Read Online The Devil's Tide by Matt Tomerlin - Free Book Online Page B

the quarterdeck. His men had stopped talking. They were starting to sense something was wrong.
    More of Hornigold's crew were drawing near, eyeing him expectantly. "Our true prize awaits on Griffith's Isle," Hornigold said. "We do not need to inconvenience others in the taking."
    The crew mumbled to one another. They didn't like that.
    "I'm confused," came that annoyingly raspy female voice again. Lindsay stretched a beseeching arm to the crew. "Are you not pirates? Is inconveniencing others not what you do, when you're not murdering them?"
    Everyone fell silent and looked at her.
    "This is unwise," Hornigold insisted.
    "Have you truly forgotten who you are?" she went on, moving past Hornigold. He grabbed her shoulder, but she shook free. One of the men giggled at that, nudging a friend.
    "Are you not pirates?" she repeated.
    The crew exchanged uncertain looks. Some of them were starting to smile.
    "Are you not pirates??"
    "I am!" someone in the back called.
    "So am I," agreed another.
    "Me too."
    "I don't like labels, but I suppose I is."
    "A vulgar term," Francois Laurent said with mock revulsion. Then he grinned. "But yes, I am."
    The sporadic voices swiftly merged into a collective roar. The sailors on the merchant ship were pulling away from the railing, horror settling in. Their captain stared uncertainly from his perch. A very young first mate was jabbering nervously in his ear, but the captain was too petrified to listen.
    "Look into their eyes!" Lindsay said, and everyone followed her gesture. "Look at the fear you inspire!"
    The pirates stomped their feet, and the report cracked as it echoed off the sails. Many of them drew cutlasses and pistols and raised them to the sky. Hornigold couldn't believe what he was seeing. He reached for his gun, but his hands slapped at an empty belt, and then he remembered he had thrown the gun at the surgeon during the storm.
    "See how they tremble before you!" Lindsay said, her voice transcending the ruckus.
    "This is madness!" Hornigold started forward, but he was halted in place. Copernicus Ryan had a firm grip on his shoulders. "Unhand me right now, Ryan," Hornigold said, in as deadly a tone as he could muster.
    Ryan blinked, remembering himself, and released Hornigold.
    "Claim your prize!" Lindsay bellowed.
    Andrew Harrow fired his pistol. The pirates loosed a deafening howl and surged forward, and the deck quaked beneath them. The crewmen on the merchant vessel stumbled over themselves to get away. Grappling hooks flew, catching in the ratlines. Ramps were spread across ships. Gunners raced to the cannons, though Hornigold knew that not a single cannon would be fired this day. Fear was the greater weapon.
    Ryan was good enough to favor Hornigold with a contrite bow of his head before hurrying after his peers.
    Kate Lindsay watched confidently as the pirates swept over the merchant ship like a plague of locusts. Her hair tossed in the breeze, but she didn't blink when the strands pervaded her vision. She had taken control of the crew with a few easy words.
    "You realize they may kill someone on that ship?" Hornigold growled.
    "I know that better than anyone," was her even reply. "When you accorded to this bargain, did you not think there would be consequences?"
    He stepped into her line of sight. "Under normal circumstances this would be considered an act of mutiny."
    She moved around him. "Normal circumstances? As you pointed out, captain, women are not fond of normalcy."
    He glared at her, but her gaze refused to shift his way, not even when her lips curved into a smirk that was surely meant for him.

ANNABELLE
    "Help me with these, would you, love?" said Edward Teach.
    Annabelle stepped into the soft candlelight, hoping he would notice how nice her breasts looked in the silk robe she had discovered while rummaging through booty in the hold. Her nipples were perfectly outlined beneath the thin material.
    Teach handed her four hemp cords. She sat on the desk before him, dipping