Chapter Thirty-Five
JEREMY LAUGHED. “I’M SORRY, did you expect a response to that other than laughter?”
Jacqueline had been about to laugh, too, but she frowned instead, guessing that Damon had suggested an alliance because he was truly worried about the pirates on his crew.
“I’m not out to harm Jack or your father,” Damon assured Jeremy.
“Liar, you want him dead!” Jeremy retorted.
“I never wanted him dead. I just have other objectives that involve him. Jack’s presence was and is nothing more than a means to an end for me, a way of luring your father into helping me put Lacross back in prison.”
Jacqueline’s anger flared. “When you took me from Bridgeport, you had every intention of turning me over to Pierre Lacross! If you try to deny that, we’re done talking.”
“I had no intention of turning you over to them. That was part of Catherine and her father’s plan, and I’d been assured you wouldn’t be hurt, but I had doubts from the start. I just wanted to draw your father to Lacross’s hideaway—”
“Which is located where?” Jeremy interjected.
Damon ignored his question. “At the time, I didn’t really care who won that fight, I just expected there would be a fight, not a willing surrender that would have been a slaughter. Mort was to get you off the ship in St. Kitts while I took Catherine ashore so she wouldn’t notice. But you escaped on your own before he could help you.”
“If that’s true, you wouldn’t have sunk all those ships in Bridgeport!” Jacqueline said.
“And if I didn’t, how do you think the situation would have progressed? I didn’t want to end up dead or imprisoned after a fight at sea with your relatives. Besides, my intent was just to get your father’s attention.”
“Now I know you’re lying,” Jack said. “You had nearly a week to tell me that and didn’t.”
“You were too angry, and all your anger was directed at me. I didn’t know you well enough then not to think you might scream that I was a traitor just to get even with me, and to hell with the consequences.”
Jeremy asked her, “Would you have done that?”
“Possibly,” she mumbled. “I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly during that kidnapping.”
Jeremy pointed out to Damon, “Why would it matter at that point if Catherine knew you weren’t on their side—unless you still were?”
“Because until Lacross is either killed or captured, I still need the pirate to think I am helping him. When I took Jack away from Bridgeport, I expected your family to follow us straight to Lacross and finish him off. Instead Catherine blamed me for letting Jack go, I was thrown in their dungeon, and your father didn’t show up as I’d hoped.”
Jacqueline sighed. “And yet here we are once again your hostages, and you wonder why it’s impossible to believe you?”
“I agree,” Jeremy said angrily. “You’re painting yourself pretty clean in all of this, mate, yet once again you’re leading my father to his death.”
“I never wanted him dead,” Damon said just as angrily this time. “But I have other objectives that involve him.”
“Which are?”
Jacqueline raised a brow when Damon refused to answer. Because he was angry now? What the devil did he expect?
“Did you really think this would be an easy conversation and that we wouldn’t be skeptical of what you’re telling us?” she asked Damon. “All things considered, you haven’t even got to the heart of the matter yet and revealed what your objectives are regarding our father. Getting angry because we still have valid doubts is a bit pointless, don’t you think? Why don’t we eat this meal before it gets cold, then you can finish your explanation over dessert?”
Percy looked down at his empty plate. “Was I supposed to wait?” Then it started to slide off the table.
The wind had picked up, making the ship pitch. Jacqueline grinned at Percy’s remark, though she held her own plate in place. Damon’s visage was a little less dark. Jeremy scowled and reached for the wine bottle to refill his glass, apparently not giving an inch in his suspicions. Jack wasn’t either after being a hostage to this man twice.
While they ate, she introduced a less provocative subject, asking Damon, “Why didn’t you invite your first mate to join us?”
“I did, but he declined. I believe he’s embarrassed about the black eye you gave him.”
Jeremy laughed. “Good for you, Jack.”
“He deserved it” was all she said.
Dessert was being ignored. The wine bottle on the table was empty. Jeremy fetched the brandy from Damon’s desk without asking permission, nor did he offer it to anyone else. He was a keg of unpleasant emotions and probably furious that he wasn’t getting to trounce Damon yet. But Jacqueline’s feelings were no better. She felt angry that she couldn’t believe Damon and frustrated because she wanted to, which was self-serving because it had nothing to do with the situation and everything to do with her prurient feelings for the man. But that door would stay closed for her because the truth damned him as a pirate, or at the least a kidnapper and an accomplice to a pirate, and he hadn’t even explained why yet!
