She shrank back, eyes glistening.“Since I come aboard.”
“All this time you’ve eaten at my table, sailed under my command—and served my enemy.”
Her voice trembled.“He freed me from chains on Saint-Dominigue.I owed him.I dought no harm would come of takin’ a silly ring.”Her hand went to the bone charm at her throat.
Caleb’s mind reeled through every calamity that had befallen theSentinel—the plague of rats, the storm, the galleon’s ambush.“You called evil upon my ship,” he said, his tone a whip of steel.
A tear slid down her cheek.“At first, I did it for me.But den I thought maybe I could use de Ring to free my people from slavery, same as you fight for de oppressed.”
“You cannot sanctify wickedness with good intentions,” Caleb thundered.“You wielded darkness and called it light.”
“I know dat now.”Her shoulders quaked.“You a good man, Capitaine Hyde.I sees dat now.”
Betrayal.Always betrayal!Caleb’s hand tightened around his sword hilt, rage burning through grief.For a heartbeat, he thought he might strike her down.
“What am I to do with you?”he whispered.
Before she could answer, a rap on the door cut through the tension.
“Enter!”Caleb barked.
Liam appeared, face grim.“’Tis Montverre’s ship, Cap’n, fast on our wake.”
Caleb fisted his hands.His blood turned molten.
He looked toward the ceiling where the timbers groaned.The French fiend was after the Ring.The hunter had found them again, and half Caleb’s crew lay sick below.
Lord, how am I to stand against him now?
♥
Desi felt numb.Hollowed out.As if she were a spectator watching the world reel off its axis, going through the motions of life—working, eating, speaking, even pretending to feel.Everything had the strange, muffled quality of a tragic play viewed through glass.
And maybe that was a mercy.This detachment.This blessed distance.It was the only thing holding her together, a thin veil between sanity and the abyss that waited beneath.If she let herself feel, she’d tumble headlong into the dark and never find her way back.
The stench of antiseptic and death still clung to her as she stepped intoOcean’s Echo.She didn’t even bother to wipe her feet.Didn’t care.Above her, the doorbell gave a hollow jangle, the sound echoing like a dirge.
“There you are!”Camila’s bright voice cut through the haze like sunlight through dirty glass.She stood near the back with a tall man in an impeccably tailored suit, her newest boyfriend, Briar… something.
Ethan hadn’t liked him.Desi’s gut agreed.But Camila’s face glowed with a happiness Desi hadn’t seen in months.
Behind the counter, the girl with the orange bob—the one Desi had privately dubbed Pumpkin Girl—was back at her post, snapping gum and scrolling through her phone with black-lacquered nails.No sign of Chad.But then, what did any of it matter anymore?
Desi turned toward the stairs, but Camila and her Armani shadow blocked her escape.
“Briar wants to show you something,” Camila said, practically buzzing.
“Wonderful,” Desi muttered.“Maybe another time?I’m exhausted.”She tried to edge past them, but Camila pressed on.
Hadn’t she promised the man she’d show him the dive site?TheSentinel.Caleb’s ship.The name alone sent her insides collapsing in on themselves.
No.No, she couldn’t go there.Couldn’t let herself feel.She pressed both palms to her temples.Stay numb, Desi.Stay numb.
When she opened her eyes, a book appeared before her, old, heavy, bound in cracked leather.A jeweled finger tapped an illustration.
A Ring.Ancient Hebrew carved into the metal, and in the center, the stone—dark, ancient, unmistakable.
The Ring of Solomon.
