Tarnished Persuasion (Justified Treason, Book 2): Endless Horizon Pirate Stories

by Cristi Taijeron

  Oui. We could travel the world with the comforts of home and I could finally have the intimacy I had been craving. In my drunken whirl of romantic fancy, I looked into his eyes. He hadn’t moved, yet his eloquent aura seemed to be pulling me closer. I took a step in his direction. He wrapped his hands around mine and ever so smoothly pulled me towards him. His hand ambled up my arm with a lyrical mosey and gently made its way around my back. The sensation following his touch was akin to the way a streaming brook meanders a river bed. Inhaling the scent of the lavender oil he wore, I made my decision. “I would love to accompany you to France, mon cher.”

  He finally kissed me.

  His breath was sweet like wine, flooding me with the heat of his thin and liquid tongue. He caressed my mouth with sensual artistry, and his hand sauntered across my body with a rhythm resembling the flow of his poetry. The dress I wore was thin, so I felt every intimate touch. His moves were slow and his touch was delicate. I was a flower in the field. He was a summer breeze. He pulled me closer. The room got warmer. I wanted more. I wanted to feel the heat of a man. I craved the sweat and longed for the fire. I wanted the passion to engulf me, and the unity to define me.

  A submissive sigh released from my lungs as he captured my curves with his hands. He was slow enough that I could have denied him. He was gentle enough that I could have flicked him off. But I let him feel me. When he nodded towards the bed, I finally felt a little fear. Why did I have to be so damn afraid?

  Taking note of my dilemma, Derouex ran his fingers down my cheek. “It is quite all right, belle. We have no rules but that of our own hearts. Our only limits are those which we set for ourselves. I am a king of the high seas, and I want you to be my queen.”

  Melting in his arms, I wondered, what did any of it matter anymore? With no idea where I was on the map and with no one who ever mattered to me knowing where I was, I considered myself to be but a ghost in the world. And as a ghost I would have no virtue to preserve. I was no longer a proper lady, just like Sterling had said. I was a pirate. But alas, I was a pirate queen.

  A flash of lightning illuminated the darkness outside the windows as Derouex looked at me for consent. Out of sheer rebellion I nodded to agree. Picking me up in his arms, he carried me to his bed and laid me down. After slipping out of his extravagant coat, he removed his weapons and looked me over as if he were eyeing a fine piece of art.

  Finally covering me with his weight, he melted into me with a slow and adoring kiss. Everything was so lovely and warm right there in his arms. He began to run his hands up my legs, ever so slowly, ever so gently. This was it. My first time making love wouldn’t even be with the man I loved. It would be with a handsome pirate captain in a drunken puddle of lust on the swaying tide of persuasion.

  PART III

  Relentless

  Chapter 8

  Wildfire

  As Told By Sterling Bentley

  Holding Charlie against the wall in the alleyway, I growled, “You’re no angel yourself, sweetheart. You’re a hellfire temptress and just as much a filthy pirate as I am.” The moment the words left my lips I regretted them, but I was too angry to take it back.

  “Well, what a match made in Hell. Get the hell away from me, Sterling! I don’t want to be a pirate. I don’t want anything else to do with you or your heathen ways. I want to go home.” She pushed me away from her.

  Though I was surprised by the force she used, there was no way in hell she was running away from me on Tortuga. Grabbing her by the arm, I yelled, “You’re not going anywhere.”

  After shouting at me like a woman gone mad, that hellcat tried to swing a punch at me. Even as drunk as I was, I managed to block the blow. Clear of the damage she’d wished to inflict upon my face, I backed her against the wall to get a hold on her. She screamed like I was abusing her. I told her again that she wasn’t leaving me. She shouted crazily, “So you can keep me as your own and ignore me until you want a harlot to rub on?”

  God no! Why the hell would she say that? Shaking her shoulders straight, I ordered, “That’s enough, Charlie. You’re out of your mind.”

  She stomped on my foot. It hurt like hell but I refused to react. Keeping her with me was more important than the pain. Continuing to fight me, she shouted like a lunatic, “I am! I am completely out of my mind and it’s all your fault!”

  Sink me, she started crying. And it was all my fault.

  “You’re hurting me. Let me go!”

