His mocking laughter rumbles in my ear. “There,
there. Who taught you such nasty words, little Miss London?”
My elbow connects with his diaphragm and smacks the
damn grin right off his face. I’m free and stumble away. With one hand pressed
to his chest, Hook bends forward and pushes out a cough. He clearly
underestimated me. This is my only chance, but we’re already too far out, and
several members of his smudgy crew are blocking my sight to the shore, backing
him up. There’s no time to think. Frantically, I spin around, dash across the
ship and climb onto the railing. Gathering all the power I have inside me, I
leap out and plummet fifteen feet into the waves.
The cold water takes me under in a wild spin,
determined to smash me against the belly of the ship. Seconds pass, I battle to
gain back control of my limbs and orientation. With lungs compressed to the
size of tennis balls, I push up from the watery depths and finally break
through the surface, sputtering water from mouth and nose, and suck in a
lifesaving breath.
“Look what we’ve got down there, Cap’n!” I hear
Smee’s faint laughter from deck and turn to find most of the men standing
behind the railing, gaping down at me with dirty grins. “A mermaid.”
The crowd parts and Hook steps through. Slowly, he
braces his hands on the railing, leans forward and arches his brow. “Was that
really necessary?”
Yeah, it would all be so easy for him if I just
played the nice captive. But I don’t think so. To get back on land, I have to
swim around the ship, so I start paddling and struggle through the water with
arms weak from hunger.
“What now? Are you trying to swim away? Back to
London?”
I don’t answer Hook’s amused shout but swim faster.
The tied sleeves around my waist loosen and my sweatshirt slips away. Hastily I
reach underwater to grab it, but I can’t get a hold. If the situation wasn’t so
dire, the fact the sea swallowed my Pirates of the Caribbean hoodie would have
made me laugh. I swim on.
“Come on, Angel. You’ll never make it. If we don’t
catch you, the sharks will.”
Refusing to let his taunting words put me in a
panic, I grit my teeth and ignore him.
“Aaaaangeeeel…!” He keeps pace with me, walking
slowly along the railing and has fun at it, too. He sounds like he’s talking to
an infant when he tells me, “We’re seventeen men and a ship against you. Why
can’t you just be nice and surrender? Be my guest!”
Guest, hah! He must be bonkers. But he soon seems
to reach the limits of his patience and growls, “Smee! Fish her out!”
No matter how fast I pedal, I can’t escape the
fishing net that’s being cast over me then. As they pull the strings of the net
together, I’m tossed about and they haul me back on board like the catch of the
day. My struggling is in vain. I land like a flopping catfish on deck.
Two men with their shoulder-length hair tied in a
braid grab me by my arms and yank me to my feet. “What we do with her, Cap’n?”
the one to my left asks Hook. He wears an earring the size of a bracelet and
both his forearms display mermaid tattoos. With his wrinkled skin and the gray
streaks in his black hair, he looks to be the oldest man on board, though I
doubt he’s older than his early forties. He smells like rotten fish.
“Tie her to the mast, Fin.” Hook’s order is cold,
emotionless. Arms folded over his chest, he waits until I stand pressed with my
back against the tallest mast on the ship, my arms yanked to the back of the
pole and tied with a rough rope chafing my skin. All the time, we never break
eye contact. When the pirate called Fin is done and my hands are secured, Hook
waves him away.
A cold aura surrounds the captain when he moves his
hands down to his belt and slowly walks over to me. The letter J is engraved in
the silver buckle. Only on a second look do I realize it’s not a letter but a
hook. And suddenly I wonder why he still has both his hands. The Lost Boys said
he had a hook on his right arm. Apparently, he doesn’t.
“Why are you holding me prisoner on your ship?” I
snap when he’s only a couple of steps away.
“Because you’re of great value. And because you
have something that belongs to me.”
“Yeah? And what would that be?”
The captain takes another step forward, closing the
distance between us until we share the same breath. “My heart,” he says in a
strangely soft way and caresses my cheek with his fingertips.
What the heck— Too baffled, I don’t get out a
single word.
His eyes stay warm when his mouth twitches into a
greedy grin. He lowers his hands to my hips then strokes them gently down to my
thighs. “Ah, here it is.” His grin grows wider and this time his eyes match it
with a dark glint. Violating my intimate zone without warning, he shoves his
hand into the right pocket of my wet jeans. I gasp. But he withdraws it a
moment later—and with it, the ruby from Peter Pan.
“Give that back!” I strain to get my wrists freed.
