Page 30 of Crossbones
Fuck. Was Fox flirting with me?Why the hell would he do that? God, that man is confusing.
“I swear you’re drinking more than normal,” Harrison says, looking at me suspiciously. “You can’t let him get to you.”
I lean back and turn my attention to him. “He’s a mass of contradictions.”
“Why do you even care?” Harrison asks bluntly. “Just kill him and be done with it. I’ve never seen you this indecisive, especially when it comes to a—”
“Don’t fucking say it,” I growl.
Harrison catches himself. “When it comes to one ofthem.” He shakes his head. “He’s messin’ with your head, man.”
“We don’t know for sure who he is,” I grumble.
“Like that’s stopped you before—I swear, you’re acting…strange,” Harrison says.
“Maybe you should just fuck him,” the woman states.
We both look at her but the comment is innocent as she’s busy toying with Harrison’s shirt, sliding her hands across the skin she uncovers. Harrison looks over at me and smirks.
“Is that it, Captain?” He asks. “Ready to explore the other side of things?”
I scowl and don’t answer.
He chuckles and shrugs. “The water is grand on that side of the pool too—but don’t fuck F—that man—” he says, catching himself again and his humor turns into irritation. “I’d rather you beat the shit out of him and then kill him.”
Luckily, Harrison’s attention quickly diverts to the whore as she plants kisseson his neck. He shoves her off and stands up only to drag her back to him.
“Come on, love, upstairs with ya,” he winks at me before they head off towards a more private setting. They leave me with the rum, and I plaster a fuck off look on my face that quickly makes it obvious I want to be left the hell alone.
A few hours later, I’m drunk. Which isn’t a surprise seeing as all I did was drink. I haven’t seen Harrison downstairs again but I glance up to see Lan pushing his way through the crowd. He slams his hands on my table and leans in close.
“He’s gone,” he whispers harshly.
I look at him sharply. “What?”
“Gone. Slipped the manacles.” As I curse viciously he hands me a piece of paper. “For you—I’m assuming.”
I snatch the paper from him, already shoving away from the table. I’m halfway across the yard ofDemerarawhen I abruptly stop, staring down at the words in my hand.
Some men are made of storms
he’s made of the silence that comes after
Below that, scrawled in the corner:
Don’t worry, this isn’t goodbye.
Try not to miss me—
“Motherfucker—” I hiss.
I crumple the paper in my fist and stride quickly out ofDemerarainto the street.
“Find Harrison,” I bark, nodding back towards the brothel. “Get a few of the men together and search.”
I knew I should have had someone in the room with him. Or locked the door—something other than just the damn manacles attached to the wall. I’m quickly sobering up as I make my way to the black shores of the beaches. I needed to make some careful inquiries to see if anyone saw him make it to shore.
Another hour later,I’ve had no luck and to make things worse, now I’m thinking too hard about what his note meant. I don’t recognize the two lines of poetry, meaning he either is quoting something I’m unfamiliar with or maybe even wrote it himself.
