There will be blood tonight.
Bon didn’t speak, but motioned. Her intention was clear. It was time to board The Black Otter.
“You keep behind me Red, stay hidden,” Bon instructed. “Rhodesia? Do your thing.”
Rhodesia winked and sauntered across the deck, a distinct and unnatural swing in her hips. “Yoo-hoo,” she sang. “Yoo-hooooooo!”
A wiry Chinese pirate rose from the deck like a ghost from a corpse. Slowly, he drew his dagger from his boot. “What you want?”
Rhodesia shook her ample bosom and strode right up to him. She plucked the dagger from his hand and sheathed it back into his boot. “Honey, we’re from The Ship of Dreams. And what I want is—” She kissed her fingers and pressed them to his lips. “You.”
The drunk pirate stood, stupefied, before realizing what he was being offered. A slow smile spread across this drawn face and lifted his moustache upward. “Ah, wench. Come wiff me.”
He barked something in Chinese before guiding Rhodesia to a corner of the deck. His pants were already half down before the darkness enveloped the pair of them. Several more men straggled out from unseen places, rubbing their eyes, and some, still carrying their jugs of rum.
The girls of The Molly Maiden snapped into action. All giggles and swaggers, each fell onto the waiting arm of a horny, drunk Chinese pirate.
“Settle up with me after,” Bon called. “For now, enjoy the wares!”
A few of the men grunted in acknowledgement.
“Come on,” Bon whispered. “Let’s go find China Joe.”
I nodded. “And Jack.”
Bon ignored my last statement. “You take the cargo hold.” She flicked the dagger I’d tucked it into the waist of my britches. “I’ll take Captain’s quarters.”
“Wait!” I grabbed her arm. “Do you know where the Captain’s quarters are? I can—”
Bon covered my hand with hers. Her brows knitted together above her eyes and bespoke an air of sympathy. “The Black Otter used to be our best customer when we were in Caribbean waters.”
A pang of jealousy clanged within me. I shifted my weight. The thought of Jack doing with Angel-Arse Hazel what he and I did in the confines of our cabin brought a swell nausea to my stomach, followed by a flash of anger at my absent husband.
Bon closed the space between us and pressed her mouth to mine. My lips parted and accepted her tongue. I returned her kiss ferociously, my anger at Jack for using whores still hot. With her lips against mine, something felt strangely right and supremely wrong at the same time.
Finally, Bon pulled back. Her hand lingered on my waist. I covered it with mine, not willing to let the moment end so quickly.
“You deserve to reclaim your true love, Red. Let’s go find it.”
I gripped the dagger as Bon and I crept across the deck. As we split ways, her bound for the bedroom I shared with Jack, and me bound for the cargo hold, a chorus of bloodcurdling shrieks made me freeze. “Bon?”
“It’s all right, Red,” she whispered. “Part of the plan. They’re taking out China Joe’s crew.”
Ice chilled my veins as I started down the steps into the cargo hold. With no lantern, there was no way to see. I rubbed my eyes and eased the door shut behind me.
“Jack?” I called in a hoarse whisper. “Jacky? Are you here? It’s me, Red.”
Silence.
I inched down the stairs and stood at the bottom. The thought of striking out across the blinding darkness below decks gave me pause. A rash of tingles made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
My sixth sense.
A strangled breath rasped in the blackness.
Hands outstretched before me, I struck out across the gently rolling floor. “Jack?”
“Red.” The familiar voice spurred me on with courage I didn’t know I possessed. “Red!”
“Jacky!”
My foot struck something and I tumbled to the ground. Scrambling across the sparse floor, my hand finally came to rest on something warm and sticky. The metallic, heavy smell told me immediately what it was. Blood.
Fingers curled around mine. “Red?”
“Oh Jacky!”
A lantern sparked to life and illuminated the sick scene that lay before me. Jack, bound at the ankles and wrists and bloody all over, lay in a crumpled heap. Our hands tightened together.
His blonde hair was streaked red and his iconic fur cap was nowhere to be seen. Black clothing was slashed open from what looked like whip marks, revealing torn and bloody skin beneath. Jack’s eyes were purple and swollen, only one opened just a slit.
Those soft lips that had tasted my kisses and explored my body were drawn and dry as though he hadn’t had a drink since his capture three days prior.
I struggled to help him sit up and cupped the side of his face, as he’d done mine so many times. “By Jove, Jacky. Let’s get you out of here.”
I produced the dagger given to me by Irish Bon and cut his rope bindings.
“Red,” he rasped. His chest rose and fell quickly and his hands began to twitch. “The lantern—”