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“We had a deal!” A thread of panic laced her words, but I didn’t bother looking over my shoulder.
I kept moving, intent on putting some distance between me and the devil woman. She’d played her part well, that much was certain. When I brushed through the final barrier of lazy ferns and rustling palms, an errant thought snagged my attention.
What if she was telling the truth?
Her clothes, her language, they weren’t native to the island. And those tattoos.
I took two more steps, my boots sinking into the fine white sand. That was where I waited until she followed me out of the shadows, blinking against the sudden brightness.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business, pirate.” Moira, aka Never, mumbled a string of startlingly colorful expletives under her breath as she stalked past me.
“Wait.” She didn’t stop moving, but it only took two quick steps to catch up and grab her arm.
She wheeled on me like I’d assaulted her. “What?”
My men were watching the exchange from the shore with mixed expressions of surprise and amusement. Was it a trick, or wasn’t it? I honestly couldn’t tell.
“My name is Atlas.”
She ran her tongue along the edge of her teeth. “Atlas what?”
“I have no surname.” Because the offspring of a titan and goddess didn’t need one.
And yet someone in this cursed realm had bestowed one upon me all the same.Hook.It was an unpleasant moniker, one meant to belittle and demean, and one I hadn’t heard in more years than I could count. Likely because it tended to trigger a violent response from me.
“But most people call me Captain,” I offered.
I didn’t know what reaction I was expecting from the woman at my offering. Maybe a little softening, perhaps a touch of acquiescence.
Her bark of bitter laughter definitely wasn’t on the list.
“Captain?” She cocked her head and gave me the most condescending look. “Seriously?”
She glared out at my ship, anchored a fair distance from shore, and rolled her eyes. “I’m trapped in place that looks like Neverland, and I’m talking to the captain of a pirate ship. Why not jump right in and introduce yourself as Captain Hook? James Tiberius or some shit. I suppose next you’re going tell me that if I wanted to fly my ass off this crappy island, all I’d have to do is believe.” Her lip curled up in a snarl and she yanked her arm free of my grip. “I don’t have time for this shit,Hook.”
Fury rolled over me, thick and hot, bringing my anger to the surface in a rush. Nearly a century had passed since anyone in my enchanted waters had dared to utter that name aloud. And the last person to say it to my face…
Well now, it’d been the infamous Wendy Moira Angela Darling.
A murmur of unease filled the space behind me, reminding me that my men were back there, watching everything.
I gripped the pommel of my cutlass hard enough for the metal to morph under the strain. “Detain her.”
* * *
The girl put up a vicious fight, drawing blood from four of my sailors before they finally managed to subdue her. Even then, calling her subdued wasn’t entirely accurate. She’d kicked and squirmed the whole way back to the ship. There were a couple moments where I’d seriously considered dropping her into the water and letting the merfolk deal with her.
It had been a tempting notion.
But we’d made it to the ship without her flailing capsizing the skiff.
Which was why I now had a very angry, very colorful woman bound to the chair in my quarters. I’d been standing at the helm trying to get my bearings since our return, despite the fact the anchor was still down, and we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I just needed time to think.
I would much rather have been on the island with my men, checking the traps in case we managed to snag the Darling boy. Instead, I’d left a small team on shore, and I was here. And that damned woman wouldn’t stop running that mouth of hers.
