The Golden Problem
"Sing, siren, for thyself, and I will dote;
Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs,
And as a bed I'll take them and there lie,
And in that glorious supposition think
He gains by death that hath such means to die;
Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink!"
? William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors
THE LURE OF THE GOLD and the promise of fortune should have been enough for Mara to ensnare Alex Duprez and Roxanne O'Toole in her scheme. For any other pirate it would have been more than sufficient.
“Running this brothel is beneath you,” Mara told them, sweet as honey. “You deserve to be out on the seven seas, seizing your fortune.”
“The captains want us here,” Duprez said with a frown, clearly not happy about it either. Mara took note to turn this to her advantage. “They’re the ones with the power, so...”
“Of course. But money is power. If I had come by a secret about a certain treasure...” Mara stepped closer, stroking a hand up his arm. “If I could hand you the keys to get it...”
“I’m listening,” Duprez leaned in.
“What if I told you I knew about an obscene amount of gold that Elizabeth Barnes wanted to steal?” Mara whispered, her eyes passing from Duprez to O’Toole. “And all we had to do was get to it first?”
“You’re out of your fucking mind!” Roxanne, who'd been glowering silently through the conversation, finally spoke. Her flame-red hair moved in a wave of aggression as she rose. “You really think you can pull one over on that bitch and get away with it? She gets wind of that and we're right fucked!”
The thought of Elizabeth doing anything more to Mara than what she'd already done - betrayed her love and left her to rot in a human whorehouse - made cold anger knot in her stomach. "I am not afraid of Elizabeth Barnes."
"You fucking should be."
“Darling,” Duprez attempted to placate his lynx-eyed companion. “I think we should hear Mara out to the end.”
“You actually considering this? You’re fucking daft!” Roxanne exploded. “What, are you fucking her now? She using her cunt and her tits on you, like she does on everyone else, so you'll come running? I don’t fucking need this!”
“Xanne, please, I only...” Mara reached a careful hand to touch her arm in an attempt to intervene.
The red-haired jezebel would have none of it, ripping Mara's fingers from her sleeve. “Get your fucking hands off me!” She stormed from the room, the door shutting behind her with such force that Mara worried for the building’s integrity.
“Well, that went well,” Alex sighed.
Mara sank back down, momentarily defeated. Why was it so upsetting that Roxanne, of all people, had said such things? Her dismissal of Mara's plan was disappointing, as well as Mara's obvious failure to manipulate the woman the way she thought she'd be able to. But for the first time, the insinuation that she was using her body to manipulate Duprez - coming from Roxanne - it hurt.
“Don’t worry about her,” Duprez pointed behind him at the abused door. “I’ll have a nice, long talk with her later. Perhaps more than a talk. It’ll work out. Now,” he said, taking a seat in turn, “tell me about this... gold.”
Gold. Always the fucking gold! Oh, if only it would sink to the bottom of the ocean, then it wouldn’t be an issue anymore, for anyone. Hawk rode up to the familiar house - the closest place he had to a real home in Port Royal - with a heavy heart and a mind full of conflicting thoughts.
If someone had asked him only a few weeks ago, he would’ve said that treasure galleon was his only salvation. The one sure way to achieve the vengeance that he had sworn against the society that had rejected them. Vengeance for Lucas. It was the answer to all his quandaries, and fate had dangled it too conveniently before his nose. But in what a package!
Let no one say that God did not have a certain perverse sense of humor.
But now... Now? The thought of all that treasure nauseated him. Would Finn leave him once they had the gold? And God damn it, when the hell did Silver become “Finn” to him?
Oh yes, probably around the time that Hawk had nuzzled into his beautiful, tan neck, and breathed words of adoration that would make any pirate worth his salt blush and walk his own plank. Even now, the thought of being close to Silver again made his stomach twist itself into knots and his heart flutter with longing. The thought of kissing those sweet lips, holding him close, seeing those impossibly blue eyes gazing up at him with such desire!
God, Hawk was a damn fool.
