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“No,” he said quietly. His eyes darkened and she saw the regret and sorrow that filled him. “I’m simply a man who sold his soul for vengeance.”
In spite of everything she’d just learned about him, an urge filled her to comfort him.
He was tortured by his past, even a blind man could see it. His regret ran soul-deep, and that wasn’t an illusion.
The breeze ruffled his loose hair. Even now, he was devastatingly handsome, more so with his vulnerability laid bare before her. He was asking her forgiveness. She could sense it. But who was she that he would ask such?
She wasn’t one of the men he had cut down in cold blood as the Marauder.
“I’m not proud of what I did, Serenity,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, “But I want you to understand that Ineverflew the Jolly Red. I’ve never killed a man who couldn’t defend himself.”
Did she dare believe him? “That’s not what I’ve heard.”
He released her as if she disgusted him. “Then believe what you will. I won’t be held responsible for the lies of a gossiping tongue.”
Serenity watched as he went to look out the windows. He braced one hand on the low overhang and leaned his head against his biceps. The waves swelled in the wake of the ship while he stood as still as a statue.
She didn’t know what to say, or feel. Athousand emotions whirled through her—confusion, disappointment, fear.
He wasn’t what she’d thought him to be. Maybe that was her own fault. She had built him up into a legend no man could possibly compete with.
Even though she’d dreamed of pirates and fantasized about Morgan being one, she’d never really considered him one of the loathsome pack.
Not a true pirate.
He was supposed to be Randolf. A gentleman pirate who toyed with other ship’s crews, but never actually hurt them.
It didn’t make sense to her. She could believe Jake was a cold-blooded pirate. He’d shown himself to be anything but merciful or kind. But that didn’t fit Morgan. He could have ordered her killed to silence her. He didn’t.
He could have killed Hayes’s crew.
Again, he didn’t.
He could have turned his back on Ushakii and allowed him to live out his life in slavery. But he hadn’t done that either. Nor did he have to free American sailors from the British.
It didn’t make sense to her. How could a man capable of such goodness also be capable of such ruthlessness?
“Would you answer me one question?” she asked, moving to lay one hand on his arm. “Tell me how the Marauder became the Sea Wolf.”
Refusing to meet her gaze, he sighed. “That’s a long story.”
Part of her begged to let it go at that. But she couldn’t. She had to understand him. To know how a man like the Marauder could change—ifa man like the Marauder could change.
With a teasing smile, she lowered herself until she met his downward gaze. “Well, I certainly have nowhere to go and nothing really better to do—except make more curtains.”
He gave her a hostile glare.
She knew she should be terrified, but she sensed the danger had passed. He wasn’t going to kill her. Of that she was certain. “Well?”
Morgan looked away from her and shook his head. He didn’t know what to do. Fate had thrown Serenity into his life and now it had given her the knowledge to destroy him.
He had committed horrible crimes in his past, he knew that. Even now he could hear the screams of men blown to pieces while he ordered his gun crews to continue their assault.
And for what?
For peace of mind?
The irony of it all ate at him constantly. He’d sought peace and found a hell far worse than anything he’d ever imagined.
