Page 17 of The Black Lion
“You’ll refer to me as Captain or have your tongue cut out,” Drew snapped. “And it’s funny, you calling me a barbarian, for I am what you made of me, brother.”
Will narrowed his eyes, one of them watering from the force of Drew’s slap. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The last time I saw you—”
“Before you fix that hole in your face to lie to me, allow me to make one thing very clear,” Drew said, arms crossed over his chest. “I know it was you who set that press-gang on me, and Archibald helped you. It didn’t take me long to puzzle that out, or to realize that it was all because of Bella.”
“You aren’t fit to even speak her name, you … you bloodypirate!” Archibald spat.
Drew edged closer, leaning in until he could see the pupils of Archibald’s eyes and smell the stench radiating from him. “Pirate. It isn’t the worst thing I’ve been called. In fact, piracy is what set me free and made me richer than the two of you combined, so I suppose I can thank you for that much. And for all your efforts, I still succeeded in taking your daughter for myself. Not fit to speak her name? I’ll have done far more than that by the time I’m finished with her.”
Archibald seemed to forget his restraints, lunging toward Drew with a cry of outrage. Drew simply took hold of his throat, lifting him clear off the ground and giving him a teeth-rattling shake. He swung from the ceiling, choking and coughing when his throat was released. Drew stepped back and eyed the two men, unable to deny the surge of satisfaction he felt having them at his mercy. Their treatment thus far could be called kind considering what he had suffered after impressment—though he intended for that to change.
“I wrestled with myself for years wondering why you’d done it,” Drew said, shifting his attention to Will. “Him I could understand when he’d always detested my association with his daughter. But you … even knowing you coveted Bella, I couldn’t think of any reason you’d go out of your way to eradicate me. But shewasthe reason, was she not?”
Will spat a stream of blood at his feet and sneered. “Your arrogance knows no bounds. Did it ever occur to you that the wedding you interrupted was what she wanted? Bella knew she’d become a pauper and an outcast married to a bastard mongrel like you, and came to see she didn’t want such a life. She wanted a husband who could give her everything you couldn’t, but we could never have that as long as you were in Falmouth.”
Rage fired Drew’s blood as his brother’s words struck true, lodging themselves deep in his chest and poking at his suspicions. Over the years he’d hardened himself to pain both physical and emotional. Until he had visited that beach in Falmouth and witnessed Will and Bella wrapped in each other’s arms … until he’d barged into St. Peter’s church just as they were reciting their marriage vows. The part of him that had loved Bella since boyhood rebelled at the idea of her choosing Will. It railed within him, its voice growing stronger and louder as he tried to convince himself that perhaps he was wrong. Five years ago, Drew had believed so strongly in Arabella’s love for him that he would never have believed her capable of betraying him with Will. But he was a different man now—one who’d had all the softer feelings stomped out of him by cruel navy officers, the necessity of stealing and killing to survive, and the relentlessness of a fickle sea. Now he trusted no one … not even the woman who had stolen his heart and then ground it into dust.
Seeming to sense his turmoil, Will laughed, the sound grating and dripping with scorn. “The little chit seems so innocent, doesn’t she? Those big brown eyes will trick you into underestimating the truth of her cunning nature. Truly, I found her so much more alluring once she revealed that side of herself to me. And with you out of the way she fell into my arms so easily it was laughable. She never really loved you, you know. Otherwise, how could she come to me the way she did, offering herself up with such … enthusiasm?”
Drew’s fingers twitched, his palms itching with the urge to strike Will again. “You tread on dangerous ground.”
“Is the truth so difficult for you to hear? You wanted to know what happened after we were rid of you, and I’m happy to tell you. It shouldn’t surprise you when I know how frequently she let you beneath her skirts. Once you were gone, who better to help assuage her … appetite? I’ve had her, so many times and in so many ways it’s a wonder I decided to marry her at all. Why make a wife out of her when she so willingly fell into the role of playing my whore?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Drew let his fist fly. It slammed into Will’s stomach, then snapped up to connect with his jaw. Will groaned, falling slack in his shackles and letting his head drop toward his chest. It wasn’t enough. Bloodlust surged through Drew, demanding he take more and make Will suffer for all the indignities that had been heaped upon him. But, once he allowed himself to truly feel the rage, to unleash the bloodlust suppressed deep within, he didn’t think he would be able to stop. Drew was many things, but he wasn’t a man who allowed fits of temper to rule him. He wouldn’t take Will’s life until he’d had the entire truth, and even then not without the say of his crew. He might be their captain, but acting against a prisoner aboard The Seal Lion without their leave was against the articles. He respected the laws of his ship, as well as the men who sailed under his command. He would stay his hand for the time being.
Will found his feet, head still lowered as he began to laugh, his entire body trembling with the deranged sounds. “You never could bring yourself to put your prick in her, could you? I thought you had, but I learned the truth for myself. You weren’t man enough—”
“William, perhaps you oughtn’t—”
“Sod off, old man!” Will bellowed, cutting Archibald’s protests short. “She should have been grateful I wanted her at all, and you ought to be glad I was willing to take your mulatto bastard off your hands.”
Drew grasped Will by his shirtfront.
“You’re a liar,” he snarled, even as he wondered if he might be too besotted to face the truth.
He didn’t want it to be true, but it had been years. They had nearly wed, and Bella had always been passionate. Drew had always been the one to put a stop to their intimacies, for fear he might lose control.
Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, he wrestled with so many thoughts and emotions at once he feared they would tear him apart. Will’s voice cut through his wandering thoughts, and Drew opened his eyes to find his brother watching him, clearly delighting in the torment he inflicted. When had Will become such a vindictive bastard? It was almost as if the man he’d loved and known for so long had peeled away a mask to reveal his true face—an ugly, unrecognizable face.
“Think what you like. If you cannot bring yourself to face the truth, I can hardly force you to. But the fact is, she took every inch of my cock and moaned and begged for more.”
Archibald began to bluster and rail at hearing his daughter spoken of in such a way, but Drew hardly heard a word of it. Murder seized him in its clutches as he stared into the eyes of the man he’d once loved, but now hated with every inch of his being. He wanted to snap Will’s neck and have done with it, but such would be too good for the man responsible for years of torment and degradation. He deserved a slow, agonizing death, and Drew intended to make certain he had it. He would not derail his own plans in a moment of thoughtless fury.
With a deep, slow breath, he managed to blink past the wrath darkening his vision and threatening to turn him into an unthinking beast. He released Will, fisting his hands but keeping them lowered at his sides.
Turning to Archibald, he shook his head in disgust. “Thisis the man you preferred for your daughter?”
Archibald lowered his head, now faced with the realization that he’d pulled Arabella from the grasp of an unsuitable man only to throw her to a lecher who spoke of her as if she were no more than a whore.
“He is of a fine family with good social standing.”
“I hope it was worth your miserable life, for that is the price you will pay for what you’ve done.”
Archibald kept his head down as if ashamed to meet Drew’s eyes, but Will glowered at him, still as filled with indignation and self-importance as ever. He laughed as Drew began backing away, needing to leave them before his ire got the best of him.
“You simply cannot stand the fact that she was mine, can you? Kill me if you like, but you’ll always have to live with knowing I took her from you. Had you the grace to die as you should have, she would be mine even now.”
Drew turned away, refusing to be baited. Will almost seemed towantDrew to kill him now, for the man had to know his planned execution would be brutal and excruciating.
