Percy looked so abashed that Jack refrained from kicking him. Percy let information roll off his tongue without the first thought to consequences and always had. This part of his endearing charm was usually amusing—at least for anyone not keeping the secrets he inadvertently revealed.
Damon laughed at the byplay. “Just out of curiosity, what prize were you after, Malory?”
“Full freedom aboard your ship.”
“And the prize you were willing to offer me?”
Jeremy shot to his feet. “Not beating the living hell out of you.”
Damon didn’t stand up as well, but he did raise a brow. “So is that contest still on the table?”
“No, it’s not,” Jacqueline interjected sharply, and motioned to Jeremy to sit back down. “At least not tonight. Can we first hear why Damon invited you here?”
“Yes, you can,” Damon said. “We’re nearly to the Caribbean. I can no longer wait to form an alliance with the three of you.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
JEREMY LAUGHED. “I’M SORRY, did you expect a response to that other than laughter?”
Jacqueline had been about to laugh, too, but she frowned instead, guessing that Damon had suggested an alliance because he was truly worried about the pirates on his crew.
“I’m not out to harm Jack or your father,” Damon assured Jeremy.
“Liar, you want him dead!” Jeremy retorted.
“I never wanted him dead. I just have other objectives that involve him. Jack’s presence was and is nothing more than a means to an end for me, a way of luring your father into helping me put Lacross back in prison.”
Jacqueline’s anger flared. “When you took me from Bridgeport, you had every intention of turning me over to Pierre Lacross! If you try to deny that, we’re done talking.”
“I had no intention of turning you over to them. That was part of Catherine and her father’s plan, and I’d been assured you wouldn’t be hurt, but I had doubts from the start. I just wanted to draw your father to Lacross’s hideaway—”
“Which is located where?” Jeremy interjected.
Damon ignored his question. “At the time, I didn’t really care who won that fight, I just expected there would be a fight, not a willing surrender that would have been a slaughter. Mort was to get you off the ship in St. Kitts while I took Catherine ashore so she wouldn’t notice. But you escaped on your own before he could help you.”
“If that’s true, you wouldn’t have sunk all those ships in Bridgeport!” Jacqueline said.
“And if I didn’t, how do you think the situation would have progressed? I didn’t want to end up dead or imprisoned after a fight at sea with your relatives. Besides, my intent was just to get your father’s attention.”
“Now I know you’re lying,” Jack said. “You had nearly a week to tell me that and didn’t.”
“You were too angry, and all your anger was directed at me. I didn’t know you well enough then not to think you might scream that I was a traitor just to get even with me, and to hell with the consequences.”
Jeremy asked her, “Would you have done that?”
“Possibly,” she mumbled. “I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly during that kidnapping.”
Jeremy pointed out to Damon, “Why would it matter at that point if Catherine knew you weren’t on their side—unless you still were?”
“Because until Lacross is either killed or captured, I still need the pirate to think I am helping him. When I took Jack away from Bridgeport, I expected your family to follow us straight to Lacross and finish him off. Instead Catherine blamed me for letting Jack go, I was thrown in their dungeon, and your father didn’t show up as I’d hoped.”
Jacqueline sighed. “And yet here we are once again your hostages, and you wonder why it’s impossible to believe you?”
“I agree,” Jeremy said angrily. “You’re painting yourself pretty clean in all of this, mate, yet once again you’re leading my father to his death.”
“I never wanted him dead,” Damon said just as angrily this time. “But I have other objectives that involve him.”
“Which are?”
Jacqueline raised a brow when Damon refused to answer. Because he was angry now? What the devil did he expect?
“Did you really think this would be an easy conversation and that we wouldn’t be skeptical of what you’re telling us?” she asked Damon. “All things considered, you haven’t even got to the heart of the matter yet and revealed what your objectives are regarding our father. Getting angry because we still have valid doubts is a bit pointless, don’t you think? Why don’t we eat this meal before it gets cold, then you can finish your explanation over dessert?”
Percy looked down at his empty plate. “Was I supposed to wait?” Then it started to slide off the table.
The wind had picked up, making the ship pitch. Jacqueline grinned at Percy’s remark, though she held her own plate in place. Damon’s visage was a little less dark. Jeremy scowled and reached for the wine bottle to refill his glass, apparently not giving an inch in his suspicions. Jack wasn’t either after being a hostage to this man twice.
While they ate, she introduced a less provocative subject, asking Damon, “Why didn’t you invite your first mate to join us?”
“I did, but he declined. I believe he’s embarrassed about the black eye you gave him.”
Jeremy laughed. “Good for you, Jack.”
“He deserved it” was all she said.
Dessert was being ignored. The wine bottle on the table was empty. Jeremy fetched the brandy from Damon’s desk without asking permission, nor did he offer it to anyone else. He was a keg of unpleasant emotions and probably furious that he wasn’t getting to trounce Damon yet. But Jacqueline’s feelings were no better. She felt angry that she couldn’t believe Damon and frustrated because she wanted to, which was self-serving because it had nothing to do with the situation and everything to do with her prurient feelings for the man. But that door would stay closed for her because the truth damned him as a pirate, or at the least a kidnapper and an accomplice to a pirate, and he hadn’t even explained why yet!
But then Damon asked, “Why would I lie at this point?”
“When you get to the punch line we’ll probably know,” Jeremy shot back.
“I suppose you can consider this your punch line: I don’t have full control of my ship. Well, I do, as long as I don’t deviate from the pirates’ plan. So far I haven’t, because until we left London, our goals were the same—to get Jack aboard.”
“Why capture her just to let her escape again?” Jeremy said derisively. “Or this time you’re really going to hand her over to Lacross?”
“Neither. I took her again because I still need your father’s help. She’s my leverage to get it.”