by L. A. Fiore
Zoe stopped walking and her face paled.
“He thinks Isaac may have been working with someone in St. Croix.”
“To what end?”
“He doesn’t know.”
Zoe’s attention moved farther up the pier to where Noah walked with Zeke and Flynn. “They love him. I mean as far as pirates are capable of love. And he’s so refined, how he walks and talks, but he’s just a big teddy bear, isn’t he?”
“Teddy bear?” I followed her gaze to the man in question. “I don’t think teddy bear when I look at him.”
“You’ve seen that man naked.”
I had and would again, but I didn’t kiss and tell. “I’ve seen you checking out Snake.”
“The man is as cold as ice, but he is hot as hell. I find the contrast fascinating.”
We passed yet another eating establishment that looked like a nice place to get something to drink and eat. Zoe was thinking the same when she asked, “Where are we going anyway? I’m hungry and that’s the fifth place we’ve passed.”
Her question was answered about five minutes later when we stepped into what I could only describe as the worst dive bar known to man. There were drunks out front, prostitutes inside, many of which were working. Snake made a beeline to one of them, grabbing her and pulling her onto his lap. She giggled like a schoolgirl, but it didn’t work. She was a woman that had seen and done it all.
“Nice,” Zoe muttered. “He’s on crack if he thinks I’m eating anything from this place. I’d rather eat my arm.”
Noah disappeared in the back. For just a second I thought he might be partaking in one of the working women, but if this was going to work I had to trust him. And I did, even though I barely knew him.
Zoe and I definitely looked like two fish out of water. Standing against one wall, not touching it because it was anyone’s guess what was on that wall. Not far from us, two people were engaging in sex right up against that same very wall.
“Charming place,” Zoe grumbled.
It turned even more charming a few minutes later. There was a table of people in the back playing cards and clearly one of the players was not happy about losing. He stood then overturned the table. The rest became a blur when gunshots fired. Flynn and Chas appeared out of nowhere, putting themselves in front of us as chaos ensued. I managed to look around Flynn to see Noah in the fray. It had turned into a full out brawl, but my eyes were only on him. He grabbed one man by the head and slammed his face into a table. The blood from his broken nose splattered everywhere. Another one came at him from behind. He moved so fast, the punch had the man’s head snapping back. He broke another man’s arm. I heard the bone snap from where I stood across the room. As fast as it started it was over. Noah’s gaze connected with mine for a second, my guess to confirm I was okay before he went back to wherever he had been before the fight started.
Zoe’s eyes caught mine. “I’d like to recant my previous statement. He is definitely not a teddy bear.”
NOAH
Our accommodations weren’t terrible but they weren’t great. The beds were clean, the water clear. Willow and Zoe didn’t seem to care. Damsels they were not. We took up most of the small restaurant in the family run parador where we were staying. Willow sat across from me. She and her friend had been quiet since the bar, but then it was highly unlikely either of them had been that close to a bar brawl before.
Miguel was the owner of the bar and he doubled as an investigator. He had his finger on the pulse of the whole Caribbean. An invaluable resource and a friend. He had confirmed what Isaac had boasted. Jasen was dead and at Isaac’s hand. I asked him to look into known associates of Isaac’s, someone he could have been in partnership with. It was possible it was over, that Isaac had really worked alone, but I would feel better if we ruled out any other scenario.
The crew was curious about the dive, more interested in the necklace, but realistically we weren’t banking on finding it. They had agreed to help because it was something different to break up the monotony. We had been doing what we did for a long time. It felt good to do something different, to actually hunt instead of steal. It was worth the price we were paying, but we would eventually have to get back to business as usual because we craved the chaos.
Every time I saw Willow’s leg I felt both rage and weak. She had come very close to dying and to know she had put herself in that position made me furious. She would be feeling my palm on her ass after that stunt. She was mine. She would need to learn to bend because I had bent enough over the years. I wasn’t giving up my life, my crew, but there were enough similarities in our lives that Willow would find her place. And in finding that place she would need to learn to be more careful, less trusting.