But then Damon asked, “Why would I lie at this point?”
“When you get to the punch line we’ll probably know,” Jeremy shot back.
“I suppose you can consider this your punch line: I don’t have full control of my ship. Well, I do, as long as I don’t deviate from the pirates’ plan. So far I haven’t, because until we left London, our goals were the same—to get Jack aboard.”
“Why capture her just to let her escape again?” Jeremy said derisively. “Or this time you’re really going to hand her over to Lacross?”
“Neither. I took her again because I still need your father’s help. She’s my leverage to get it.”
Outraged, Jacqueline pointed out, “You could have just knocked on the bloody door back in London and asked him for his help!”
“No, I couldn’t. He would have no incentive to cross the ocean again just to help a stranger. You were safe, you were enjoying the Season, you were never actually harmed by Lacross. By all accounts, Jack, and especially since two months had passed since the abduction in Bridgeport, it appeared you and your family were done with the matter, so, indeed, I needed leverage to get your father involved again. But the note I had delivered to him a week after we sailed this time assured him you would be released to him if he met me in St. Kitts to talk. He should be a week or so behind us by—”
Jeremy’s laughter cut Damon off. “Think again, mate. He sailed out of London two days before you did. He won’t be getting any note, won’t even know you have us.”
Damon looked alarmed. “That’s—unfortunate. The note wasn’t threatening, but if he doesn’t receive it—”
Jeremy was still laughing. “He’s likely to kill you on sight?”
Damon gave Jeremy a dark look. “That’s my problem, this one we share: The pirates want Jack. Once they saw what a beauty she is, they’ve been trying to get their hands on her. They know Lacross wouldn’t begrudge them some enjoyment on the voyage home. I’ve been able to restrain them so far, but it won’t be long before they decide they don’t need me to finish their mission.”
“I can vouch for that,” Jacqueline put in.
Jeremy was already on his feet, furious again. “If everything you’ve said is true, you need to get rid of them before you approach my father for your parley, so why the hell are they still aboard? You need them to sail the ship?”
“I did on the way to England, but no longer. I hired a new crew in London.”
“Then you have armed men on your side?”
“Only a few. The pirates have intimidated most of the new sailors.”
“Hell’s bells, man, you could have gotten rid of those blackguards the night you took us. You had a small army with you that could have helped you apprehend them. Why didn’t you?”
“That’s what I planned to do. But Catherine’s parting gift to me was to warn her father’s men not to trust me. So while the pirates aren’t Oxford dons, they’re not stupid, especially when it comes to their own survival. Five of them stayed on the ship that night and kept enough of the new crew I’d just hired with them so they could pull up anchor and sail off if they saw that little army heading their way.”
“How many pirates are we talking about?”
“Fifteen.”
“But you expected to only capture Jack, so what was your alternate plan for getting rid of them?”
“They rarely all come topside together, so as soon as we got to the Caribbean and the first island was in sight, I was going to start tossing them over the side. I can no longer wait for that. And make no mistake, I will be brutal about disposing of them if I have to be. But I’d rather imprison them and then turn them over to the authorities when we reach St. Kitts, not kill them.”
“Commendable, but not when my sister’s life hangs on your succeeding. Is this why you mentioned an alliance? You want my help in getting rid of them?”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Damon said drily.
Jeremy laughed, but Jacqueline told Damon, “You could have told me this to begin with to gain my cooperation. Why did you keep it from me?”
“I had hoped you’d stop fighting me—for other reasons.”
Her cheeks lit up with color, but Jeremy turned deadly serious, warning Damon, “Don’t even think about it. You might have had other reasons for getting involved in this, but you still did and she still suffered for it. And I’ll give you the one reason why she’ll never be yours. My father. So if you want my cooperation, she moves out of this cabin tonight and into mine.”
“I can’t, Jeremy, at least not yet.” They all stared at Jacqueline, making her blush more deeply, but she still pointed out, “If the pirates think I don’t have his protection anymore, they’re going to come after me again, and they’re all down on your deck, you know. Damon has forestalled them for the last week by keeping me by his side on deck, and—well, we also made them think I’ve been sharing his bed. I’m not!” she quickly added when her brother started to scowl again. “But it was working until he let me talk to you yesterday and there was another confrontation with a few of them afterward because they were hoping to trap us down there. But until you and Damon decide on the best approach to getting rid of them, nothing can look out of the ordinary, so I’m staying right here.” Then she turned to Damon, her eyes flaring with the realization. “So we’re allies?”