The Pirate (8 page)

He glanced back over his shoulder and saw her watching him and knew that no matter what else happened while they were on this mission, he wasn't going to be able to walk away easily from her.

 

Daphne stood there watching Laz walk away. She held bandages in her hands and felt like she had lost her mooring. Being a doctor was the one thing that Paul hadn't taken from her when he'd walked away from their marriage.

But Laz…he'd shaken her. She'd never met anyone like him before. Never experienced the gamut of emotions she had before she'd met him. It wasn't a power thing, because living in D.C. and being a Senator's wife she'd come into contact with powerful people before. With Laz it was something different. He had a calmness in the face of danger.

The cuts and bruises on his body told her that he'd been beaten. Another person—someone from their group—wouldn't have fared as well as Laz. His body was honed into a machine. She'd felt the strength in his body and from a purely scientific point of view she wanted to explore him.

Yeah, right.

She wanted to explore him because he was hot. And there was something primal about him that called to her on her most basic level.

“You okay?” Franny asked.

“Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?”

“Um, you just had your socks kissed off,” Franny said with a laugh.

And Daphne had to smile. “You are so right. I'm in over my head here.”

“I think you can handle him,” Franny said.

Daphne wasn't too sure. When he'd asked her to trust him, she realized that trusting any man was still a struggle. Two years after her divorce and she still hadn't found her way back to just basic trust.

“I'm not so sure. Wow, this day has been…”

“Real,” Franny said.

Daphne gave the other woman a questioning glance.

“Well, at home we get up, go to work, do our job, and then head home and do it again. I mean there is a little variety but for the most part we live in this insulated bubble. But whenever I'm on one of these trips, it's like seeing the real world. I can't help but feel this is what life is meant to be.”

Daphne wasn't sure she wanted this much reality. She'd love the comfort of a chai tea latte from Starbucks and listening to John Mayer on her iPod. Instead she was in a holding cell with people she didn't really know and those who mattered to her were a world away. And she was with a man who was dangerous to her because he was making her feel again.

That was it, she thought. That bubble of her routine at home had insulated her from being hurt by a man and in one day she'd had that bubble popped and now she was here. Living and breathing in the real world with a real man.

It was easy to see why she was attracted to Laz when she thought about her situation in those terms. He represented safety. She didn't fool herself into thinking any of the men on her team could keep her and Franny safe. They were doctors and medics. Men used to saving lives, not taking them. Rudy was the only one who seemed at ease in this situation. Bob of course was doing what any good leader did, trying to keep everyone calm.

“I guess you have a point. But I think this might be more real than I want to experience.”

Franny shrugged. “I guess it's different for me because I never found the right man to marry and have kids with, but I've always kept moving on hoping I would someday and instead…well, instead I'm here.”

Daphne hugged Franny to her side. “It's not any different for you than it is for me. We both left behind another life and another world. I guess we have to adjust to this. I know I do. Otherwise I'm going to curl up in a corner and cry.”

“If you do maybe Laz will come comfort you,” Franny said.

“Doubtful. That man looks like the type who'd tell me to snap out of it!”

“I see your point.”

“Girls, come on over here,” Hamm said.

Normally Daphne would take any man to task who called her a girl but tonight that didn't seem important. Instead she gathered with the rest of the hostages. She'd never felt so powerless. She took a deep breath.

She had to stop thinking that this was out of her control. She was still a doctor. Still knew how to save lives. Her boys were safe in the United States and for right now all of her group here was safe.

They'd continue to be until something happened to change the balance of power. She wasn't powerless, she reminded herself. There were ten of them in the hold, and there were a like number of pirates holding them. Something would happen to shift the balance of power.

She had to believe that.

“The pirates are very interested in knowing the names of the Doctors Across Waters group. Rumor has it that one of you is related to a congressman,” Laz said. “I've told them you aren't a factor in this hostage situation.”

“Thank you,” Bob said. “What do you think they will do?”

“Well, for now I think they will let us be. But if the shipping company doesn't step up and meet their demands, they are going to start pulling your group up on deck one by one and demanding that information until they get an answer.”

“It won't come to that,” Daphne said. “I'll talk to them.”

