Page 76 of Paid to the Pirate

“The word of a pirate,” Father spat. “Did my wife have the same vow when your kind killed her?”

What?I froze, chills running down my spine and locking me in place.Mother died in childbirth. Didn’t she?

“I’m Captain Colt,” a deep voice said. “Not whoever that was. And when I make a vow, I keep it.”

My head spun. It was hard to keep up with what was happening mere feet from my hiding placeandprocess what my father had said about my mother’s deathandsuppress my rising terror.

“We should kill him,” someone said. “It’d be doing him a favor, judging from this hovel.”

I can’t let them kill Father. I’d rather they kill me.

I heard a noise and moved without thinking.

“No!” I shouted, jumping from my hiding place and coming to my father’s defense. My arms were raised wide as I prepared to throw myself in front of him as a sacrifice.

I saw the blood drain from my father’s face before I fully faced the men.

“Charlie, no!” he shouted, pushing me out of the way. “Charlie, don’t do it,Charlie,my boy, no.”

“What’s this?” Captain Colt asked, stepping forward. He’d gripped his pistol but hadn’t raised it, like the others. Still, that left two pistols aimed at us from the men behind the captain. One was especially muscular and had a head of sandy hair and a pierced ear. The other was brown-haired and not as tall as Colt or as strong as the other man, but far meaner-looking than both.

Father pushed me back toward our rear window and threw himself between us.

“Kill ’em and be done with it,” that gruff voice said. It belonged to the snarling man with brown hair and blue eyes, standing behind Colt.

“Robert, nobody’s ki-”, Colt began with a sigh, but my father cut him off.

“Run!” he cried, holding up his hands. “Run and save yourself. Tell them they’re coming. Do as you’re told, boy!”

For a moment, I froze with indecision. I didn’t want to leave father. But I didn’t want to disobey him either and I’d made a vow. Thinking I could bring help, I leapt for the window.

I was yanked back by Colt’s rough grip on my shirt. He was impossibly fast. Deciding to make a leap for me, however, caused him to be preoccupied while my father raised his pistol.

Wrapped in his arms, Colt could have used my body to block the shot. But out of instinct, I supposed, he ducked and shoved me sprawling onto my hands and knees. And the same time, he raised his own pistol --

-- and fired directly into my father’s chest.

In the span of three seconds, my world changed forever.

“Father!” I screamed, throwing myself at my father’s lifeless corpse. “Father, Father, Father!” I wept.

“Shut the boy up,” Robert grumbled. “He’s giving me a headache.”

“You killed him!” My red face was covered in tears and snot. I could barely choke out the accusation.

“He tried to attack us,” Colt said, voice full of pity, if not remorse. “We told him not to fight.”

“He was protecting me,” I sobbed, clutching my father’s lifeless body.

“We promised him no harm if he didn’t raise a hand.”

“And - and he was to believe you?” I choked. “Pirates!”

I didn’t know how long I cried before the realization of the danger I was in washed over me. Slowly, I looked up.

Captain Colt stood, indecisive as he considered me. His gaze burned.

“We’ve as good as killed the boy if he’s got no one to look after him,” he said, speaking to the men and not me. “Take him. We could use a new swab on deck.”

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