Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
WENDY
W ater was dripping down the wall somewhere across the low-ceilinged room. The plop plop, plop, plop of it was driving me mad. I gritted my teeth at another plop, insult added to injury when water slid down the back of my neck. It served the bastard right if water got into the seams and his ship fell apart.
“Do you want the bad news or the worse news?” Joanna asked, wincing at me from where she perched on a barrel full of fragrant beer.
“Neither,” I muttered, pacing away from the dripping water, my wounds itching under their starched bandages. I was lucky the mutinous bastards patched me up before throwing me in the brig.
“Well, the door’s barred from the outside, so there’s no getting out even if we take a hairpin to the lock. Also, that’s not water dripping on you. It’s from that guy.”
She pointed upward, and I gnashed my teeth as I tipped my head back and—sighed heavily. “My own success is taking revenge against me,” I lamented, eyeing the crew member who called me a slut with no captaining prowess to speak of. I’d strung him from the rafters a few days ago and completely forgot about him. He was fully dead now. Oops.
I wiped the blood from the back of my neck and flicked it to the floor, pacing the worn wooden boards, consumed with thoughts of what I’d do to Hook when he eventually came for me. I’d suck his dick off. Cut. I’d cut his dick off.
I groaned, massaging an ache between my brows. Although a headache was the least of my trouble; my arms stoked pain like fire through me, matched by my throat, my ribs, my ass, and my shoulder. I wanted to scream at the constant torture.
“I had everything,” I moaned, leaning against a sturdy tower of crates. They hadn’t even locked me in with my gold, the treacherous bastards. “My own ship. People who answered my every command. A really great hat.”
“It made you look dashing,” Joanna agreed, crossing her ankles as she watched me. She’d taken everything in her stride, and it was kind of… annoying. Where was her explosion of rage? Her promises to murder, mutilate, and annihilate? She’d been kidnapped, held captive, freed, and now stuck back in the same hole she’d been captive in. And still she joked and smirked and looked… casual. Unruffled.
“Teach me how to be unruffled,” I demanded.
Not missing a beat, she said, “Step one: lose the ruffles.”
I groaned. “I don’t have ruffles.”
“Consider getting some,” she suggested, making me laugh despite myself.
“If I had ruffles, I’d choke Hook with them. Watch his face turn red and purple. Wait until his eyes bulged out of his head…” I trailed off, lost in the fantasy.
“Then remove the ruffles and fuck him silly?” Joanna asked, snapping me out of it. I levelled a murderous glare at my sister, which had no effect whatsoever. “I’m just saying,” she added, plucking at a loose thread in her flowy white shirt, “I’ve never seen two people have so much chemistry while threatening to kill each other.”
“Would I drive my dagger so deep into his butt cheek that he’ll never be able to walk without a limp if I wanted to fuck him?”
Joanna’s smirk grew. “Isn’t that just your way of calling dibs?”
I turned away from her with another groan. “I don’t care how annoyingly handsome and dangerous he is. He’s my sworn enemy.”
“I thought Nevis was your sworn enemy.”
I spun so fast the hold blurred, pointing at Joanna with a sharp knife. “Don’t you speak that monster’s name in my presence.”
“She’s just a cow, Wendy,” Joanna laughed, the bright, tinkling sound filling the quiet of the hold. It was so loud it could probably be heard by the asshole guarding the other side of the locked door.
“She’s a menace and an abomination,” I hissed, my temper spiking red hot. Probably because I was in constant pain.
“And she’s getting a much stronger reaction from you than the pirate wafting around in his brown coat and fancy hat up on deck.”
My expression darkened, pure blackened rage filling my lungs. Mostly because she was right. It was hard to hold onto true, undiluted hatred for a person when you wanted them buried deep inside you even as you both tried to kill each other. I dragged a hand through my hair, tugging at the ends.
I would have come up with a reply so scorching and scathing that Joanna would have known, once and for all, I wanted Hook cut into pieces and scattered through the seas, but a hollow clang came from the door before I could speak. I straightened, knife in hand, prowling into a patch of darkness beside the door.
Joanna slipped off the barrel, no obvious weapon on her even if I knew she had a throwing knife tucked into her waistband. She stood very prim and elegant, as if waiting for a gentleman caller to take her for a walk about the harbour, not our bastard captors to make an appearance after hours.
“What are you gonna do?” I hissed when she fluffed her hair, straightening the red bandanna keeping it from her face, a bright, sunshiney smile pulling up her lips. “Charm them to death?”
