A Pirate's Heart (St. John Series) (23 page)

He strained against the ropes and could feel them tearing into his flesh. A pained expression crossed his face as the discomfort from the bullet wound reminded him of his injury. He looked around desperately. He had to get free; those bastards had Kristina!

Another wave crashed against Max, hitting him in the face. He shook his head in an attempt to remove the water from his eyes. Max looked down and could see the water line at his waist. Hope grew as he felt the ropes begin to give. He attempted to lean forward, but the pain in his shoulder stopped him again. He let out a loud curse.

“He’s over here!” he heard a voice yell behind him.

Max heard the sounds of footsteps running towards him. Slim reached him as another wave crashed into his face. Max spit out the salty water.

“Hurry up before I drown!” Max yelled

Slim took the knife out of his belt and quickly cut the bindings holding Max. Max rolled over face down onto the wet sand so Slim could cut the rope from his hands. Pain shot through his body as he attempted to push himself upright. He didn’t know how long he had been tied to that tree, but his body rejected the newfound freedom. James and Slim slipped their arms around Max and helped the quartermaster stand. Max grabbed Slim’s arm and looked frantically around.

“Kristina?!” Max asked, hoping that she had somehow managed to escape.

“I hav no seen her.”

“Hawkins,” Max gritted out. “The bastard kidnapped her. We have to go after him!”

“You are in no condition to go after her,” James said.

Max glared at him. “Like hell I’m not. I’ve been shot before.” He turned back to face Slim. “Go to the docks and get
The Abyss
ready to sail.”

“Where are ya goin’?” Slim asked Max.

“My weapons are in the house. I’m going to retrieve those and make sure Samuel doesn’t follow.” Max knew the young boy would want to help with the rescue. The hell he would receive from Alex if he took Samuel out to sea without him would be worth it, but Max did not want to have to contend with protecting the boy when his mind would be on rescuing Kristina.

Slim nodded his head and ran quickly back to the house. He saddled a horse and headed towards the docks, James following close behind.

When Max entered the house several minutes later, Mrs. Potts darted frantically to him. A worried look came over her face as she spied his injury. “What happened?” she asked as she looked around him for Kristina. “Where’s your wife?”

Max looked at Mrs. Potts. “She’s been taken,” he said as he walked past her.

“By whom?” she yelled after him.

Max did not answer. He climbed the steps two at a time. He entered his chambers and collected his weapons. He walked to the wardrobe and pulled out a thin black belt. As he was leaving, Samuel appeared.

“I’m going with you,” the boy said.

Max shook his head. “Not this time, boy.” In one quick move Max pressed Samuel’s lanky frame against the wall and bound his hands behind him with the black belt.

“You can’t do this!” Samuel protested. Max shoved Samuel into a vacant room, pushed him onto the bed and rolled him up in the white quilt, leaving his head exposed, but hindering the boy’s movements. “I can help!” the boy cried, struggling against the cocoon.

“No. You cannot go. Alex would kill me. Besides, you do not need to witness what I am going to do to those bastards.” With that Max left the room. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked at Mrs. Potts. “Leave the boy restrained until you know for certain that
The Abyss
will no longer be in port. Understand?”

Mrs. Potts nodded her head and gave Max a worried look. She had never seen such a cold expression in his eyes. He was a man with murder on his mind. She could sense what he was about to do to the men who took his wife and it frightened her.

She had an herbal paste in her hands and pressed it into Max’s wound to stop the bleeding. Max winced as she tightly packed the wound.

Once finished, Mrs. Potts said, “Go. I will take care of the boy.” She watched Max race to the barn. In an instant, he was on his way to the docks in Nassau. She watched as the stallion he rented raced past the house with the devil himself sitting on its back.

Max reached Nassau in record time. Slim was only minutes in front of him. As Max hurried to the docks, he ran into Slim along with the other crew. Max said nothing as he walked straight to
The Abyss
. Once on board he bellowed, “Smitty!”

