The Red Drifter of the Sea (Pirates of the Isles #3) - Celeste Barclay Page 0,7

on either of them caring about her. She banked on the captain believing even a smidge of her bluff. She saw the flash of recognition. With a jerky nod, Kyle spoke to Snake Eye but never looked away from Moira.

“Take the captive to my cabin. String ‘em up. I have better things to tend to,” Kyle sneered, but he blinked twice when Moira didn’t flinch. He narrowed his eyes before turning away and barking orders for the ship to burn once the cargo transfer was complete. Moira didn’t look back as Snake Eye pushed her toward the rail, so she missed Kyle’s speculative look.

Four

The early morning rays offered just enough light for her to make out bodies scattered across the deck. Moira struggled not to collapse on the deck as she recognized one fallen man after another. The sparse crew were all accounted for, and all dead. Moira said a prayer of thanks that Kyle had set none adrift to drown, become shark food, or to die of thirst. It was no longer a matter of them risking their lives for her; they’d given their lives for her. She knew all the men had wives and children who would never know what became of them. Their bodies would settle in the deep, but she wondered if their souls would ever be at peace. She wasn’t certain if hers ever could be as guilt, a seemingly constant companion throughout her life, tugged once more at her heart.

“Best you do not look, lad,” Snake Eye whispered. “They put up a valiant fight, but they were no match.” Moira nodded, wondering why the outlaw offered the words of solace. She wondered if it might have been a point of honor.

As she crossed the plank onto the Lady Charity, none of it seemed to matter. She was now the captive of a pirate captain who couldn’t have appeared less thrilled to recognize her. Once upon a time, she’d fancied Kyle MacLean. The fiery mane and the piercing green eyes were a powerful draw. She remembered meeting him when she met Senga. She usually stayed out of site whenever the men from the Lady Charity came into the keep. She did that when any pirates visited. But she’d emerged to be a hostess for Senga, and she’d even asked who he was. At the time, he’d been Ruairí’s first mate. Now he was the captain of his own ship. Gone was the jovial smile and wink he’d once offered her. She’d never underestimated that he was lethal, but he hadn’t been as hardened as the man she met aboard her clan’s ship. Obviously responsibility and power had changed him.

“In you scoot,” Snake Eye ordered as he pushed a door open. Moira looked around the cabin, spacious compared to the one she’d occupied for three days. The room was clean, and the bunk crisply made. Books were stacked on a table and a map was unfurled beside them. She noticed a chest at the foot of the bed and one against a wall. While the table took up most of the center of the cabin, there was a washstand tucked away and another, smaller table that held more scrolls and what Moira assumed were ledgers. There was a porthole through which filtered light poured.

Snake Eye nudged Moira across the cabin, producing rope Moira hadn’t noticed before. When he stooped to bind her ankles, she considered fighting him, jamming her knee into his face, kicking him backwards. But even if she escaped the cabin, she wouldn’t escape the ship. And even if she could escape the ship, where would she go? Jump into the sea? Being set adrift was what she’d attempted to avoid by speaking up. Moira knew her only current choice was to bide her time until she could speak to Kyle.

Her eyes flew to the ceiling when Snake Eye tossed the rope he’d finished binding her hands with over a hook. He’d left enough slack for her arms to be pulled over her head, and now she was stretched onto her toes. She watched him tie it off to another hook on the wall behind her. It only took her a moment to realize the rope was intended for someone far taller than her. To make it reach the wall hook, she practically dangled from the hook in the ceiling. Her arms burned with pain before Snake Eye slipped from the cabin. She did what she could to twist until she had a view