  Even though she said I was hurting her, I tightened my grip on her shoulders. “Stop fighting with me, woman.” It sounded like a demand but it was more of a plea. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I couldn’t control her and I couldn’t just let her go. Closing my eyes, I tried to calm my rage. My better sense told me to loosen my grip before I did something I’d regret. The moment I released, she used one of the evasive maneuvers I taught her and squirmed right out of my arms.

  I tried to chase after her.

  The speed in which she ran reminded me of African hunters’ tales of spotted cats chasing down their prey, muscles pushing them to unfathomable speeds. She blew past a group of men walking down the alley. As I tried to follow her around them, they crowded together to block me. There were about ten of them, but there was no way in hell I was going to let them stop me. Without waiting to see what they would do, I whipped my cutlass out and slashed through two of them. The other ones swarmed around me. I did what I could to fight them off. As they came in closer, I ran my dagger through one man’s throat and punched another. Then someone punched me. It should have hurt, but it didn’t. There was no pain with the powerful rush flowing through me.

  Grabbing my other dagger, I got another man in the chest. As I shoved the dying man over, someone hit me across the face with a pistol. I somewhat felt the flintlock rip through my cheek, but I certainly felt the hard object smash over the back of my head.

  My mind hazed over.

  My vision blurred.

  I tried to keep fighting, but my mind was too dazed, and there were too many of them. They were going to kill me and all I could think about was Charlie.

  X

  Waking up tied to a damn tree, my head hurt like hell and I felt as if I’d eaten a pile of sand. My discomfort was the least of my concerns. I had to get out so I could find Charlie. Where the hell did she go? How long had it been? Who the rotten hell were those bastards, and why didn’t they kill me? Whoever they were, they were gone. But there was now a note rolled up in my shoe. Maybe they left it for me.

  While attempting to bust my way out of the cursed bindings, I saw Oliver running towards me. Shark, Pete and Marin followed behind him. Oliver looked to be upset about something, but the other bastards were drunk and laughing. Oliver cut through the rope holding me to the tree. As I jumped to my feet, Pete laughed, “How many times can a man end up tied up?”

  I was in no mood for jokes. “Shut your mouth! Shut your stupid mouth! Unless you want to end up like this one!” Ripping my dagger out of the dead man’s neck, I pointed the bloody blade towards my crewmen. Their drunken laughter silenced.

  While gathering myself some weapons from the other men I had killed, I noticed Shark was also pickpocketing them for goods. As for Oliver, he was hunched over near a tree, throwing up. Looking up from his misery, he rumbled like he was on his deathbed, “Someone took Charlie. I saw them dragging her to the dock. Kasey went with her, and I came to find you.”

  Rage.

  Murder.

  I’d never experienced such an onslaught of hatred. Panic flooded my being. It was bad enough she had run off, but taken? With the horrifying possibilities spiraling in my mind, I ran towards the harbor. My mates followed behind me.

  The world around me was a blur of fire. My heart was a tidal wave of rage. It felt like I was running through the jungle of Panama the day my father died, only this time there was hope. Maybe.

  Once we reached the harbor, I didn’t see anyone or anything indicating her whereabouts. Grabbing Oliver by t
he shoulders, I shouted at him like he was the one that took her, “How long has it been? Who were they? Where were they going?”

  He said that he didn’t know. The sight of him breaking loose of my grip caused my spiraling mind to flash over the vision of Charlie getting away from me. Growling like a savage, I kicked over whatever the hell was there to kick.

  Remembering the note in my shoe, I pulled it out and unrolled it. Blinded by my rage, I couldn’t see the words. I tried to focus, but my eyes were blurry. I was breathing too hard. My heartbeat was too loud. I wadded the note into a ball and threw it at Oliver. “What does this say?”

  Unraveling the wad of parchment, he began reading to himself. “Read it to me!” I shouted with all the force my heaving lungs could muster.

  He read it to me. It said I’d find her on a ship named Persuasion. Oliver started to read me the bearings the bilge rat bastards had listed, but I figured I’d go over it once I got to the ship. Once I calmed down. If I ever calmed down.

  There were no longboats. There were no dinghys. “Where’s the boat? Who the hell took the boats?”

