The Pirate (16 page)

“I've got Daphne with me,” Laz said. He backed out of the room and signaled her to join him.

She came into the room and he saw her hesitate when she saw all the men. Then she caught sight of Hamm and he saw a change come over her. The doctor with her full-on confidence was back. She walked past Laz to Hamm and started asking questions and checking his pulse.

“You got this?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“I need two men to come with me,” he said. He had two volunteers quickly.

“What do you need from us, Captain?” asked Bjorn.

“We are going to retrieve some weapons I have hidden on the ship,” Laz said.

“The rest of you men need to guard the door. Don't let the pirates see Daphne since they believe we are locked up in another part of the ship.”

“Yes, sir.”

Laz looked at Daphne. “Will you be okay?”

“I'm fine. Hamm will be too. He is a slightly concussed but I think he'll be fine.”

“Good to hear,” Laz said.

“Amen,” Savage said in his ear. “Ask her if Hamm should be evacuated with the women.”

“I'm not going to ask that,” Laz said. “Hamm will kill me if I suggest such a thing.”

Savage laughed.

“Come on, men,” he said.

They followed him out the door and into the hallway. Weapons had been stowed in the crew quarters in the expectation of pirates taking the ship.

“Why do you have weapons stashed, Captain?” Bjorn asked as he followed him into the main crew quarters.

“To catch pirates, Bjorn,” Laz said.

“Well we've certainly got them. Not sure it's what you had in mind,” Bjorn said.

Laz shook his head and led the way to the crew lockers at the end of the narrow bunk area. There was enough room in this area for twelve hammocks. While some tankers had cots or navy-style bunks bolted to the floor, this one used hammocks for the men.

“How familiar are you both with weapons?”

“I grew up on a farm and can handle a single-shot rifle,” Drew said.

Laz nodded. “Bjorn?”

“I was in the army so I can handle just about anything.”

“Good. Just what I wanted to hear.”

Laz went to the last locker and used the key on his key ring to open it. He started pulling out semiautomatic rifles and RPG launchers. He handed ammunition to Bjorn and Drew, and both men took as much as they could hold. Laz felt much better once he was loaded down with weapons.

Being a sea captain had been okay but as he slowly put on the tools of his chosen trade he felt more like himself. He was a warrior and without his weapons he felt like a fraud.

He paused for a moment to wonder what Daphne would say if she saw him now. But that didn't matter. He hadn't hidden who he was from her. She knew that he was a warrior. And he knew she'd be happy when he got her off this tanker and back to safety.

“I don't want a lot of dead bodies so think before you just fire. But don't be a hero. If your life is threatened and you have the shot, take it,” Laz said.

“Yes, Captain.” Both men both examined their weapons and loaded them. Laz did the same thing with his.

“Savage?”

“Here.”

“I have the weapons and we are heading back to Hamm. Then we will free the doctors and bring them to our group,” Laz said.

“Who is Savage?” Bjorn asked.

“Someone on the outside who is helping us,” Laz said.

“Do they have a twenty on the doctors?” Savage asked.

Laz knew that the while finding Hamm had been easy because of his GPS tag the doctors didn't have a tracking device. Searching the rooms on this level was going to be risky and might lead to them being recaptured.

“Do you know where they are holding the doctors?” Laz asked Bjorn.

“No, sir. The one doctor couldn't be moved, so the woman insisted they keep him in the galley. I don't know if that is what happened because we were shuffled out of there.”

“Thank you. That gives us a place to start the search. Let's get back to our men and then we'll find the doctors.”

Laz led the way back down the hall. They reentered the room where Hamm and the other crew members were. Daphne was sitting next to Hamm on the floor, and his teammate and friend looked much better now.

“Is he okay?” Laz asked Daphne.

“I'm fine. She gave me some pills and some water,” Hamm answered.

“Where did you get pills?” Laz asked.

“This is the room you assigned to Franny and I,” Daphne said.

Laz nodded. He handed Hamm his weapon and ammunition. He gave the other men weapons as well. Daphne blanched when she saw the RPG launcher.

“What are you going to do with that?” she asked.

“Shoot down Samatan's chopper if he tries to escape,” Laz said.

She shook her head, but she didn't say anything else.

“Do you want a gun?” he asked her.

“No.”

Laz shook his head. He asked Hamm, “Do you feel up to coming with me to get the doctors?”

