“We’ll get clear, lass.” Hook stands firm, his resolve like a physical touch. “She can take it.” He slaps the mast.
The ship is still listing to the side, pulling away from the vortex slowly. Once we’ve gotten far enough away that I can no longer tell if Calico Jack is still at the wheel, we pick up speed. The water no longer falls on us in punishing sheets, and the crew starts moving around on deck, working on the fallen sail.
“There.” Hook backs away and unties his impossible knot with nothing more than a flick of his wrist.
I turn and lean against the mast, my heart still pounding as I stare at the whirlpool that’s still too close for comfort.
Hook grips my chin and pulls my face back to his, his gaze going to my lips. When he gently rubs his thumb across it, I wince and remember where Calico Jack struck me … along with everything else he tried to do.
Hook seems to change in front of me. From the man who just saved my life into the monster Peter warned me about.
“Calico Jack did this.” It isn’t a question. Not really. When he meets my gaze again, he asks, “What else did he do to you, lass?”
I drop my gaze.
He leans down, trapping me in his deep blue eyes. “Speak plain.”
I don’t want to say it, don’t want to even think about what just happened. But Hook isn’t letting go. If anything, the storm in him is rising higher and higher, the pressure between us growing with each moment.
“Tell me.” His voice softens only a hair, only enough to stroke the part of me that needs coaxing. The part he somehow senses when no one else has.
“He, he tried to …” I can’t finish. I’m not ready to talk about that. I don’t know if I’lleverbe ready to talk about it.
Hook grabs the nape of my neck and pulls me close. “I’m sorry.” His voice is gruff, and I don’t miss the anger in it, but there’s also sincerity. I don’t know how I can feel it, but I do.
With that, he releases me and stalks off down the deck. “Back to starboard, steady as she goes!” he yells.
Starkey pops up from where he’s been working on the fallen sail. “Captain?”
“You heard me!” Hook barks. “Starboard!”
I don’t know what starboard means, but a weight settles in my gut when I look at Hook, at the way he radiates calm, cold fury.
“Aye, Captain!” several men yell in unison.
The ship turns back toward the whirlpool, toward Calico Jack’s Ranger that is still struggling to escape the pull of the swirling water.
Hook leans on the side rail, his gaze set on the Ranger.
“Orders?” Cecco, the one with the thick Italian accent, calls.
“Sink it!” Hook bellows.
Starkey drops the corner of the sail and hurries over to Hook. “What? Why?” He looks out at the Ranger then turns his head, catching a glimpse of me, his gaze flicking to my throat. His eyes narrow. “Oh, fucking oath! The bastard’s brought this on himself.” He dashes away and down into an opening leading below decks.
“On my command!” Hook’s voice booms over the roar of the water and the sounds of the ship. His voicethunders, power in every syllable.
We drift closer to the Ranger, close enough that I can see Calico Jack again. He’s clinging onto the wheel now, only one of his sails still up as his ship is being wrenched up the high wave and dragged along.
Hook turns his head, his gaze catching mine. He stares at me, so much passing between us that I don’t understand.
Then he raises his hand, and with every bit of malice one man can hold, he yells, “Fire!”
The cannons boom, and the ship shakes as the cannonballs take flight. The Ranger doesn’t stand a chance. Even through the smoke, I can see it disintegrate under the barrage of heavy fire. It’s blown to nothing but bits of timber and shards of death, the whirlpool swallowing all of it into the cold, dark deep.
ChapterEight
Five Years Ago
