When we came upon Red’s house, I was relieved to see it unharmed. The fire was consuming one of the smaller outbuildings beside it. My relief was short-lived. It immediately became clear that it was not the Royal Navy who had attacked us. They were pirates. A couple dozen, possibly more. They could have been after Red, or it might have just been a coincidence, but there was no way they could be allowed to leave the island, not if they had seen him. Once word spread that he still lived, the fights, the running, it would never end. Not until he was dead.
I threw myself into the battle without another thought, lunging, parrying, taking extra care to maintain my balance on the sand. In my periphery, I could see Jacob fighting, his movements graceful as ever, easily deflecting blows. He gave no quarter, knowing that he would receive none.
We fought our way through the crowd alongside the other men from the island. I hadn’t seen Red or Christopher, though my eyes were constantly moving as I searched for them. There was a moment when I spotted the distinctive color of Red’s hair. His back was to me, but he was fighting with Chris not too far from his side and he appeared to be unhurt. I released a pent-up breath, the tightness of anxiety easing in my chest.
An angry shout snapped me out of my distraction. I turned to see Jacob chasing after a man who had fled toward the docks. Jacob didn’t appear to notice the other man who was bearing down on him from behind, closing the gap much too quickly for me to do anything more than scream a warning.
Jacob’s head jerked around at the sound of my voice. He had just enough time to bring his sword up before the pirate was on him. Without the element of surprise, the other man was no match for Jacob. He was writhing on the ground within seconds, and I released yet another sigh of relief.
Jacob glanced up at me, eyes wide with the realization of how close it had been. Unthinkingly, I took a step toward him, watched as his expression changed from surprise to terror. I recognized that he was looking at something over my shoulder a second too late. A cry ripped from my throat as a sudden, fiery pain pierced my side.
I reached down, felt the sharp tip of a sword extending from my stomach. My knees gave out, and I dropped forward, shuddering as the blade was withdrawn. In that moment the agony was so acute, I forgot about my own weapon and the fact that I should have turned to defend myself from another blow. I could only gasp and clutch at my side, feeling the warmth of my blood as it seeped between my fingers.
I heard a roar, so full of fury my heart stuttered, and then Jacob was there. I lifted my head and watched as he drove his sword into the chest of the man who stood above me. He twisted it, then raised a leg to kick the pirate back, his sword slipping free as the man sprawled onto the sand.
In an instant, Jacob was crouching beside me. I struggled up to my knees, but it was difficult with only one hand. The other was pressed to my wound in an attempt to stanch the steady flow of blood I could feel trickling down my leg. It hurt, but I was certain I’d received worse injuries in the past. Surely it wasn’t anything serious enough to warrant the amount of concern that showed on Jacob’s face. His skin was ashen, his eyes wide and frantic.
“Let me see it,” he said as he reached for me.
“It’s nothing.” I tried to get to my feet, but my limbs felt uncoordinated, my thoughts muzzy. I shook my head as if to clear it and glanced sideways at Jacob. He looked so very worried. I wanted to speak, say something to reassure him and take that worry away. But the world went dark before I could make a sound.
WHEN I opened my eyes again, it was daylight. There was a dull ache in my side, and for a moment I couldn’t remember where I was or how I had gotten there. I blinked up at the ceiling in confusion. Then the memories came rushing back and alarm propelled me upright, my hand instinctively reaching for a weapon. The pain from the sudden movement made me see double. I collapsed against the pillows with a gasp, clutching at my abdomen. Santo Dios. What had happened? How long had I been asleep?
“John?”
My head turned toward the familiar voice. Red stood in the doorway, a bit pale but alive and seemingly much better off than I was.
“You’re awake,” he said as he crossed to the bed. “You gave us all a scare.”
“How… how long?” I wanted to say more, but my tongue felt thick and heavy, every word I forced out a struggle.
“Three days.”
