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He put down the last crate with a bit too much force. He had to focus on getting out of the fiasco he was in. Big Joe expected him to return with the rum that had gone missing, which should be the only thing on Camden’s mind.
He had to find Big Joe’s rum. The rare bottles from a fifty-year-old batch had apparently been stored in a cave on the coast of Cap-Haitien for decades. The Italian bought them from Valverde for half a million, sight unseen, and now, the smuggler had failed to deliver them twice. Big Joe had a buyer willing to pay two million big ones for it, which meant Cam had to get his hands on them at any cost.
“What’s the plan, boss?” Rolly inquired, looking despondently down the hatch at the crates of rum.
“Straight to Nassau. I have a guy there who may be able to help us.”
“All right,” his first mate said. Then, a little warily, he added, “What about the other thing…?” He tipped his chin in the direction of the cabins, where their stowaway was tucked away in Cam’s cabin.
The older man had been on Cam’s father’s crew since the first day the Delilah had sailed. When Cam came back from service and decided to return to the boating business, Rolly had been at the docks, faithfully waiting for him. Rolly still had been out of line with that stunt he’d pulled with the girl, but that conversation would be for later.
“I’m going to talk to her,” Cam told the old man and ignored Enzo, who was hot on his heels. The kid didn’t fucking know when to quit. “Did you do what I told you?” Cam asked Butter when he saw him.
The cook nodded. “I put her trunk in there and left some food and water.” His eyes were a little too bright with interest. Seemed he was also taken with their new passenger.
Cam pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. This woman was going to be a constant pain in the ass. He just knew it.
He ran a hand over his mouth bedeviled by the memory of her pressing up against him. It had been a long time since he’d reacted like that to a woman. He had lovers—he liked to blow off some steam from his work with a hard fuck from time to time—but he never gave any of them much thought. A quick roll in the hay and back to work for Camden. It had always been that way, but her round bottom and those big eyes had done something to him. He bit off a curse when his cock hardened painfully as he went belowdecks.
Enzo still followed him.
“You need to back off,” Cam said over his shoulder, tossing his gloves before mopping his forehead with a handkerchief.
“I need to talk to you.”
He was soaking with sweat, hungry, and in a devil of a mood. “If I were you, I wouldn’t push me right now, kid.”
“I’m not a kid, Camden,” Enzo shot back. Cam could hear the frustration in the guy’s voice. He didn’t give a fuck. “I want to talk about the rum. What are you planning to do?” he demanded, and Cam spun around, his anger getting the best of him again. He was on a fucking hair trigger today.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you. I will figure it out.”
“Like you’ve figured it out so far?”
“What is that supposed to mean? Your uncle was the one who gave me the bead on Valverde,” Camden retorted. He should’ve gone with this hunch and stopped in Nassau to gather some intel, but he’d rushed it, wanting to be done with Big Joe. Now he was in an even bigger mess.
“I want to help,” Enzo insisted.
Cam narrowed his eyes, confused as to what was happening. Enzo had been nothing but a nuisance since he’d gotten on this rig, but now he was suddenly Mr. Helpful.
“I…” Enzo started, and the kid blushed—he fucking blushed. Hell, Cam could not deal with a rosy-cheeked Enzo. “I don’t want to get back to New York empty-handed. Joe told me to make sure you deliver, and if you don’t, I’ll be in deep shit too.” He looked down then, and Cam couldn’t be sure if the kid whispered something about “wanting out of this.” But when Enzo popped his head back up, the usual sneer was firmly back in place. “There’s also the girl…”
“The girl is not your problem,” Cam told him, through gritted teeth, stalking up to the shorter man until he had Enzo backed up against the wall. His head was hot with anger and that underlying itch to put his hands on the kid—and not exactly to punch him—returned. “And you do not call the shots in my rig or on this job.”
Enzo’s lips parted, and he let out a puff of breath, those honey-colored eyes thundering with something Cam would absolutely not touch.
Fuck, he needed to get laid.
“She wants to come to New York,” Enzo told him, like it mattered. This son of a bitch really was a loose cannon.
He almost laughed. Enzo apparently had decided to be the girl’s defender, and it was more than Camden could fucking take. “I don’t give a rat’s ass what she wants. She’s staying in Nassau.”
Enzo twisted his mouth. “You’ll make sure to fuck her silly before you dump her though, won’t you?” That wiseass grin. Cam would love to wipe it off his face. “Are you in such a hurry to get some pussy that you can’t talk about the shitstorm you’re sailing into if you don’t find that rum?”
“You watch your fucking mouth with me,” Cam spat.
Enzo tilted his head up and pressed closer. His slimmer body rubbed against Cam’s front. “Or what?” the kid asked, a little breathless. Cam knew he wasn’t imagining the hardness brushing against his thigh or his own cock’s twitch in response to it. “What are you going to do to me, Cap? Finally teach me my lesson?”
It wasn’t that the kid was unattractive. More than once on this trip, Cam had caught himself looking a little too long at Enzo’s round ass and broad shoulders whenever he helped Rolly with the sails. That swagger combined with those absurd golden curls had caught Cam’s eye the moment the kid started hanging around Big Joe.
