The Pirate (13 page)

The wrong continent for a man with dreams. Big dreams and the drive to make them come true. In another land he'd be a captain of industry or famous for his acumen. In this world he was famous or infamous for his brutality and his success rate. The
Maersk Angus
would be just another tanker he successfully took and ransomed. And the U.S. Senator's relation would give him a nice bonus on this operation.

Bonuses were always nice, he thought.

“Sir?”

“Yes, Bin?”

“Habeb has all the hostages in the mess hall. Two of the men were armed. But he took them down and freed Jamac and the others.”

“Good. Tell Habeb to separate the crew from the passengers. I think leaving them together has made them brave.”

“Yes, sir.”

Bin left and Samatan realized he had to see to the two hostages he'd left on the bridge. They needed to be moved.

“Follow me,” he said to Tomas.

Together they returned to the bridge where the woman was standing over the man he'd shot. “Stand up.”

The woman helped the Captain to his feet. “Lean on me.”

“Captain, you will lead the way back down to the deck. Don't try anything or the lady will die.”

The Captain followed his orders, hobbling down the stairs on his injured leg. At the bottom of the stairs he would have turned to the deck that was sunny and open, but Samatan directed him toward the maze of containers that lined the deck. They were huge and used for transporting goods between countries.

Samatan didn't care what they were used for now, he just needed a place to store this man and woman. He thought about killing them but until he ransomed the tanker and found the relative of the U.S. Senator he didn't want to kill any of the hostages.

The information he'd been given said that one of the women was related to the senator. His boss was very eager to have that woman and Samatan was smart enough to know that though they'd ask for money for the woman his boss really wanted to use her for political purposes.

Samatan didn't know exactly what his boss wanted and he didn't care. His only concern was doing what he'd been asked to do and getting his money.

He scanned the deck looking for someplace to put these two. A container seemed like a good place but he didn't want them to die in the heat of the day. And he knew the metal containers would reach deadly heat.

“Open the room to the left, Captain.”

Samatan was careful to watch the Captain as he did his biding. He knew such a man must be looking for some weakness. Some chance to jump him and change the balance of power. He knew that because he'd do the same thing if a man were holding a gun on him.

But Samatan knew he was strong enough to keep this man and this woman his hostages. He didn't doubt himself for a second because to do so would invalidate who he was.

L
az hesitated; he didn't want to trap them in a locked room. His leg ached like holy hell and he was angry that he'd missed his chance at Samatan.

They were amidst the tall towering containers and the room was one they used to store the anchor chain and other supplies for the deck. The room was small and windowless. A dark little room, which during the heat of the day could turn into a crypt. He hoped that Daphne didn't realize that.

Samatan shoved Daphne inside and she fell to her hands and knees as he did. Laz lurched and caught himself before he fell on top of her. He moaned as his injured thigh took the brunt of his weight. Daphne had bandaged the bullet graze and packed his nose with gauze to stop the bleeding.

The door was closed and they were locked in the darkness.

Laz lay next to her on the cold hard floor of the tanker. He wrapped his arms around her and his breath brushed her face.

Daphne was terrified of the dark. She always had been and falling on the floor with Laz had shaken her. She clung to him like he was a life jacket and she'd been plunged into the sea. Instead they were in the musky room and she had no idea how they were going to get out of here. Had no idea if they could be saved or if they'd die of heat exhaustion in the supply room of this pirate-held tanker.

She shook, though she tried to hide it, as her emotions overwhelmed her. Laz was on top of her and she was pressed to the floor. Tears burned the back of her eyes. She wondered if the reaction was from having the gun pressed to her head for so long or if everything that had happened was just too overwhelming.

She'd survived the crumbling of her perfect life back home but this far surpassed that kind of stress. She had lost a patient, been attacked by pirates, and had a gun held to her head. She was sobbing now and wanted to stop but in her mind the thoughts circled like vultures sensing a meal.

“Shh,” Laz said. He whispered it against the back of her neck. His hands moved awkwardly over her as he rolled to the floor next to her. She felt him pull her on top of him.

Suddenly she was lying on his body and he was holding her. His arms were big and strong and she felt safe, but that safety was a fleeting feeling. She heard the sound of the guns, making her fear that more pirates were arriving. More people to point guns at her and threaten her.

“This isn't what I signed up for,” she said in a voice that sounded pitiful.

“No, it wasn't. But you're not alone. I won't let anything happen to you.”

“You're locked in here with me,” she said.

“That's right, I am. It's better than you being alone, isn't it?” Laz asked.