“No, you won't,” Laz said. “Hamm and I are highly trained soldiers and our backup is going to make sure that the pirates don't have a chance to question anyone in a hard way.”

Laz looked right at her and Daphne knew he was talking to her. She felt an inkling of trust in the pit of her soul. She wanted to believe he would protect her.

In fact, as she watched the intent gaze he kept on her she knew that he would protect her. And that made all the difference in the world. She wasn't as alone as she'd feared she was. She had Laz by her side and trust or not that was more reassurance than she'd expected to find here.

Everything about this summer was more than she expected to find. She had thought of this trip the same way she thought of volunteering at her kids' schools or at the church. It would also give her something to talk about to other people at work functions. She realized that her life had become so routine that she never had a chance to really talk about the things that mattered. And she'd been searching for a way to make herself relevant.

Now she realized how stupid that had been. Laz had made her see that she was enough just as she was. He never made her feel like she should be more of a woman or a different type of person. He simply accepted her as she was and that brought her a measure of peace, which was at odds with the situation she was in right now.

She was in a foreign place and yet she was finding herself more at peace with herself than she had ever been before.

D
aphne stayed to herself and her group as everyone settled down for the night. There was little they could do until the pirates came back to get them. And from the crew they'd learned that usually they were left in the hold until the pirates' demands were met. The crew, the doctors, and Hamm and Laz were all held together in the large hold.

The Maersk tankers had been targets before and Laz had reassured everyone that they had a protocol for dealing with the pirates.

Everyone was quiet but she couldn't sleep. She glanced at Franny and saw the other woman wasn't having any trouble. But then with Franny's attitude it was easy to see why. The other woman lived her life and didn't have regrets as far as Daphne could tell.

Daphne always had regrets and doubts and second guesses. There hadn't been one thing in her life she hadn't doubted. She'd like to say motherhood, but that one thing had brought about the most doubts. She rolled over, trying to get comfortable on the floor, but there was no position that was going to help her sleep.

She got to her feet as quietly as possible but then hesitated as there really wasn't anyplace for her to go. She started to sit back down and saw Laz standing a few feet away. He gestured for her to join him and she debated one second before walking over to him. He led the way to a stack of crates piled in a corner. It was the same section she'd retrieved her medical supplies from earlier.

“I never could sleep without being able to feel the air on my face,” he said.

“I've never thought about it that way,” she said. “Tell me more about the group you are with.”

He shrugged. “I'm really not much of a talker.”

But she knew that wasn't true. She could tell that the job he had wasn't a social one, but Laz did like to talk. And she suspected that he didn't want to talk about what he did and who he was. That was very different from being reluctant to talk at all.

“Hamm said you had a few more guys on the outside. That you had worked together for a while.”

“When did Hamm tell you that?” Laz asked. “I told him to keep an eye on everyone, not gossip.”

Daphne punched him playfully in the arm. “He wasn't gossiping. We were chatting while we were collecting supplies. I think I may have been saying you should have told us the dangers involved before we left port.”

“That sounds like you.” Laz wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into the side of his body. She wanted to lean against him but remembered bruises he had sustained while he'd been on deck so she didn't. She just lightly rested against him and took comfort from his earthy scent and the warmth of his body.

“Well, I was angry and scared,” she said, when she realized she hadn't been talking.

“Was?”

“I guess I still am but a part of me…well, I'm trying to figure out how to let that go. If it's out of my control and this entire thing is, I might as well just live in the moment.”

“Is that why you came over here?” he asked.

She didn't have an answer for that. She wasn't sleepy and Laz offered her something. She wanted to call it solace but wasn't sure that was the right word to define how she felt.

“Who knows?” she said.

He cocked his head to the side and took her hand in his. His hands were rough and callused. They were the hands of a man who'd worked hard his entire life. By contrast hers were soft and her nails perfectly manicured. She used her hands to heal, he used his to protect. They were markedly different and their hands reflected what she knew deep inside.

“You know. You're not a woman who doesn't do things without knowing why.”

