The Pirate (15 page)

He glanced sideways at Daphne as she stood like a trained sentinel watching the two avenues that could possibly bring an enemy to them. She was everything he'd ever wanted in a woman and some things he'd never considered good qualities until this moment. It was hard as hell for him to remember that he was a warrior and not just a lover.

He moved next to her and took the gun out of her hands. She let it go easily, but her hand lingered on his. She took his wrist and looked up at him with those big brown eyes of hers.

“Thank you.”

“Just doing my job, ma'am,” he said.

She shook her head. “It's more than that and I wish I was in a better frame of mind where men are concerned, Jean-Pierre, because I'd never let you go.”

Laz had never been touched by something someone had said to him before. Well maybe his old man's words when he told him he wasn't any son of his but that was a different feeling altogether. Daphne had just made him feel like he was the right sort of man for her. That feeling was more powerful than he would have believed it could be.

D
aphne followed Laz through the maze of the underbelly of the ship. He led them up a rope ladder that was composed of several joined together at the end of the tanker. He went first and she spent a few tense moments waiting for him until he signaled her to come up on deck. The sun had began to set over the Gulf of Aden.

“This has been the longest day of my life,” Daphne said.

Laz didn't respond as he led her toward the end of the row of containers. He was looking for somewhere safe to stow her.
His words not hers
. She wasn't sure that she was going to be able to hide out while he went and faced bad guys. Not that she was particularly skilled at fighting armed assailants but hiding out felt cowardly, and she was tired of letting the pirates control her emotions.

“Some days life is like that,” Laz said at last. “I need to go find Hamm and check on him—”

“Don't go alone. I know I'm not much help but I don't want to be left up here by myself,” she said.

“Daphne, you'll be safer here.”

“How do you know? Samatan could find me again and…I just know I'll be better off with you,” she said.

“You don't even trust me,” he said.

“I do trust you, Laz. Way more than my mind thinks I should. So far you are the only man ever to not let me down.”

“Ever? What about your dad?”

She bit her lower lip. She shouldn't have started this conversation. “He died when I was ten. I never really knew him.”

Laz tipped his head back and looked up at the night sky. All around them the stars were starting to be visible as the sun sank over the horizon. Daphne remembered the first night she'd come up on deck and talked to him. “I thought you were a pirate that first night we spoke up here.”

“You did? Why?”

She licked her lips trying to think of the right words to say.

“Don't do that,” he said. “Don't try to find words that will sound nice. Just say the real reason.”

She bit her lip and then took a deep breath. “There was something about you that made me think you were hiding something from me.”

“You didn't trust me,” he said.

“But I wanted to,” she said. “You're a rascal of a guy, Laz. You can be charming one minute and deadly the next. You are like no man I've ever met before and even though I know you'd grow bored with me in the real world I want to see if it would work between us.”

Laz shook his head. “Woman, you are making me crazy. I just said the same to you and you got your back up. This isn't me leaving you alone at your place and not calling back. This is a life-and-death situation.”

“I know,” she said, interrupting him because she just couldn't let him continue. “I know I sound like I'm half crazy and maybe I am. But I can't be up here alone. I will freak out.”

Laz gave her that lazy half-smile of his. “Okay, fine. You can come with me but when it's time for you to leave…you will go and not argue.”

“Sure,” she said.

“I need you to be quiet and understand we can't help someone if they are injured. I'm going to free Hamm and that's it. Savage believes the rest of the hostages will be transferred tomorrow and they will be rescued then.”

“But Samatan said he'd shoot us if he didn't get his money.”

“And he will be planning to,” Laz said. “Just not here. They like to do it public.”

She shivered. “I don't understand the people here. Why wouldn't the Somalian people stop him?”

“He is a leader here. The people in Eyl and other towns up and down the coast get their money from the pirates. That's why they are treated like kings here.”

“I wonder sometimes why I ever left D.C.”

“Me too. You don't exactly seem like an adventurous person.”

“I'm not. I did it because I was lost. I know you won't understand it but I had to figure out how to find something of who I used to be. Some part that hadn't been stolen. I thought doing this would be the best way.”