In the meantime, we would focus on the treasure and on the off chance we did find the necklace, we were taking it. I had a small measure of guilt because I knew Willow had a romantic notion of all of us working together, but my crew didn’t work well with others. She knew what we were when she told us about it. I think she understood deep down how it would play out.
I tuned back into their conversation.
“I’ll call my grandfather and Decker. They can meet up with us in Campeche.”
“What about your parents?” Flynn asked.
“My parents would bring the media. Besides, they won’t come.”
Her parents sounded like self-centered dickheads. They had left her to see Cancun on her own too. They hunted treasure though, and their daughter was looking for a treasure. The connection we sought with Isaac might be linked to them.
“I can’t believe I’m sitting here discussing finding Isabella, that we are actually doing this. And as much as I want to see the ship, hold the necklace, what I’m more excited about is seeing the look on Luciana’s face when she sees the necklace.”
“Who is Luciana?” Flynn asked.
“Luciana is Isabella’s last direct descendant. Alejandro didn’t get to give the necklace to Isabella in life, but we’ll be able to show her family. And maybe if his spirit is restless, he’ll be able to find peace.”
Snake shot me a look, but I was looking at Willow. She had tears brightening her eyes. If my crew had their way, Luciana would never see that necklace. It was about the story for Willow, putting the pieces together and telling the story, but my crew didn’t give a fuck about the story. To deny her that with this necklace or any other treasure we might find was asking her to bend too much. Even she, the dreamer, the romantic, would never forgive me for taking that away from her. Sitting in that restaurant I acknowledged what I already knew…there was no future for us.
Willow usually went to bed hours before me, but I liked that. I liked coming to her like I had that first night. We might not have a future, but we had now. The lights were out. I reached the bed, but she wasn’t asleep. She lay on top of the covers, her hair spilling over her pillow. Even in the dark, I felt her eyes on me.
“I hoped you would come.”
My chest got tight knowing she had been waiting for me. Like I had done before, I stripped and climbed into bed, taking a minute to kiss her leg and the proof that she was still that selfless, sweet woman I met in Cancun before crawling over her so I completely surrounded her. Her small hands on my skin made my cock ache. She couldn’t see the scars and yet she touched them, every one of them. I pressed into her, rubbing my cock against her pussy. When she bit her lip, I wanted to bite it.
“You know what’s going to happen now?”
She was breathless when she said, “You’re going to fuck me hard.”
My hand moved under her to squeeze her ass. The moan that moved up her throat was sexy as hell.
“Yeah, something like that. But first…”
Her eyes went wide. “First what?”
I threaded my fingers through her hair, my gaze moving over her face. I never knew a kiss could be erotic, sexy and sweet all at once, but kissing her, hell, it was the best fucking foreplay. And if it caused an ache in my chest, I ignored
it. Her breath hitched as I lowered my mouth. As soon as I closed it over hers, she sighed and completely submitted. The sweetest fucking surrender.
WILLOW
I stood on the dock staring; the temptation to shake my head and rub my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing was strong. At the end of the dock was a sailboat. A five mast, modern day clipper ship.
“We are here for that?” I blurted out. My eyes connected with Noah’s. “Now that is a respectable pirate ship.”
He grinned.
“There are people onboard and they don’t look like they are planning to leave anytime soon.” Zoe pointed out the obvious, but considering it was the ship we were supposed to be switching to, it seemed the obvious should be stated.
“Small detail.”
Zoe and I both looked at Snake and he shrugged his shoulders.
“I may have exaggerated when I said I had a ship waiting. What I meant to say is there is a ship waiting.” Noah clarified. He looked over at me and smiled. “We’re going to steal it.”
Thoughts of last night drifted into my head so it took me a second or two for his words to sink in. And when they had, I wasn’t very articulate when I asked, “What now?”
“We’re going to steal it.”
“So it’s not yours.” I sounded like a half-wit, but he was talking about stealing like I talk about eating ice cream.
