In Rides Trouble by Julie Ann Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

hadn’t the first clue how to be a docile, compliant hostage, and he didn’t want to encourage her audacity in addressing him when he hadn’t first addressed her. Then again, there was something about the husky timbre of her voice. It was strangely appealing…
    “Even though I was born in Africa, I spent the majority of my youth and early adulthood in London. Five years ago, I came back to what was left of my home country. Alas, I have yet to re-acclimate.”
    It was no matter, really. Soon there would be no need for re-acclimation. With the cut he’d get from the ransom of the women and the Hamilton , he’d finally have enough money to leave Africa. Enough money to live a life of luxury anywhere his heart desired.
    Somewhere in Asia, perhaps. Japan? The climate was far more favorable and the women still meek enough to suit a man’s tastes. Though the earthquakes and tsunamis lessened the allure…
    She glanced over her shoulder again, eyeing the dampness of his shirt. “Maybe you’re not cut out for this line of… work. ”
    He didn’t like the way her lip curled on the last word.
    He decided then that he not only disliked her, he hated her. Hated her sharp eyes and even sharper tongue. Hated the fact that when she bent over to wrestle with a bundle of wires, the sight of her tight, firm buttocks made his manhood stir. As disgusting as she was, covered in filth and sweat, something about her still managed to captivate him.
    He gulped angrily at the cold bottle of water in his hand, hoping it would cool his unwanted ardor. That his body could want a creature such as her, despite his overwhelming detestation, was a biological insurrection. An anatomical mutiny.
    Then his body did him one better, because all that water he’d been drinking let down and he needed to urinate, urgently . Unfortunately, since he’d insisted Ghedi and his men guard the Hamilton ’s crew so he could sequester himself alone with her, there was no one to take over guard duties.
    He squirmed against the stool he was sitting on until he could stand it no longer.
    “I’m going to relieve myself,” he told her and waved his gun when she turned to scowl at him. He could just urinate in front of her, he supposed. She’d probably seen Ghedi and his men doing much worse during her time in captivity. But the thought of such grotesque, classless behavior disgusted him. He was worlds apart from those dirty, ignorant pirates, and he refused to stoop to their level. “You will continue working. And do not think of trying to escape. We’re locked in here. The only way out is if I call to my compatriots on deck and they let us out. Do not take it into your head to hide from me either.” He could see the wheels turning behind her eyes. “Let me be clear. If I am forced to come searching for you, you will not enjoy what happens once I find you.”
    Her nostrils flared, but she turned back to her work, grumbling something he couldn’t make out.
    Oh, he hoped she’d run.
    It would give him a reason to give chase, chase would lead to capture, and capture would lead to punishment.
    He really, really fancied the idea of that last bit.
    ***
    “We secure here?” Frank asked Bill as he pulled a ziptie tight around the wrist of a struggling pirate and shoved the man aside to join his trussed up compatriots. He couldn’t help himself, he smashed the man’s skull into the bulkhead with just a little more force than was necessary.
    After covertly boarding the tanker, overtaking the untrained men had been laughably easy. Up in the Hamilton ’s bridge, more than half of the pirates had been asleep, leaving just two guards to watch over the entire crew of hostages. And though those two men had been vigilant—vigilantly keeping their eyes and weapons trained on their prisoners, that is—they hadn’t been prepared for a group of silent shadows sneaking in behind them and relieving them of their AKs in the blink of an eye.
    “Affirmative,” Bill