Page 86 of Stilettos & Secrets on the 7 Seas

She threw the broom at me and ran.

It hit me square in the forehead. “Ouch!”

I rubbed the sore spot, feeling the welt. That’ll leave a mark. And add another lecture on my incompetence from Jake, Max, Caiyan, Ace, Rowan. The list was endless.

She disappeared down a ladder. I followed in hot pursuit, or as hot as I could in the low-cut burgundy dress. A crew member gasped as I hurdled over a cannon. Thankfully I had chosen the pantaloons that hid my girlie goodies.

Catching sight of Sasha slipping onto the deck below, I slid down the ladder like an unseasoned fireman, landing hard on my behind.

I scrambled to my feet and cornered her in the hold. The smell of tobacco and gunpowder clogged my nose. I stepped around a crate of potatoes and blocked the exit.

She froze when she realized there wasn’t another ladder in this section.

“There’s nowhere to go but the bilge.” I spied the hatch in the floor. “And you really don’t want to go down there. It’s full of pirate ship ick.”

She tried to dodge around me, but I stopped her with my words. “I have a hard time believing that you would allow Marco to be held in chains and not do a damn thing about it.”

Her eyes darted toward the door. She paused, put on the frightened face of a young boy. “I don’t know what you speak of, miss. I’m only the cabin boy.”

“Cut the crap, Sasha. I know it’s you under those unplucked eyebrows, grimy cheeks, and worm-eaten hat. You can disguise yourself as a boy, but you’re not fooling me or Marco. He knows you’re here and risked his life to save you.”

The quick change amazed me. She morphed from cowardly cabin boy to full-on mean, angry bitch. She yanked out a knife large enough to whack off an arm. OK, maybe at the wrist, and pointed it at me. “I didn’t ask him to come here. He wants the eye. He only wants treasure.”

“What are you looking for?” I cocked an eyebrow.

“It’s none of your business why I’m here. I don’t work for your secret spy agency. I don’t report to you or anyone else.”

“Marco is involved, and that makes this my top priority.”

“Why is he your top priority?” She shifted closer to the door. The door I blocked. “I thought you had the hots for the Scot?”

“Marco is my defender, and that means I’ll not let him rot in a cell or be hung and gibbeted in the square with onlookers throwing rotten food at him.”

Her bushy eyebrows rose, telling me she knew nothing about Marco’s unfortunate future. “Hung?”

“That’s what happens to John Silver. He doesn’t find the treasure like in the book. The real John Silver, at least the one that has now become real, gets hung by the neck in Port Royal for killing Woodes Rogers. If you have feelings for Marco, we need to work together.”

“I was planning to help him escape after I found…” her words strained, her shoulders slumped, and her grip loosened on the wrist whacker.

“After you found your mother?”

She stilled, unblinking, unsure how to react.

I took a step toward her. “Fredericka told me that your mother abandoned both of you. And I know that she came here.”

“She didn’t abandon us.” Her lips curled, matching her disgust. “She was running. There was a bad man. He scared her. She had something of his, and he wanted it back.”

“A piece of a map to the King’s key?”

Her eyes grew wide, but she nodded slightly.

“Is that why you came here?” I asked. “To find your mother?”

“Out of my way.” She jabbed the knife at me.

“Did my Aint Elma tell you how to find Rogue?”

“Elma?” She looked surprised.

---