Looking for a Hero by Patti Berg Read Free Book Online

unpatched eyelid and saw Casey’s tiny hands struggling to hold the cutlass she’d stealthily stolen from his scabbard.
    Bloody hell! If he’d known this was the thanks he’d get for thinking more about the woman and child than his own plans for revenge, he’d have sailed during the night instead of waiting for morning, when he could take the castaways withhim. There was no doubt he’d lost his senses at the same time he’d lost his ship.
    Now a wee bit of a thing with the cunning of a panther had taken him—reputedly the most illusive pirate to sail the seas—captive. He’d laugh, but he didn’t find his current situation humorous. If the blade slipped from the child’s fingers….
    Damn! That was a possibility he didn’t want to consider.
    Nervously he smiled and eased into a nonchalant conversation with his captor. “And a good day to you, Mistress Casey.”
    â€œDon’t move. I don’t want you to disappear again.”
    â€œâ€™Tis not my intention to move, child. As you can see, I’m perfectly content to lie here on the sand.” At least until he could retrieve his cutlass. “Pray tell, is it your intention to skewer me with my own blade?”
    The girl’s eyes narrowed, and the heavy sword trembled in her hands, making a zigzag pattern merely an inch above his neck.
    â€œI don’t want you to go away. I want my mommy to see you.”
    â€œAnd what of your father?” he asked. The woman had said he wouldn’t be coming, that they were all alone, but he had to be sure. “Is he on the island?”
    â€œMy Daddy’s dead!”
    God forbid, he hadn’t wanted or expected to hear those words.
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    â€œI heard Mommy tell my Aunt Evie that the man who killed him went to hell.”
    â€œA more fitting place was never created for murderers.” ’Twas just the place he wanted to send Thomas Low.
    Slowly he raised a hand and touched his index finger to the broad side of the blade, but Casey held the sword firmly in place.
    â€œIs it your belief that I should be in hell, too?” he asked.
    â€œAre you a murderer?”
    â€œWhat do you think?”
    â€œYou don’t look too mean.”
    â€œAh, but looks are often deceiving. After all, who would ever expect a pretty little girl like you to take me captive? Why, even I find it difficult to believe that you could have stolen my cutlass while I slept.”
    â€œIt was easy. You were snoring.”
    â€œI have been accused of much in my life, but never that. I did not wake your mother, did I?”
    â€œCasey!”
    The child jumped as her mother’s voice rang through the air, and the tip of the blade grazed his skin.
    He gritted his teeth at the sudden pain. Only a scratch, he assured himself. He’d experienced much worse, but he could still feel the sting of the open wound, could feel a trickle of blood running down his neck.
    Tears sprang from the child’s eyes as she gaped at the cut. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she cried,shaking her head right along with the cutlass. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
    â€œGive me the cutlass, Casey,” he said softly but firmly, stretching out his hand.
    â€œBut you’ll go away.”
    â€œNay,” he said, with more calm than he felt. “I give you my word. I will not go anywhere without you and your mother.”
    â€œPromise?”
    â€œPromise.”
    Reluctantly Casey stepped back, and Black Heart pushed up from the ground, taking the jeweled hilt from the child’s hands.
    â€œCasey!”
    In the span of a heartbeat, Black Heart watched the woman emerge from behind a wall of cypress and palm and saw her eyes widen in fear, then narrow in rage. She streaked across the sand and dived into his chest with the full force of her body, knocking both of them to the ground.
    The cutlass slid from his fingers as