There was a sour taste in my mouth, and I tried to swallow. My throat was so dry and scratchy, it was like trying to drink sand. “W-water?”
“Of course. Forgive me. Here.” He poured me a cup from the pitcher beside my bed and held it to my lips while I took a few sips.
I pulled back once the dryness in my throat had lessened, and finally managed the question at the forefront of my thoughts. “What happened? With the attack.”
“All is well. Only a few injuries on our side. The same cannot be said for the men who attacked us.”
I nodded, accepting his word, grateful that we would not be forced to leave our home and start all over again. “And Jacob?” I asked, even though I was terrified of his answer. If I had slept for three days, it was possible that he had already gone. The very idea that he might have left while I lay senseless brought far more pain than the wound in my side.
“I sent him down to the docks to help unload the ship,” Red said, his eyes on my face. “I was exhausted just from watching all his cursed pacing.”
My head went dizzy with relief at the news that Jacob was still on the island. I closed my eyelids and took a few moments to breathe and bring my emotions under control.
“He was like a madman when he thought you had died,” Red murmured. “I thought he would run us all through before we could calm him down.”
“Truly?”
Red made a soft sound I took to mean yes. “The lad has been beside himself these last few days. He’s not slept, hardly eaten. Until I sent him away this morning, he’d spent nearly every moment in this room, just watching and waiting, and doing so much pacing I thought he might wear a hole into the ground.”
“That hardly sounds like him.”
“Well, I reckon he’s never watched the man he loves take a sword to the stomach before.”
My eyes opened at that, and I looked at Red in surprise.
Red gave me a small smile and reached down to squeeze my shoulder. “I’ll go tell him you’re awake.”
Once Red had left the room, I took a moment to relieve the sudden, urgent pressure in my bladder. The ache in my side was too intense to do much more. I settled back onto the bed and had just managed to arrange myself into a comfortable position when I heard a door crash open and the approach of hurried footsteps.
Jacob appeared on the threshold, panting roughly. His hair was damp with sweat, and several strands clung to his flushed cheeks. He brushed them away and stepped into the room, long legs carrying him to my bedside as he drank me in with those fierce blue-green eyes. I couldn’t read his expression as he stared down at me, the rapid rise and fall of his chest the only movement between us. Then he reached out and touched my face, and his eyes changed, never losing their intensity but darkening in a way that startled me and slowed my breathing, made need unfurl in my belly and spread through me. Not the need of his body, though that was there, too, but the need to keep him with me, hold him close to me, always, in this life and beyond.
If the choice were mine, I’d never let him go.
“Juan,” he said finally, his fingertips trailing over the line of my jaw. “I thought I’d lost you again.”
I shook my head, my hand coming up to grasp his and hold it to my cheek. “I am here.”
He said nothing, just looked at me, his work-roughened palm so warm against my skin.
“Jacob?”
“What does that word mean?” he asked abruptly. “That one you say to me.”
“Querido?”
“Yes.”
I had never once admitted my feelings to him. I thought that knowing might scare him, drive him away. Bu
t he planned to leave me anyway. There was no point in keeping it a secret any longer. “Beloved,” I answered without taking my eyes from his.
“And you mean it?” His expression was so serious I had to fight back the inexplicable urge to laugh. Did I mean it? How could he even ask such a thing?
“With everything I am.”
Jacob nodded slowly. “I want to stay here on Sagrario. With you.”
I blinked up at him, so surprised it took me a few moments to find my voice. “With me? But… but you said—”
“I know.” He lifted his free hand to cup my other cheek, his thumb tracing along the curve of my lower lip. “I had a lot of time to think these last few days. On the night of the attack, when I saw you fall, it felt like my heart had been torn from my chest.” He paused, the look on his face one I had never seen before. “Juan, I don’t know what led me here, how we found each other again after all these years. But I do know why. You and I, we weren’t meant to be apart. From the moment I first saw you, I knew… even then, I knew….”
