Pan's Revenge (20 page)

With a gasp, Angel stops in the middle of the
main deck and spins on the spot. “Where the heck are we?”

Sidling up to her, I put a gentle hand on her
shoulder. “This is Neverland. My home.”

“How did we get here?” But instead of letting
me answer, she rubs her temples, shakes her head and mumbles, “No,
don’t tell me. I don’t even want to know.”

“Angel—”

Her gaze
shoots up to meet mine. “No, don’t! And don’t touch me. I don’t
care if all you said is true or not. I want—no, I
demand
you
take me back home this minute!”

“I will take you home.”

“When?”

“Eventually.”

“
No. You take
me back to London
now
!”

“
Really, I
can’t do that.” Feeling sorry and at a total loss with her, I
grimace. “Just give me a little more time to help you
understand.”

Folding her
arms over her chest, she starts to tap her foot.
“Now.”

Damn, that
growl turns me on, but I can’t give her that. I shake my head.
Which might as well have been a mistake. I can see the decision in
her eyes even before she actually makes it, so this time I’m
prepared when she whirls about and dashes across the deck. Rushing
after her, I grab her around the waist right before she can jump
off the railing. “Oh no,
you
don’t!”

And here we
go for round four of Angel’s cursing. A show that obviously each
and every member of my crew enjoys to the bone. The mangy dogs
laugh their heads off at me, but I don’t care. For now I’m at my
limits with Angel and her stubbornness. Damn, I didn’t have such a
hard time convincing her of my love the first time, and that was
right after I almost got the lass killed in the jungle.

I bend and toss her over my shoulder,
ignoring her drumming fists on my back as I carry her to the cabin
she once owned on this ship. The bilge rat who had to move out for
her sake never moved back in.

Dropping Angel on the bed, I stalk back out,
making sure I pull off the key from the inside and lock the door
once I left. Her angry voice drifts through the walls. I can’t even
say round five of her cursing began, because round four actually
never really stopped.

After a deep
sigh and raking my hands through my hair, I cut a helpless glance
to the sky. Then I stride into my quarters, fully intending to give
Angel a couple of hours to cool off. Maybe we can start from
scratch then.

PETER,
FREAKIN’ HELL,
how could you age so fast?
Hook’s horrid
voice still rings in my ears.

Struggling
hard against the ropes that keep my wrists tied at my back and my
body attached to this goddamned tree, I call him every foul name I
can think of under my breath. It doesn’t matter how resentful he
looked when he whispered an apology. It doesn’t matter how his
sword in his hand lowered as if he couldn’t bring himself to end my
life tonight. And it sure doesn’t matter that he called me
brother
.

I’m going to kill him for what he did to
me.

And if he so much as harmed a hair on Angel’s
head, I’ll be exceptionally slow with my skewering him too.

Dammit
, what’s riding me here? I
shake my head and snort. Hook would never hurt Angel. He loves her.
My own lies must have gotten to me in the end. But that doesn’t
change a thing. He’s good as dead. Shark bait as soon as I get
free. If only I could loosen these bloody ropes. They cut deeper
into my flesh the more I strain against them.

Helpless and
frustrated to the core, I clamp down on my teeth. My glance skates
over the silent and dark park beneath me. In a couple of hours, the
first visitors will come. I could shout down to them and ask for
help then. They will find a way to free me from my prison up here.
But morning is a long time coming.

Lifting my chin, I roar into the night,
“Hook, you goddamned bastard! I’ll get you for this! I’ll smash you
and spit on your wasting bones!”

Just when I hang my head and fight against
the lump of anger in my throat, I feel one end of the rope easing
off just a little.

EVERYTHING FROM THE moment Hook kissed me
under the tree in my garden is like a freaking déjà vu. I’m perched
on the bed where he dumped me and stare at the closed door. He
actually had the nerve to lock me into this cabin. Is this what you
do in Neverland after kissing someone? Imprison them?

Very subtle, Hook. I so believe your story
now.

