Paid to the Pirate by Una Rohr

Chapter 44

Charlotte

“Open your mouth and call to him or I’ll be forced to cut it wide open and make you scream.”

Hunched above me on one side, Daniel’s man growled the command. Daniel took the other side, holding me to the sodden earth despite my frantic kicking.

“Or maybe we’ll cut out your tongue,” the man added.

Rain from both men’s hair splattered my face, making it difficult to see, but I couldn’t miss the twin sets of glistening blades held to my face with evident threat. I clamped my lips tighter and braced for pain.

“How can she scream if you cut out her tongue?” Daniel asked, huffing. I wasn’t sure if he said it because it raised a good point -- or if because some part of him deep down didn’t want to hurt me too badly. I hated the gratitude and relief that washed over me.

“Fine. There are other sensitive parts,” the man said ominously. He slid down my body and stabbed his dagger so quickly into the mud between my legs that he would have managed to cut me if I hadn’t squirmed out of the way. The temporary relief I had felt was replaced by sheer panic and I regrettably let out an instinctive cry.

“That’s it, girl,” the man praised. With his dagger lodged in the dirt, he attacked with his bare hands instead. Gripping my arms, Daniel’s man squeezed like he wanted to break my bones, then twisted my skin as if he aimed to tear the flesh from my body.

“Stop!” I shouted, between garbled screams of agony.

It only made him hurt me more.

My skin was soaked from a mix of the cold rain and my own hot sweat. It was an advantage.

In my thrashing against Daniel’s grip, I managed to free my arms and throw Daniel’s man off balance. The slippery grass helped too, as did our motives.

They wanted to keep me alive -- at least a little while longer. I had no such compunction.

I couldn’t wrest control of either blade. I couldn’t overpower either man. All I could do was maneuver myself.

With a cry, I rolled away on the wet grass, hearing the tear in my skirts as they were freed from the dagger. Daniel’s arm plunged downward as he tried to stab my body or my skirt -- I wasn’t sure which. Either he aimed at wounding me or pinning me back to the ground. Fortunately, his man also lurched forward, attempting to use his body weight to detain me. In the synchronized tussle, Daniel’s man quickly collapsed on the ground, taking my place --

-- and Daniel’s own dagger, already in motion, stabbed the man right in his unprotected back.

I gasped as the lackey gave one cry and slumped, dead in the grass or unconscious on his way there.

Oh my god, I’ve done it, I thought, scrambling away. He’s dead. One man down and one to go.

Daniel stilled, eyes widening in shock at having slain his own companion.

My victory was short-lived.

Tangled in my sopping skirts, I’d only made it to my knees before Daniel came to his senses. Instead of drawing his sword, which I’d at least have had some chance of fighting, Daniel grabbed his pistol from his belt and aimed it at my head.

I froze, mouth parted in horror.

He wouldn’t really shoot me. Would he?

Daniel leapt to his feet. Keeping his weapon trained on me, he stepped closer, until he stood above me with vicious fury in his eyes.

Yes, he would. He’s going to shoot me.

I tried not to weep. My heart pounded so rapidly in my head it drowned out the sound of rain beating on the trees.

I’d nearly done it. I had been so close.

It made the taste of defeat all the more bitter in my mouth. It made me rage against death that much harder. Yet in the end, all I could do was clench my fists and try not to cry. I saw the desire to retaliate in Daniel’s eyes. I hated that I was going to die on my knees.

Daniel’s hand moved, his finger positioning on the trigger.

At the same time, I heard a roar through the trees.

“No!” Colt burst into the clearing, shouting, rain-soaked and wild with madness, making my heart swell with love at the sight of him even as I thought, No! Run away!

Were Daniel’s men waiting in the trees to shoot him? Or had he thwarted them somehow?

Colt and I were both going to die in this wet, dark wood. Colt was too far away to save me, and it was all happening too fast. Had Daniel thought it through, he might have turned and shot at the captain, or stopped and used me as leverage against Colt’s attack. But either Daniel counted on his men to intervene, his emotions overrode his logic, or he just couldn’t halt as his finger was already in motion, squeezing.

Goodbye, Colt. I love you.

The thought was all I had time for before --

Click.

Click.

Click and…

…nothing.

“Dammit!” Daniel swore.

Oh my god.

I could scarcely breathe as I realized the pistol hadn’t fired. Either rain had soaked the necessary mechanisms or it was just the ever-poor odds that the weapon would properly function.

A pistol was never as reliable as a sword.

As a captain.

As my captain, wielding his sword, and barreling down on Daniel with deadly intent. I scrambled backward before Daniel could grab and use me as defense.

Colt, face twisted in rage, drove his sword directly through Daniel’s midsection. My abductor fell to his knees, then flopped, face-down in the grass.

Dead.

Neither Colt nor I paid him any mind as Colt reached out his hand and pulled me to my feet. The world disappeared as he swept me into his wet embrace. Smoothing my hair from my face he asked again and again, “Are you hurt?” Despite my frantic and repeated reassurances, Colt continued to examine my body, apologizing for being too late, for letting Daniel take me, and for a host of other things he wasn’t responsible for.

“I’m alright,” I panted, pushing my hands against Colt’s chest to cease his fussing. “Please, let me speak. There’s something I need to tell you and it can’t wait any longer.”

Colt quieted, but he looked as if he wouldn’t stay that way for long. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Conks, Johnson, and Miguel in the clearing. I wondered how long they’d been there whilst I’d been so focused on Colt.

