Cape Storm Page 0,83

you 'cause you're so pretty."

"No," I said, and held his gaze. "I'm sure you'd try like hell to hurt me, for any reason or none at all. I'm sure you've slit throats and raped and tortured if you felt like it. Probably just yesterday."

That woke a lot of murmuring among the rest of the crew. I heard the slap of boots - more men arriving from other parts of the ship, drawn by the tinfoil smell of trouble in the air.

"Huh," the captain said. "So what you got to stop me if I want to do the same to you?"

"I'm pretty sure you don't want to know." The tingle on my back that I'd felt as I was drowning had subsided, but the nerves were waking up, and I could feel the outline of the torch forming again, black and steady. I could feel the black well of power opening, ready to flood into me if I opened the door. "You guys know comic books? The Incredible Hulk? " Josue looked blank. He looked around at the others.

"Bruce Banner," one of the crew piped up. "You won't like me when I'm angry." In any group of people, no matter how hard-assed they might appear, there's always a geek. I was just surprised that, in this company, he'd admitted it.

"It's like that, only I don't have to wait to turn green," I said. "I'm trying to help you out here, gentlemen. Don't push me, and I won't push back, and we'll all be just fine.

Somebody's paying you to keep me alive and in one piece. Let's just all get along." The captain was no longer amused. "Shut up, bitch," he said, and shoved the barrel of his pistol under my chin. "You don't threaten me. Not on my own ship. I'm not being paid enough for that. "

I didn't reach for power. It reached for me , a black tidal wave that pounded into me like surf to shore, immense and burning.

No!I rejected it, slammed the door shut and held it closed as the power thundered on the other side. I felt small and pitiful and ridiculously weak, and I knew I was only a second from death at the hands of these men, these pirates - but my other choice was worse.

"Sure," I said. Josue hadn't noticed a thing, from the outside; he thought he was still in control, not one heartbeat away from being a red stain on the deck. "You win." If he pushed that gun into me any deeper, we were going to be engaged. "I always do," he said. "Tell me who you are."

"Joanne Baldwin."

"No. Who you are. You're not afraid of me."

"I just gave up."

"Not because you're afraid." Josue was way too smart. It was a little creepy. Then he took it too far by saying, "I like women best when they're afraid. They shut up more."

"You're a real charmer, did you know that?" He flashed me his pirate smile. "All right, so you're going to put me in the hold. What then? You turn me over to whoever paid you to come get me?" I had an awful feeling I already knew who that would be, and his initials were Bad Bob Biringanine.

"Something like that," Josue agreed. "Unless you plan to make me a better offer."

"I'll pay you twice what he's paying you," I said. I did want to get to Bad Bob. Just not as his helpless captive. Much better if I could hire myself a hard-bitten pirate crew and take the fight to him unexpectedly.

Josue slowly showed his teeth in a smile. He had two gold-plated incisors, both on the bottom, and it gave him a glam vampire look that must have been pretty effective in his line of work.

"Where you got all that money hidden, mermaid? In your panties?" He made a grab, as if he was about to make a withdrawal. I fended him off.

"No, idiot. I keep my money in a bank, like every other criminal who isn't a complete moron.

Look, I was on that ship with some of the wealthiest people on earth. I'm not just some casino rat. I know people."

Josue looked unimpressed. "What people?"

"Cynthia Clark. The movie star?"

Pirates started naming movies with the geeky enthusiasm of film obsessives everywhere.

From the breadth of their knowledge, I figured they must have the biggest DVD collection ever somewhere belowdecks. Not that they'd ever paid for any of it, of course.

"Famous friends doesn't mean you have money. How you