Page 21 of Stalking Wendy Darling

His expression darkened, nostrils flaring. “Aye, captain.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” I said, patting his shoulder. “We’ll be friends in a heartbeat if you keep up that pretty compliance.”

Anton ground his teeth. He was going to file them away if he kept doing that. I patted his shoulder again and strode through the busy bees bringing the ship around to land, my eyes on the helm. My helm. My ship. All fucking mine.

Look at me, orphan Wendy, captain of her own ship. And not just any ship—Death’s Right Hand.

My heart was so full as I let the yells and creaking and the thwack of canvas and rope surround my senses. Even the stench of fish and salt and sweat had grown on me, a powerful miasma that represented my power, my victory.

Hook’s words echoed in my mind.Like I said, I’m better. I’m winning.“Who’s winning now, Hooky?” I murmured, a disconcerting habit I’d developed. But the man was dead, his spirit probably floating around here somewhere; it wasn’t weird to speak to ghosts, right?

“Any orders, captain?” Anton asked, joining me at the helm, stiff and straight-backed. I narrowed my eyes, feeling like that was a trick question.

“What are your usual orders on a job like this?”

Anton’s smile was not friendly. “I thought you were a brand new captain, with no concern for anything Hook did. A brand new start, didn’t you say.”

Fucker. I did say that just an hour ago. Now I was the one levelling him with a flat look. “Do your job, quartermaster.”

“Or what, captain.”

I raised an eyebrow and had a knife against his crotch in an instant. “Or I’ll grievously harmLittleAnton.”

“You can’t rule this crew by threats alone,” he warned, but he stepped away, looking like he’d sucked a sour lemon.

“Please,” I scoffed. “Like Hook didn’t do the same.”

“Hook was fearsome enough that threats were rarely necessary,” he quipped and strode across the ship, yelling orders to bring up empty crates. Ah shit, yeah, we’d need some way to bring the gold aboard. Good plan.

It stung that he thought the old captain was scarier than me, or that I wasn’t scary at all, but that wasfine.I just had to kill a few more people. Easy. But I had to stop killing crew members, because I kinda needed them to sail the Banshee.

“Get that damn sail open,” I yelled at Maceo, the sailing master, as he scurried past me. I might not have been an expert pirate, but even I knew we were supposed to come into port slowly, in a controlled manner. We were currently streaking toward the Cracked Shark at alarming speeds. “Slow us down, or I’ll rip your innards out through your nose.”

“Speak a little kinder, or I’ll ripyourinnards out through your cunt,” he retorted, his expression black and hateful. “I’ll be doing us a favour. It’s bad luck to have a woman aboard.”

“Aw,” I said with mock sympathy, “guess you should have thought of that before you kidnapped my sister.” I drew the gun from my hip and pointed it at Maceo. “Now follow my order, and be quick about it.”

His nostrils flared as he did as I told, eyeing the gun like he was more wary of it than me. Bastard. I shoved the gun back in its holster and scowled, adjusting our course with a white-knuckled grip on the wheel. I didn’t know why everyone wasso obsessed with Hook. He wasn’tthatimpressive. Sure, he’d been tall, and he filled out a coat very nicely, and he moved like shadow and sand, but he’d died like any man.

A really hot, infuriating man.

“Ugh, stop thinking about him,” I snapped at myself. “He’s dead and gone.”

“You’re talking to yourself again, Wends,” Joanna said, jumping off her crate to come and lean against a barrel beside me. There were no clean dresses aboard this ship, so like me she wore belted trousers and a loose shirt bleached repeatedly to remove stains. Ireallydidn’t want to think about some of those stains.

“Helps me focus,” I replied, thinking about the woman who was kidnapped from outside Tajo’s butcher shop, with her many ribbons and her pretty dress. Joanna was unrecognisable now, but the wickedness when she looked at me was familiar.

“Suuure. Helps you focus. What is it about Hook that rattled you?”

I glared at the Cracked Shark as we sailed closer, enough that baked orange rooftops and brightly painted houses came into view, the harbour surrounded by chimneys pumping out smoke and windows gleaming silver with sunlight reflected off the sea. Flat trawlers and messy fishing boats lined up alongside big, shiny ships bearing the king’s mark.

“Keep starboard,” Anton yelled, his racing footsteps reaching my ears. “We want the cove just beyond the city. And try, for the love of god, to avoid drawing attention. The last thing we want is to be seen.”

I glared at the annoying gnat, but Joanna spoke before I could.

“Oh,” she said brightly, innocently. “Areyouthe captain? Since you’re handing out orders to the woman at the helm…”

His nostrils flared. “Fine, draw attention, see what happens. What do I care?”

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