Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Why not?”
She shook her head, and her frown deepened. “Tell me why you chose me.”
“I chose you because I wanted you.”
Again, she shook her head. “I know you’re purposely not telling me something. This wasn’t about me. Not initially. This was something else. Something personal. Was there a Jill?”
“No, there was no Jill.”
“Then why would you call me Red-Handed Jill?”
He tsked. “My enemies call me Black Jack. When I was a child, my mother used to sing a nursery rhyme about Jack and Jill.” Why was he telling her this? He only had a handful of good memories of his mother, and they were his. “I was trying to be clever. It was a stupid thought.”
“No, it’s not stupid. I know that nursery rhyme.”
“You do?”
“Yes. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown—”
“And Jill came tumbling after.” He smiled at the strange nostalgia a few short words could create. “Fitting, as I suppose I was your downfall.”
“What if you were my savior?”
He looked away. “I’m no one’s savior.”
“Did you take me because you wanted to hurt Peter? Did he do something to you?”
“It’s safest to leave our secrets in the shadows, darling.” He craved telling her the whole truth, but feared her loyalties might lie with his brother. “Why would you think my taking you has to do with Peter?”
“It felt like revenge.”
Something cold settled in the pit of his stomach. “All of it?”
“No. In the end, it was only about us. But in the beginning, it was clear you wanted to send a message.”
“What if it was revenge?”
“It might have started that way, but I think you’ve changed your mind.”
“How so?”
She shrugged. “I can’t explain it. I just have this feeling that you would think it rude to use me that way.”
He chuckled at her logic. “I used you all night.”
“For yourself.”
She was right. Initially, he’d wanted to use her to send a message. Now, he didn’t even want to share the thought of her with Peter or any other man. She was his and his alone. “I’m glad he never had you.”
“If you tell him what we did, he won’t care. I was being honest when I told you I’m nothing to him.”
“I believe you.”
“You do?”
“Yes. But it will still matter to him.”
“He’s engaged to someone else.”
“Nevertheless, he wanted you, and I got to you first.”
“So I guess you won whatever game you’re playing.”
It didn’t feel like winning.
The silence stretched between them.
“What’s going to happen to me?”
He turned to fully face her. “What do you want to happen?” This was uncharted territory.
“I can’t go back to who I used to be.”
He didn’t want her to go back. Period. “Life isn’t easy at sea.” She was cut out for better. They both knew it, and they needed to accept that their association had an end date. “It’s draining and rough on even the hardest men.”
“Do you ever go home?”
“I don’t have a home. For two decades, the sea has been all I’ve known. I trust how absolutely unpredictable she can be, and therefore, I’m never disappointed.”
“But you’re more than twenty years old. Where did you live before then?”
Was he honestly allowing her to question him? “A place worse than hell.”
“Saint Mercy’s Home for Orphaned Boys?”
He stilled. “Where did you hear that?”
“The Lost Boys talked about the orphanage where they met Peter. Were you there too?”
He looked away, preferring not to see those memories right now. They were all lost boys, some a little more lost than others.
“Please tell me. I just want to understand you. I’d never betray your confidence.”
Like a tower of bricks, he shuddered before his boundaries came tumbling down. “Peter was my brother.”
Her eyes widened. “Because you were both in the same orphanage?”
“No, because we both shared the same mom. He’s my blood.”
“But your last name’s Hook.”
“Right. So was his at one time, before the Pangbournes adopted him.” James kept his stare on the water, his memories flashing back to that horrible time. “Once we were separated, it took me a lifetime to find him. I didn’t know his new name or where he moved.”
“But you did find him.”
“Yes. And when I finally crossed his path again, he looked right through me as if I truly were a ghost from his past.”
“I’m sorry.” She rested her hand on his.
He glanced at the hooks on the wall where she’d hung the coats side by side. “Then he stole from me.”
She followed his stare. “So you kidnapped me in revenge.”
“Well, you were wearing my coat.”
Her shoulders lowered. “That’s all I am then, revenge?”
He caught her hand when she tried to pull away. “No. Turns out you’re something I didn’t know could exist. But eventually, my plan will play out, and he’ll try to steal you back. Regardless of my feelings, I’ll revel in his envy when he learns what I’ve done to you because I’m that broken inside. And you’ll likely go back to the place you came from, and over time, this will be nothing more than a story you tell about a vicious pirate and a boy who forgets.”