“Love will make you do wild things.” Thorne’s eyes glazed over. “I would have sailed to the end of the world for her. Have sailed to the end of the world.”
Christian’s hands curled into fists. “All for what? You’ve gained nothing.”
His father met his gaze and took a step toward him. “You’re wrong. Revenge, my boy. I take it when I can. Draw every last bit of it out of a man’s soul.”
The pounding in Christian’s head intensified.
Thorne stepped to the window and picked up a navy issued cocked hat. He ran his hands over the soft felt. “They kidnapped her because of my position in the navy. Used her to get to me.”
The captain swiveled to face the portrait once more. “Your mother was rescued.”
Christian nearly dropped to his knees. “I was never told anything of the sort.”
His father’s shoulders went stiff. “She never made it back to shore with her rescuers.”
The room spun around Christian and he reached out for the back of a chair for support. “What happened?”
“The men that took her, they did terrible things to her. Things no woman should endure. She couldn’t bear to face me afterward.” His father’s voice cracked. “She threw herself into the sea.”
When he turned to Christian, his eyes were rimmed with red. “I wouldn’t have cared. I would have stayed by her side while she healed.”
Christian’s vision blurred.
“I spent years hunting down all the pirates and smugglers I could. With every slit throat, I wondered if I had got the right man, the right crew.” His face hardened. “Until I learned she was never taken by pirates in the first place. That I had been deceived in the worst way.”
Pain exploded through Christian’s palms as his nails bit into soft flesh. “I don’t understand.”
“You never will.” Thorne flipped the hat he still held and set it back. “Unless...”
Silence stretched between them.
“Unless you join me. Join me and I will tell you everything.”
Gone were the lines of grief. Gone was the moment of vulnerability. Gone was the brief glimpse of the father he once knew.
Heat rushed up the back of Christian’s throat to mingle with the aching hurt already there. “How dare you? You tried to kill me less than a week ago and now you come to my home with such a ludicrous proposition?”
A hollow laugh rang across the room. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”
“No thanks to you.” Christian spat the words out and took a long stride toward his father. “Get out. Get out of my house. Out of my life. I swear, if I ever see you again, I will arrest you on the spot.”
His father stood still for a long moment before dipping into a mocking bow.
“So be it.”
*
The chair atChristian’s desk creaked when he sank into it. His housekeeper knocked on the door a few moments later with a tray of coffee. Once she set it down, he waved her out and poured it himself.
Swirling the obsidian liquid, he stared at the invitation in front of him. A party. In his honor. The light in the room began to fade, replaced with the warm colors of the sunset, and he sighed. Well past time to leave. Yet he stayed in place, sipping his coffee.
She would be there.
He’d only seen her twice the rest of the trip back to Savannah. Both mornings, she’d emerged in the soft grey of dawn and climbed up to the crow’s nest. She stayed up there until the sunrise washed over her, setting her hair aflame in the warm light. The prettiest damn sight he’d ever seen.
If only he’d worked up the nerve to apologize.
She’s not marrying material.Damn his foolish mouth. Because it had been a lie. A lie to himself. She was infinitely marriageable.
