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“And you think knowing who I am will help the situation?”
“No, not really. But they’re smart and it won’t take them long to figure it out anyway.” He made a little scoffing noise, and I grabbed his chin and made him look right into my eyes again. “Focus. Now I could tell them about us right away, but they wouldn’t like it, and it might make things worse.”
“Fuck what they like. And it can hardly be worse.”
“Yes, yes, I know. I’m a grown man and they can’t stop me if I decide to go with you. Which I will. The problem is the gold you stole from me. That’s Harrison’s gold, and we have to give it back. Also, there’s the fact that you sank Harrison’s ship. He’s on the other ship, and he’s not going to just forgive and forget that so easily.”
He opened his mouth to reply, his eyes blazing, and I put a hand over his lips to shut him up. “Hush and listen to me. Please, Rox. I think I can talk Lexington into taking the Fancy Lady as a substitute for the ship you sank, and you can give him back the gold.”
“The hell I will!”
“At least you’ll have your lives, and the chance to get the ship back one day. You can’t do any of that if they hang you all from the yardarm and send the Fancy Lady to the bottom of the sea.”
“He has a point, sir,” Jacobs put in from behind me. “It looks like our backs are against the wall here.”
“Shut the fuck up, Rogers.” He glanced back at me. “You’d never talk that fucking Lexington into such a deal.”
“I can try. And I think I can do it. If I also promise never to see you again.”
My hand went back over his mouth then, though he bucked me off him and surged to his feet. “That’s out of the question. You know why that won’t work.”
“Yes, but they don’t understand that. Not yet. If I can get them alone and talk to them, I think I can get them to see reason. And besides, I won’t give them a choice. I’m not a boy anymore. I’m a man fully grown, and I make my own decisions, just like they do. But this way, maybe I can buy us time. Time for me to explain to them and get them to see reason. Then I can come to you.”
“No. Ridiculous, and I won’t do it.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
Chapter Twelve
I turned back to Jacobs. I didn’t have much time, because a boat carrying all three of my cousins was already being lowered into the water. It would be only minutes before they would be climbing onboard our ship. “Jacobs, get the men to take the captain below and lock him in his cabin until they leave. Bring the gold back with you—he keeps it in his desk.”
I heard his roar of outrage and the fight had already started up behind me. I determinedly turned my back, yelling out, “Don’t hurt him!” as a large group of his men bore him away. I had to trust them, which was excruciating, because these were pirates, after all, but I didn’t feel as if I had much choice. If I couldn’t save their ship for them, they’d all die. Maybe they deserved that fate, but I couldn’t bear it for Roxbury. I’d die myself first. I turned and faced the rails again, squaring my shoulders and getting ready for what was coming.
As soon as Lex, Asher and Wyatt climbed on board, they enveloped me in a huge hug. Wyatt whispered to me that he’d feared the worst, but I pulled away and shook my head at them and pulled away as they tried to surround me and herd me back to their boat.
“No, I can’t leave.”
The three of them looked shocked and glanced uneasily at each other.
“Brandon,” Lex said softly, coming closer to me, but moving slowly, like I was some wild animal. “You’ve been through an ordeal and you’re not thinking straight. I think you may have started identifying a little with these pirates, because they haven’t killed you yet, and you’re grateful for that, but you have to come with us now. We’ll take you home.”
“King Harrison is on board the other ship, along with your fiancé, Brandon,” Asher said, nodding back behind us. “Prince Chandler. He’s really looking forward to seeing you again, and he insisted on coming along. They’re making their way to our ship now to be there when you arrive. Everyone has been really worried about you.”
“What? King Harrison and Prince Chandler are here? No, I can’t…that is, I need to speak with the prince, I guess, but I don’t really want to see him right now. Please. Maybe I could write him a letter or something and you can take it to him.”
Lexington got his Alpha tone all of a sudden and tried bullying me. “Brandon, listen to yourself. You’re not making any sense right now. Why don’t you want to come with us? All right. We’ll put the damned pirates on lifeboats and not hang them outright. I promise.”
“No, you can’t do that! We’re too far from Igella, and they won’t make it. It could be a death sentence. I insist you take them back to shore.”
“Brandon, be reasonable.”
“Just stop talking. I have something to tell you. And it’s something you need to know about me.”
Just then, the shouting from below decks that had been getting steadily louder suddenly ended with a loud crash and Roxbury burst out of the door leading below decks. His face was furious, and he charged over to us and grabbed me to pull me in his arms.
Wyatt reacted by knocking him away with a roar, and Roxbury roared right back at him. They grabbed each other and began wrestling each other to the deck, and Asher would have joined in if I hadn’t grabbed him around the waist and taken him down as well. Then Lexington came to Asher’s aid, and before I knew it there was a full-on brawl going on. Some of Roxbury’s men appeared out of nowhere, it seemed, to help, though they were no match for the Alphas. I managed to get away, and as I scrambled to my feet, I grabbed for Lex’s gun that he had strapped around his waist and fired it up in the air.
The noise was shocking and stopped everyone in their tracks. Even Roxbury, who had Wyatt in a headlock, dropped his hands and stared up at me in shock.
