission.”

“ Was yer mission. Please, Jen, yer vessel’s small enough to call onto the ship. I want ye to be safe.”

“I’m not going to jump and leave my friends behind.”

He ran a hand over his hair, felt the braids, and cursed in Gaelic. He stomped around a few times, swore again, and stomped some more. His anger warmed the room. He finally stopped and pulled me out of the chair and into his arms. He pressed his lips on mine, and his emotions flooded me. Worry. Fear. He had totally let me in. With his shields down, for the first time, I felt him.

I pressed against his hard chest, pushing him away when all I really wanted to do was pull him in. “Stop. I understand you’re worried about me, but I can help you.”

“You cannae.”

“You need treasure, right?”

His skeptical dark eyebrow raised a few inches.

“If you don’t come up with some treasure, Vane will kill you and take over the Sea Storm . Probably kill Max and Rowan and anyone who doesn’t join him.”

“Yer reminding me of my fate, Sunshine. How is this helpful?”

“What if I know where there’s a treasure chest full of gold, silver, pieces of eight, and random pirate booty?”

“I’m listening.”

“If we’re a day away, we’ll arrive at night. What if we steal the gold and dump it overboard so you have something to show Vane?”

“Jen,” His face lit up, and he kissed me hard. “That’s bloody brilliant.”

“Don’t look so surprised. I have good ideas.”

“Where is this treasure chest?” He glanced around the room like I might have it hidden in a corner. He looked at the chest against the wall. “Not that one. It’s filled with stolen clothes and my wedding dress.”

He grimaced at my last words.

“I’ll tell you where the treasure chest is, but only if you stop telling me to leave.”

His jaw clenched, and for a moment, I didn’t think he’d relent. “I’m concerned for your safety.”

“I’ll be concerned for my own safety.”

He came forward, wrapping me in his arms. “Even though ye never do what I ask of ye, I love you.”

“You mean demand of me, and I’m doing my job.” I wasn’t convinced he’d keep me in the treasure-hunting loop, and until I was, I’d hold on to my secret.

“I know ’tis hard for ye to trust me.” He ghosted his lips across my cheek, pressing gentle kisses down my neck, pausing at the healing cut from Vane.

“Vane cut me, but I’m fine.”

“’Tis hard for me to trust ye can take care of yerself.” He kissed my cut so gently an unintentional whimper of desire escaped my lips.

“I guess both of us need to tackle the hard things.”

He ran a hand up my back stroking the little curve of my neck he knew was my weakness. “What weel it take for ye to tell me where the treasure chest is?”

“That may prove harder than you expect.” My inner voice acknowledged that keeping my secret might also prove harder than expected. “Speaking of hard, how long will Shrug be unconscious?”

“Long enough.”