“I used to be,” she said, not sure why she felt comfortable talking to him except maybe it was because he made her feel safe and she hadn't felt safe in so long. Not since the day that Paul had told her that their marriage was over. Not since she'd realized that the family and the security she'd thought it provided were gone.

He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “Don't worry about the group holding us. You'll get out of here and be back to your neat and tidy life soon.”

She tugged her hand away. “I'm not worried about that. I don't have a neat and tidy life.”

“Sure you do.”

“Don't make judgments about me, Laz.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “I was trying, ah hell, I should have known better, I'm not the kind of guy who knows how to say the right things.”

She shook her head. “You do so. You just thought this incident shook me from my moorings, but I came on this trip to try to find myself again.”

“You're kind of old to be lost,” he said.

“Again with the compliments,” she said. But she wasn't offended. Four years ago she'd have thought the same thing. She thought that wandering was what happened when she was young. She'd picked her path and been happy on it.

“Tell me, Daph, why are you lost?” he asked.

“Maybe I was on the wrong path,” she said. “My divorce made me feel…like I was less than.”

He cupped her face in both of his hands and kissed her. It was deep and hot and conveyed so much she was literally shuddering when he pulled back.

“You are not less than,” he said. “You are more than any other woman I've ever met. Don't doubt yourself.”

She couldn't respond to that. Just swallowed hard and looked at him in the grainy light available.

“Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” he said.

Silence grew between them and she wanted to know more about him. “Tell me about you. What kind of man sets a trap for pirates?” she asked. She knew what her issues were and there was no path away from them. Not here in this holding cell and not with this man. She just needed a distraction, she thought.

“A crazy one,” he said.

She punched him lightly on the arm. “I want to know about the group you are with. Are you SEALs or Special Forces?”

“No,” he said, his eyes got very quiet and serious. There was no more evidence of the joking, flirting guy that she'd seen a few seconds ago. “I'm not sure the answer will be comforting to you, Daphne. It might be better if you just know that I'm the kind of guy you can count on in a fight.”

“I do know that. I still want to know more.”

“Has your curiosity ever gotten you in trouble?” he asked.

“No. I mean there are times when I've uncovered things I wish I hadn't,” she said. She wondered if she would feel better not knowing, but in the end she knew she needed to know more about Laz. He was the distraction she'd chosen to get her through this crisis.

“This might be one of those times,” he said.

“I want to know. Whatever it is. I need to know more about your group. We're trusting you to keep us safe.”

“You trust me?” he asked.

She did. On this ship she trusted him.

He took a deep breath. “I'm a mercenary.”

Mercenary. Well that was something she'd never thought to hear him say. She'd thought SEAL or maybe Special Forces. But not mercenary. Those men were without consciences.

 

Laz waited to see how she'd react. He'd learned early on in his career with the Savage Seven that saying he was a mercenary elicited myriad responses from women. Some of them were titillated by the thought of being with a soldier for hire. Others found the moral ambiguity of what he did unbearable and sneered at him.

But Daphne now showed no outward reaction. Why did he care anyway?

He couldn't really say except that he really liked her. That was the dumbest thing he could think of right now. He needed to pay attention to the pirates and the situation. They still hadn't been able to raise Savage on the radio, and he and Hamm might have to retake the ship on their own.

They weren't any closer to catching Samatan than they had been before the pirates took the ship. Instead of worrying about that, he was more concerned about what Daphne thought about him.

Goddamn, he was fucked up.

Just because she had those big chocolate brown eyes and the kind of hair that made him long to bury his hands in it didn't mean he should let her distract him. He wanted to be wrapped in her body again. And he knew he'd do anything to see that he got back there.

“How does that work?”

“What do you mean?”

“Who hires you? Do you change sides midway through if you get more money?”

Laz shook his head. “First of all, we never change sides. We fight for the man who hired us, finish that job, and then move on.”

“So who hired you this time?” she asked.

“A government,” he said. He couldn't tell her too many details because part of the job was to be discreet. The governments who couldn't officially come in pirate territory with their navies hired groups like the Savage Seven to take care of the out-of-control piracy in this part of the world.

