When Wade returned to his ship, he immediately went into his cabin and closed the door. He walked to his desk and poured a glass of whiskey. He downed it quickly and poured another. This one he sipped more slowly, taking his time to enjoy the aged liquor.
He slumped into his chair, feeling frustrated and annoyed. He had taken things too far with the woman today. Nelson’s girl. He shouldn’t have followed her or joined her in the bath house. It was strange. It was wrong. Nelson was a member of his crew and one of his most valued men. Though he knew the female was simply a tavern girl, he felt almost as if he had betrayed a friend by sleeping with her.
As a captain, he had to be in control at all times. Wade couldn’t afford to lose his cool or to forget his place. He couldn’t. If he let things slip from under his management, his men could die. He had an entire ship to look after. Wade couldn’t make mistakes.
But today, he had somehow lost his marbles. Somewhere between the palm tree and the bathhouse, Wade had decided that he wanted to fuck that beautiful woman and he wanted to do it right. When he saw her walking down the road after he met with the innkeeper, he had to follow her. It was an urge he couldn’t control. There was something so perfectly sweet about her. He couldn’t quite put his hands on it. He just needed to have her.
And he had.
When she had scooted closer to him in the water, he’d been able to see her perfect, full tits. Her soft pink nipples had quickly hardened beneath his gaze, begging him to bite and suck on them, which he had happily done.
Wade had fucked her until she cried out and he was sure they’d be politely asked to leave the bathhouse. He had loved every second of it.
He wasn’t sure what had been so fantastic except that she hadn’t seemed like a whore. Most of the girls he was with were firm and demanding. They had to be in order to succeed in their line of work. Not this girl, though. She had seemed sweet, almost shy. She had seemed naïve. When Wade pushed her knees apart to gain access to her pussy, she had been surprised.
She had been delighted.
And she had gushed with pleasure when he licked her right into an orgasm.
Now that was the type of girl Wade needed to find: someone sexy and sweet.
Unfortunately, pickings were slim when you spent your life on a ship and Wade didn’t exactly have time to make new friends. It didn’t matter, though. He had to stay focused on his hunt for the lost treasure. His first mate, Rupert Keel, was supposed to meet with a man in town today who supposedly had new information on where the treasure was. It was a legend by this point: a fabled myth.
Wade’s own interrogation of an innkeeper who had promised information had been incredibly dour: a complete waste of time. Though the innkeeper had sent word he had new information, the truth was he spouted off the same tale Wade had heard a hundred times before.
Hopefully, Rupert would have better information.
Wade was trying not to get his hopes up. Even for a seasoned pirate captain, it was hard sometimes. He was ready to be finished with his quest. For years, he had pursued treasure and gold and women. Where had that ever gotten him? He was on the losing side of thirty and he was tired. He was ready to find the treasure and retire: quietly, of course.
He was ready to be finished with his ship, much as it would pain him to give up a life of freedom. There had to be more. There must be.
Though Wade had spent his life on the high seas, he was ready to say goodbye to his crew and go live a good, long life alone on a beach by himself. Maybe he would find a beautiful woman to share his bounty with. Maybe he wouldn’t.
Either way, The Saucy Devil knew only one thing for certain: he was tired.
He couldn’t let himself, his reputation, or his men down by giving up now. He was closer than he’d ever been to The Cursed Hangman’s treasure. Rupert would have information. He had to have something new, something fresh, something that could point Wade in the right direction.
Things were tough now, but what kind of a captain would he be if he gave up every time things got hard? No, Wade couldn’t disappoint his men. He would see this through to the end even if it ended up killing him.
And he knew, as he finished his whiskey and closed his eyes, that it just might.
**
When Julianne was safely back in the storage room, she folded her blanket into a little makeshift bed and collapsed onto it. Somehow, after being wrapped in Wade’s tender arms, the floor felt so much harder. She tossed and turned and tried to relax, but it was a futile endeavor.
Part of her wondered if she was making the right choice coming back on the ship. It would be days or even weeks before The Dark Lovely made port again. By then Julianne would be even thinner from hunger.
Had she made the right decision?
Was she wasting her one shot at freedom by willingly rejoining her brother and his crew?
She could have simply disappeared into the crowds at Darnial. She could have vanished. She could have walked into any tavern and gotten an easy position as a saloon girl. Fresh meat always fared well, she knew. She could have been the woman of choice at any inn or brothel. Even if sex wasn’t what she wanted to do, Julianne could have begged some poor seamstress or tailor to take her on as an apprentice.
She could have done something.
Anything.
But when Wade had kissed her goodbye at the bathhouse, when he had turned and given her one last, longing look, she knew that she would never find someone like him in Darnial.
If love was what she wanted, if passion was what she chased, she would find it on the high seas and not in some sloppy port town full of diseased pirates and grubby sailors.
Finally giving up on the idea of sleeping, Julianne sat up and leaned against the side of the ship. Nelson had kept his promise and purchased some extra food while at Darnial. She would need to find an unlocked trunk to hide the food in so that the rats wouldn’t get to it. Maybe later. Now she was bored and anxious. She needed to relax. Her dagger lay nearby and she grabbed it, fingering the hilt. It was laden with sapphires: a gift from her brother.
Where had he gotten it?
She had never asked and he had never told. Nelson liked to think of himself as a good pirate, a decent pirate. Was there such a thing? Julianne was under no illusions that her twin was an innocent. She had never seen him kill a man or steal from someone, but that was the life of a pirate. Adventure had a cost.
On a whim, she carved a little picture into the wooden wall. She put it low, toward the base of the ship: a girl and a boat. She carved another picture then, slowly getting the hang of what she was doing. The third picture was even better and she stared at them in the flickering darkness. Her candle would burn out soon and then she would be cast into the blackness.
