His words sent a tremor through my body. Without Ambrose’s protection, I was as good as dead, and Silas would likely be as well. I swallowed, but Ambrose was not done. “I like you, lad, make no mistake about that. You know the life I live. I can give you luxury you’ve only ever dreamed of.”
“What are you offering me, Captain?” I said cautiously, fairly certain I knew the answer but wanting to hear it aloud.
Ambrose smiled that smile that once had made my heart flutter but now made my skin crawl. “I think you know what I mean, Jamie,” he said, giving my cheek another stroke. “I’d be proud to have you by my side.”
“You want to keep me like a paid whore,” I ventured, my tone gruffer than I meant it to be.
Ambrose threw back his head and laughed long and loud at that. “Smart as paint you are, lad. But come now, let’s not be crass. Gentlemen of fortune together. A life of easy living, with no cares in the world, doing whatever we like. Does that not sound better than living forever in your master’s debt? Or the few more days you would survive on this island, alone or in the hands of my crew?”
I wanted to rail against him and tear out his throat with my fingernails. He played with a stacked deck, and he knew where all the cards were, while I could only bungle my way through. Ambrose had said, only minutes ago, that there was no fortune in honesty. If I played his game, I could potentially come out the victor. I swallowed hard, then looked up into Ambrose’s face, giving him the best cherubic-eyed stare I could. “Will you let Silas go free if I do?”
Ambrose gave me a poke in the ribs. “You try so hard to play innocent, lad. I ain’t falling for your tricks. But I like you, make no mistake about that. Join with me, and, provided he doesn’t look me cross between the eyes, I give my word that I won’t harm him.” He chuckled at his own little joke.
“Your word is hardly worth a biscuit, Captain,” I said, glowering slightly.
“Now, Jamie, that’s not fair,” Ambrose said. “I never lied to you. Omitted the truth, aye, I’ll admit to that, but I didn’t lie. And I ain’t lying to you now. I swear I’ll not let harm come to him if you stay with me. I’ll swear it on my mother, God rest her soul. I’d even swear it on a Bible if I had one.”
I still had no trust in his words, for the man was no Christian, and I knew nothing of his mother but that she was dead and he was beyond her reproach. But I had very little else to bargain with, other than the map and compass. I could not agree to everything quickly without arousing his suspicion, but I could at least play along until I had a way to get Silas and myself out of this trap. If Ambrose knew my fear, he could exploit it further, and Silas’s life could be forfeit. “One thing I’ll say, and no more,” I said slowly. “If you spare him, bygones are bygones. I will cooperate with you if you give your word, as a gentleman of fortune, that you will not harm Silas and will set him free without injury once the treasure has been found.”
Ambrose placed a hand on his heart, as if he were swearing an oath to king and country. “It’s a bargain,” he said, solemn as the clouds that passed over the moon. “Give me the map and the compass, and come daybreak, we will make rich men of ourselves.”
“The compass is in my pocket,” I said, shifting a little but unable to reach for it with my hands tied behind me. “The map I have hidden, and it will remain so to ensure that you uphold your end of our agreement, Captain.”
Ambrose’s dark eyes glittered in the moonlight, but he nodded. “Aye, lad, you be no fool, and I admire that. I’ll take that compass, and tomorrow we will fetch the map.”
“Agreed,” I said, for lack of anything more I could say. About the treasure, I cared not, but I cared whether Silas would live to see another day.
Ambrose rose to his feet and stretched, then slid his hand down the front of my shirt. His fingers brushed the waist of my trousers, and I was ashamed to feel my prick jump a little. Despite my revulsion of him, his touch entranced me with some sort of spell that I could not resist. I inhaled softly, trying to will myself to not revel in his touch. His hand drifted just below my navel before suddenly skirting to the side and ducking into my pocket to take the compass out. My hips gave a little jerk at the tease, and I swallowed hard. Ambrose checked the compass over, then tucked it securely into the pocket of his own breeches. “What say you, lad? Shall I take advantage of you not being able to use your hands?” His palm grazed down my hip lightly, and though my stomach twisted, I was unable to stop myself from leaning slightly toward him.
“No,” I said, even as my cock threatened to betray me to him.
He gazed at me for a moment before removing his hand from my hip and stepping back with a nod. “I may be a pirate, Jamie, but I ain’t no monster. One day you will want me again, but I will not force it from you. Come, let’s get some sleep.” And with that, he led me back to the tent where Silas lay watching us approach. I gave my friend a nod, at which he seemed to relax a little. I laid on my side, hands still useless behind me. Ambrose tucked a blanket around me, and I was grateful for the meager warmth. And then, on that cool, sandy beach under the flapping canvas tent, surrounded by all variety of villains, I slept.
Chapter Eleven
Iwasawokenfrommy restless sleep by a frantic shout. Jerking awake to a commotion toward the entrance of the tent, I twisted around so I could sit up, my hands still firmly tied. Dawn light was spilling in, and Miller was yelling, his tanned face as white as if his spirit had been plucked from him. At his feet, two of the sailors lay, their throats slit from ear to ear, leaving a gaping smile in their necks where there should not have been. Neither one had woken from his slumber. One was Thatch, the other Vanders.
There were shouts and screams and curses flying as others awoke to the same horror I did. Someone had killed those two men in the middle of the night, getting past the guard and not waking anyone inside the tent. My stomach filled with sour dread, and it took everything in me to not heave my guts out on the floor.
Captain Ambrose was up and over to the crowd, shoving the men aside to kneel by the corpses. He turned to the crew with fire in his dark eyes. “Who was to be keeping watch last night?” he demanded, looking around. The men fidgeted before Ambrose’s eyes landed on the scraggly-bearded older man with bleary, red eyes. “Thomas! What do you have to say for yourself, man, for these two poor dead souls?”
Thomas looked positively baffled, cowering a bit as Ambrose stood to his full height. “I ne’er saw nobo’y, Cap’n,” he said, his words slurred, though whether from drink or from nerves, I could not say.
“Their blood is on your hands, Mister Thomas!” Ambrose cried in such a tone that those around him shrank back.
Thomas held up his hands. “I ain’ seen no one aroun’ the camp, sir, sure’n the good lord above I ain’!”
Ambrose quirked a brow, seeming to consider this for a moment, before, in a motion almost too fast for me to make out, he drew his pistol from his waist, cocked back the hammer, aimed, and fired it nearly point blank into Thomas’s chest. The man stumbled and fell back, landing on the sand with a heavy thump that shook me to my very core. He was dead before he even hit the ground, and I supposed that to be a mercy on him as Ambrose swiveled around to the crew, daring them to make a move. No one did.
“The next man to be derelict of his duties will answer to a bullet,” he said in his strong, unwavering voice. “Who saw anything last night? Speak up!”
The crew shuffled nervously, but no one spoke up. Ambrose wheeled around, each one cowering a bit under his icy gaze. When it landed on Duncan and stayed there, the pock-faced man shook like a tree in a storm.
“Could… could it have been an evil spirit?” Duncan asked in a voice that trembled like he did not want to give word to his thoughts.
“The ghost of Cap’n Locke?” said Humbolt next to him in a feeble voice.
Ambrose raised a brow as some of the crew gave hesitant nods or questioning looks to their fellows. Pirates were a superstitious lot, I had come to learn. “I’ve heard foolishness from the likes of you, Mister Duncan, but nothing so foolish as that. The murderer is someone that’s flesh and blood, you may lay to that. And when I find him, I promise you he will fall to cold steel the same as any other.” The pirates all nodded uneasily to one another, for none were about to argue with Ambrose.