Jacob trailed off, his jaw working.
“You knew?” I whispered, my voice a bare thread in the silence of the room.
“I knew there would never be anyone else for me,” he finished, his fingers pushing into my hair, tilting my head back so he could brush a soft kiss over my mouth. “Not ever.”
“But you would have left me.”
“I’m not as brave as you,” he murmured against my lips. “You fear nothing.”
“That’s not true, I—”
“It is. You fear nothing. But I’m afraid of everything. I am terrified by the thought of staying here.”
“Jacob….”
“But I’m more afraid to go, to never see or touch you again.” Jacob’s eyes were dark with emotion. “This is a second chance. If the Red Scourge hadn’t been attacked, I never would have left you. I can’t do it now. I’m sorry it took you being hurt for me to see that.”
“However the realization came to you, I’m glad for it.” I laughed quietly, in relief, in happiness. “Being stabbed would not have been my first choice, but if it means I can keep you, I’d suffer it again.”
His face clouded. “Never again. Not while I’m here.”
I smiled at his words, the fierceness in his eyes. “And how long will you stay?”
“Forever, if you’ll have me.”
“Hmm,” I murmured, drawing him close for another kiss. “I think forever might be just long enough.”
PIPER VAUGHN wrote her first love story at eleven and never looked back. Since then, she’s known that writing in some form was exactly what she wanted to do. A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing more than getting lost in a great book—fantasy, young adult, romance, she loves them all (and has a thousand-book library to prove it!). She grew up in Chicago in an ethnically diverse neighborhood, and loves to put faces and characters of every ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as colorful as the real one. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little true love in their life… even if it’s only in a book.
Visit Piper at:
Website: http://pipervaughn.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/pipervaughn
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/pipervaughn
And her joint blog with M.J. O’Shea: http://mjandpiper.blogspot.com
ROUGH TRADE
COOPER WEST
AUDACITY Gunner was not officially captain of the ship Carthage. Officially, Carthage did not need a captain, and that suited Audacity just fine. Nonetheless, all the other humans on board treated Audacity like a captain, at least when it came time to request shore leave, because Carthage was a bitch about letting anyone walk off her decks if they weren’t dead.
It might also have had something to do with Audacity’s former career as a military officer, which he never talked about with anyone but which seemed to be common knowledge among the crew. He blamed Carthage, who had the grace not to deny the accusation.
After two calendar days of negotiating between Carthage (recalcitrant, irritable, and prone to turning his hot water off mid-shower) and the crew (exhausted, horny, and short-tempered), Audacity settled the shore leave rotation and told Carthage they were ready for Down Disco Bar and Grill, the only free-space port in the whole sector where pirates like Carthage and Audacity felt safe to dock, much less allow their crew members to roam free. Even running under fake papers only carried them so far with the Colonial Federation.
Their last run into Colony-held space had netted them a rich haul of saleable goods, although most of it could not be sold at Down Disco. It was nothing more than a layover to pick up potables and supplies on their way to the free-space planet of Utopia, where everything was for sale to the highest bidder. Audacity knew that meant everyone was riding high on the prospect of being rich despite not having any actual coin in their pockets yet, so he warned Carthage to plan on at least two crew members ending up in Down Disco’s brig. He also expected for most everyone to come back on board completely broke, because they were all going to spend their last chit in anticipation of more to come. He discouraged it, to deaf ears.
It was the same every time.
“Navigator Gunner.”
“Carthage,” Audacity acknowledged respectfully from his bed, flipping a rude gesture at the wall in the dark.
The lights flared on in response, blinding him.
“Damnation! Carthage!”
“I’m sorry, Gunner, I was conducting a random systems check.”
Audacity snarled and rubbed his eyes before checking his watch. “Fine, I’m awake. What time… it’s only… what happened?” He closed his eyes, knowing that the only reason Carthage would wake him up in the middle of a sleep cycle was for some sort of emergency. Since the alarms were not blaring at him, he discounted the worry of being boarded.
