Chapter Nine
The man with a dark coat was looking at me the same way he had at the cave. The sunlight through the window caught his face and I wished it hadn’t. It was easier not to look at him when I couldn’t see him clearly.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His voice was low and unhurried.
“Away from here.” I kept my chin up. “Unless you plan to stop me, in which case I should warn you, the last man who tried is on the floor behind me.”
I held his gaze and said nothing more, as if admitting to killing a man in a tavern was something I did every day.
His gaze moved over me to Russo, then back to me. A corner of his mouth twitched. No surprise. Not alarm. Almost like approval crossed his face.
“Kindly step away,” I said.
His towering frame took a step forward, causing me to step back, then he shut the door.
“I didn’t say you could come in,” I snapped.
He arched an eyebrow as if I had offended him. Ugh! The nerve of him.
The sunlight again caught what the cave’s dimness had only somewhat revealed.
Sharp jaw, hard lines, skin bronzed from wind and salt.
The color of his eyes stopped me short—blue, bright as the ocean, a shade I had never seen on anyone.
Not in the cavern, not on the ship, not in this tavern full of the worst kinds of people.
I wondered if he was human.
“Either he was terrible in bed, or you have a strange appetite.” He swept the coat back and got to his knee, examining the blackened area of Russo’s neck where I’d stabbed countless times.
“Hmmm… according to the number of stabs, I’d say he didn’t know how to satisfy you.”
“Is everything a joke to you?” I pressed my back to the wall, my hands inches away from the dagger tucked in my pocket. I didn’t let him answer before I continued, “Let me assure you that he isn’t my type. He forced me up here.”
“I recalled you volunteering yourself.” He gripped Russo’s jaw, shifting his neck from side to side.
Strange. What is he looking for on Russo?
“Were you watching the whole time and you did nothing to help us? Where were you?” I didn’t recall seeing him anywhere. Either people here were selfish or they didn’t care for other beings. “You’re no gentleman.”
“I never said I was.” He matched my scowl as he came toward me, my back hitting the wall.
One hand landed against the wall above my head, his body leaning close, that ridiculous hat tipping forward as he caged me in.
He opened out a palm. “Give it to me.”
“Give you what?” I feigned innocence.
His eyes dropped to my chest, then back to my face. He knew what weapon I used on Russo. How?
“I have no time to play games, woman. Now, hand it over.”
Those eyes turned darker, blue bleeding into gray. How was that possible?
“No,” I said, sounding bolder than I felt. “What makes you think I killed him?”
“You admitted it.”
Shit. I did. Damn it.
“Well, I could have lied to get you out of my way.”
He closed his eyes, patience wearing thin, then opened them, back to blue. “I’m not going to ask nicely again. You hand it over or I’ll strip you bare naked.”
How did he know I hid it under my garment? I crossed my arms. “You wouldn’t dare.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Most women beg me to.”
The audacity of that cocky, arrogant bastard. The most insufferable man I had ever met in my very limited experience of men… and infuriatingly, the best looking. But I had to play it smart. I needed him. And winning him over was the only way out of here.
I swallowed. “I’ll give it to you if you help my friend and me escape this place.”
His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again until he finally said, “You’re bargaining with me?”
I guessed he was used to always getting his way.
“I am,” I said.
He let out a short breath. “No.” He pushed off the wall and walked toward the door. “You’re not worth the trouble.”
“Wait.” I waited for him to face me. “I’ll do anything. I mean anything.” I hated how desperate I sounded. But Jina was downstairs and I was out of options. “Even—” I swallowed, pointing to the bed. “Even that.”
His eyes moved over me. A long, unhurried look that started at my face and ended at my feet. Then he made a sound low in his throat that reached somewhere I would be embarrassed to admit.
My flushing cheeks went cold when he said, “No thanks. I’ve had better.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“You asked if I’d take you for pleasure.” He said it the way someone might decline a bad cut of meat. “I’m saying I’ve had better. You’re not much to look at.”
I had never spent a single moment in my life thinking about how I looked. There had been no reason to. But those words, coming from a face like his, landed somewhere I hadn’t expected.
“We’re done here.” He turned toward the door, his coat swishing behind him.
“Wait—” I grabbed his arm. I hated that I was going to say this. “The dagger isn’t the only thing I have. I know things about the shells. Things you don’t.”
He lowered his gaze to my hand, that hat tipping with the movement. “So Resse was telling the truth,” he murmured to himself, then arched an eyebrow at me. “Why didn’t you lead with that?”
“I assumed you already knew.” I released him. “So how are you getting us out of here?”
He scrubbed his jaw, the corner of his mouth twisting upward. “You’re not going to like it. But you have no choice.” He moved to the door and peered out. “Stay close to me. And if people ask, I killed the captain. Do you understand?”
Those words sat wrong with me. But survival was essential. Nobody would believe I killed a man three times my size anyway.
“Did you hear me?” When he turned back, his face was so close that if he had moved another inch our lips would have touched. Those blue eyes had gone dark again. It scared me enough that I jerked back.
“I said stay close. Not on my heels.”
“Sorry, I—”
Before I could finish, the coat fell around us both as he scooped me up, one arm at my back, the other beneath my knees. “Act like a damsel in distress.”
“What—”
“Stop talking.”
“I’m not talking.”
“Then what do you call what you just did?”
I groaned. It was difficult to argue when his chest was solid and warm against me, pine and sweetness clinging to his skin. I shut my mouth and went limp.
He stomped down the stairs and when he reached the last landing, he said to Russo’s crew, “Your captain took what’s mine, and now he’s dead. Leave me be.”
