“Yes ma’am.” She disappeared like a streak of lightning. There one minute, so bright and tangible, then gone.
I held Solo’s sword in front of me and scowled. “Tommy. Poison Lightning. Also in the cargo hold is paint. Find all the black you can. It’s high time that my husband’s flagship lived up to its name.”
“Consider it done, because we’ll do it, we will.” Tommy led Poison Lighting to the cargo hold with a jovial bounce in his step.
I planted my feet and stared at the remnants of my crew. “Now that the more innocent among us are gone, only us killers are left.
Solo groaned and rubbed his head, and Red Legs’ face was scarlet and unsmiling.
“I want to add two articles to The Black Otter.” I shifted my gaze from my men into the distance. “I-if you’re married, you’re faithful. To the end. To death. No matter what.”
“Aye,” Solo gurgled. He cleared his throat and squinted at me. Red Legs nodded a stiff nod.
“I-if you’re not faithful, you die.”
“Aye aye, Cap.” Solo smiled, like a big brother would smile when his little sister threw her first punch at a boy who unwelcomingly tried to kiss her.
Red Legs scowled, but nodded, the fire still not gone from his face.
“Till Rusty gets the new sails sewn, we’ll set these here to catch every wind. We will catch Jack—and bring him back home to his ship.”
“Aye aye, Cap,” Solo said again. I knew he meant it.
Chapter Fifteen
Swansea, Wales
Jack let his fingers dance down my backbone. Even through the fabric, his touch left me craving more of him and longing for the familiar caress of his skin against mine, without the cumbersome dress to get in the way. I inhaled his exotic scent as I lay against his chest and listened to the steady thud of his heart.
Rum.
Spices.
Sweat.
Sea.
My eyes closed on their own.
“If I’d have figured any way to save your life, Jacky,” I began. “I would have right then.”
Emotion clogged my throat and threatened to choke me like it had choked my elderly fiancé. “But I couldn’t figure a way, not even with Rusty’s help, to get through the trap.”
Jack tangled his fingers in my hair at the back of my neck. “I know you would have, Back from the Dead Red. Defying odds is what you do best, it seems.”
I was careful to keep my voice soft. “I did try, you know. Later. But it didn’t work.”
His fingertips on the nape of my neck were intoxicating. “So I heard.”
I tightened my arms around Jack’s middle.
“How did you get away?”
“I’m afraid you won’t believe me,” Jack said. “To be completely honest, I’m still not sure how she pulled it off.”
My eyes sprang open. I pushed back from his grasp. “She?”
His arms fell away from my body like dry leaves in a winter wind. Jack’s face was soft and his eyes steady, despite my sudden fervor.
The hurt on Angel-Arse’s face when she learned I was married to Jack had haunted me, off and on, without reason. Sometimes during the day, other times in my dreams.
The fuzzy memory of Jack going into Tortuga without me the night I killed Nikolai often accompanied that memory.
Had he gone into town to meet her and have a free farewell hurrah?
“You mean to tell me, Russian Jack Rackham, that you were rescued by a woman?”
•
“We’re too late.” I couldn’t look at Rusty as I adjusted the white cloak I’d swept over my head and shoulders before coming ashore. If I started crying, everyone would see that Russian Jack’s wife was there—present at his makeshift, coastal English trail.
We hadn’t been able to catch the pirate hunting ship, though all of us had tried every trick we knew to catch fair winds. Since we failed to catch Jack’s ship, followed the pirate hunters right up to the English coast.
I’d left Solo in charge of The Black Otter while Rusty and I came to try to free Jack without getting ourselves caught. And hanged.
“Guilty of piracy,” one of the judges yelled. My throat tightened and my eyes fluttered shut. A chorus of townsfolk joined in, pumping their fists and all affirming my husband’s doom. I pulled the cloak tighter about my head and shoulders.
“Dear God, no,” Rusty whispered beside me.