“I'll go,” Daphne said. “Hamm needs to sit still for another twenty minutes before he starts moving around.”

“I'll take one of the other men,” Laz said.

“J.P., what if Bob's condition is bad? I need to be there to help out. If Bjorn or Drew or any of these other men have medical training then I'll stay behind but otherwise I think I should go.”

“She makes a good point,” Savage said.

“Fine. But I don't like taking someone unarmed with me. This situation is dangerous and people could be hurt,” Laz said. But he knew full well if it had been Jerry or Rudy or, hell, even Franny, for that matter, he wouldn't be arguing with them. He wanted Daphne to stay behind because he wanted her safe.

He didn't doubt that he could protect her, because he knew he'd give his life to save hers. It was just that he wanted to keep her in cotton. Make sure she was protected from all the dangers that were on the tanker.

And he also knew he couldn't say that to her. So instead he shook his head and led the way to the door, very aware that she was behind him the entire time.

He knew she had to be tired and scared but she just kept doing everything he asked of her. His admiration for her grew with each minute they spent together.

There weren't that many people he admired in the world. He wasn't a true cynic but in his line of work he tended to see the worst in people.

Situations like this one where they were being held against their will and she was being asked to do things out of her comfort level—well, he wouldn't have been surprised if she'd simply said no. But each time he turned to her, she said yes no matter what it was he asked from her. No matter how many times he asked her to reach deep inside of herself and find the will to do something she had never done before, she did it.

And he flat-out couldn't think of another civilian he wanted with him in a situation like this. It had nothing to do with the fact that he thought he might be falling for her.

D
aphne didn't like all the weapons that Laz had on, but then she admitted that what she really didn't like was the fact that Laz was a warrior. But that was ridiculous. From the beginning he'd been honest with her about the kind of man he was.

Well, not honest, she thought. At first he'd wanted her to believe he was a captain of a tanker and she'd thought he was a pirate and now she knew the truth. He was a mercenary.

Seeing him armed to the teeth made that very real, forcing her to accept the man she'd had sex with was very different from every other man she'd ever met.

She'd known that but she hadn't realized how different. She hadn't fully expected him to look the way he did now.

There was that aura of danger she'd first sensed in him but more than that was a driving focus on his mission. And she had no real idea what he would do to get them off the tanker. To retake the tanker from a man like Samatan. But after what she had witnessed on the bridge when the pirate king had shot and killed those other pirates and then set their boat on fire…well, maybe Laz did need all those weapons.

Samatan wasn't a run-of-the-mill hostage taker and Laz wasn't your average hostage, she thought.

“You're awfully quiet back there,” he said in a low voice.

“I thought it would be best to just stay silent,” she said. Part of her had no idea what to say to this man. She knew that Jean-Pierre Lazarus was in there somewhere—probably buried somewhere beneath the steely eyed, weapon-toting man.

And she was worried about her friends. She dreaded finding them and feared that Bob might be dead.

“Say what's on your mind,” he said at last.

“I'm tired and scared,” she said. “I'm not sure there's anything else on my mind but that.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “The galley is going to be our first stop. I want you to stay close to the wall and I'll go in low. If it's clear I'll signal you to join me.”

“Okay.”

Laz moved ahead of her and she felt kind of petty since she'd worried about the weapons he had on. Now that they were facing the unknown, she was so glad he had those guns and that he knew how to use them. In fact she was counting on him to keep her safe.

“I'm sorry,” she said.

“What? For what?” he asked.

“For…I don't know, doubting you, I guess. I know you are doing this to protect everyone. I should have just said thanks.”

He shook his head. “There's no right or wrong way to react, Daphne. This is out of your comfort zone and so am I…I guess I'm surprised it took you that long to look at me like you did.”

“How did I look at you?” she asked.

“Like I was a monster,” he said. “Now stay put. I'll be right back.”

He pulled his weapon and used the tip of his toe to open the door to the galley. It was locked, which made her believe—hope anyway—that her friends were in that room.

“Come and get my key,” he said.

She nodded and moved to his side. He handed her the key ring and she fitted the key in the lock and opened the door so Laz could keep focused on whatever lay beyond.

The smell of blood and disinfectant greeted her as Laz eased over the threshold. He crouched low and swept his weapon from side to side just as she'd seen cops do on TV shows.

She almost started laughing. This was so surreal she almost felt like she'd had too much to drink.

“You okay?”