The tavern went quiet. He set me down behind him, his back blocking me from the room, so I took a peek to find Jina. Every eye moved to him, to the dark coat and hat, and the hand resting loose on his sword hilt.
“Get your friend,” he whispered to me. “Back door. Go. And stay there.”
I grabbed Jina’s wrist and pulled her toward the back of the tavern. Ranis followed without being asked. I should have kept moving, but I didn’t. I stopped at the doorframe, Jina’s hand still in mine.
Three of Russo’s men jolted out of their seats, steel ringing out as they drew their swords.
The tavern erupted. Chairs scraped back, cups hitting the floor. A woman screamed and ran out the door. The merchants near the fire scrambled toward the back wall, knocking their table sideways. The bartender dropped below the counter.
“You killed our captain.” The broadest one stepped forward, sword leveled. “You’re not walking out of here, Theron.”
Theron. Perfect for someone like him. The name sounded arrogant and rude.
Theron didn’t draw his sword. Not yet. His eyes swept the three of them, the way a man looks at something mildly inconvenient.
“Last warning,” Theron said.
The broad one lunged.
What happened next was almost too fast to follow. Theron drew and put his blade through the first man’s sword arm before the lunge completed. The man crashed into a table, blood spreading dark through his sleeve.
The second came from the left and caught an elbow to the jaw that sat him down hard, splitting his lip against the floor. The third hesitated.
One second was all it took.
Theron pressed the tip of his sword beneath the third man’s chin.
“Don’t be a fool. I killed your captain, and your comrades are dead.
You have a choice. Either die by my hands, or take this blessed chance and tell your crew you killed him to take his place.
” He jerked his chin toward the stairs. “Now go and get his sword.”
The man dashed up the stairs without a word. The bartender rose above the counter, but the customers remained still.
“We should go.” Jina’s fingers tightened around mine.
“Jina is right,” Ranis urged, his hand at my elbow.
My feet wouldn’t move.
Theron sheathed his sword and settled the coat back over his shoulders as if the whole thing had been an annoyance.
I had seen Agusto use a whip my whole life and never once seen anyone fight back. Theron had just taken apart three armed men like it cost him nothing. I didn’t know whether to be grateful or afraid.
“I told you not to look back,” he said without turning around, adjusting his hat.
He hadn’t checked. His back had been to me the entire time. There was no mirror, no reflection in the grimy tavern, nothing that could have told him I was still standing by the back door.
Jina tugged my hand. “Sis.”
I followed her out into the cold, my mind still on the man now falling into step behind us.
“You don’t listen well, do you?” Fingers closed around my wrist and spun me to face him. “I got you out. Now hand the dagger over.”
“No. You’re taking us far away from here first.”
His eyes caught the daylight, that pale blue brightening with a spark of amusement. “Do you know how to ride a horse?” he asked.
“I do.” Ranis raised a hand and hunched his shoulders when Theron’s sharp gaze swung to him.
“Who says you’re coming?” Theron snapped.
“I say.” I stepped beside Ranis. “He’s been good to us. We’re a package.”
“That wasn’t our deal.” Theron scrubbed his face. “That’s one more mouth to feed.” He glanced back toward the tavern, unease moving across his expression. “Fine. Follow me.”
Theron took us around the building to the barn.
The smell of hay and animal warmth hit me as the door swung open, the same smell I had woken to that morning.
Two horses waited inside, one brown, one black.
The black one turned its head toward me the same way it had before, ears forward, breath clouding the cold air.
“You take the brown one and ride with the girl,” Theron said to Ranis. He turned to me. “You ride with me.”
I looked at the black horse. “I’m not getting on that thing.”
Theron huffed out a breath. “Not a good time to be stubborn, woman. Stay and face the local law when someone reports the disturbance or get on the horse. Either way, I still get the dagger. Choose fast.”
“Fine,” I said.
Before I could move, not that I knew the first thing about mounting one, he gripped my waist and threw me up onto the saddle, then swung up behind me.
My legs felt wrong, stiff and splayed against the animal’s sides.
I had never been on a horse. Never known what one felt like beneath me, all heat and muscle.
Theron clicked his tongue and the horse lunged forward. My back slammed into his chest and I pitched sideways.
“For the love of gods.” His arm locked around my waist and pulled me back against him.
This man believed in the gods too.
His hand moved fast, sliding beneath my breast.
“Hey.” I slapped his hand. “What are you doing?”
“So that’s where you’d been hiding the pearls.” His breath was warm against my ear. “Figured as much. When we get to my ship, you will fulfill your bargain, or I will strip you bare to get what I want.”
“You’re no gentleman.”
“Again, I never said I was.” His arm tightened around my waist. “You might have gotten away with your pretty face and charm elsewhere, but not with me. You don’t want to mess with me. You play dirty. I play dirtier.”
Pretty face. The words landed somewhere they shouldn’t have, warm and unwelcome, and I hated that they did. I scowled but he wouldn’t see my expression.
The horse surged forward and the biting wind hit my face, carrying salt and the smell of the sea somewhere ahead. Trees blurred past on either side, the road narrowing ahead into shadow. I gripped the arm around my waist to keep from pitching forward.
Was I leaving one prison for another? Or would the man in the dark coat and ridiculous hat be our savior?
I looked back at Jina on the brown horse, her small frame pressed against Ranis, dark hair whipping across her face.
She caught my eye and gave me a small nod.
I meant to turn back to the front but stiffened when Theron’s eyes weren’t on the road but on me, that same dangerous look he’d worn since the cave when he looked at me.
“Does my face interest you?” Theron smirked.
Who are you?
I rolled my eyes and faced forward. Some questions were better left unanswered.