  Marin rambled something about Faron and Mary fighting, and new recruits rowing to the ship, but I didn’t give a shit about the details. I was just about to jump in the water and swim to Wind of Glory, but the ship at the end of the dock caught my interest. Endless Horizon was sitting there quietly.

  She would soon be mine.

  Pointing at the brigantine, I yelled at the crewmen as if I had the ultimate reign of a captain during a time of engagement. “We’re taking that bitch.”

  Pete rubbed his hands together and let out a wicked chuckle. “Bentley could take that ship alone with the rage he’s spewing. The man’s got my vote.”

  Though I would certainly seize her and sail her by myself if I had to, I was glad to see the men follow behind me.

  With the thin layer of fog shielding our approach, we stormed the deck of Endless Horizon so fast the men on board didn’t know what’d hit them. The first two tried to fight but I took one out with my blade. Shark shot the other. The other men on board ran over to fight us but I warned, “Back up! Don’t waste your lives fighting with me. If you want to live, sail this ship west.”

  They did as I said.

  My crewmen started to raise the anchor but there was no time for that shit. Grabbing the boarding axe, I hacked through the anchor chain. Pete and Marin laughed as the ship broke free from its anchor. Serious as could be, Shark advised, “We best get aloft before he uses that axe on us.”

  A redheaded Irishman named Kennedy worked the tiller. As I paced in my rage I overheard him ask Shark, “What the hell crawled up your captain’s arse?”

  Shark chuckled, “Our captain’s on that ship we’re headed for. Bentley’s just a hellfire navigator missing his bonny.”

  Kennedy grumbled, “That strumpet must be good with her mouth, for that man’s out of his mind.”

  “Shut your farcing mouth afore I break your freckled jaw.” I pointed at Kennedy. I wanted to attack him. I don’t know why I didn’t. Before he had a chance to retaliate to my futile threat I hollered to the men, “Raise that white flag afore Flynn attacks us.”

  “Flynn, as in Faron Flynn?” Kennedy asked with an awestricken tone, and with Wind of Glory now in plain sight, he gasped, “Wait a minute. Are we fighting? Because we’re not fit for fighting that man’s crew.”

  The crewmen hooted at the sound of Kennedy’s unknowing compliment. Bursting with pride they informed him that we were indeed Captain Faron Flynn’s fearsome crew.

  Kennedy’s voice lit up with excitement. He told the men he had sailed with Faron on the Ivory and was part of the mutiny that began their life of piracy. “I heard you mates were in jail and Flynn’s witch of a lover put a spell on the guard and got you out. Oh, then I heard you took down Vera Rose and Flynn cut the captain’s son’s heart out and saved it in a box so he can feed it to ol’ Smith when he sees him next.”

  The men told him it was true. All of it. Drawing near Wind of Glory, they boasted about the over-glorified details of our success.

  There was no success in my life.

  Only failure.

  Painstaking failure.

  Once we came in range, I shouted across the gap to warn Faron that it was me, then commanded the men to bring Endless Horizon tight along the side of Wind of Glory’s portside hull. I swung over on a line and hollered for Faron.

  With the crew stirring in confusion, Faron came out from his quarters with his shirt off. Buckling his belt, he huffed, “Mother Mary, Bentley. What’s the bloody fuss about?”

  “Charlie’s gone. Someone took her and I have to get her back. They took her on a ship named Persuasion and I need your help to go after them.”

  Running his hand through his sloppy hair, Faron cursed, “That bonny lass gives you more trouble than—”

  Lawrence interrupted, “Persuasion just left the harbor about ten minutes ago. They were heading east. There was a second ship following it but I did not catch the name.”

  Lawrence seemed to be just as worried as I was, but Faron only looked annoyed. “Bloody hell, Bentley, we just got to port and haven’t even fixed nothing on the ship yet.”

  Taking note of the way his eyes wandered toward Endless Horizon, I saw my advantage. “She’s mine. you take me to Persuasion and you can have Endless as your own.”

  His eyes lit up with interest as he asked, “How’d she sail?”

  “Better than this ol’ bitch. Light, sleek, and clean all around.”