“Engineer Dos was arrested twenty minutes ago, according to the business newsfeed from Down Disco.”
“Great. Thanks for the update. We’ll bail him out in the morning.” Audacity rolled over and pulled the cover over his head. The lights flared even brighter above him.
“He was arrested on charges of sexual assault against one of the Bar Manager’s daughters.”
That, finally, made Audacity sit up. The lights dimmed a bit while he absorbed the news. The governor of Down Disco, Bar Manager Kyle Kyoto, was a pirate himself, just a settled one. He ran the port like his own kingdom, which it mostly was, and he had over twenty children off a dozen wives. He was incredibly protective of all of them, children and wives together, no matter that the older kids were hellions with bad manners and no sense of limits. It was quite possible Dos had let the woman buy him a beer and then turned down her advances and now she was acting like a brat. Given Dos’s low key, friendly personality, Audacity was betting on it.
Carthage was too, informing him that she’d freed up a hefty amount of the ship’s capital to use as bail. If things were really serious, there would be no bail to set.
Audacity got up and dressed quickly, leaving his ship to fend for herself while he went to fork over money they could not really spare for a bail amount that was probably three times higher than it needed to be, just so Kyoto could prove a point.
“WHAT do you mean, no bail?”
The administrator waved a hand at him. “No bail.”
“He’s my engineer!”
“No. Bail.” She gave him a disapproving glare through the protective plexiglass shielding her cubicle. It was old and beat up and cloudy, but Audacity could see her annoyance just fine.
He stood with his hands on his hips, holding up the line. “I need my engineer. Tell Kyoto I’ve got bail.”
“Kyoto remembers the last time you put up bail.”
“I paid him! In full! With interest!”
She nodded at him slowly, as if he was stupid. “Yes, ten calendar months later.”
He pointed at her. “And that was on top of the ticket your kangaroo court slapped on Miriam f
or disturbing the peace!”
“We could have just kept her in the brig for those ten months.”
It was an entirely reasonable and just argument, which pissed Audacity off even more.
“He’s my engineer!”
“Not. My. Problem.” The administrator waved him off, but he stood his ground until the next person in line physically shoved him away from the window.
He shoved the person back but walked off, knowing he was not going to win passage for Dos out of the brig from anyone less than Kyoto himself. Angling for the door out of the office, he twisted to one side as a man nearly barreled straight into him. He moved to keep going, but the guy grabbed his arm.
Audacity stared at the hand on his arm until it slowly released its grip.
“Smart move. Now, you want to tell me what your problem is?” Audacity straightened up with military precision. He was tall, and despite his lanky frame, he knew he could look intimidating—he had years of military training to hone that skill.
The man facing him was only a few inches shorter and a bit stockier of build, although he did not look particularly fit. He wore a rumpled business-class suit and tailored leather jacket, expensive but not ostentatious. His hair was dark and messy, as if it had grown out a few weeks past the due date for a trim, his eyes were bright blue, and his lips were wide and soft on his handsome, if somewhat scruffy, face. Everything about him screamed down on his luck, and Audacity wondered if he was a pickpocket.
“The bail problem. I can… I can help you with that,” he said, his voice soft yet serious, his eyes narrowing into a scowl. Audacity raised his eyebrows, trying to convey doubt.
“Really? And how is that?”
“I have connections.”
Audacity waited for more, but there was nothing forthcoming. “And?”
“And, I can get your man released on bail.”
Audacity laughed, shaking his head in sympathy for the poor idiot trying to make some kind of deal with him. “It’s personal. Kyoto wants to make my life difficult, and this,”—he swept an arm out to represent the whole of the space port—”this is his country. Whatever you think you can do, you can’t. Thanks for the offer.” He pushed the guy aside carefully, just in case he was a pickpocket as well as a black marketer.
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