“I guess you can't say which one?” Daphne asked. She knew he couldn't. This wasn't the first time she'd learned something disturbing. How many times had Paul learned of some illicit government intervention? When he'd been a young Senator, they'd had a lot of discussions about the ends justifying the means.

“You got that right.”

“How many of you guys are there?” she asked.

“Six,” he said.

“That's it?” she asked. That sounded like a fairly small team. But then she guessed in a group of men like Laz they'd only want men they knew and could trust.

“Wouldn't seem fair to the bad guys if there were more of us.”

She laughed softly like he'd wanted her to. He was cocky but not arrogant. Laz backed up his swagger with true grit. She'd seen it in the dustup on the deck before the pirates' attack and in the way he led the crew, especially down here when he'd talked to the men and their group. He wasn't making false promises, just guaranteeing he'd do his level best to get them out safely.

She needed to believe that. He was someone to watch over her and she took great comfort from that.

“So are you in charge?” she asked.

“Nah. I'm just a solider. Savage is our leader.”

Daphne lifted one of her eyebrows at him. “Savage? That's his name?”

“Yeah.”

“And you're Lazarus?”

He nodded.

“Do you guys all pick your own names?” she asked.

“Some do. Others just keep their own.”

“But you changed yours, didn't you, J.P.?”

He shook his head, loving the sound of his given name on her lips. He hardly ever told anyone. His mom had her reasons for naming him and though he'd legally changed his last name a long time ago, he'd kept the name his mom had given him. A part of him believed that her gift of his name had kept him safe all these years.

“Okay. What's the plan for tomorrow?”

“I'm going to talk to everyone in the morning. I think the best thing will be to get the guards in here so we can overthrow them. We might stage a distraction. I need to get to the radio room to contact our men on the outside.”

“Sounds dangerous,” she said.

“It won't be. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Daphne.”

He had to figure out how to keep her safe and manage this attraction to her. He liked women. He was known to the others on the team as a bit of a playboy, but this was the first time he'd had a woman on a job that he wanted.

And he did want her. She was curvy and real—a woman who reminded him of those long-gone dreams he'd harbored as a teenage boy. Dreams where he'd be the army hero and he'd have a girl like Daphne waiting at home for him.

“I believe you will. I can help with the radio room. If you want I saw how to use it when you let me call my family.”

“I think it's safer for you to stay here,” he said.

“That's all well and good but it will be easier for me to slip away. And I can let my ex-husband know we are hostages.”

Laz didn't like that. Didn't like the thought of her turning to any other man for anything. “That's not necessary. I've got this under control.”

“It never hurts to have backup,” Daphne said.

Laz thought about it objectively. Her connection to the Senator was what the pirates wanted to know about. She was partly a liability. If she was successful and her ex sent the marines or someone else, it could interfere with what Savage had planned.

“Let's save your ex for backup. I need to talk to Savage first. He should be close by and we won't need whoever you can get them to send.”

She nibbled on her lower lip as she mulled over what he'd said. He watched her growing more aroused as she just stared at him.

“You like to do things on your own, don't you?”

“Yeah. I don't ask for help unless I really need it.”

She smiled then and for the first time it looked like a real smile. “Me too.”

He shook his head. “Did you like it when I kissed you?”

She nodded. “Why did you?”

“To reward myself for being so good at my job.”

“I'm your reward?” she asked.

Hell yes. He wanted her to be his reward. But he knew that she couldn't be. He had let her get under his skin and that was a stupid thing for him to do, so he simply nodded and sent her back to her pallet.

She couldn't be his reward. Not unless he saved them all in the morning. And suddenly that was damned important to him. He never backed down on a mission and this sure as hell wasn't going to be his first time. No, this time he was going to save the day and win the girl.

He walked over to where Daphne lay and stood over her for a few long minutes. She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes, looking up at him. He wanted to lie down next to her and wrap her in his arms but now wasn't the time. Once they had Samatan and this mission was over, he was going to hold her all night.

 

Daphne managed a few hours' sleep and woke to a tense room. The pirates hadn't been down and everyone was sitting around waiting. There was nothing to do except wait and that was pricking tempers. Rudy, who had somehow achieved a Zenlike calm the day before, was pacing the room like a caged tiger.