“It’s not theirs either so taking it off their hands is fair game.” Noah seemed to think that explanation said it all because he went back to staring longingly at the yacht.
“How did you even know it was here?” Zoe asked.
That earned her a look from all of them; one that suggested she wasn’t right in the head.
“Paddy, you hunt down whatever supplies we need replenished. Chas, food. Take Zoe. Zeke and Flynn.” Noah didn’t give them any direction and yet both seemed to understand what was being asked of them. I wanted to ask, but we were on the move. “The rest are with me.”
“Wait! What about me?” I asked because though I wanted to go with Noah, I really had no desire to be among the party that planned to steal a yacht from another crew of pirates.
Noah didn’t even turn in my direction when he said, “We might need you.”
“For what?”
He stopped for that, even turned and grinned at me as his eyes moved down my body. And again last night popped into my head. The man was going to make me come with no more than a look. Smoldering eyes returned to my face and he knew what he was doing to me by the devilish smile that spread over his face. “Persuasion.”
My body tingled. Wait. “Persuasion?”
He laughed, reached for my hand and pulled me along.
“Kace, what rock did you crawl out from?” The man who said that was missing several of his teeth. His red hair was jumping ship quickly, pun intended, by the large bald spot on the top of his head. His stomach was almost as round as his ass. I could practically hear the cotton/polyester blend begging for mercy. We stood on the dock in front of the ship we intended to steal, talking with the man who had stolen it first.
“Hawk.”
Hawk? I guess his beady little eyes did look hawk-like.
“So what do you think about those yachts disappearing? I half expect to wake up in some fucking alternate universe.”
Disappearing yachts? What was he talking about?
“My money is on the mechanics that service those yachts. I don’t think it is a coincidence that they are all out of the Caribbean. I think some underpaid mechanics decided to work together and figured out a way to mess with the yachts’ instruments. Humans are behind it, not the supernatural.”
Supernatural? What like the Bermuda Triangle?
“Doesn’t explain the ship off South Africa, though that was years earlier so maybe you’re right. Humans we can find. Their shit is making it hard for us to do what we do.”
I wanted to suggest they found a new line of work that didn’t involve stealing, but I knew that wouldn’t be received well. I felt the impact of those beady eyes when they landed on me and lingered. His perusal turned my stomach as lunch threatened to come back up. Noah followed the man’s gaze, but he didn’t make any move to block me from his view or rip his eyes out for looking. He had been so possessive both on the ship and last night at the hotel and now he was allowing this person to look with blatant lust.
“Is she an offering?”
Was I what?
He adjusted himself and sneered, “I’m going to have to test her out.” His eyes lingered on my breasts.
“Test me out? I’ll suffocate you with your own blubber you mother—” Tex’s hand went over my mouth.
“A wildcat. I like her. Maybe we should discuss this over some pints.”
“Let’s.” Noah’s agreement had me seeing red. If looks could kill, there would be two smoldering piles of ash on the dock. Snake and the twins stayed at my side as Noah walked ahead.
“Your captain failed to mention the plan of bartering me for the fucking yacht.” I was so pissed, if I had a gun, well, to borrow a line from Dolly Parton, I would turn them from a rooster to a hen.
“He’s not,” Tex said.
“Did you not just hear that conversation between your captain and that pig of a man?”
“What I saw was he got the captain and most of the crew off the yacht with a promise of beer and babes,” Tiggs added. “Look at it this way. Our lot spends most of the time on the water with no women in sight. Parading a hot babe in front of them works about as well as taking a chick to a shoe store to gain her agreement.”
“That’s not very flattering to your lot.”
“If you knew our lot, it’s more flattering than most deserve.”
Thinking about Isaac and his goon, I had to agree with Tiggs on that.
“So what happens now?”
“Noah gets him drunk while we steal his yacht.”
“I cannot believe I am actually having this conversation. And what’s worse, it’s beginning to sound like a reasonable plan.”
“We’re already rubbing off on her.” Tex acknowledged then asked, “Can you dance?”
“No.”
“Well if it comes to that, you’ll figure it out.”
