A Pirate's Life For Me

Chapter 30 - Stubborn

OLIVIA

The sun is setting, and with it, my anxiety slips behind the horizon. An odd sense of peace settles over me. 

I sigh as the colors blur together, forming the black paint of the night. Only hours left for me. What should I do with myself? 

It's hard, but this is the only plan that makes sense. I have no reason to live. Heath can take over the Fina. Robin will move on. Everyone will be fine without me.

Peter and Brett, however, have people who need them. 

Brett has a wife and two daughters back in Maryland who he left behind to help out his sister. Not only is he the main provider for the family, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left two girls fatherless.

And Peter . . . Bailey needs him. I don't know what she would do without her boys. Sure, she's a screw-up of a mother, but she loves them.

"Liv?"

I close my eyes. "What?"

Bailey walks over to me, sighing. I continue to stare at the sunset. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Well that's what you're doing, isn't it?" I shoot back.

She taps her fingers on the railing. "I'm sorry. I know you really hate me right now, and you probably just want to kill me--" Keep going. "But I wanted to ask you a favor." 

Excuse me? "And what would that be?"

I hear her exhale with a slight whimper. "If . . . if Corey is on that ship, I need you to promise that you'll save him first."

"What?" 

"You understand, don't you?" She pleads. "I can't live without him!"

"Get over yourself," I say.

"Liv--"

"What about Peter? And Brett? You just expect us to leave them and get you what you want?"

"I didn't say that--" She starts to protest.

"Go make yourself useful," I growl before she can disgrace herself further. "Sails need washing."

She narrows her eyes. "Is that all you have to--"

"I said." I stare at the horizon, menacingly calm. "The sails need washing."

With another glare in my direction and a slight huff, Bailey walks away. 

I hate her, I decide. I hate her more than ever. But before I can sink any deeper into my boiling hatred, Robin interrupts my thoughts. He walks toward me with a knife hilt sticking out of his boot.

"We need a plan," He says. "Night's coming."

I sigh, not bothering to turn and face him. "I already told you the plan."

"And I already told you, it's not happening."

Taking a deep breath, I do my best not to explode. "We don't. Have. A. Choice."

"Yes, we do," He tells me firmly, leaning on the rail beside me. I refuse to look at him, but he stares at me. "And I'm not going to let you die."

That's sweet of him to say, but not a very practical promise. He knows me. He knows that I'm always the one to throw myself in the path of the beast. "You're stubborn, you know that?"

He just gives me a small, sad smile. "So are you."

"True. Not a good match."

"I didn't say that," He whispers, dropping a quick kiss on my nose.

"Like I said, stubborn," I say, my voice hushed.

"Not stubborn. Just persistent." 

"Whatever." I shake my head at him. We spend the next hour staring at the slowly setting sun with our arms around each other.