Chapter 13 Cameras, Monkeys, and Sneaky Pirates #3
One of our men is belly up on the deck, and Sivan swings the sword he took from the messenger to stop another pirate from driving his sword into him.
Their swords clang together, and Sivan is quickly locked in a swordfight.
He looks really good fighting with a sword.
He’s very sexy… What the hell am I thinking?
I can’t be drooling over him. I need to help him.
I point my sword at the man that Sivan is currently in battle with.
“Help Matteo. I’ll be fine,” he says, meeting the other pirate strike for strike. I hesitate for a moment. “Hey now, don’t look at me like you’re worried.” He gives me a smile, while blocking a strike from the man’s sword.
“Don’t die!” I shout and head toward the man carrying Harlow. I’m swiftly pulled back by my collar after only a few steps. “Who the hell is touching me?!”
Turning around, I’m greeted with a punch right in the jaw.
My vision goes hazy, but only for a moment.
What a fucking hit. “Son of a bitch!” I shout, rubbing my jaw.
I raise my sword to strike the large pirate that is now standing in front of me, and he backs up a fair bit, slicing the air in front of himself with his sword, daring me to come closer.
My jaw is stinging, and I feel a bit dizzy, but I can still take him.
“Back!” Sivan shouts from behind me. He has such a commanding voice. No less than half of the pirates around us stop to see what’s happening. He points his sword at the pirate. “You dare to punch the son of the captain of this ship?”
“Course I do,” the pirate answers with a laugh. “And I’ll punch you, too,” he says charging at Sivan, rather stupid of him, since his sword is drawn.
“Great. Make it easy for me,” Sivan says, keeping the sword pointed at him.
At this rate, the man will impale himself on Sivan’s sword.
I’m tempted to intervene, but before I can, a large bang pierces the air, and the man’s body falls in front of us.
All the fighting on the ship momentarily stops.
Loud footsteps hit the deck following the shot. A tall thin man, wearing a black and green coat approaches the now-lifeless body on the deck. I don’t recognize him, but the rest of the pirates are all paying close attention.
“Get the hell off my ship!” my father shouts.
“Yeah, get out of here, Louie,” Sivan’s father says.
Louie doesn’t acknowledge either of them and squats down to examine the body. He pats the man on the head and closes his eyes.
“Who is Louie?” I whisper to Sivan.
“I think I remember hearing stories about someone named Louie,” Sivan says. “I think they were friends, maybe?”
“Who was friends?” I ask.
The pirates that don’t belong to our ship walk toward us, standing in a line behind Louie.
There are about fifteen of them. They just stopped fighting because this pirate was shot.
I think it was Louie that shot him, but I can’t be certain, because I didn’t see where the shot came from.
It’s strange to me that they’ve all gathered behind him, even Henry stopped his fight with our fathers.
Louie shakes his head and stands up tall. Stroking his long, wiry black beard, he looks at Sivan and me. “You two—” he says to us.
Before he can finish his sentence, he’s interrupted by our fathers, who are now standing beside us. Captain Crawford throws a hand up. “Louie, Rodri told you to get the hell off his ship! Did you hear him?”
“Be quiet, Ray,” Louie says, making a “shushing” gesture with his hand.
Captain Crawford’s mouth is open wide. I don’t think he’s used to being disrespected. “Did you hear what he said to me, Rodri?”
My father slowly shakes his head at him. “Louie. Why are you here? Where is Captain Slicer? You assholes come on my ship, start a fight over something I’m supposed to have, now you prance up here as if you have any right to do so. I will ask once more; what do you want?”
“Right and he’s very mad that you just disrespected me, too,” Captain Crawford adds.
Louie sighs loudly. “I’m not in the mood for either of you.
We came for one thing and we’re leaving with two.
I’ll take him and be on my way.” He places two fingers in his mouth and gives a crisp whistle.
Quickly, two large pirates come from behind him and grab the lifeless body off the deck, carrying him by the shoulders and feet.
I want so badly to know why he was here to begin with, and I’m really curious what he was going to say to us. I won’t ask, though. This is my father’s ship, and he would be extremely pissed off if I interrupted.
“Hey,” Sivan’s father says. “What the hell did you come here for anyway, Lou-Ee?”
I’m finding it hard not to laugh, because Captain Crawford is just ridiculous. “Does your dad always act like this?” I ask Sivan. “I mean, I’ve never seen him act this way. That’s for sure.”
“He seems to act a bit different these days around your father. I noticed it earlier. It’s like he’s more openly showing when your dad hurts his feelings or something.”
“Answer the question, Louie,” my father says.
I point at the two of them. “Didn’t they just do this bit, Sivan?”
“Yeah, seems like it,” he says, with a smile.
As the two men carry the lifeless pirate off the ship, Louie shakes his head.
“I hate the both of you. I can’t believe I had to come here for this,” he mutters, while heading off the ship.
“Louie! What the fuck did you come here for?” my father shouts.
“We’ve already taken it.” He gives my father a wave, then steps off the ship.
“Captain!” someone yells from behind us. “Should we go after them? See what it was they stole?”
My father turns toward the crew member and waves him off. “No, they can keep whatever it is. It can’t be that important. No one went into my chambers and our sons are here.”
“Matteo!” my father calls out, looking around the deck.
He looks at Sivan and me. “Where is he?”
I shrug. “Think he went off the ship chasing after Harlow.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized that I hadn’t even thought of Harlow being carried off for the last ten minutes. Shit, that’s right, she was being carried off, and Matteo was trying to save her.
I look at Sivan, and we nod at one another. “Captain, I need to speak with you, but it’s a private matter.”
He points in the direction of his cabin and motions with his chin for us to go wait for him. His first mate, Rooster, quickly appears in front of us.
“Ugghh,” Sivan’s father gives the loudest groan ever.
“Guess he doesn’t like Rooster,” I say to Sivan.
“Not that much. He hates him. Really hates him.”
“Let’s go wait for my dad in his chambers,” I say. I almost grab his hand to hold it but remember that we haven’t told anyone about us yet, so I probably shouldn’t.