Colder. Meaner.
Until Cameron.
In all the centuries Marcelina had known him, she’d never seen him so …
Kind. And for the first time, it made her wonder what he’d been like with his sister. Could he have been someone’s beloved older brother, who watched after and cared for her?
If that were true, then maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t the tyrannical animal she’d always thought.…
Was he?
* * *
“I don’t want to be here!”
Devyl let out a tired sigh at the strident tone that left his ears figuratively bleeding. “Neither do I, Miss Jack. Believe me. But until we recover your brother and secure him, I can’t allow you near the…” He paused as if biting back an obscenity. “… creature we just took custody of.”
“Is she one of the evil beasts who captured him?”
The intensity of her tone caused him to look up from his book to see she’d stopped pacing in front of his desk to glare at him. He had to force himself not to smile at the cheeky way she postured with clenched fists as if ready to take on the world. He’d always admired courage in anyone, but especially one so tiny.
“Supposing the answer was aye, what do you plan to do?” Bleed on the bitch would be the most apropos answer, as she was hardly prepared to deal with a creature of such powers and venom.
“Depends on if the answer is aye or nay.”
He laughed in spite of himself. And the sound of it shocked him thoroughly, as it was a real, unexpected laugh. Not the feigned kind he normally practiced whenever it was socially expected of him.
What the hell?
Sobering to his usual gruff demeanor, he cleared his throat. “No need in you being ruffled, lass. Calm yourself and rest. Tomorrow’s a bitter day.”
“Meaning?”
He turned the page in his book, and tried not to think about the Sight he’d been born with that too often fed him coming details he’d rather not know. “’Tis nothing. We are a ship without marque, sailing through pirate waters and bearing the red jack as our only color. Trouble is forever finding us, even when we try to avoid it.”
Cameron hesitated at his words. A letter of marque was what some captains carried that authorized them to prey on ships and cargos from enemy nations. Essentially legal pirating. Most pirate crews carried such letters, many of them forged. Along with flags from multiple nations, just in case.
The fact he didn’t bother with a forgery or fake colors said he was a man of honor.…
Or completely insane.
“May I ask you something, Captain?”
He let out a sigh that said he was put upon by her question. “If you must, Miss Jack.”
“How is it you came to be captain here?”
He whispered something that sounded like a curse beneath his breath before he answered. “Lady Marcelina made it so.”
“Why?”
“No doubt so that she, much like your incessant inquisition, could forever torment me.”
That caused one corner of her mouth to quirk up as she struggled not to smile. “I torment you?”
He glanced up. “Conversation in general annoys me.”
“You sound like me brother. He used to threaten to sew me lips shut if I didn’t shush around him.”