The thing is
he almost had me believing him indeed. I’ve never been kissed like
that before. Or maybe I have, because everything about it felt so
amazingly familiar. His touch, his smell, even his taste—I rub my
tongue against the roof of my mouth so I can savor it once more.
And then there was this door in his room. I don’t know where it’s
leading, but the sight of it broken sent shivers down my spine.
Almost as if I was there when it happened, but there’s no path in
my mind leading to that information.

What’s his purpose of bringing me here? He
kidnapped me, for Christ’s sake. Does he really think that will
make me trust him more? Oh boy, I should have listened to Peter and
not be so stupid as to wander outside at night alone.

Massaging
my temples in slow
circles, I try to come up with a plan. How do I get back home, away
from this ship, the scowling crew and their impossible captain? My
parents will go insane with fear when they find out what happened
in the morning. Then again, they won’t be able to make any sense of
it at all. Their daughter is gone and a small heap of gold sits in
our garden. Jeez, they will think someone left the treasure to buy
me!

I roll my eyes and would have kicked myself
too for this stupid thought. Of course they’ll know in an instant
that I was kidnapped. They’ll call the police.

And then what
?
I scold myself and cut a glance to the
ceiling.
Send them after me to
Neverland? Clever idea.

Irritated
to no end, I hug my
knees to my chest and rest my forehead on them. Only when my
thoughts shift to my little sisters and their broken hearts when
they find out that I’ll never come back, my anger at Hook turns
into sadness. But it’s more than that. It really frightens me to
think of what will happen to me on board of this ship. Never one to
be scared easily, tears spring to my eyes, but I’m not going to let
them take over.

I’ve cursed
Hook in so many different ways and so loudly that my throat feels
sore when I clear it now. I sniff, lift my chin and sweep the room
with a glance. There must be a way to escape. Unfortunately, the
window is sealed, so there’s no chance of climbing out. Behind the
dirty glass, the shore of what I believe is Neverland shrinks away.
The Jolly Roger takes aim at the horizon.

“Where are you headed, Hook?” I mumble and
let the purple satin band that ties one part of the curtains aside
run through my easy grip. Suddenly a strange realization strikes
and makes me spin around. This room, with the nice curtains, the
purple carpet and the clean bed sheets isn’t what one would exactly
call the sleazy quarters of a pirate. Everything in here looks like
being chosen with caution. Chosen to suit a girl.

Me?

I gasp. Just
like with the broken door, I feel like I’ve seen this cabin before.
I’ve already been in here. The feeling is strong enough to make my
chest tighten. Now, the question is, was I kept prisoner in this
room before, or was I…a guest?

Sinking to my
knees on the soft carpet in front of the simple bed in the corner,
I pull at my hair and let go of a frustrated sigh. For some reason
I have this feeling all would be good and I could go home if I only
remembered what really happened the last time I was in Neverland.
Both Peter’s and Hook’s stories have their similarities, but one of
them is lying. I want to believe that it’s Hook, but kissing him
earlier felt right in so many ways. What if his story is closer to
the truth than Peter’s?

If only Peter was here now. There are so many
questions I need an answer to, and somehow I think I’ll only find
out what happened when I confront them both at the same time. And
then Peter could fly me back to London, because from the
determination in Hooks gaze since he brought me on board, I dare
say he’s not going to do that anytime soon.

A rattle in the lock makes me snap up my
head. Boy, maybe I was wrong and he already changed his mind?

It’s a jolly old pirate with a red bandana on
his head and a gold tooth who cracks the door open and shoves his
head inside. “The cap’n says ye can move freely on the ship now. He
also warns ye not to jump overboard, because there’s sharks in the
waters and he ain’t not care about havin’ to jump after ye.”

The most
dangerous of those sharks is captain of this ship, I’m sure. When
the pirate beams a bright smile at me that would send a horde of
zombies running, an unexpected
thank you
slips over my lips. He
closes the door before I can even question my sanity.

