Pirate Wolf Trilogy by Marsha Canham Read Free Book Online

enough,
there’s a certainty, but if ye want our help, ye’ll have to
convince me there’s a fine enough reason for givin’ it.”
    Simon Dante
searched the captain’s weathered features with eyes that had lost
none of their cold intensity. “I’m genuinely sorry, Captain. If I
had an hour to spare, I might be able to convince you we aren’t
demented fools, but as you already determined, time is of the
essence. You say you want a fine enough reason to order your men to
help us?” He reached around to the small of his back and, quicker
than she could react to avoid it, held a pistol out at arm’s
length, pressing the nose flush against Beau’s temple. “Will this
do?”

CHAPTER
THREE
     
    Dante exerted
just enough force to depress the skin at Beau’s temple. His finger
was curled around the pistol’s serpentine trigger and the look in
his eye was the same one Beau had had while she held the knife at
his crotch.
    “I don’t have
time for explanations, Captain Spence. When we have transferred the
guns safely, I promise you all the explanations will come. For now,
I need my guns on board your ship and will do it with or without
your help. Your daughter, I am sure, would like to keep the top of
her head, so if we have no more little impasses to conquer, I would
suggest we reach some kind of an arrangement now.”
    Beau started to
slip her hand down for her dagger but a warm strong grip clamped
around her wrist, stopping her.
    “Sorry,” said
Geoffrey Pitt. He had anticipated the move and had come up with
surprising stealth behind her. “Not this time.”
    He removed the
dagger from her belt along with her pistols and cutlass, then
leaned over to extract the stiletto from her boot. Dante watched,
his brow arched in a cynical curve as a third small knife was
noticed and taken from the collar at the back of her doublet.
    “Any more?”
    “You’ll find
out if you turn your back.”
    “I’ll find out
sooner if I have you stripped and searched.”
    Beau set her
teeth and lifted the lower edge of her doublet to remove the blade
strapped to her hip.
    “A trusting
soul, indeed,” Dante murmured.
    “ With
good reason, it would seem,” she countered evenly.
    He offered a
twist of a smile in rebuttal and turned to Spence. “Well, Captain?
Do we have your cooperation or not?”
    “Ye have my
daughter’s head under a gun, what choice do I have?”
    “ None,”
Dante agreed coldly. “Mr. Pitt will return to the Egret with you while you make ready
with the winch and cables. Since there is no need for any of the
rest of your crew to know our special terms, Lucifer and a few of
my men will go along as well, just to make certain everyone works
with a smile on his face. Your men can remain here, of course, to
help prepare at this end.”
    Spence glared
at him a moment, then looked at Beau.
    “She will stay
with me, naturally.”
    “Ye touch a
hair on her head—” Spence warned softly.
    “I’ll not touch
anything,” Dante insisted. “So long as she behaves.”
    “Father—do I
have your permission to slice out his liver if I get the chance?”
Beau asked with casual disregard for the pistol denting her
temple.
    “ That
probably would not qualify as behaving,” Pitt muttered at the back
of her neck.
    She ignored his
sarcasm—ignored him completely, in fact—and waited expectantly for
her father’s reply.
    It was Dante
who gave her the answer.
    “Lucifer will
be keeping your father as close company as I will be keeping you.
My liver goes, his liver goes; simple as that. Mr. Pitt—?”
    “Aye, on my
way.” He tucked Beau’s pistols into his own belt as he passed.
“Without a wind, we’ll have to tow the ships close enough together
to hook on grappling lines.”
    Dante
nodded. “In the meantime, I’ll set the men to work dismantling the
guns and carriages. You—”he nodded in Spit McCutcheon’s
direction—“do you know your way around cannon?”
    “Enough to blow
ye off the edge o’ the earth