“It was a gift! You goddamn thief!”
Hook tilts the gemstone in the sun, studying it
with a frown that he directs at me next, and drawls, “ How…little Angel…can I
be the thief when you carry something that’s rightfully mine?”
I hesitate with my answer and lower the level of my
voice. “I didn’t steal it. Peter gave it to me.”
“Yes. Peter Pan,” he says through gritted teeth.
“The one damn bug that has been annoying me for decades.”
Did he say decades? Oh my God, how long has Peter
really been a teenager? And the entire island never aged a day? But then I
realize I’m in deeper trouble than just stuck in a timeless area. I’m stuck on
a ship that’s run by a ruthless captain and his ugly-as-hell pirates. I need a
plan.
“Fine. You have back what you wanted. Now take off
these ropes and let me go.”
A spine-chilling chuckle sounds from his throat.
“Oh, Angel, Angel. You really don’t understand, do you? This little ruby is
only a pebble of my original treasure. Heaps and heaps of gold, silver and
diamonds.” He holds the gem between two fingers in front of my eyes, tilting
his head, and studies me closely. Then he straightens and quickly wraps his
fist around the stone. He tucks it into his pocket. His voice loses all warmth.
“But I’m sure you already know this. You’ve seen it, haven’t you?”
Not daring to even blink, I shake my head.
“Where. Is. My treasure, Angel?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I shout,
just short of a new panic. Peter Pan trusted me when he showed me the cave. I
can’t betray him. Not even after he abandoned me last night. “Peter gave this
to me yesterday. We sat on a hill, watched the freaking rainbow volcano, and he
pulled the ruby from his shirt pocket. There sure weren’t heaps and heaps of
gold hidden in there!”
He frowns, as if deliberating whether I was
actually telling the truth. Spewing out a curse, he finally leaves me alone and
walks to Smee who, until now, watched us silently from the railing. “What do
you think, Jack? Is she lying?” Hook asks him in a lowered voice.
“I don’t know.” Smee casts a brief glance my way
and scratches his left brow that’s parted by an old, whitening scar. I can’t
stop wondering how many battles he’s already fought in the body of a
twenty-year-old over the years. “A reckless jump off a ship?” he continues.
“She seems like a tough one. Mighty fine blow she aimed at you before. I
wouldn’t put it past her to lie to save the brats.”
“What do you suggest? Torture?”
I suck in a sharp breath at the thought of being
hurt by these men, but both ignore me. Jack Smee raises an eyebrow at his
captain. “She’s a kid, that one.”
Grimacing, Hook rubs his lower chest. “According to
the blow that so obviously impressed you, she’s not.”
“Still. She’s a girl.”
His lips pursed, Hook gives me a thoughtful look.
“She’s of no use to us, if she doesn’t reveal where the treasure is.” With
resoluteness in his move, he turns back to Smee. “May as well let her walk the
plank.”
“What?” We’ve sailed away from the island at a good
speed for the past half hour. There’s nothing but water around us. “I don’t
even know where the island is! You can’t expect me to swim back to the shore!”
Hook closes his eyes for a second longer and the
corner of his mouth twitches up in a peculiar way. “Oh, I don’t.” He draws
nearer, the heels of his boots clacking eerily on the wooden deck. “We let you
get off here and the sharks will do the rest.”
Over his shoulder, I catch a glimpse of multiple
dark triangular fins cutting through the water. They hadn’t been there a few
minutes ago. We must be out really far. I start to tremble. Is this the right
time to tell him I do know where Pan’s treasure is? Peter would hate me, and I
mean really hate me, not just be miffed because I’m not aiming to stay in Neverland.
And once I tell Hook, what guarantee is there he doesn’t push me off the plank
anyway? Once he has the treasure, I’m definitely of no use to him.
Crap, what am I supposed to do?
Jack Smee loosens the rope around my wrists and
pushes me a few steps away from the mast, then he ties my hands in the small of
my back once more. As he leads me through the two rows of men, the crew cheers
in anticipation of me being a shark meal.
Three men set up a board on the railing that leads
out into the sea. Smee pulls me to a stop right in front of it and turns me to
face Hook who’s standing with his hands clasped at his back and flashes a
delighted grin.
“Any last words?” he asks me.
“Go to hell, you freaking…filthy…godforsaken…”
With a single step, he closes the distance between
us. Our noses almost touch as he dips his head and brushes a strand of my hair
behind my ear. “Darling, the word you’re looking for is pirate.”
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