Figure what out? “Why do I have to dance?”
The twins both flashed me a smile. “Entertainment of course.”
“Whose?”
“Ours.”
“Dance. Me? No way in hell. Absolutely not. Pigs will fly first.”
I stood behind the curtain, gulping down a Bahama Mama for liquid courage, while peering out at the woman spinning around the pole, upside down using no hands. Her thighs were keeping her up. What the hell did she do to work those thighs muscles to make them strong enough to hold her body weight? I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t imagine a man would want to get between those deadly weapons because she could crush him like a python. Though the visual was kind of funny, funnier if it was someone disgusting like the man I was supposed to entertain on that pole. How the hell did I end up here? Pole dancing for a pirate so other pirates could steal his sailboat. I wondered if my mother did drugs when she was pregnant with me and the effects were only now coming to light.
“They’re drunk. All you have to do is move around, keep him watching.”
“Easier said than done, Tiggs. I can’t dance.”
“It’s not hard.”
“My ballet instructor called me balance challenged. If you think it is so easy then you go out there and shake it for a bunch of drunk men.”
“I don’t have the right parts, darling.” He then reached for my t-shirt and pulled out his knife; cutting the bottom so it fell just under my breasts and then cutting the top so my cleavage showed.
“What the hell?”
“Skin, babe. You need to show it.”
He checked out my shorts, walking around me. He touched my wound and his expression was fierce before he said, “They’ll do. Stripping out of them will be easy.”
“Strip? Are you out of your mind?”
“It’s a titty bar, sugar. What did you think you were going to do?”
“I didn’t think I was going to be here at all.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I’m not getting naked.”
“Just down to your bra and panties will be enough.”
I couldn’t believe I was entertaining this idea, but even I had seen how squirrelly Hawk was acting. He was expecting Noah to pull something. And if me dancing around like an idiot in my underwear helped us accomplish our goal, then so be it. I refused to acknowledge what that goal was since it was, after all, a felony.
The first strings of Journey’s “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” pumped from the sound system. Tiggs nudged me. “You’re on.”
I wasn’t sure my legs were going to cooperate as stage fright mingled with nerves and fear and slight intoxication.
“Babe. Go.” There was an edge to his voice now. Enough to snap me out of it, one foot absently moving in front of the other until I found myself in the middle of the stage. The place wasn’t packed and most of the patrons were either seriously drunk or getting personal attention in the way of a lap dance. I could do this. How hard could it be? The music flowed and I closed my eyes and let the sultry beat pulse through me. The alcohol helped to take the edge off. My hips moved, slowly at first as my hands moved up my body to my hair, but my ring got caught and I almost scalped myself. I recovered, but not gracefully. The pole was like the elephant in the room, so I swallowed and reached for it. I walked around it, slowly in what I hoped was a sexy strut, then I shimmied down it, my knees straddling it and I heard the loudest crack from my hip or maybe my knee. Luckily, the music drowned out the sounds of my body falling apart. Slowly I pulled myself back up. My eyes connected with Noah’s and having his undivided attention, I let myself believe it was only him in the audience. I moved in front of the pole and slid down it, running my back against the cold metal, my legs spread as I lowered into a squat as my hips shook to the beat. Slowly I stood, my fingers curling around the hem of my shirt and I lifted it up and over my head. I held it to my chest for a second before tossing it behind me. My hands were moving on their own, squeezing my breasts and in my head it was Noah’s hands moving over my body, touching me, over my stomach to the button on my shorts. I worked them off, tossing them in the crowd as I turned and bent in half. Getting into it, I reached for the pole and swung, I even kicked one leg out and swung around like a pro. I dropped to a squat and slowly brought myself back up the pole, getting close but not touching it as I did. The look on Noah’s face, one of carnal lust, made me feel powerful, sexy and giddy. His plan had backfired. And so delighted that he was the one squirming, I spun around too fast, lost hold of the bar and went sailing across the stage to land flat on my butt. That was going to leave a mark. I looked up in time to see Hawk standing over me.
