She was so blasé about it, but he hadn’t been surprised. From his dealings with Catherine, he’d learned she cared about no one but herself—and that old pirate she called her father.

She took him to see her father that day. On the way, Damon told her, “You should be running in the other direction, Catherine, not trying to please a man like that.”

“Whatever he’s done, he’s still my father. And his anger will dissipate once he gets what he wants. For your sake, I hope you can assure him we’ll succeed this time.”

In the large hall, Pierre was sitting alone at a table, but a half dozen other tables were filled with the cutthroats who’d eagerly joined the old pirate. Tall, maybe even muscular prior to his stay in prison, he was slow in recovering from that, was still too thin and haggard, and yet his icy-blue eyes were uniquely chilling. His black hair and beard were laced with gray and matted. He might have been handsome in his youth, but it was hard to tell now.

He stood up when Damon and Catherine reached him, remarking, “At a simple first test of your loyalty, Captain, you failed grandly. I’m sure spending a few weeks in my dungeon has made you eager to prove you can be trusted never to fail again. A prison cell in Anguilla isn’t much different from the one I built here. It’s not easy for a man to survive in either. Are you ready to try again?”

“I’ll take on the mission, but only if I can go alone, without Catherine. She only complicates the situation.”

“How dare—!” Catherine started to yell.

Pierre held up a hand. “He’s right, chérie. You’re too attractive and tempting. You’d only distract the captain when he needs to concentrate on the business at hand. Besides, I have a different jewel-stealing mission in mind for you.”

Catherine had been mollified, seeming to bask in her father’s complimentary remarks.

Pierre had turned to Damon. “As for you, Captain, no, you will not go alone. You will take my men to serve as your crew.”

“I have a good crew, good at following orders. Your men—”

“Follow my orders and will keep an eye on you and ensure your success this time. You can keep some of your men, but you do not leave without some of mine. If all is well when you return, then you will be given our new location.”

“You’re moving?”

“An old habit of mine. I never stay in one place very long. Once you have the girl, follow these instructions.” He handed Damon a folded small sheet of paper. “If she is not with you, you will be killed instead. Do you understand? I will not accept another failure.”

“That is perfectly clear.”

But then Pierre said in a darker tone, “You should have succeeded. The girl would have been let go if you had lured her father here in a timely manner so I could have my revenge. But I’ve been made to wait, so now I will have a better revenge. Can you imagine what that is?”

“Both of them dead?”

“Exactly.”

That single word had had a profound effect on Damon. He might hate James Malory, but he certainly didn’t hate the man’s daughter. And he wasn’t about to let her die at an old pirate’s whim.

Chapter Thirteen

JACQUELINE STOOD AT THE large windows, watching the English coast in the moonlight behind the ship. She turned around with a snarl because she’d been unable to get to it. Failure, it was the bitterest pill. But she still had to do something to stop this from playing out according to Bastard’s agenda. If she couldn’t escape, she could slow his ship down so her father got to the Caribbean first to deal with whoever was behind the plot to kill him.

But it wasn’t as if she hadn’t tried to sabotage Bastard’s plans on the last voyage. He slept too lightly. Every time she attempted to get the key to the cabin door, which he kept on him, he woke. But she didn’t have a dagger last time. She might be able to pick the lock with it and slash through his sails, if she could do it late at night when she wouldn’t be noticed. Or toss one of the lanterns at the wall and hope the helm on the other side of it would burn before the fire could be put out, but she’d have to do that while Bastard was in the room, since he never left her alone with lit lanterns or left tinder in the room so she could light one.

The man took too many precautions. Nothing sharp in the room she could use against him, nothing heavy to throw at him. She hadn’t had a cot to sleep on last time, either. He’d offered his bed, which she’d rejected, so she’d been given several blankets instead. The cot was new. And the bars on the windows were new, too. He wasn’t about to let her escape through them again as she’d done the last time.

The dagger on her thigh at least gave her more options this time. She could sail this ship if she could just get control of it. She could do that by killing Bastard to get his key, then sneaking out to find Jeremy and Percy and release them. If any of the crew were Englishmen, she might be able to convince them to change sides. If that didn’t work, the three of them could get the ship back to England at least, as long as they didn’t run into any storms. And now would be the time to do that, when England was still so close.

She went to the door and pressed her back against the wall close to the door handle. The moment Bastard opened it, she could slip out behind him before he turned to lock it.

Seconds later, the lock clicked, the door opened just enough for him to enter, and she shot out of the doorway. “At least have dinner first, Jack,” he suggested.

His damn long arms pulled her back into the room. Well, that had been a little too hastily planned, so she wasn’t infuriated that it didn’t work. And he’d sounded amused. She supposed she would have been, too, if she were the one foiling such a sloppy escape attempt.

“I’m not hungry,” she mumbled, and moved to sit on the cot while he lit the lanterns.

She noticed that he hadn’t locked the door when he’d closed it, but that was his habit, too. As long as he was in the room with her, he was confident that he could keep her in it. He only locked it before he went to bed or when he left her alone in the cabin.

When he turned to face her again, he warned, “I will not allow you to starve on this trip. Every plate of food you refuse is one plate your brother and his friend won’t be given.”

“I told you he’s not my brother, and I demand to see them.”