Breathing deeply, I said, “I want you to know I understand now. The decision you had to make in the heat of the moment all those years ago. I forgive you for what happened with my father. For…” I trailed off, still panting for air. It was too much to discuss right now. “Everything.”

Subtly, Conks, Johnson, and Miguel stepped back, giving us space.

“Oh god, and there’s so much to tell you about what happened that night,” I continued in a rush. “Maurice… he might be, likely is… my father.”

Colt’s eyes widened and he shook his head in denial.

“Yes,” I insisted, interrupting before Colt could speak. My heart continued pounding and I struggled to even my breathing. “But it’s too much to get into now and none of that is important. I will explain it all later, I promise. The important thing is, I want you to know that I remember everything and I forgive everything. And I love you. Do you forgive and love me too?”

“There is nothing to forgive,” Colt swore, cupping my cheek. “And there has never been a moment I haven’t loved you. Only moments in which I love you more, because I have, with each passing day since the day I saw the real you… and maybe even before.”

Colt furrowed his brow in frustration and shrugged. I laughed at the implication. There was a touch of hysteria to it, given my overwhelming relief from escaping recent death, but it felt good to laugh and even better to be in Colt’s arms.

“I’m never leaving you again,” I said. I brought his hand to my lips and kissed it. “I want to return to your ship and stay. This time, forever.”

A shadow passed over Colt’s face and he shook his head. After a pause, he said, “We can’t return to The Dread Night. She’s no longer mine. I gave command to Sedge and we don’t have enough men to take her back.”

Searching Colt’s pained face, I saw the truth in his eyes. A captain who lost his ship lost a part of himself. In my stunned silence, it dawned on me that I had something to do with it. That, somehow, he must have given up his vessel to gain me. Colt had enough men to reclaim me, but not enough to retake his ship.

“She’s gone. As is my gold and any hope for the Crimson Eye. I have…” Colt sighed, “nothing of value. And soon, the rest of your townsfolk will come looking for us and we’ll all be hanged, unless we leave now. But, Charlotte,” he said, releasing my hand to grab my biceps, “I have nowhere to go and nothing to provide for you, nothing but the life of a wanted criminal. Worse. The life of a beggar.”

Colt’s voice slowed and deepened with grief by the end of his speech, and I realized he was confessing. This was Colt’s way of offering me a chance to depart, believing he had nothing to give me but empty pockets and a target on our backs.

I was temporarily speechless. More than saddened that he thought I’d leave his side at this moment, I bristled at the insult.

Who was this man before me who let himself be so easily defeated? Had Colt’s love for me caused him to give up, believing it to be for my benefit?

I’d never known Captain Colt to be the self-sacrificing type. At least, not before. But I now understood that was what he did when he tried returning me to my old settlement. He’d wanted to let me go before I remembered.

Too late, my love. I remember and I will never again forget.

A plan began forming in my mind.

“Captain Colt,” I admonished, and my sharp tone snapped the curious crew to attention. Even Colt dropped his hands from my arms, taken aback.

“You have your sword,” I said.

Miguel, Conks, and Johnson glanced down, wondering why that made any difference against the angry mob that would descend upon us by morning’s light.

“You have your wits. You have your courage,” I continued, lifting my chin. Meeting Colt’s eyes, I concluded, “And you have me.”

I marched to Daniel’s body, sprawled on the sodden grass. “Lucky for all of you,” I said, drawing Daniel’s sword from its sheath and not sparing him a moment’s thought, “I too possess all three assets.” Turning to face the men, I announced, “And I intend to use them to our advantage.”

Colt looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and that faith was just one of the thousand reasons why I loved him. With a grin he prompted, “Tell us what we need to do, Lady Charlotte.”

I met his smile with my own and declared, “Daniel’s men are here, slain. His estate is unguarded as he’s sent away his servants for the evening.”

“You propose we rob him.” Colt said, quickly catching on.

“I propose we reclaim what should be yours, by rights,” I amended. “All of Daniel’s worldly possessions were first gained by your bag o’ bits. I stole it from you and he stole it from me the day I washed ashore. That he used his own abilities to grow that small fortune into a larger one doesn’t change the fact that it began from your coin, and it doesn’t change that fact that you can’t rob a man who forsook all rights to his holdings the night he became a monster. Maybe not in the eyes of the king’s law, but I no longer live by that law,” I pointed out. “I live by a pirate’s law. By yours.”

I am yours, I thought, staring up at Colt’s wickedly handsome wet face. Do you believe me now?

“So what say you, men?” I asked, blinking away the rain from my lashes. “Shall we raid the manor and run?”

Colt looked over his shoulder. Conks, Johnson, and Miguel nodded, drawing their swords. Colt grinned back at me.

“Lead the way.”

I started to walk and abruptly halted.

“Wait!” I said, darting back to Daniel’s corpse and fishing around in his pockets. I retrieved my gold locket and handed it to Colt.

“He tried to steal this too,” I said, turning and brushing aside my slick, stringy hair. “Will you put it back on? I vow never to take it off.”

Colt’s fingers grazed the back of my neck as he fastened the chain. His lips tickled my ear and I heard the smile in his voice as he whispered, “I vow to make you beg for mercy if you do.”

Spinning to face Colt, I threw my arms around him, sealing our vows with a long, hungry kiss.