Daughter of the Pirate King (Daughter of the Pirate King #1)(10)

“This would be the key I so carelessly dropped,” he says.

“Strange, that.”

He sighs. “Alosa, what are you even doing out here?”

“You’ve kidnapped me. What do you think I’m doing out here?”

“The rowboats are over there.” He points to the opposite side of the ship. “So why would you be lollygagging around my door?”

“I wanted to kill my captors before I left.”

“How’d that work out for you?”

“Still working on it.”

“I bet.”

Down the stairs we go, past the sleeping crew, and into the brig. Riden shoves me back into my cell. Then he tries the key.

Obviously, it doesn’t fit.

Riden observes it more closely. Surprise takes over his face. “You switched them.”

“Hmm?” I ask innocently.

He comes into the cell with me. “Give it to me.”

“What?”

“The key.”

“You have the key in your hand.”

“It doesn’t fit.”

“You can hardly blame me if you broke it.”

I don’t expect him to buy any of what I say. I’m learning that I enjoy toying with him. I like the surprise and … not respect, but something close to it, that shows on his face when he learns something new about me. But I can’t let him discover too much about my true nature. That’d be dangerous.

For him.

Because I won’t fail. I can only imagine what my father would do to me if I did. But I’m not afraid. I’m doing this not only for my father but also because I want to. Because I’m a good pirate and the hunt is thrilling. Because I want to reach the siren island as much as any other pirate. Perhaps even more so. I’m determined to do whatever it takes to get the map. If Riden becomes too difficult, I will remove him from my path by any means necessary.

“I’ll give you one more chance to hand it over, princess.”

It’s brighter down here. Several lanterns are lit outside the cells. I can see Riden’s face perfectly. In the getup he’s wearing, I can see a lot of him perfectly.

“I don’t have anything,” I say again.

He steps toward me slowly, keeping his eyes on mine as he does so. I back up until I hit the wall, but he continues to advance. His face is too close. I can see flecks of gold in his eyes. They’re lovely eyes. I’d like to study them longer.

But suddenly his hands are on my hips.

I think I might stop breathing, but I’m unsure. I’m startled, certainly; am I supposed to slap his hands away or stand still?

He moves his hands up my stomach, never taking his eyes off me. Now I know I’m breathing because I think I might have just gasped. I’m pretty sure I should slap his hands away.

But I don’t. Once he reaches my ribs, he moves his hands to my arms, running them up to my shoulder.

“I don’t know what you’re wearing,” he says. “But I like it.”

“Custom-made,” I say.

“And then stolen by you?”

I shrug. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

“You’re touching me.”

“I’m trying to get my key back.”

“Sounds like an excuse to touch me.”

He smiles and leans forward so his mouth is at my ear. “I don’t see you stopping me.”

“If I had, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

His eyes shoot up in alarm, but he doesn’t have enough time to guess what I’m about to do until I’ve already done it.

Yes, I knee him. Right between the legs.

He takes some time to recover. Enough for me to exit the cell and lock him in.

He stares at me levelly. “That was low.”

“I thought it was rather brilliant, actually. Besides, you said you wouldn’t touch me. I can see your word does not mean much to you.” I throw at him the same words he used on me.

“And you said if we brought your blasted luggage on board, you wouldn’t put up a fight.”

“I didn’t put up a fight. I got out of my cage fight-free.”

“Lass, let me out of the cage.”

“I think you’re more suited for it than I am.”

He bangs a fist against one of the bars. “Let me out. You know you won’t get far. All I have to do is yell, and over half the crew will be upon you.”

“And I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they find their first mate trapped in the brig.”

“Alosa,” he says, a hint of warning in his voice.

“Answer something for me, and I will spare you the embarrassment of your crew finding you.”

“What?” He’s clearly agitated. I suppose I would be, too, if I had been duped by a pretty face.

“When we first met, and I was bargaining for the lives of my crew, you whispered something to the captain. Something that made him stop killing my men. What was it?”

Riden appears perplexed, but he answers. “I told him that if he wished to keep the support of his crew, he would be wise to stop encouraging you to kill them off.”

“Did you care for them? The men who I killed?”