Read Jaded Tides (The Razor's Adventures Pirate Tales) for Free Online

to feel defeated for a moment before we’d even started. There were pirate ships as well as merchant ships. Having their headings as well as their shipping routes and the frequency of their voyages was priceless information, but we still needed a navigator. Rasmus was well-trained but hadn’t taken a voyage north of Florida in several years. Even he admitted a mission this vast required someone with far more knowledge and training than he.
    “Come back to bed now, lass,” Rasmus said as he stepped onto the porch.
    “Can we? Can we really manage this?” I looked up at him in the lantern’s glow, pleading with my eyes as I closed the book.
    “That we can, but we cannot do it at this hour,” he said, taking me by the hand and leading me back into the cottage.
    I crawled into his arms, and he pulled the sheet over me. I curled myself into his embrace and closed my eyes. As much as I wanted to stay in that position for all eternity, before I fell back to sleep I decided we’d spent enough time in paradise. The lives of people we hadn’t even met depended on us, and they didn’t have the security of knowing our plans. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what needed to be done, and I couldn’t sleep another night knowing we weren’t taking action to shut down this business for good.
     
    I was awake as the sun came up and the bands of light crept slowly across the smooth light wood floor. Our bedroom was the only room separated by a doorway, and with the curtained door tied open, I propped myself on one elbow and watched as our cozy main room came to life. I drew my fingers lightly over Rasmus’s shoulder and down the curves of his arm until his eyes fluttered open in the shadow between us.
    “Good morning,” I whispered and moved closer to him. I lay back down and rested my cheek on his forearm as it folded beneath his pillow.
    That arm I’d been stroking so lovingly drew me in closer to him, and within moments, he was making love to me again. In the several days we’d been here, I’d already lost count of how many times we’d found ourselves tied together like this. However, when we at last managed to rise from our bed, I began gathering our things and packing the trunk.
    “What’s this? You’re already tired of me?” he said with a chuckle as he entered the cottage with a basket of fresh fruit and a jug of water.
    “I love you, but I can’t spend one more day knowing that these girls are being stolen and sold like animals. If you love me, we’ll be on that ship and after those devils as soon as we can.”
    “May we at least eat first?” he asked as he pulled the dagger from his belt and began chopping up our breakfast.
    “Of course; we can discuss our plans as we eat. Dear God, Razz, please tell me you’ve cleaned that thing recently,” I chided with a sour expression.
    He raised an eyebrow at me, shook his head, and said, “No. I do believe I still see a bit of kidney right here,” he joked, pointing to a nonexistent spot on the blade.
    I joined him at the table and groaned at his attempt at humor. I opened the secret book and read some of the names of the ships off to him in hopes he’d heard of them. Since he’d been at this for a while, I was sure he knew some of them, and he most certainly did. He was even abreast of the routes of a few and pointed out several of the ships he’d already managed to intercept in their delivery of the girls. Mostly, he pointed out Barclay’s deliveries to Port Royal, as Barclay was the largest smuggler to this side of Jamaica. However, he was also quite familiar with the merchant ship Virginia Belle and the pirate ship Grand Fortune.   
    “So what you’re telling me is that our plan stands a chance?” I asked him as I popped a juicy slice of orange into my mouth.
    “Once we have an actual plan, yes. I see no reason why it wouldn’t work, but there is one problem,” he said as he leaned his elbows on the table and peeled a banana. “These routes are