The old man had been watching Max and the crew coming to the ship. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but Max’s movements told him something was amiss.

“Yes, Mr. Hart,” Smitty answered.

“Is she ready to sail?”

“Always.”

“Which way did Hawkins go?”

Smitty shook his head. “I don’t rightly know. I wasn’t here when he left.” He could tell by the way Max looked at him that this was not the answer he wanted to hear. “I’ll find out. Wait here.” Smitty walked down the gangplank and returned several minutes later. “He headed south ‘bout an hour ago.”

“Slim, are the crew all aboard?”

Slim nodded his head. “All but da capt’n.”

“Make ready to sail!” Max ordered.

“What’s goin’ on?” Smitty asked. “You know I’ll folla yer orders, Max, but where is the capt’n?”

“He’s already departed for Governor’s Harbour. Hawkins took Kristina and I don’t plan on waiting for Alex’s return to go find her.”

Smitty pressed his lips together as he looked at the quartermaster and a sense of doom came over him. In the ten years he had known Max, never had he witnessed the man in his present state. Max normally had a dangerous aura about him, but this was different. There was an unusual eeriness to him. He was deathly calm. Smitty could tell someone was about to die at Max’s hand and he pitied the bastard for he knew it was going to be a painful death.

* * * *

The Abyss
popped and creaked as the warm breeze caught all of its gray sails. The ship sped quickly out of the harbor. Max took hold of the helm and turned the ship in the direction of
The Revenge’s
heading.

Hawkins had a good two hours head start. Smitty insisted that supplies be brought aboard just in case it was a while before they caught up with
The Revenge
. With the heavy cargo unloaded from
The Abyss’s
prior hauls, her speed increased substantially. The bow of the ship rose up and down as it crashed into the waves of the incoming tide.

Smitty approached Max. “Did Mrs. Potts put her concoction on yer wound?”

“Yes,” Max replied. Whatever Mrs. Potts put in her herbal remedies always helped. The paste she used to pack wounds with had a numbing agent. Max’s gunshot still ached, but not as badly.

He stood at the helm looking straight ahead, his eyes scanning the seas. He looked at Smitty. “Have someone climb to the crow’s nest with Alex’s long spyglass. I want to know the second
The Revenge
is spotted.”

Smitty nodded his head. Max’s actions concerned him. He had never witnessed Max so obsessed with a woman. Sure, the younger man had women waiting for him at every port they docked at, but he never took interest in them except to meet his sexual desires. Kristina had somehow gotten to Max. She had broken that invincible barrier he had surrounding his heart.

“Go below and rest. I’ll let you know when Hawkins is spotted,” Smitty told Max. He could see the wound was beginning to take its toll on Max’s strength.

“No, I’m fine. I’ll rest when I’m dead.”

“And that’s what you’ll be if we catch up to Hawkins in yer present state. There’s no need fer ya not ta rest and regain yer strength.” Smitty could tell Max wanted to refuse. “I’ll take the helm. Go on now, pup. I’ll put Uveah in the nest, and James and Slim can handle the crew. Rest yerself now sa ya can rescue yer wife.”

Max reluctantly agreed and headed towards his quarters. He sat down in the chair and grabbed a bottle of rum. Taking a long, slow drink he closed his eyes. Despite Mrs. Potts herbal packing, his shoulder had started to severely ache again. He knew the bullet was still lodged deep in his arm and needed to be removed, but now was not the time. He needed to focus all his energy on rescuing Kristina.

Max leaned back in the chair and allowed his head to rest on the wall behind him. He closed his eyes in an attempt to rest, but the image of Kristina being struck kept running over and over in his mind. He must have drifted off to sleep for when he raised his head up, an hour had passed. There was a knock on his door and Smitty entered.

“No sign of
The Revenge
yet,” Smitty informed Max.

Max just nodded his head and said nothing. He placed the bottle back to his lips and took another drink.

Smitty eyed the younger man. He did not look good. His color had paled substantially since they left. “Ya need doctorin’.”

