Hook adjusted the cuff around his prosthetic. “I don’t trust you.”
Wendy spoke through clenched teeth, “Which sounds like even more reason to let me go!”
“After you’ve had unrestricted access to my ship for three days? I don’t think so.” He glanced at her face, then looked out at the ocean.
“Unrestricted?! And whose fault is that?” She rested her fists on her hips and lifted her chin. “Besides, what exactly do you think I’ve been doing with my ‘unrestricted access’? ’Cause I haven’t exactly been poking my nose inyourbusiness.” Wendy pursed her lips and blinked at him.
Hook looked back and paused, seemingly considering her words. “Clearly you are waiting for me to let my guard down.” For the first time in their acquaintance, he sounded almost uncertain.
“I may as well wait for rain to fall up,” she snarked.
“I’ve actually seen that,” a voice from the crowd muttered.
Suddenly reminded they had an audience, Hook stood taller, regaining his normal cockiness. “This discussion would be better carried out in private.” Wendy made a face. “Join me in my quarters after you’ve eaten. I would prefer to speak with you when you can be civil.”
He left her staring after him with her mouth hanging open. She shut it when she saw Davi watching her with wide eyes. Crossing her arms tightly, she very forcefully imagined numerous misfortunes befalling theJolly Roger’s captain. The rest of the crew drifted off to their duties.
A tug on her sleeve drew her gaze down.
“You should be nicer to the cap’n,” Davi stated. “He’s good.”
Large, serious eyes met hers. “I’ll try,” she choked out.
Her stomach complained audibly, which made the young boy grin. “And you should eat. Cap’n’s always right.”
He led her by the hand to the galley. Wendy went willingly, unable to deny her hunger but still cranky about it.
Everything bothered her as she followed Davi belowdecks. The hallway was too cramped. The cook needed to shave. Shealmost dropped the food because the plate was passed to her poorly.
By the time she returned her empty dish to the cook, she had begun to feel better about life in general. This sense of contentment brought with it the unwelcome realization that Hook might be onto something when he connected her crankiness with a lack of food.
“How unfortunate,” Wendy muttered as she left the galley.
She stopped by her cell before heading to the captain’s quarters, with the vague idea that the fork from her first meal might work as a weapon. The fork and plate were missing.
“Ah, I forgot.” The dishes had vanished with the buckets of dirty water that first night. It seemed Tam’s promise that nobody would enter her space without permission was being upheld. Nothing else had been touched in the cell, as far as she could tell.
Steeling herself to face the devilish captain, she ran a hand over her intact braid. At least that was in her favor. “Darn you, Disa.”
“Why?” The low-pitched voice sounded in her ear.
“Where have you been?” Wendy tried to mask the anxiety, but her voice squeaked a bit.
“Playing with Adli.”
“This whole time?” Wendy tilted her head and gave him the look that worked on wayward brothers.
“And nappin’?” Disa bobbed in the air.
“Is that a question or an answer?”
Disa whizzed around her head once. “An answer. I was nappin’.”
“Only napping?” she asked with suspicion.
Rapid blinking preceded a “Yes” so patently untrue that Wendy resigned herself to looking for a stash of buttons or whatever other small, shiny items the sheerie could pilfer socked somewhere around her quarters. Sometimes she wondered if Disa was part magpie.
She shook her head and waved a hand as she turned for the door. That would have to be dealt with later. “I’m meeting with Hook in his quarters. I need you to come with me. Invisibly.”