Laz took her hand in his and drew her into the shadow behind one of the containers. “It was a good thought. Doctoring the people in this part of the world will touch that philosophy major who decided she wanted to leave a legacy.”

She smiled to herself as he led the way through the containers to a gangway that she hadn't known was on the tanker. It was on the far end away from all of the common areas and crew quarters.

“I think you are right.”

“I usually am,” Laz said.

He paused for a second. “Shut it, Savage.”

“Is your boss disagreeing?” she asked. She'd noticed that Laz had a very good relationship with Savage. Just from the one-sided conversations she'd observed that their relationship seemed to be based on respect.

“He has his own opinions on the topic. We are heading down now so communications might be spotty.”

Daphne didn't say anything.

“I'll be using hand signals again,” Laz told Daphne.

“I still remember them. I'll be as quiet as I can.”

“You'll be fine. If anyone comes at us just stay low and out of my way. We've reached the point where we can't allow any pirate to survive.”

“Do you think the ones we captured were freed?” she asked.

“I know it,” Laz said. “Samatan isn't a man to underestimate. He sent his number-two man down there to let them out.”

“I don't want to see how he reacted to Jamac being captured. He was already mad at him,” Daphne said.

“Samatan can't have incompetent people working for him,” Laz said. “Otherwise his entire operation will fail and he'll end up like those pirates whose boat capsized and are washed up on shore dead.”

Daphne somehow thought that Samatan would never make a mistake like that. Even with Laz and Hamm onboard the
Maersk Angus,
he had managed to take it over and keep them hopping.

She knew with his backup Laz would get the tanker back and keep his clients from paying ransom. Yet a part of her wasn't too sure that he could do it before anyone else got hurt. “I'm sorry Fridjtof had to die.”

“I'm sorry that any man has to,” Laz said, “but that's simply the way of the world and men who work for two masters don't live long.”

She let those words echo in her mind as they walked down the long dark corridor. It turned and snaked around the belly of the ship. She wasn't sure she'd ever be able to find her way back, but that didn't matter. Right now all she had to do was follow Laz and let him keep her safe. And she trusted that he would. No matter what else she knew about him, she knew he wasn't going to let her die or be used to extort money.

 

“I'm surprised that you didn't shoot your way out of the situation with Samatan,” Daphne said as they snaked their way through the belly of the tanker.

This part of the ship was all large tubes and low-hanging ceilings. Laz carefully led the way knowing that Daphne's nerves had to be getting to her at this point. His were.

He was ready for action but he lived by the motto that brain was better than brawn. And in most cases that was true.

“I don't think I could have protected you if I had,” Laz said. “And I don't want anything to happen to you.”

“Thank you,” she said. “For everything. I know I probably would have made your life a lot easier if I'd just sat quietly and let you do your thing. But that's not my way.”

Laz glanced back at her. “You didn't do anything wrong. There is nothing that you did that contributed to anything going on right now. Don't feel like you should have done something else.”

She shrugged. “I should have—”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda…it's useless thinking that way unless you can time travel and change the past. And hell if you can then you need to tell me right now.”

She smiled at him and Laz felt lighter. He liked this woman more than most. He suspected it might have something to do with the fact that he'd spent more time alone with her than he normally did with women. Well, when they weren't in bed.

“No, I can't time travel. I just…I don't want to make those some mistakes again. If I'm screwing things up then I want to know so I can stop doing that.”

Laz nodded. “Just do what I say when I say it and we'll be okay.”

“I'll try,” she said dryly. “You know many times I've been in charge in the office and ordered my staff around because I know what needs to be done, but it never occurred to me how many time they must have bitten their tongues. It's very difficult to just blindly follow someone.”

Laz wanted to laugh at the way she said that. But he didn't. Instead he shrugged and kept walking toward the end of this hallway. Once they exited this room they'd have to be quiet. They'd have to make sure no one heard them as they moved toward Hamm's location.

“Savage?”

“Go ahead.”

