id you take it?” Blake faced Emeline, who, even with her hair in disarray and her gown wrinkled, looked more beautiful than he remembered. Sudden embarrassment swamped him that he’d disclosed such intimate details of his life, stories he’d never told a soul.
She shook her head. “It was gone when I got here, Blake. I’m sorry.”
Should he believe her? When everyone else in his life always betrayed him? “You hated it. You wanted it gone.”
She folded her hands in front of her. “True enough. Nonetheless, I did not take it.”
Blake growled. He must not trust her. Must not trust anyone. “Finn! He was here in my chamber searching for something. He’s always had his eye on the Ring.”
She took a step toward him. “Blake…forget the Ring. The evil it brought you is gone. Get some rest.”
“Where’s Bandit?” For he wouldn’t put it past the smelly beast to steal it again.
“The lockbox was far too heavy for a monkey to carry,” she countered.
He eyed her with suspicion, unsure of her motives. Unsure of his own. Without saying a word, he tossed a shirt over his head, slipped on his boots, strapped on his weapons, and slammed out the door. He would find the Ring. And when he did, he’d kill the man, woman, child…or monkey who took it.
Three hours later, after waking and interrogating every member of his crew and staff—all while ignoring their shock at finding him alive—he ordered every chamber, hall, kitchen, library, and gallery to be searched. Still no Ring was found.
The pirates who escorted Josephine back to her ship reported she had, indeed, rowed out toLaSorcièreand set sail soon after. However, lookouts on the south side of the island told him her ship had been spotted hugging the coast for several hours before she had set off to sea. Odd.
If anyone had the courage to defy him and steal the Ring, ’twould be her. Yet how did she even know about it? She had made no mention of it to him. Still, she’d returned to her ship long before Blake had removed it from his finger. And Emeline was right about Bandit. He did not have the strength to heft so large a box.
Therefore, only two of his crew remained high in his suspicions. One of whom he assumed was off on some dalliance with a native girl, and the other he’d just summoned to the library where Blake conducted his inquisitions.
“Do you really think it was Finn?” Emeline spoke from her seat on a nearby settee, Bandit in her arms.
Blake turned from the window. “I can think of no one else who both knew about the Ring and has enough reckless greed to dare defy me.” He crossed arms over his chest. “Rummy is always besotted, Sam cares not for his own life, Pedro is just a lad, and Charlie is too smart for such a defiant feat that would surely get her keelhauled or worse. Besides, though they may have had their suspicions, I don’t believe any of them knew about the Ring.”
“What of Maston? Is he not missing?”
Oddly, at the mention of the man’s name, Bandit flapped his hairy arms in the air and screeched.
Ignoring him, Blake blew out a sigh. “Perhaps, but his greed extends toward women and wine, not power.”
Movement brought Blake’s gaze to the doorway where Finn entered, wide-eyed and looking like a mouse about to be caught in a trap.
“Where’s the Ring, Finn?” Blake ground out.
Swallowing hard, Finn tugged at the bandana around his head. “I didn’t take it, Cap’n. I swears.”
“You were in my chamber right before I got sick. You were looking for it, were you not?”
Finn cast a pleading glance at Emeline.
“Were you not?” Blake’s shout caused Emeline to flinch and Finn to take a step back.
“Aye, I were lookin’ fer it, Cap’n. But I didn’t find it. I didn’t take it.”
Blake fingered the hilt of his blade. “If you had found it, you would have stolen it. Defied me! Betrayed me!”
Squealing, Bandit began shaking his head, drawing a glance from Blake, and he suddenly wished he could still understand him. What was wrong with the infernal varmint?
Finn shrank back, terror streaking his eyes. “I can’t say fer sure, Cap’n. I…I wanted to see it, touch it, try its power. ’Ard to resist, eh? But take it?” His breathing heightened. “I don’t think I would’ve, Cap’n.”
Blake studied him. He’d known Finn for five years, and he’d never seen him so frightened, not even when they’d been chased by a fleet of French frigates a year past, not even when one of said frigates had pummeled theSummonswith a broadside that had nearly sent her down to Davey Jones’ locker.
“If you have it, Finn, give it back to me at once, and I vow to let you live.”