So Hook
widened my leash. What’s he playing at? To make me feel comfortable
on his ship? Not gonna happen. I keep rooted to the spot on the
floor, thinking hard on a solution for my problem for another hour.
But the only chance I see of returning to my world after all this
mulling is to leave this ship somehow. So with a grumble and limbs
number than twigs, I rise from the floor eventually and sneak to
the door.

Just a crack
to spy outside, that’s enough for starters. Some merry singing in
piratical language drifts to me together with laughing from a few
men that obviously play a game that involves a lot of drinking. I
open the door a little wider and peek around the corner. There are
several smudgy men on the main deck, some working, some playing
cards or with their daggers, and they all ignore me. Taking a wary
step outside my cabin, my glance travels across the rest of the
ship. Heaps of ropes thicker than my wrists lie everywhere. There’s
a stack of cargo boxes close to the railing, with folded heavy
white fabric on top which supposedly are sails not in
use.

There’s another deck above the main one. It’s
where Hook took me first. His quarters are located there, and above
them is the bridge. Moving my inspective gaze up to that last tiny
deck, I meet the captain’s sharp blue eyes. With a gasp, I jump two
steps back and hide in my cabin.

Gee
, I should have known he was
watching my door, even if he’s obviously the only one on board who
does. So why does that surprise me? In an attempt to steel my
nerves, I square my shoulder and lift my chin, then I step out once
again. This time, when I seek out his gaze on purpose, I’m prepared
and don’t budge an inch. To my staring him down, his answer is a
slight twitch of his lips that grows into the faintest
half-smile.

With the scowl still pasted on my face, I
turn my head away, deliberately slow, and start exploring the ship.
If he’s still watching me doing it, I don’t care. The one pirate
who sprang me from my prison is kneeling on the floor now,
scrubbing the boards, a bucket with water standing next to him. As
I pass him, he tilts his head up, almost shyly, but quickly looks
back down. The same happens when I cautiously walk past the small
group of men sitting around an upside-down barrel that serves as a
table. There’s a deck of cards on top, a bottle of rum, and a
handful of coins. Playing Poker? I can’t tell, but when I try to
catch their eyes, they quickly lower their gazes back to the cards
in their hands. It’s almost like they all want to but were
forbidden to talk to or even look at me. It makes me
uncomfortable.

Did Hook give those orders? If so, why did
he?

Since none of
the crew pays me any obvious attention, I decide to take the chance
and check out my options of getting off this ship. We’re so far out
on the sea now that there’s no land in sight in either direction.
Even if I jumped, I wouldn’t know which way to swim to get back to
the shore. And with the many black fins, there really are sharks in
the water. I shudder. Putting only a toe in there would be
suicidal.

The captain’s eyes follow me. I can feel them
everywhere I go. It’s like he’s patiently waiting until a
frightened little kitten comes out of its hiding and starts eating
from his hand. And know what? I’m that stupid kitten. Except, I
know perfectly well what he has in mind and will never give him
that. He can stand there and watch me until hell freezes over. I’m
going to find a way off the Jolly Roger in the meantime.

Ignoring
Hook, I lean over the railing and find a rowboat tied to the ship’s
side. What if I loosened the ropes, let the boat drop to the sea,
and jump into it? I could row myself away.

Casting a scrutinizing glance over my
shoulder, I sure find Hook observing me with intrigue from his
place on the bridge. When our gazes meet, he slowly shakes his
head. He thinks to stop me with that gesture? Well, he’s in for a
surprise.

I start
working the first rope, but these knots are so tight, there’s no
chance I can loosen them even a little. The skin on my fingertips
is sore after a couple of minutes and I’m not an inch closer to
escaping.

“
Need help
with that?” a voice startles me out of the tedious task when it’s
way too close beside me. My head snaps up and I face a guy dressed
in black from head to toe, with shaggy ginger hair and a scar
parting one of his tilted brows. He was with the card
players.