“Yes,” she said. “Are they here?”

“No, they aren't. Your friends aren't in here.”

“It smells like blood,” she said.

“From the surgeries,” Laz said.

“Is…is Bob in here?”

Laz glanced over at the table where he'd been operated on. It was empty. That didn't mean her friend was alive. It simply meant that he hadn't been left here.

“No, he's gone too.”

“Good.”

“He might be dead,” Laz said, wanting to warn her.

“I know. I…I just can keep hoping he's recovering. Why did they lock this room?”

“Probably because it's the galley and the food is in here. They aren't going to feed us and Samatan will keep his men hungry so they stay loyal to him.”

“He is such a barbarian,” she said.

“Yes, he is. But he was raised to be one. Let's go check the other rooms,” Laz said.

“Wait a minute,” she said. She didn't like the idea of being without a weapon and carrying a gun was out of the question but being in here reminded her that scalpels were sharp and had been used as weapons in ERs when necessary. So she went to the sink where she'd washed up after her surgery and took the one she'd used.

“Good idea,” Laz said.

She nodded because she wasn't sure she could use it on a person who wasn't prepped for surgery, but she knew that she didn't like feeling as defenseless as she had when Samatan had held that gun to her head.

Laz led the way back out into the hall. He made her wait while he swept the hall with his gun. Then signaled for her to follow him. Absurdly she was struck with the memory of playing
Charlie's Angels
with her two best friends in middle school.

They'd spent lots of hours with their hands held together like guns, posing and chasing after phantom baddies. Now here she was trying to rescue her friends and fighting off a real-life pirate attack.

Pirates! When she thought too much about it this entire situation, it made her feel like she had stepped into the twilight zone. But this was real. The aches and pains in her body and the nerves that were making her think these things proved it.

Laz came to a stop in front of another door. He tested the handle and it was locked.

“Ready to do it again?” he asked.

She nodded. She fit the key into the lock and looked at him before she opened the door. He went in like he had in the galley and this time someone grabbed his arms as he made his sweep. Laz tucked his head and rolled, breaking free of the grip and raising his gun at his assailant.

Daphne stayed poised in the doorway with the scalpel held tightly in her right hand.

“Hell, you scared me,” Rudy said.

“That kind of action could have gotten you killed,” Laz said.

Daphne stepped inside the room and closed the door behind her. Rudy stood over Laz and Jerry and Franny were behind him. Franny's eyes were red and Jerry looked like he'd aged ten years.

“How's Bob?” she asked.

Franny shook her head. “We don't know. They took him to the infirmary.”

 

The doctors' group looked like they were exhausted and strung out. It was clear that Franny wanted to be with Bob. Laz didn't think she'd be much use to them in any situation. He didn't relish the thought of taking her to find Bob but he had no other ideas about what to do with the woman.

“We need to move. I have weapons with the crew members and we will all arm up and then move to take the ship back from the pirates.”

“I need to see to Bob. I'm not going to be any good in a fight and I…I just need to be with him,” Franny said.

Laz shook his head. “Leaving this room makes us more vulnerable to discovery.”

“I'm not asking you for permission, Captain,” Franny said.

He glanced over at Daphne to see if she could help him with this. He wasn't going to risk them all being locked up or maybe even killed because of one stubborn woman.

Daphne walked past him to Franny. The men stayed by him.

“Savage?”

“Here.”

“What's your twenty?”

“We are almost at your location. When you are together we will tell you where to rendezvous with us.”

“Affirmative,” Laz said.

“Who are you talking to?” Jerry asked.

“My boss. I'm working with a group to capture the pirates.”

“That's reassuring,” Rudy said. “Do you have more weapons?”

“Yes. I have enough for you both as well. We really need to get moving. Daphne?”

“You can go,” Franny said.

“If we leave you here, I will lock the door. I can't risk the pirates knowing that we are not locked up,” Laz said.

Franny twisted her fingers together. “I love him. I can't stand not knowing how he's doing. What if he dies? I don't want him to be alone.”

Laz could understand that. But his hands were tied. One man's life versus everyone else on the ship. Well, the math just didn't add up.

Daphne seemed to know that as well.

“Let's go back to the rest of the crew,” Laz said. “Once everyone is together we'll try to go to Bob—”

“He's in the infirmary,” Franny repeated.

“You've got fifteen minutes,” Savage said.

“This is the most FUBAR situation.”

