“I want it back,” he ordered.

Nola let her gaze wander leisurely down his face, searching for the man she met at the tavern. As she looked into his eyes—he was not there.

Nola’s expression closed up as she clutched her bag. The pistol was in there. Even though she did not know much about firing a gun, it was the only protection she had since leaving the tavern. Sure, she had a small bow, a few arrows, and a knife, but a pistol gave her more protection, especially after what she had done.

He stepped in her direction when she did not move. “I’ve never had a man steal from me and walk away!”

A brave smile pulled her mouth to one side.

“That’s because I am no man! I’m a woman, remember?” she said, recounting what he had called her the first time they had met at the marketplace.

A sexy yet intimidating grin widened across his features.

“You can have your damn pistol back,” she said, reaching into her bag with trembling fingers.

His eyes held a flash of amusement as he looked down into her bag. “You can hand me over the rest of those stolen weapons while you’re at it,” he ordered, taking the pistol from her hand, but she shook her head.

He signaled with his finger to Boots, who grabbed the entire bag from her.

She scowled. “That bag and those weapons belong to me. Please—”

“Everythin’ you have is mine until I release you,” Lincoln said. “This is my ship. You own nothin’.”

She flinched as he reached out suddenly. His fingers traveled across the piece of cloth tied around her forehead. Nola felt her heart thump in her throat as he touched her. That same feeling ran down her body to her toes.

“What happened there?” he asked. The warm touch of his skin warmed Nola’s cheeks.

She placed her hand over the wound but winced a little as her fingers pressed into the sponge she had used to stop the bleeding. The darkness was no longer in Lincoln’s eyes—his demeanor shifted to something soft and almost kind, as if there was a glint of compassion in him.

Either that or he pities me,she wondered.

Nola swallowed. “The ship rocked during the storm, toppling me over in the storage room. I cut it against a metal rack.”

He signaled with his hand to Big Red standing near the ship’s mainmast, who came running over. “This is Ardley, our—” He brought his hand to his mouth and tapped his chin. After a second, he continued, “doctor, I guess.”

“I’ll patch that right up, madam,” Ardley said, “come with me.” The captain gave him a stern look, and the redheaded man straightened his back. “Uh...you’ll come with me!”

There was a clear fake glower over his face. Nola could see that his crew did not approve of the captain’s ways, and she had wondered if she could use that to her advantage.

Ardley took Nola’s hand gently and pulled her with him and she felt everyone’s eyes on her back as they stepped down to the crew’s quarters.

* * *

The buccaneers looked daggers at their captain, but they knew better than to let their tongue run wild to protest what he had just done to the girl. In the years they had been on the Sybil Curse together, he had only taken the lives of men who deserved it. The ones who attacked or stole from them with malice—those of who were never granted immunity or mercy.

Lincoln made the death of his enemies a quick one, though. He was not a man who believed in torture, even if a pirate deserved it.

But with Nola, the crew had not expected that reaction. The captain appeared to have lost his mind over a crime as inconsequential as stealing a pistol. It was clear she had only stolen it to protect herself.

Boots paced the deck—tapping his peg leg against the wooden boards rapidly.

“Hill?” Lincoln called.

“Yes, Cap—captain,” he said, his voice sluggish as he blinked rapidly, widening his eyes the closer he approached.

He looked down at the lanky pirate, with an unreadable expression across his face.

“Please, clean up your own mess, would you?” Lincoln kept his voice calm and steady. Stress on deck was not what they needed right then. The storm had passed, but the danger Lincoln knew that woman was about to bring upon them far exceeded what himself and the crew had ever encountered at sea.