I SENT THE WHIP FLYING out and didn’t flinch when it struck the sailors back with a resounding crack.

“Where is it?” I spat.

The hardened sailor winked at me, showing his blackened teeth, “A little harder, Captain. I like it dirty!”

I summoned my first mate, Alexander Smeed.

“I want to know where Princess Tiger Lilly’s crown is,” I handed the whip over to Smeed. “Do not show him any mercy. As the man said, he likes it dirty.”

Smeed turned to whisper in my ear, “If his dick gets any bigger I am out. This is supposed to be torture, not cheap porn.”

I forced myself to remain calm. Good help was hard to find. Alex had been my best friend throughout my entire life.

He was also lazy, a womanizer, crude, smart as fuck, and a whole host of other things that I don’t care to mention.

“I don’t care what you do to him, Alex. Just find out the location of the crown.”

Alex’s eyes lit with glee, “Consider it done.” Turning

to the prisoner that no longer held that smug look.

“I have other business to attend to. But do not worry, I have found a replacement.”

“Wait!” the sailor eyed Alex. All six-feet of raw Latin masculinity with messy dark hair and a scruffy black beard. “I will talk!”

Alex laughed, his perfect white teeth in contrast to his tanned skin, “Of course, you will. But not until we have a bit of fun first.”

I walked away to the sounds of the man screaming in terror. Just another day on the high seas for me honestly. Since my father, Captain James Bartholomew Hook retired things had been a bit dull.

I plopped down in the captain’s chair that had once belonged to him. I had sailed with my father for as long as I could remember. I have no memory of my mother. Days in the past were filled with daring escapes and epic battles with the infamous Pan. But once he left with that Wendy Darling and her brothers, things seemed to grow rather tedious.

My father had only one request when he passed on the Captain Hook legacy to me, and that was to kill Pan. But how was one to do that when he had disappeared into what Wendy had called, ‘the real world.'

Whatever that meant.

It had been fourteen years since his disappearance. Fourteen years ago, I had been dressed as a boy gallivanting around on my father’s ship in breeches and nicking the liquor from the Galley.

At the age of nine, Pan had fascinated me to no end. I was positive that I would be the one to run him through. But my father hadn’t allowed me to get anywhere near the boy. Pan, not quite a man, had never seemed terribly dangerous to me. And I wasn’t afraid of him.

I just wished to hell I could find a way to go after him, and then the Princess came to me for a favor. If I found her crown, she would grant me a boon. The chase led to now, and I was steps away from finding out how to leave Neverland.

There was a knock on my door, and I sprung to my feet, “Come in.”

Alex turned the knob, he was impossibly handsome, and a right pain in my ass.

“Oh,” I flopped back down in my chair, “it’s only you.”

He sighed dramatically, “Most ladies swoon in my presence, Eb.”

“Then take a bath! I am certain your stink could knock a grown man out.”

His lips twitched, “Hateful as always.”

I smiled, “Did you get the location?”

“Do the mermaids like to suck my...”

I cut him off, “Eww, Alex not the image I need to be planted in my brain!”

He laughed, “Just the same, I had Potter plot out the coordinates, and we are sailing there as we speak.

“Where is it this time?” I grumbled.

“Buried in Blindman’s Bluff,” Alex shrugged. “Do you ever get the impression that we have done this all before?”

Yes.

Only about a hundred million times.

“Why do you say that?” I straightened in my chair.

“It’s just that sometimes, I feel like we are sailing around in circles. Neverland isn’t that big.”

“We are leaving, Neverland,” I raised my hand to stop his question. “You cannot tell anyone, Alex. But I am finding a way out of here so that we can finally acquit my father.”

“How?” he breathed. Then it was as if the light turned on, “Princess Tiger Lilly!”

“I have a feeling that she will be willing to trade the fairy for her crown.”

“Tinkerbell?” Alex’s lips curved down. “She’s a right bitch, you do know that, right?”

I winced, “I know. But we need that pixie dust in order to make the ship fly.”

I walked over to my father’s journals.

“It says here that the ingredients are faith, trust, and pixie dust.”

A wide grin spread across Alex’s face, “You are leaving out thinking a happy little thought.”

I fake gagged, “I will be happy when I deliver Pan’s head to my father.”

Alex grinned, “Sounds good to me!”

***

IT WASN’T TOO LONG before we had sailed to Blindman’s Bluff. The dirt where the crown was buried hadn’t even settled yet. As I glanced around there were seven or eight previous hiding places in sight. Alex was right. We had done this all before.

I grabbed the crown, and we sailed for the Indian Camp near Marooner’s Rock. It took less than a day, and we had sailed half the length of Neverland.

“What boon would you like, Captain?” Tiger Lilly had lovely golden skin, with dark eyes, and silky black hair that hung down her back.

“I would like Tinkerbell,” I responded clearly.

“You can’t have a person!”

For a moment, the facade of the perfect Princess fell, and Tiger Lilly gaped at me.

“I need the pixie to travel beyond our world,” I explained.

Tiger Lilly narrowed her eyes, “Where are you going?”

I hedged, “To explore new lands and new seas.”

She shook her head, “No. Tell me the truth, Captain, you are wasting my time.”

I gritted my teeth not wanting to share my voyage plans with her. But I knew that if I wasn’t forthright, I could lose this boon.

“I am chasing Pan!”

The words tumbled out of me at a rapid pace, “I will avenge my father, and bring Pan’s head on a platter, to feed to the crocodiles.”

“Chasing Pan?” Tiger Lilly seemed to be pondering the idea. “Time runs differently in the real world. Pan could be dead, for all we know hundreds of years have passed.”

“I have considered that,” I clenched my fists. “But Pan wasn’t born of that world. He was born in Neverland. We stop aging at twenty-five. So, even if time has passed where he is at, Pan will still be alive.”

Tiger Lilly’s lips curved into a smile, “Chasing Pan, what a singular idea.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.

“I should like to see that rogue again. He did steal my first kiss after all.”

“We aren’t going to kiss him,” I ground out. “We are going to kill him.”

She pouted, “Not one kiss?”

“No!” I had to be firm.

“I will promise you the pixie on two conditions,” Tiger Lilly grasped my hand.” Are you amenable, or will you find another way to chase your enemy?”

There was no other way, and she knew it as well as I did.

“Fine!” I ground out. “What are your conditions?”

“I come along on the voyage!”

I heard Alex moan behind me, but I ignored it.

“Done,” I nodded, “What else?”

“One kiss,” her eyes gleamed, “Pan gets one kiss before he dies.”

One kiss that could be the kiss of a blade as it slices through the skin.

“Tiger Lilly, we have a deal.”