James nodded and crossed his arms over his bare chest. “She did. But now she is your hostage.”
Daniella watched with fascination the play of muscles over James’s back. She couldn’t look away from a twitching spot right beneath his left shoulder blade.
“When she was your hostage you seemed to be friendly: why can I not also further our acquaintance?”
“Because the lady doesn’t wish it.”
Daniella lifted her gaze in time to see Darius’s mouth split into a grin. “The lady will do as I say while she is aboard my ship.”
James’s hands dropped to his sides and his fists clenched. “And while I am here, I will do everything in my power to protect her.”
“But you are a hostage as well, or did you forget that while enjoying a taste of freedom?”
“Taste of freedom?” James laughed. “I am as much a prisoner on the deck and in the rigging as I am in the cabin. Your cage is large but it is still a cage.”
Darius sidestepped and held his arm out. “You are welcome to leave anytime you want. No one is holding you back. No one has chained you to the mast or made you do anything you didn’t want to do.”
It was time she spoke up. “Will you say that when we are closer to land? When we dock? Do you or do you not plan to ransom us to our families?”
The humour died from Darius’s eyes and he breathed deep before he answered. “Him I will ransom. You are a different story. You owe me for sending me over the side of that ship. You owe me for the trouble I had to endure after as well.”
“You asked for it when you tried to kill the honest half of my crew.”
Darius shook his head but stood his ground. “Once it was clear you were winning, you could have locked us in the hull and delivered us to the next town but you did not.”
“I was angry! You tried to cut my throat! I have a scar on my arm where your sword went wide.” She began to roll her sleeve up to show him the ugly corded white line there. “You meant business when you turned your weapons on your family.”
Darius marched over and squeezed her elbow so she couldn’t bare her upper arm. So she couldn’t show him the damage he’d done that day.
She was thoroughly tired of being manhandled. “Let go of me,” she demanded.
“I would never have thrown you overboard and you know it. Perhaps now I will? Perhaps any ransom your father would pay would not equal the satisfaction I would have by seeing you into the sea.”
This was no gentleman teaching her a lesson. Fear took hold, starting in her chest and trickling outwards. “You wouldn’t.”
His lips split into a predatory smile, one with no warmth or humour, only intent. “I would.” He pushed until she was forced to take a step backwards, and then another, and then another.
“Stop,” James warned.
Darius didn’t listen.
“You’re scaring her,” James called, starting after them.
“Darius, you’re mad—the water is freezing. I’ll be dead before the hour is out.”
“As I could have been. I wished I had died for months after I was found floating. The things he did to his crew would curdle your stomach to hear.”
“All right, I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear?” She began to push back, to try to slow him down but he kept pushing and pushing. Her panic rose. When she let James believe she wasn’t scared of anything, she lied. Of course she lied. No one wanted to die. Especially not like this. Not now.
“I don’t think there are any words to make up for this.”
Her legs hit the side of the rail and she shrieked. “Darius, you’ve made your point. What good am I to you dead?”
“It would make me feel better.” The predatory smile was back as he leaned in close. “Any final words, Little Lamb?”
“Don’t do this.” Blood rushed in her ears and her mouth dried. She thought her knees might give out. She’d come too far for it to end this way.
“I’m doing it.”
Daniella kicked out with all her might, wrenched her arm from his grip and tried to get around him but he threw his arms around her in a hug so tight, she couldn’t draw a breath.
“James?” She tried to scream but her words emerged only a half whisper. “Help me.”
*
At first glance it seemed a sick and twisted joke, a man seeking a small amount of vengeance for a slight from the past. It’s why he hadn’t intervened straight away. But when Darius started pushing Daniella towards the rail, his heart stopped beating altogether.
“Stop,” he called out but Darius ignored him. His crew simply stood by and watched, wary but still.
Daniella murmured something he couldn’t hear, her eyes wide with fright, freckles stark against pale cheeks, and then she turned wild. He’d not seen her like that, so scared, so vulnerable. She had been so sure they were safe. Had Darius lulled them into thinking they were? Yet again the enigma that was Daniella blinded him to everything else.
Charging forwards James started to punch Darius in the area of his kidneys. He didn’t care that his opponent had his back turned. If anyone was going to throw Daniella overboard, it would be James in a fit of rage, not Darius, and not for revenge.
Darius roared and turned to face him, giving Daniella time to scramble away from the edge. James didn’t stop. He drove his fist into the other man’s jaw and then followed with another punch to his stomach. He just kept hitting him. Darius barely had time to cover his face let alone fight back but James was angry now. He’d wanted to see Daniella fight for her life but when he did, and saw she was losing, he’d seen right through every lie he told himself.
“Enough,” Darius said, his hands in fists in front of his
