“Calm down.” His voice is gruff as his palm goes to my throat and squeezes lightly.
“Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down!” I struggle, but only manage to dunk myself.
He pulls me up again. “Be brave, Moira.”
“I’m not brave!” I scream, my voice breaking as the truth tears out of me. Because I’m not brave. I wasn’t when Coy needed me, when this brute killed him. I’ve never been brave, and I can’t see myself starting now when I’m in deep water with a murderous pirate. I thrash, trying to free myself from his hold.
He pulls me against his chest, his arm like an iron bar across my back. “Do you want to attract the mermaids?”
That stops me. I still feel the sting from Marinda’s bite. If I never see another mermaid, it’ll be too soon.
“No,” I whisper and spit the saltwater that sloshes into my mouth. “But there’s no way I can swim all the way to the ship.”
“Just take it easy and follow me.” He releases me, then strikes out ahead, swimming easily.
I throw one more glance toward shore where the sounds of raucous beasts still bounce across the waves. There’s no good choice here. Either die in some monster’s maw on the shore or let this pirate asshole hand me over to his boss.
“Come on, lass,” he calls.
It’s no easy decision, but I turn and begin to swim, following the pirate out to sea. He’s a murderer and just as much a monster as the creatures on the shore, but he seems to feel certain we can make it to the ship. After that, maybe I can talk my way into staying alive. The monsters on the island won’t be quite so open to discussion.
He’s a strong swimmer, but I can tell he’s holding back for me, glancing at me frequently to make sure I haven’t given up.That idea certainly has its merits, especially when my thoughts wander back to Coy, to the look in his eyes …
A whistle sounds across the waves. It’s a high-low, not the same tone as what the pirate used earlier.
“Ahoy!” a voice calls, and that’s when I see a small boat cutting through the waves toward us.
“About fucking time, Starkey!” The pirate reaches out and grabs me, then holds me in front of him. “Get a move on!”
I gasp as the boat turns hard right and drifts up to us with perfect speed until it stops right in front of me.
“Here. Take her.” The pirate lifts me from the water, and another reaches down, his hands out. But the pirate pulls me back. “I didn’t say for you to lift her by her tits, Starkey,” he snarls.
“Oh, my apologies.” Starkey speaks with what sounds to me like a posh English accent, as if he stepped right out of a movie. “Let me try that again, love.” He reaches farther and grabs me under my arms.
I yelp when my pirate’s hand finds its way to my ass and pushes me from the water. “Watch it!”
“Just helping you, lass,” he grumbles.
Starkey puts me down on a little bench, then offers his hand to my pirate.
I grip the sides of the rowboat as it rocks violently, but then all three of us are on board.
“Starkey, row.” My pirate sits next to me. “Are you hurt?”
“What?” I stare at the Jolly Roger as Starkey—dressed in much nicer clothes than I’d expect from a pirate—begins to row with steady strength.
“Water in her ears.” Starkey snorts a laugh, then goes quiet when my pirate glares at him. Funny I think of him as ‘my pirate’ when he’s anything but. He’s my enemy, the man who killed Coy right in front of me. A grunt escapes him as he rolls his shoulder, and I watch as a red stain grows along his wet shirt. Pan’s arrow wound is still bothering him. Good. It’s what he deserves.
“I’m not hurt.” Not physically, at least. I have my usual aches since arriving in Neverland, including the headache, but now it’s joined by the mermaid bite and the open hole through my heart where memories of Coy leak out. “I don’t know why it matters since all you’re going to do is turn me over to Hook so he can kill me.” I wrap my arms around myself and turn to look at the Jolly Roger as it grows ever larger.
“She’s salty.” Starkey grins. “I like that in a woman.”
“Mind your manners.” My pirate’s voice is low, lethal.
“Apologies again.” He sighs and keeps rowing, perhaps finding it better not to open his mouth lest more apologies fly out.
Manners on a pirate—now that’s a laugh.
