Page 44 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

I start cleaning the blood, noticing there’s a lot of it. The other men must have gotten in a few good hits.

Serves him right for being this foolish.

“It means something,” he finally replies. Feeling his eyes still on me, I glance up and catch that soft look that quickly morphs into his usual smug expression.

“Not many of my men are willing topersonallyclean me off after a good fight,” he says, a hint of mockery in his voice.

I press harder on the wound I’m working on, and he narrows his eyes on me, making me laugh.

Instead of getting angry though, his eyes soften once more. I clear my throat, avoiding that look and move to a deeper looking cut.

“I guess you’re not as good as you think you are.”

“No, I’m better.” His tone is confident, cocky. As if this is all just another game to him.

“Then what do you call this?” I press harder on one of the larger cuts and watch his smirk grow.

“I call itfun,” he chuckles, and I call him every idiotic name I can think of.

It only makes him laugh harder.

“Fun? You call getting hurtfun?” If I thought he was losing it before, I knew it for certain now.

“I would say, you should see the other guy. But dead men don’t tell tales.” He says it with a dark laugh, like it’s the best thing he’s heard in a long time. But every muscle in my body tenses up on hearing that word.Dead.

“He’s dead? You… you killed him?” I ask.

His smile grows into something wild, something savage. “I killed them all.”

“Why?” I breathe as he moves closer, my eyes drawn to his lips as they curve upward.

I glance back at his eyes, trying to find an ounce of regret or some sliver of remorse for what he’s done. But I find none.

“Because no one touches you. No one lays a single finger on you,” he grits out. “They do and they’ve already signed and sealed their deaths in blood.”

I shake my head at him. “You can’t kill everyone that touches me. That’s not—”

“What a good man would do? But I never said I was a good man. In fact, I’m the complete opposite. I’ll hunt down anyone who even looks at you wrong. I’ll destroy everyone that hurts you and not lose a wink of sleep over it. I’ll make them suffer in ways they can’t even imagine. And I’ll do it all with a damned smile on my face.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I stare at him with wide eyes as I try to understand where all this is coming from.

“I’m not a good man, Tink.” He gives me a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I prefer to live between the shadows and in the dark. But I’d like to think there’s more to me. More than the beast that lives beneath the surface. More than the villain that everyone thinks I am. I’ve made choices I regret. But I can be more, I canbecomemore… If you give me the chance.”

A chance… Does he want to go back to the way it was? To the friendship we had before he left Neverland?

Hook searches my eyes for something. An answer to his own silent question. But I don’t know what he wants from me. Or what answer he expects.

The days of us playing games and looking out for one another were long gone. I barely knew the man in front of me nor did I trust him. How could I?

I was no longer the Tink he knew, either. No matter how much he thought otherwise. And no matter how much I wished things were different, it wouldn’t change what happened. It wouldn’t change everything we went through or what we’ve become.

As if hearing my thoughts, a pained frown settles across his face.

“Tink…I’m—”

“I need to check your back.” I swallow hard trying to break the intense look between us.

His eyes shutter and grow distant before he turns without a word. Something in my stomach twists and knots at seeing that look. But I push it aside for now.

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