His hands continued to move over her and she was slowly becoming aware of the fact that he smelled good. There was something familiar to his scent and feel and it brought her more comfort than she'd expected. In the dark there was only Laz.

Though she'd promised herself she'd never rely on one man again, there was something solid about Laz that she couldn't help but lean on.

She turned her head into the curve of his neck and he whisperered her name softly. Just hearing her name on his lips made her think of that brief time they'd spent making love together.

She remembered how he'd felt when he'd entered her body, how his hands had felt caressing her. She wanted more. She wanted him again.

Now.

An affirmation of life in case she didn't make off the tanker. If these were to be her last hours, she didn't want fear to be her dominant thought.

“Make love to me,” she said, sitting up on his lap. He still lay on the floor of the dark room and death shadowed her with the fear beating in her heart but with Laz she felt alive. Really alive like she hadn't since she'd been young. Back when life had been lived in black-and-white terms and not in the nebulous gray area she'd settled into.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I know you are scared, but that will pass.”

She felt around for his face and found it. The stubble of his beard rubbed against her fingertips as she caressed her way over his jaw to his lips. They were full and hard—he had a man's mouth but the skin was surprisingly soft. She leaned down and rubbed her lips back and forth over his.

Daphne felt the exhalation of his breath and felt that they were both alive and she needed him more than she could rightly say in this moment.

“I'm more sure of this than I have been in anything else in the last twenty-four hours.”

He slipped his hands under her shirt and pushed it up over her head. The next instant she felt him lift the cups of her bra and his palms rubbed over her nipples.

She found his shirt and pulled it up over his head. She was careful of his thigh even though she'd put a topical ointment on it and bandaged it well so it shouldn't give him any problems.

“We almost died,” she said.

“Don't think about it,” he replied, sitting up. He bent over and she felt the warmth of his breath against her breast before his tongue touched her nipple.

“We're alive and we have each other,” he said. His voice was low and husky as he spoke right into her ear. She shivered and braced her weight on her knees as she moved over him.

As she rubbed her center over his erection, using his shoulders for balance, Laz groaned her name. She found his mouth with hers and felt his hands moving between them. He undid her pants and then she felt his fingers slipping beneath the fabric of her panties and touching her. His finger circled her clit and then he rubbed it lightly in a circular motion.

Suddenly everything dropped away except him and how he made her feel. She closed her eyes as she rocked against him. He whispered hot sexy words into her ear, urging her to come for him.

She felt her body clench and tighten as her orgasm washed over her. Laz continued caressing her between her legs and she reached between them to find his cock and free it from his pants.

“I want you now,” she said.

He shifted between her legs and then she felt the tip of his hot cock at the entrance of her body. He thrust up into her, using his grip on her buttocks to force her down on him. She took his entire length and he held her still for a long moment. She leaned down against his shoulder and felt him inside her, wrapped around him by the clench of her pussy.

She felt completely surrounded by him, and as he urged her to move she did. Slowly at first but then quicker as she heard his breaths quicken and felt his hands tighten on her.

He was grunting as she felt another orgasm teasing her. So close to pulling her over the edge.

“I'm going to come again,” she said.

“Me too,” he said in a deep low voice that pushed her over the edge.

He held her and she just rested against him. “Thank you, J.P.”

“Thank you, Daph,” he said.

They pulled apart to clean up in the dark. She laughed as he took off his T-shirt and let her use that to clean between her legs. He was rougher than any man she'd ever met but he was also kinder, and she knew deep inside that her reactions to him were motivated by more than her fear to the situation.

 

“Laz?”

“Yes.”

“You have a plan to get us out of here, right?”

“I hope so. I need to check in with Hamm. I lost radio contact with him when we entered the bridge.”

“What can I do?” she asked.

“Sit tight and be quiet,” he said. “My team are en route, but aren't as quick as we'd hoped.”

She lay there next to him with her head resting on his shoulder and her body aching from the fall. She knew she hadn't bruised her body badly but she was tired.

She tried to concentrate on what Laz was saying but all she could do was listen to the timbre of his voice and let it soothe her.

She realized this was a mixed blessing. If they'd both been free, she'd never have been able to feel his arms around her but captured as they were it was okay to just lay here and draw strength from him.

And that was exactly what she did. She wrapped her free arm around his lean waist and felt his hand tighten on her arm.

She tried not to relive the last twenty-four hours but realized her life had changed more than she knew how to handle.

She'd asked for adventure and gotten it in spades. Though this wasn't what she envisioned she realized that for once she was truly alive.