“Has anyone moved?”

“No. There are two men on the bridge and we can see on the radar that two smaller crafts are approaching the tanker. I think you have less than forty minutes before there are more reinforcements on board.”

“Confirm that.”

“What did Savage say?” Daphne asked.

“That we need to move quickly. I think you'd be safe here. Do you want to wait while I go free Hamm?”

She shook her head. “Unless you think I'm going to be a detriment, I'd rather stay with you.”

“You're fine,” he said.

She put her hand on his shoulder. “I'm not fine, Laz. I'm trying to be but this is so much more than I ever expected to experience in my life.”

He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “It's okay. You're doing great. And if you decide you want to just sit this out someplace quiet, that's fine too. We just need to keep moving so if you can't do that…well say so.”

She nodded. “Will you do something for me?”

“Sure thing. What is it?”

She took a step closer to him. “Will you hold me for just a second?”

Laz opened his arms and she stepped into them. She put her head down on his shoulder and he felt the warm exhalation of her breaths against his neck. He rubbed his hands down her back and she settled even more fully against him. Her breasts pressed against him, reminding him how long it had been since he'd held her. Really held her.

And it reawakened the craving inside him for more of Daphne. She was more than he expected, and when he held her he felt like he was more than a warrior. More than a man put on this earth to do his job and then move on to the next one.

Laz felt like he might have a future that didn't involve fighting. He lowered his head on top of hers, resting his cheek against the silky smoothness of her hair, and just breathed in the essence of Daphne. Let everything that was her just wrap itself around him.

She tipped her head up and he leaned down and kissed her. He kissed her like it might be the last time because the next few hours would be intense and he needed to go into battle with the taste of her on his lips. Damn. If he had the time he'd take her one more time.

Cement the bond between with his flesh. Make her remember that he was the one man she really needed. But first he had to get them out of danger. And he would. The promise of holding her in his arms was just an added incentive.

“Come on. The sooner we capture Samatan the sooner we can be alone.”

She nodded. “Be careful, Laz. You're not impervious to harm.”

“Hell, I know that, I have the bruises to prove it.”

“How are you feeling? How's your leg?”

“It's fine.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “I've had worse and still gone on to do my job.”

He kissed her one last time and then forced himself to step back from her. “Let's move out.”

She fell into step behind him. He carefully opened the fire door, which kept the engine room sealed off from the rest of the ship. He opened it cautiously hearing Daphne's breaths in his ear.

“Hold position,” Savage said in his ear. “There is something going on up on deck.”

“What?”

“Some kind of gathering. There are eight men up there. Wait a second. It looks like he is addressing them all.”

“Can Mann take a shot and get him?” Laz asked.

“No. It's rocky on our boat and we are just as likely to hit any of the other men. You are clear to move.”

Laz led the way quickly down the hallway. “Am I close to Hamm?”

“Two more feet,” Savage came back.

Laz saw the doorway to the crew quarters on his left. He stopped in the hallway. This was the worst type of scenario. He didn't like going in blind with no chance of backup and that was exactly what he was going to have to do.

He had no idea what was hiding on the other side of the door. They knew Hamm was in there because everyone on their team had an embedded GPS tracker. But beyond that he had no idea who else was with him and if he was going to be facing an armed adversary.

“You stay put, Daph. If you see anything or hear anyone duck into that room over there and out of the way.”

“I will. Be careful,” she said.

 

Laz entered the room low with his weapon drawn. Hamm was sitting in a corner with the rest of the crew members around him. Hamm had a cut above his eye and the crew members looked ready to leap at Laz and defend Hamm.

Savage had let J.P. know that his teammate had a concussion earlier.

“Captain? We feared you were dead.”

“I am alive. And I am here to rescue you all. How's Hamm?”

“He is dizzy. He fought hard but there was no way to keep the skinny little man at bay.”

Samatan's second in command was a fighter. But that didn't surprise Laz. What did surprise him was that Hamm had been injured. The cut over his eye didn't look that bad.

“I'm bleeding from the back of my head,” Hamm said.