  Faron called out for an informal vote. The crew easily agreed to take the new ship and sail me to Persuasion. As the men ran off to transfer their supplies, Faron went back to his cabin to get Mary. Managing enough sense in my crazed mind to remember my maps, I followed behind him to gather them.

  While taking my best map off Flynn’s wall, I heard him telling Mary what was happening. Panicking like a woman gone mad, Mary asked us a million questions as she got dressed. Hardly having any answers for her, we mostly ignored her flustering concerns. While she carried on in her frenzy, Faron began handing her things to carry. He gave her his red sheets and pillows, but before long her hands were so full there was no room for anything else. Yet, Faron kept handing her more.

  “Stop handing me things, Faron. I am not your servant.” She stormed out of the room with what she had. I followed right behind her with my maps and my tools.

  Making it across the boarding plank, I looked back towards Wind of Glory in time to see Flynn carrying that hideous vase that he was so fond of. I hated that thing. I hated everything in the world around me and something had to be destroyed. Pulling out my pistol, I shot the damn vase. The porcelain shattered all around Faron’s feet. With the handle still in his hand he raised the jagged edge and jestingly sliced it towards the laughing men. “Silence that racket or I’ll cut your throats with this.”

  Endless Horizon was well stocked with an overload of ammunition, a bounty of food, and a cook named Jack. Flynn scouted the deck of his new ship to assess the value. He nodded his head in approval. “Bentley’s fit paid off this time.”

  After his comment he looked over to see Mary, who had surrounded herself with the damn animals aboard. Sitting on the deck with a couple of cats on her lap, a parrot on her shoulder, and Marvelous leaning his head on her thigh, Mary told Marvelous she stilled loved him even though she had new pets. Faron laughed at the sight. “What the hell is this, Mary? Gathering yourself a damn farm over there?”

  Mary held her face against the purring black cat. “They will be my friends while you are busy being pompous and self-absorbed.”

  Faron kinked his head to the side. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You are so thrilled with your new ship, but do you even care that my best friend has gone missing?”

  He darted her with a dirty look, but she carried on, “I hardly expect any of these dogs to care about anyone but their grimy old selves, but as their captain, I
do hope you intend to persuade them to do the right thing. Sterling is your friend, and you know damn well he would help you if it was me missing.”

  I would.

  He had to know I would, and though I had faith he would do the same for me, choices weren’t for him alone to make. Suddenly plagued by the vagueness of our accord, I realized I should have been more clear with my bargain. They had agreed to take me to Persuasion but not to fight or invade…Now they had the ship and I had nothing but my own vote. Damn it. Damn it all to hell.

  My mind flashed over the extent of trouble I would go to on my own if I had to. My heart was beating out of my throat and my nerves were a wildfire of panic. I tried to calm myself down. I had to get my wits about me if I was going to find her…

  “I could kill you for this!” The threatening shout was followed by a hellacious shove. Flying back from the force, I saw Lawrence charging over to shove me again. Sink me, that big, bearded man was like a raging beast in the wild.

  “This is all your fault, you filthy rotten pirate!”

  His force was horrendous and his threat was incredible, but his words were like a red hot dagger in my heart. It was all my fault.

  I didn’t have time to pull my sword out as he came within shoving range, but I pushed him back just as harshly. “You think I don’t know that?”

  The momentum of my shove extended my hellfire rage into murderous wrath. I wanted to kill him.

  I cocked a fist back to hit him. My fist pummeled against his face, nearly knocking him over. He rebounded from the blow with ease. Before I knew it, his fist connected with my jaw. My face flew to the side and I hit him right back. Between the haze of my hatred and the force of his hits, I never had a chance to grab a weapon. As we punched each other I somehow heard Arthur attempt to place bets on our brawl.

  Soon enough the captain and the quartermaster jumped between us. Oliver shoved Lawrence away from me. Law Dog easily took heed to the quartermaster’s commands, but I was out of control. Faron couldn’t stop me. Thrashing in my unmanageable fit of violence, I think I even pushed him, but before I knew it I was hit in the gut with his enormous shoulder. The blow knocked the wind out of me. While I was breathless, he lifted me up and threw me on the deck. Pointing at my face, he hollered, “If you run over there again you’ll be fighting with me. Don’t do this, Bentley.”