Page 62 of The Pirate Queen of Ruin
“Three,” Nargol picks at the end of one of her long braids. “Do you think I should get blue pieces when I redo my braids?”
“Absolutely, you’d look amazing with an aqua colour.” I turn on my heels and pace away from the cell. “So when I was standing in line to get in the club, and then one of me at the booth and then on the ship.”
That isn’t too bad. The one at the club is a bit concerning. It’s a blurry mess, I could be mistaken for anyone else with ease, but he still found me. I didn’t even know he was there. If he is looking for Audrey, he shouldn’t be able to connect me with her. I mean, if the fucker is a cop, it doesn’t really matter. I am not letting him leave this ship. If he is working for Miles, that poses a different problem. It means he knows where I am. It also means that my message to him scared him more than I thought it had. He is doing more than taking extra boxing classes.
Miles is spending my money to protect himself.
A pink haze threatens to take over my vision. I should kill him now. Then he can’t report back to Miles. I could rip him limb from limb and send pictures of that Miles. Show him what happens to people who threaten me now.
Tentacles materialise out of nothing, wrapping around my middle and stopping me from moving further. Nargol doesn’t even look up from the inspection of her nail beds. There is another bang on the metal door, this one the softest one yet.
“Breathe, sweet one. Our heart will be here soon. Then we shall feast.”Love flexes around me, suckers moving over my low back in a gentle massage.“She wants his suffering as we do.”
The tip of their tentacle smooths along my spine until the haze recedes. My eyes close as I try to centre myself. I take a deep breath, but they remain holding me, touching me. A bone-deep sigh leaves me as they rub further up my back to massage my shoulders.
“Do I need to leave, or are you gonna put on a show?” Nargol asks.
One of my eyes peeks open, and she is watching us, her elbow propped on both her knees. A smirk tilts the corners of my mouth up. “No show today, babes, but when there is one, you’ll get a front-row seat.”
“Promises, promises,” she huffs and then grins at me, her broken tusks grazing her upper lip. “So I hear things are going exceedingly well with the captain.”
“Major breakthrough,” I agree. “The funk I was in last week didn’t help, but-“
“Del, trauma is not a funk,” she interrupts. “We’ve all got plenty of it, we understand. And being out there,” she gestures towards the door across the hall, “doesn’t make it easy to deal with.”
“I know, I know,” I say. “Anyway, do you wanna know what a great lay the captain is or not?”
“Of course, I-”
Speak of the devil, and she will appear. Orthia storms through the door with the rest of the crew behind her. She doesn’t stop until she stands before me, her hands settling on Love’s tentacles rather than me. I raise an eyebrow at her.
“Is this how you greet me after a day apart?” I ask.
“What?” She frowns at me.
“Captain,” Nargol interjects. “That’s not what she meant.”
“Aye,” Aiofe agrees, walking past us towards the training room. “She’s angling for a kiss.”
“Is that okay?” Orthia clears her throat, her cheeks blushing a shade of red similar to her scarf. “I meant to ask how you were feeling, but your question distracted me.”
“I told you I wanted romance.”
“Then ask me nicely, wife,” she commands. Pink still stains her cheeks, but her confidence is back now that my consent has been reiterated.
“Please, may I have a kiss, Captain?”
Her hand wraps around my nape as she drags my lips to hers in searing heat. Love’s tentacle holds her touch to my skin. I grip onto the lapels of her teal jacket and open my mouth. All the anger is morphing into a different hunger now, one I will gladly feed over and over again. But Orthia pulls back after a quick nip to my bottom lip.
“Good girl,” she whispers just for me to hear.
It lights up my insides. Love slips from our dimensions and returns to theirs when we part. My cheeks heat and I can’t stop myself from licking my lip in the place Orthia bit down. The tender, plump flesh still tingles.
She releases me and turns around when Aiofe and Cookie drag a heavy platform with a pole in the middle of the training room. Nothing about it screams torture device until Hamako climbs on her partner’s back and attaches a chain to the loop at the top. Her fingers run across the pole like it might actually be used for dancing, but there isn’t much time for that kind of fun now.
Nargol and Orthia open the door to the prison cell and the guy comes bursting out. He screeches when Cookie plucks him off the ground. The troll chef is the least of his worries. In a few moments, the man is chained up, the tips of his loafers brushing the platform. His head whips around as he tries to take everything in, but I can see it on his face. It doesn’t make sense what he is looking at. The size of this room when he was on a ship, the monsters staring at him with mixed interest, it’s all too otherworldly for the mind to comprehend.
The bargaining begins the moment Orthia takes off her jacket and the array of knives strapped to her torso comes into view.
