The Pirate Vortex: Elizabeth Latimer, Pirate Hunter (Book One)

CHAPTER 9: It's Hard To Believe This Drunken Oaf Is My Ancestor

     Liz was ready to go ballistic. It was nighttime. The dying sun had been replaced by starlight. Daniel dragged her down the deck, while Rackham staggered to his cabin.

     “I told you,” Daniel whispered, motioning to the device she had hooked around her neck. “You should have kept that thing hidden.”

     “If I’d left it with you, I wouldn’t have it with me now,” she whispered back. “You were going to chuck it into the ocean. How dare you!”

     Daniel ignored her. He pointed to the brig. It was a hole in the floor planks with a wooden hatch overtop, which he now lifted against its hinge. He told her to lower herself below. She refused. The sounds of footsteps came lumbering toward them. Daniel pushed her and she fell into the hole onto her butt. She was inside a tiny room where she couldn’t even stand.

     She glared up, expecting to see Daniel, but saw the scarred, one-eyed face of that gorilla, Black Patch, the first mate. He was holding a lighted lamp under his stubbled chin and his head looked like a hideous skull.

     Black Patch licked his lips. “A pretty morsel,” he said. “But she be the devil aboard this ship. If’n we miss our prize tomorrow, it will be the fault of the she-witch.”

     Beside the hard-talking pirate mate, Daniel appeared.

     Daniel placed a finger to his lips. A quick comeback could be the death of her. Black Patch wasn’t exactly Cal Sorensen. The WOMBAT, she could handle. The gorilla was something else.

     Black Patch scratched his head and scowled at her. “I be hopin’ the captain’ll lemme have me way wi’ her first. Tis a shame to let a juicy piece like her go without a-tasting her first.”

     Liz sucked in a breath. Holy crap. Was he a cannibal? What had Daniel brought her to? Then it hammered her on the head like a pile of fish heads—and stank just as bad. The murderous gorilla was talking about rape.

     Black Patch rose while Daniel stared at her.

     “She be a ripe juicy bitch, me lad,” the first mate said. “But don’t be gettin’ any thoughts o’ taking her yerself.”

     “Aye,” Daniel said and watched Black Patch swagger away. He looked at Liz. “Shut up, and not another word if you want to live. If you’d listened to me—”

     She cut him off. “I’m tired of listening to you. If that pirate isn’t going to eat me, he’s going to rape me. And believe me, I think I’d rather be eaten. Let me out of here.”

     Daniel firmly set his jaw. “Not yet. Wait until they’re asleep.”

     Elizabeth started to her feet. He wasn’t that much bigger than her. She could take him. As she shot forward to escape, he slammed a hand to her forehead, knocking her back onto her butt.

     “You jerk!” she said, landing at the bottom of the hole.

     “Quiet. If Calico Jack hears you, he’ll do worse to you than this.”

     “I should have told the blackguard that he’s gonna swing from a gibbet at Gallows Point in a year from now,” Liz said.

     “Elizabeth. Do not, whatever you do, tell him that.” Daniel gave her his two-fingered salute and dropped the hatch, smothering her in darkness.

     Liz rose to her haunches and slammed a hand against the hatch. She heard a bolt slide across and a sliver of starlight appeared in the gap between the hatch and the ship’s deck.