No one would notice the pictures she had carved. No one would be on the floor down here unless they were hiding, like her.
And if they were hiding, they wouldn’t exactly be complaining about the décor.
When she was finished with her work, Julianne put out the candle and lay down once more. She tried to push thoughts of Wade from her mind. He had been kind and fantastic and she was sorry their afternoon together was over.
What would he do if he knew she was hiding on his ship?
Would he remember her?
Would he think twice before he slit her throat?
**
When Rupert returned to the ship, Wade was ready. They wouldn’t set sail until morning, but most of the crew would return before then. Wade had no patience for deserters or tardiness and would aptly punish anyone who wasn’t back before dawn. Most of his crew had learned to come back after their trysts, rather than spending the entire night on shore and trying to rush back to the ship in the early morning hours.
The crew had been accounted for tonight, save Rupert, when darkness fell upon the ship. Once his first mate was aboard, Wade was ready to talk about what Rupert had found. The two went downstairs to the storage room in the hold so they could speak privately. While Wade conducted most business directly in his cabin, anything dealing with Mad Drake's treasure was handled downstairs in his private storage room.
He wanted to ensure they were completely, utterly alone.
They walked inside, each carrying a lantern, and closed the door behind them. Wade locked the door and slipped the key into his pocket. Though he knew his men would respect his desire for privacy, he didn’t want anyone to accidentally walk in on them. There were only a few keys to this room and he doubted Nelson or the Cook would need to enter this late at night.
Tonight was too important to leave up to fate. Wade would take every precaution he could to hear exactly what Rupert found out on shore. Mostly, he hoped it was better than the information he himself had acquired, which amounted to nothing.
“What did you find?” Wade asked Rupert. He set his lantern on top of a barrel and crossed his arms. He wouldn’t look too anxious, but he also wasn’t going to waste time. If Rupert had discovered anything, Wade wanted every detail.
He had been chasing this treasure for so long that he had almost run out of leads, out of information, out of hope. Even the smallest detail, no matter how minute, could turn everything around for him.
What did Rupert know?
The first mate shift uneasily for a moment, then shook his head.
"Nothing," he said finally. "The lead was a mistake."
Wade stared at his first mate, the man he trusted more deeply than a brother, and knew that Rupert was lying. He just wasn't sure why. Rupert looked uncomfortable being alone. For the first time since he'd known him, Wade wondered what the man was thinking.
"Rupert?" Surely it was a mistake. Why would Rupert deceive him, especially about something concerning the treasure?
"I'm sorry," he said. Rupert's eyes look sad as he fumbled behind his back for a hasty second, then held up a small pistol. He pointed it at Wade. "I can't let you get to it first."
So this was how it was going to be. Wade "The Saucy Devil" Docherty was going to go down on his own ship, murdered in cold blood by his first mate. For a moment, he thought it seemed fitting. Wade had been a failure in so many ways, first as a child, then in marriage, now as a captain. He couldn't even find the treasure he'd been desperately searching for to end his pirate days. He couldn't even trust his first mate to help him with the task.
"What did he say?" Wade asked Rupert. He wasn't sure if he was trying to buy himself time or if he actually wanted to know. In the end, it wouldn’t matter. Wade was unarmed. Though he was an excellent fighter, Rupert would fire without hesitation if Wade darted near.
When Rupert hesitated, Wade added, "You're going to kill me. Might as well let me know what you've found. What harm can a dead man do?"
Rupert pondered this for just a moment before telling him, "Old man Lester didn't know much, but he had this." Rupert patted his pocket.
"What did he give you?" Wade asked, curious, and more than a little frustrated that his death was near. He had always imagined he would die in a firefight or in hand-to-hand combat. Part of him hoped he'd be killed by a sea monster or some other mythical creature. He never imagined that he'd be shot in cold blood. He was a smart man. At least, he considered himself to be, and this was not something he saw coming.
He felt betrayed in ways he could never put into words.
"A map," Rupert said. "A map of trade routes. The reason no one ain't been able to find The Cursed Hangman," Rupert said with a shady grin, obviously pleased with himself. "Is that the ship wasn't on her regular route."
"What do you mean?" Wade asked, momentarily forgetting about the gun, momentarily feeling shocked. He had spent years pouring over routes and following them. He had spent years talking to people who knew crew members, trying to figure out exactly where they had gone. When he wasn't seeking the treasure, he would plunder and pillage like any good pirate, but the treasure of The Cursed Hangman was what really held his interest.
And this information changed everything.
But now Wade was going to die.
Rupert cocked the pistol and Wade fought the urge to close his eyes. No, he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't give Rupert the satisfaction. If his best friend wanted to betray him, he would have to do it in cold blood. He would have to be a man and look Wade in the eyes as the blood poured out of his body and onto the store room floor.
"It doesn't have to be like this," Wade said, his one last plea. He thought of his dead parents, his dead wife, and his dead children. He thought of the people he himself had killed. He thought of all the bad things he had done in his life and a few of the good things. He thought of the woman at the bathhouse. He thought that it was a shame he wouldn't get to see her again.
"I'm sorry," Rupert said.
Rupert's finger moved slightly, as if he intended to pull the trigger, but he didn't. At that moment, a noise sounded from behind the man and Rupert turned to see what it was. Wade heard Rupert screech, then cough and sputter. Then the man stumbled backwards and fell, dropping the pistol. Wade looked at Rupert lying on the floor. Blood poured out of his back.
Then Wade looked up.
Standing at the back of the room holding a bloody dagger was the woman.
The woman from the bathhouse.
"Am I dreaming?" Wade asked.
"Please don't hang me," she said.