“How do you think I got such good treatment the first time?” Joanna quipped, her brown eyes glimmering. “These men are all starved for softness. A smile here, a kind word there, and they’re putty in my hands.”
My grin was as big as my sister’s but far more evil. “You’re wicked, Joanna Darling.”
I took a deep breath when the door opened, adrenaline taking off the finest edge of pain. When the hinges creaked, light spilling into the room from the hallway, and a figure entered the room, I launched out of my hiding place knife-first.
“Oh,” I said, grinding to a halt and just staring at the tall, dark-skinned woman glancing from Joanna to me with mischief-bright eyes. “That dress is seriously working for you.”
She wiggled, pulling up the bust of her dress, her boobs barely clinging to the fabric, all but the nipple on display. “Thank you very much. It makes the girls look amazing, right? The guards outside certainly thought so before they drank the coffee I laced with burn root.”
A jolt of surprise went through me, immediately followed by glee. “That’s what I used to knock out the crew the night I killed Hook! Would you like to be my new best friend? I’m Wendy.”
I stuck out my hand, thrilled when she instantly shook it. “Oh, I know all about you,” she told me with immense delight. Her brown eyes shone so brightly I wondered if she was a goddess of mischief, not a mere mortal. “The boss never shuts up about you. I swear, he spoke about you twenty-four hours a day before we found you. He even muttered your name in his sleep.”
“Ha!” Joanna crowed, striding towards us with a bounce in her step. “I knew there was chemistry.”
“So much chemistry,” the goddess of mischief agreed with a grin that creased her round cheeks. “When he threw you over his shoulder on the beach, I thought he was stealing you to ravish you.”
“Chance would be a fine thing,” I muttered, then realised I said that aloud. “Because it would give me a perfect chance to murder him,” I hurriedly added.
“Denial looks so pretty on you,” the goddess of mischief told me with a grin. “And I’m Vea. Nice to meet you, ladies. I presume you’re the lovely Joanna.”
Joanna inclined her head.
Vea leaned against the door frame, arms crossed over her ample bosom. “Rumour has it you’ve charmed half the crew. There was uproar when Hook locked you away.”
“Was there uproar about me?” I asked, inching closer to the woman. “Did my crew fight for me to be freed?”
Vea winced.
“Scoundrels and traitors, the lot of them,” I spat, adrenaline fading now, letting the pain return in full force. Motherfucker, it hurt. “What did I ever do to earn such disloyalty?”
“Uh, killed a bunch of them,” Joanna said, a smile playing with her mouth.
“They’re pirates!” I threw up my hands. “That should have won them over.”
Vea patted my shoulder. Luckily it was the good one. “I think they’re just very loyal to Hook. It’s nothing you did wrong. I’m sure with another crew, you’d be a fiercely successful captain.”
“Thank you!” I shot a look at Joanna. “See, Vea believes in my reign as captain.”
“You didn’t even like being captain,” Joanna said with an eye roll.
“That’s not the point.” I eyed Vea. “Why did you come down here anyway? Fancy joining us for a little female company?”
“Always,” she agreed readily. “The sausage feast on deck might be fun to look at and play with, but I’m so bored of their conversational skills. Or lack thereof. But no, I’m not here for a bonding session. I came to break you out.” Her grin grew, pure madness sparkling on her face. “The way I see it, there are two captains of the Banshee, and it’s not right to keep one locked away when, for example, you could duel for the title.”
My eyes widened, my mood brightening at the thought of fighting Hook again. I would beat him into submission. He’d look at me with that dark delight again, matching my every move.
“Plus, I thought it’d be fun to fuck with Hook. He really hasn’t shut up about you since I met him. I’d say he’s a tiny bit consumed with the thought of you. I think he’d much prefer you in his bed than locked away.”
“In his fucking dreams,” I growled.
“Probably,” Vea agreed. “So, what do you say? Wanna liven this place up with a little duel action?”
I shouldn’t. I was injured…
“What do you get out of it?” Joanna asked, narrowing her eyes at our new friend.
“Nothing but excitement and the thrill running through my veins,” Vea responded solemnly. Her serious expression cracked with a grin. “Plus, I bet a lot of coins on you, Wendy. Just kiss him while you’re fighting. I bet he’ll fold instantly.”
“Surefire way to win any fight,” Joanna agreed, standing beside me.
I glared at both of them, but the open door was too tempting. “It’s been far too long since I duelled with anyone. Sounds fun.”
Vea slapped my shoulder, jostling every pain in my body. “Atta girl. I’ll go round up the troops to watch.”