“Better.” He grunts and knees my legs apart. “Hook already had it. Now I want my turn. You’remyspoils now.”
ChapterSeven
Ifight. I have to. Even though Jack hits me again, his hand open and stinging against my cheek. I won’t give in.
“Bitch!” He bares his teeth and wraps one palm around my throat. “Stop squirming!”
“Fuck you!” I claw at his hand, my fingernails scraping deeply as I try to free myself. Then I make a fist, my thumb locked against the outside of my fingers, and swing as hard as I can. I catch him in the face, and my hand explodes with pain as he yowls and grabs his bloody nose.
A whistle sounds outside, the noise high and sharp.
The pirate stills and turns his head to bark, “Fucking hell, what is it?”
“The Jolly Roger,” a pirate calls through the door. “Bearing down on us fast, Captain Jack.”
I hear the tremble in the pirate’s voice.
“That goddamn bastard is trying to take my spoils.” The pirate captain releases me and hurries to the door, opens it, dashes out, and slams it behind him.
I sit up and scramble out of the bed. My heart is thundering against my ribs, and hot tears overflow down my cheeks. My lip is busted, but that small burst of pain is nothing compared to the terror that threatens to engulf me. That was close. Too close.
I rush to the window. There’s a latch in the middle. I flip it with shaking fingers, then swing the window open. A narrow wooden ledge lines the back of the ship, perhaps just big enough for someone to stand on if they could maintain a hold on the railing that’s just below the window sash. But below the ledge is nothing but black water, the depths inscrutable and covered with swirling mist. If I fall, I won’t survive. I know that as surely as I know that if I stay here and Calico Jack returns, something bad is going to happen to me in this room. Something I won’t recover from.
I lean out the window, but something in the darkness behind the ship catches my eye. It’s a light. No, several lights—lanterns floating high in the fog and approaching quickly.
“Hoist the mainsail!” Captain Jack yells. “Now! Now!”
Scampering footsteps are everywhere as men yell, something whines and hisses, the ship jerking to attention, and then it shoots forward.
I hold onto the windowsill lest I topple overboard. We’re moving fast, the sea behind the ship becoming topped with white as we begin creating a wake. But the lanterns are still floating in the dark, coming closer even though the Ranger is moving at a decent clip.
It’s Hook. He won’t let Calico Jack steal his prize. For some reason, a single thread of relief sews through me. Hook at least took me to Huran for treatment. He didn’t try to … I glance at the bed, then tear my gaze away. Maybe that saying “better the devil you know” applies in this situation.
More yelling comes from the Ranger, but the Jolly Roger slices silently through the water, its lights glimmering in the mist.
Heavy footsteps sound overhead, and then I hear Calico Jack above me.
“He’s coming on fast. Too goddamn fast! Hard starboard!”
Someone yells back at him, “That’ll take us too close to the whirlpool!”
“I said hard starboard, Guernsy! Disobey me, and I’ll spill your guts on the deck!”
“Aye, Captain!” The ship veers hard, and I scrabble to hang onto the windowsill. I don’t. Instead, I go tumbling onto the wooden floor and slide hard up against the base of the bed.
With a cry, I climb away from it, the floor at a harsh angle as the ship turns. Everything in the room stays put, but the dark lantern overhead hangs sideways. I stay on the floor as the ship maintains its perilous tilt. After what feels like an hour but is probably only a minute, the ship begins to even out again.
Now I hear the hiss of the sea, the water rushing against the timber as Calico Jack orders his pirates around on deck.
There’s fear in his voice.
Good.
I want him to be afraid.
I get to my knees and crawl to the door. Right when I get there, my stomach lurches.
I realize I’m going to be sick as I reach for the knob, then make a last-second decision and scramble back to the bed.
