Chapter 25 #4
“What the fuck! Get back here!” Fox flinched at Henri’s panicked voice behind them, and the plank beneath him lurched violently. Rowan grabbed Fox just as their end of the plank dislodged from the Marigold and plunged into the water below.
It was like smacking against the wall all over again.
Freezing water battered his brain in his skull, and he didn’t have time to take a breath before plunging under.
In the back of his mind, he knew he needed to kick back to the surface, but the shock to his system had rendered him immobile.
He focused on keeping what little breath he had in his lungs.
If the two ships drifted closer, he would be crushed or drowned.
Something constricted around his torso, and he fought for a second before realizing it was Rowan’s arm. A few moments later, their heads broke the surface, and Fox took a deep, shuddering breath, his instincts kicking back to life.
“Fuck.” Fox was able to tread water now, but Rowan still held him. The two ships loomed high on either side like the walls of a narrow canyon. Shouting sounded from above as pirates still scrambled to get back to the Siren, pursued by Baird’s sailors.
Someone else broke the surface with a gasp, and it took Fox’s bruised brain a moment to figure out who it was. His sandy blond hair was plastered against his face. Robin? No, David. He must have been on the plank with them when it collapsed.
What the fuck was he even doing here? Fox couldn’t imagine he would’ve wanted to help. Maybe he regretted his choice to stay and had tried to escape via the plank?
“Captain!” Henri’s shout accompanied the splash of a rope ladder landing not far from them.
David floundered, his head ducking back under the water, arms flailing up like he didn’t know how to swim. He bobbed up again, sputtering, and sank again. Fuck. He actually didn’t know how to swim.
“Grab the ladder,” Rowan ordered Fox, releasing him now that he’d regained his faculties. Rowan grabbed David as Fox swam for the ladder. A bullet zinged past Fox, and one of David’s flailing hands caught Rowan upside the head.
“Stupid motherfucker,” Rowan growled as more bullets rained down around them. Fox heard Henri order pirates to return fire. Fox hauled himself up a few rungs of the ladder, his feet still submerged. Rowan had managed to get David’s head above water, and was struggling to drag him toward the Siren.
Irritation flashed through Fox. If David wanted to escape so badly, they should just leave him here. He’d nearly drowned them with his stupidity, and they still might get shot for their trouble trying to save him.
“Up,” Rowan ordered David as they finally made it to Fox.
A bullet buried itself in the wood inches away, and Fox scurried up toward the rail, grateful as hands caught and dragged him onto the deck.
Henri shuffled him behind the crowd battling at the rail as the Siren pulled away from the other ship.
A few sailors who had made it aboard were swiftly dumped over the side.
David collapsed onto the deck, coughing. Rowan cleared the rail with a murderous glint in his eye as the Siren tacked to port.
“You’re fucking dead,” Rowan growled, dragging David up by the back of his shirt. His tall, lanky frame seemed small and weak as he cowered. Rowan shook him. “Why the fuck did you do that?”
David shook his head, wide eyes riveted to Rowan’s furious face.
He must’ve been trying to escape. That was the only reason Fox could think of that he would willingly enter the fray.
But then why hadn’t he left in Kadling Kay?
He’d had his freedom then. If he wanted to take Robin with him, Robin wasn’t—
Except there Robin was, standing at the rail like his brother had dragged him there.
Rowan drew his dagger and pressed it to David’s stomach. “Talk, or I’ll fucking gut you.”
Oh, this was the moment Logan had been talking about. Fox grabbed Rowan’s hand in a firm grip. It was shaking.
“Don’t.”
“He could’ve killed us,” Rowan hissed.
Fox glanced at Robin, who stood frozen a few feet away, and Rowan followed his gaze. A few tense seconds ticked by before Rowan sheathed the knife back in his belt with the force he would’ve used to stab David.
“Get him out of my sight.”
Robin rushed forward, helping a still sputtering and terrified David to his feet and leading him away. A single cannon’s shot boomed from the Marigold but fell short. The sailors were disorganized now, and the Siren was the fastest ship on the seas. When she fled, nothing could catch her.
Rowan stomped up to the quarterdeck, where Logan looked like he hadn’t drawn a single breath from the time his captain had left the Siren till his feet were safely back on deck. Logan caught Rowan’s arm.
“Orders, Captain?”
Rowan drew the papers from his pocket, now a soggy, waterlogged mess of pulp and ink. He chucked them onto the deck with a curse. “One of those was a letter from Shaw. They’ve found the Monsoon, and they’re trying to drive her north toward the Storm Ring.”