“I’m fine.”

Smitty walked over to Max and pulled the back of Max’s shirt down and shook his head. “That bullet’s gotta come out.”

“No, it can wait,” Max insisted.

“Slim’s at the helm. This ship ain’t gonna catch her any faster with a bullet in yer shoulder. And ya won’t be any help ta her if yer eat up with a fever er dead.” Max nodded his head in agreement. “Take yer shirt off.”

Max stripped out of his blouse. He watched as Smitty pulled the long knife from his belt and held it over the open flame of the lantern. Smitty took the bottle of rum from Max and poured it over the front of Max’s shoulder and then on the blade of the knife. The heated blade hissed in protest of the cool liquid. A swirl of steam emitted from the blade as Smitty walked over to Max.

“Grit yer teeth,” Smitty informed Max as he placed the tip of the hot blade to Max’s shoulder. He could feel Max’s muscles tense up as the blade pierced the younger man’s flesh. Beads of perspiration dotted Max’s forehead from the pain. Max’s jaw clenched tightly and a deep groan emitted from his chest as Smitty pierced his flesh with the hot knife.

Smitty made a deep cut into the shoulder and dug around the opening with the tip of the blade until he felt the hardness of the bullet. He took his fingers and began digging around in the opened area to retrieve the bullet. He heard the younger man whisper a curse word as his fingers prodded the wound. Smitty grasped the metal projectile and pulled it out of the opening.

“Got it,” he said as he dropped the bullet to the floor. Picking up Max’s discarded shirt he pressed it over the wound. He applied pressure for several minutes to slow the bleeding. Once the bleeding had slowed, he ripped a piece of the shirt off and made a make shift bandage for the bleeding wound. Stepping back from Max, he gave him a concerned look and left, saying nothing.

Max stood up, looked around the small cabin and gave a deep sigh. He turned to face the washbasin. As he cleaned the blood from his arm, he caught a glimpse of something above the mirror. A puzzled look crossed his face as he spied a small shelf that was not there when he left his quarters the other day. He furrowed his brow as he studied the shelf. On top of it was the toy ship he’d stolen from Jonathan’s store when he was younger. It was mounted to the shelf by a black ribbon. He realized that Kristina must have done this before she left the ship.

The thought of her empathy sent his fist crashing into the wall. He pulled his hand back and looked at the area his fist hit. The force of his blow caused his skin to tear on the rough wood. He let out a loud roar as he overturned the table, sending its contents scattering throughout the small cabin. The feelings surging through his mind and body were new to him. He felt like a hurricane had been released inside his soul and nothing could stop the storming vortex except Kristina’s safe return. If these were the feelings stirring within him after just a few weeks with her, he could not fathom what they would be like in a month . . . a year . . . a lifetime. Each day would make it more and more difficult to let her go. Max forcefully jerked open the dresser drawer and pulled on a shirt as he headed out the door. He walked straight to the helm.

Slim watched the younger man. “No sign of her, Max.”

Max’s eyes went skyward towards the masts. All sails were dropped. His eyes turned back towards Slim. “I’ll take over now.”

Slim could tell by the tone in Max’s voice not to deny him the desire to captain the vessel. “I’ll relieve ya at dark.”

Max nodded his head. He took command of the ship. After several hours at the helm, there hadn’t been any sightings of
The Revenge
. A grave feeling invaded Max. The sun was setting and he knew they would have to stop their search until morning.

“Max,” Smitty said as he approached Max. “We’re goin’ ta have ta drop anchor fer the night.”

“In a little while, Mr. Smitty,” Max snapped.

Smitty looked at Max. “I know ya want ta find her. Hell, we all do. But these waters are full of unseen reefs and it won’t do no good if’n we hit one.”

A pained look crossed Max’s face as he reluctantly nodded his head. He heard Smitty give the orders to tether the sails and drop the anchor for the night. Max watched as Uveah climbed down from the nest.