Laz was distracted but tried not to be. He concentrated on what Savage was saying when all he really wanted to do was blow the hell out of this room and take Samatan down by whatever means were necessary.

He knew that his anger sprung from the fact that the other man had held a gun to Daphne's head and that he had locked her in this room.

He needed action or he was going to make love to her again. Now was not the time. Right now it was more important to figure out what the hell had happened to Hamm and how to get them out of this locked room.

“I've got to try to contact my boss, okay?” he said to her.

“Savage?” Laz asked.

“Laz, are you and Daphne okay?”

“We're fine. What happened to Hamm?”

“He was taken with the other crew members to another room. The rest of the doctors' group is in the galley under armed guard.”

“Are they safe?” Laz asked, relying the information to Daphne that Savage had just given him about their respective groups.

“Is Bob alive?” she asked.

“Tell her I don't know,” Savage said.

“Savage doesn't have that information,” Laz said.

“Right now I need you to assess your situation and let me know when you can be back on deck. Do you have a weapon?”

“Not anymore,” Laz said.

“I know. You're doing great. Just tell me when you will be back in the game.”

“I'm not out of it,” Laz said.

“Out of what?” Daphne asked.

“The game. I need to figure out how we are going to get out of here.”

“Do you have a flashlight?” she asked.

“I have a penlight in my boot.”

He sat up and felt her move with him. Her touch on his face was gentle and then he felt the brush of her lips against his. “Thank you for being in here with me.”

“You're welcome. I wish I could have kept us from this.”

“How could you?” she asked.

He shrugged and reached down to take the penlight from his boot. He found her hand and pressed it to her palm. “See what you can find in this room.”

“What will you be doing?”

“Trying to open the door from the inside.”

“Wenz is tracking your GPS, Laz,” Savage said. “Once we get a fix on you, Mann is going to try to shoot the lock.”

Laz shook his head. “That's an impossible shot.”

“Mann thinks he can take it.”

“Have him get Samatan. That man is serious about killing hostages. We don't want that to happen,” Laz said.

“I'm not about to let it,” Savage said. “I need you and the woman off the deck. Once you are out you are go to the chopper and disable it.”

“Will do,” Laz said.

Savage's way of thinking was always on the next task. It kept Laz from dealing too much with the impossibility of his current predicament.

“I found this crowbar we can use to get out of here. And there is a breeze coming up from the anchor chain.”

“Show me,” Laz said.

“What is it?” Savage asked.

“She's found the anchor opening. We might be able to shimmy down it.”

“Great thought, Laz,” Savage said.

Laz moved toward Daphne and the light. There was a small thin ray of sunlight coming in from the outside.

“Can Savage hear me too?” Daphne asked.

“Yes,” Laz said.

“In your own time,” Savage said. “We are monitoring the communication wave but so far have only heard bits of conversation in Dutch. Is that your crew?”

“Yes, that would be the crew.” Laz didn't like having two conversations at the same time. He'd done that more times than he wanted to admit when he'd been undercover but right now he wanted out of the room, which would give him the clarity he needed.

“Should I just be quiet?” Daphne asked.

Laz took her shoulder and squeezed it. “Yes.”

“Okay,” she said. She stood next to him as he sized up the room. Savage was quiet as well, probably working a different angle at his location.

“What's your twenty?”

“We are close but holding. I'm waiting to make sure that speedboat that he set on fire doesn't blow up,” Savage said. “There is something on the radar that Wenz is tracking. Might be another ship.”

“Copy that. Did you have a chat with Tankers International? Are they going to pay the ransom?”

“They are counting on us to get you out of there,” Savage said. “So that's a negative. But they did relay the information to the United States. It seems that the taking of the tanker was leaked to the media. And Senator Paul Maxwell wants to know what the hell is going on.”

“Fuck. That's just what we need.”

“I know. The navy is sending one frigate. I told them we have it under control but we're not the U.S. military.”

“Nice. How much longer?”

“No more than ten minutes.”

“J.P.?” Daphne asked.

“J.P.?” Savage said in his ear.

Laz reached up and muted the earbud so Savage couldn't hear their conversation.

“Yes?”

“I hope this works and we can get out of here,” she said.

He walked to her. “Me too since Hamm is locked up and possibly unconscious and Savage and the team aren't going to be able to get here for a while. Though he does have a plan.”

“What's that?” she asked.

“Having our sniper try to shoot the lock off the door,” Laz said.

“That's almost impossible. My boys watched a special on shooting off locks and depending on the steel it can be very difficult.”