“Yes, and you might even get to mention it.” And to the guards: “Bring him to my ring.”
Having witnessed the two Malory brothers in a sporting ring in London, Damon would have guessed what James was referring to, except they were on a ship. But after a short walk, there it was, indeed on his ship, a large sporting ring in the center of the hold.
“The place where I restore my sanity.” James waved his hand at the ring, actually smiling. “And where I drag my brother daily.”
“You hate your brother that much?”
Lifting the ropes to get into the ring, James said tersely, “Don’t be absurd. And don’t be hesitant.” He motioned with his fingers for Damon to come forward. “I think you will prefer this to the other options I’m considering.”
Damon stepped into the ring, but warned, “I won’t fight you.”
“Course you will. You have a bone to pick with me. This is the only chance you’ll get to pick it.”
Damon dodged the first swing by only inches and quickly pointed out, “I know you expect to win this fight and probably will, but what if you don’t?”
“Don’t look so suspicious, youngun. I’d actually be pleasantly surprised.”
“But still kill me?”
James shrugged. “I see no cards on the table yet. You might want to play a few, Captain. You joined Lacross, why?”
Damon dove out of the way of the next swing, rolled, and came up nearly at James’s back. He took his shot, a punch to the side, but the man was built like a brick wall, and his arm swung instantly backward in retaliation, knocking Damon into a corner. Bloody hell, he couldn’t win if he couldn’t hurt the man.
Damon leapt again to his feet, determined now to just stay out of Malory’s reach. “It wasn’t by choice. My father went heavily into debt to send me to England to finish my schooling. For one reason or another, he defaulted on his loans. When I returned home, it was to find nothing left, our home sold, his trading vessel sold. But that wasn’t enough, so they imprisoned him as well. When I tracked him down, I tried to pay off his remaining debts to get him released, but the warden, Peter Bennett, refused to take my money—he wanted something else instead.”
“Let me guess, your father’s in the same prison Lacross was in?”
“Yes, on Anguilla.”
“Bureaucrats don’t usually snub their nose at blunt falling into their laps.”
“Ambitious ones do. Bennett has his eye on the governor’s seat at St. Kitts, which has jurisdiction over the nearby islands of Anguilla and Nevis, too. In order to get his name on the list of candidates to replace the current governor, he has to clean up his own record, as well as accomplish what the preceding governors of St. Kitts didn’t do.”
“Which was?”
“Settle a few outstanding warrants for men who were never captured or proven dead. He also has to remove the blemish on his own record—Pierre Lacross’s escape. He wants Lacross returned to his prison—or proof that he’s dead. He’s very serious about this. He wouldn’t even let me see my father while I was there and won’t, until he has what he wants.”
“He sent you to your death,” James guessed.
“No, he gave me his own ship to use for the task. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t expect me to return it and Lacross to him. I have until the end of the year to accomplish the mission.”
“How did you even find Lacross?”
Damon barely ducked the next blow. Malory was trying to corner him against the ropes, likely fed up with Damon’s evasive tactics. If he was going to dance around the man, it had to be in the center of the ring!
“Before I left Anguilla, one of the men named in those outstanding warrants I mentioned walked right into my hands when I was hiring a crew. He either thought enough years had passed that he was no longer wanted, or he was too addled to realize he shouldn’t be using his real name. Twice turned down within the week, he complained that even Lacross didn’t want him, so I bought him a few drinks and he told me exactly where to find my target. But learning that Lacross was also hiring gave me an excuse to approach him and offer my services. I didn’t expect to have to actually work for him, but I saw that he had too many men for me to attack his stronghold with my untrained crew. So I needed time to figure out a way to get him off that island without a fight or kill him if I couldn’t and then escape.”
“The best-laid plans . . .”
“Yes, in this case, they definitely went awry because of Catherine Meyer.”
“The jewel thief,” James said. “Is she really one of Lacross’s bastards?”
“She claims she’s his daughter and had only just found him herself. She spoke to her father at length that day but kept looking at me as she did. And then she approached me with his ‘test of loyalty’ for me and bragged that it was her idea. She said more than anything else, Pierre wanted to kill the man responsible for putting him in prison. But she also had her own agenda. She wanted to prove her worth to the old man, and because I arrived at the island with a ship and crew, she thought she could have me as her lover, help her father get his revenge, and make him rich to boot, all in one trip. But in the end, she only succeeded in making him rich—”
“With my family’s jewels,” James interjected darkly.
“Yes. Unfortunately, she insisted we leave immediately so I had no time to set up or enact a plan to capture her father that night.”
“So to capture one, you must capture many? You don’t think your plan went a little off track?”
“It wasn’t my plan. You think I wanted the delay when it means my father must rot in prison even longer? Lacross didn’t even think we could capture you, which is why he suggested one of your women instead. I didn’t like it, and I never would have given Jack to him, but I expected you to attack once you had her back—but you didn’t do that, you went home instead. And I got blamed for letting her go even though she escaped on her own before I could.”
“Yet you tried again.”
“I wouldn’t have gotten out of his dungeon if I didn’t at least pretend to go along with another attempt. But I got stuck with a full crew of Pierre’s men this time.”
“Not a good year for you, is it? Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
Damon couldn’t breathe. Malory had just been toying with him, he realized, letting him only think he could dance around him all night. Doubled over, he gasped out before the next blow knocked him out again, “Wait!”
“I’d rather not” was said drily.
“There’s a man . . . who will . . .”
“Bloody hell,” Malory snarled. “Sit down and catch your breath.”