Savage agreed. “If she's going to be a problem, you're going to have to deal with it. I leave it up to you.”

“Thanks, Savage.” Laz realized how much he appreciated the calmness that Daphne had exhibited the entire time. She hadn't gotten hysterical one time even when Samatan had held a gun to her head.

“Okay. Time is wasting. If the hallway is clear we will try for the infirmary. But I can't leave you there, Franny. And we are risking—”

“Everyone else's life,” Jerry said. “I think we should leave Bob in the infirmary. Let's go back to your men, Captain. Bob would want us to.”

Franny started to cry and Daphne put her arm around the other woman. “You're right, Jerry. He wouldn't want anyone to be put at risk because of him.”

“So you'll come with us?” Laz asked her.

Reluctantly Franny nodded. Laz took a deep breath. He wasn't too sure the other woman wasn't going to flip out at the first sign of trouble. But for now they could move.

“We will go out single file,” Laz said. “Rudy, you seem the most knowledgeable about fighting, I want you at the rear.”

Laz took his spare weapon and handed it to the big man. He checked the weapon and then tucked it into the small of his back.

“Daphne will be behind me and then Franny, Jerry, and Rudy. When I hold my hand up like this, I mean for you to stop. If I point at you and wave you ahead, that means go. I need you to be as quiet as possible. That means no talking and try not to breathe heavy or step loudly.”

“How far are we going?” Jerry asked.

“Just to the other end of this hallway.”

“What if we're discovered?” Franny asked.

“If we are then I will cover you all while you come back in this room. Bar the door and don't let anyone in. Rudy will be able to defend this single doorway with his gun. Here's an extra clip,” Laz said, tossing it to the other man.

“Any other questions?” Laz asked.

“Who are you?” Franny asked. “You're not just a sea captain, are you?”

“He's a man who is trained to rescue people like us,” Daphne said.

“Ready?”

“Yes,” they all said.

Laz led the way out of the room carefully. His thigh felt tight and he thought he might have torn the bullet burn when Rudy had grabbed his arms and he'd had to roll. But he didn't allow that to distract him. He kept focused or tried to because where his mind kept going was to Daphne.

She'd defended him, she'd championed him to her friend, and that had made him feel…well, a way that warriors weren't supposed to feel. He wondered if Kirk or Savage ever felt this way. They'd both found women and married them.

Laz had never felt anything like this before. He wasn't a soft guy. And…a shadow moved over the opening where the gangway was. He held his hand up and the procession behind him stopped. He eased forward, weapon drawn, ready for whatever or whoever came down the stairs, but the shadow just turned and made another circuit.

Samatan had one of his men on sentry duty guarding the stairwell. Laz tucked the knowledge away for now. He signaled the others to follow him as he went the rest of the way down the hall. He opened the door where he'd left the crew and entered it a moment later.

Once they were all inside and the door was closed, Laz breathed a sigh of relief. Hamm was looking much better and he helped arm the doctors.

“Savage?”

“Here.”

“There's a sentry at the stairwell,” Laz said.

“Affirmative. We are docking at the back of the tanker,” Savage said.

“We can meet you on deck.”

“Let me get a good look at it first. Is everyone armed?”

“Affirmative,” Laz said. “I need to leave the women in a secure location.”

“And you're thinking the infirmary?” Savage asked.

“It seems like a small thing to do for her,” Laz said. He had been the one to hold Armand's hand as his friend had died. He knew what it was like to fear dying alone, and if he could do something to prevent that he would.

“Go ahead. Take them to the infirmary,” Savage said. “Hamm, can you lead the other men until Laz gets back?”

“Affirmative, boss.”

 

Daphne sat with Franny in the corner while the men armed up for the coming fight. They were talking quietly between themselves and she imagined this feeling of pride and fear was something that women had felt since the beginning of time. Whenever men went off to war, the women were left behind.

No matter how much she appreciated the men going off to save them, a part of her was afraid—afraid that they would lose and then she and Franny would be at Samatan's mercy. She was doubly afraid of breaking down the way Franny had about Bob.

There was no longer any doubt in her mind that she was falling for Laz. He was not like other men and that was part of why she wanted him. He listened to her when she talked and he always respected her point of view even if he didn't agree with it.

She was still touched that he'd considered taking Franny to Bob. Though she felt sad for her friend even she had thought that was a selfish thing for the other woman to ask for.