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past them.
    “Let me go!” she insisted, knowing it would do no good, but still feeling the need to try.
    The dark-haired man stepped forward and gestured toward her. “You’ve got to let her go, Jack. She’s more trouble than even you want.”
    Jack’s low laugh was his only response.
    Now the man trailing them looked as if he wanted to throttle Jack as much as she did. “Please talk some sense into him,” Lorelei begged, hoping this stranger held some sway over her captor. At least he appeared to be more reasonable than the pirate.
    “Enough of this, Jack. Let her go.”
    Jack ignored him. “Lay on, Macduff; and damned be him that first cries, halt, enough.”
    Shakespeare? she thought with a frown. The king of pirates was quoting Shakespeare?
    “Very amusing, Jack,” the dark-haired man snarled. “Need I remind you, Macbeth lost his head.”
    Jack said nothing more as he opened a door, walked to the center of a large cabin, and finally released her. Immediately, she ran for the door.
    “Stop!” Jack roared in a voice so powerful that her body involuntarily obeyed.
    He crossed the room and stood before her. His eyes devoid of emotion, he stared sharply at her. “I weary of chasing you, my lady. If you so much as take one step from this room, then I shall be forced to kill you for it.”
    She swallowed convulsively as the rumors of his ferocity played through her mind. No one crossed Black Jack Rhys and lived.
    “Better dead than raped,” she said, her voice cracking with nervousness.
    Jack rolled his eyes. He turned to the dark-haired man. “Would you please tell the wench that rape isn’t included on my list of crimes against nations?”
    “Neither was kidnapping until tonight.”
    Jack’s look could have forged steel. “You’re not helping. And I haven’t any more time to deal with either one of you.” Jack directed his gaze back to Lorelei. “You’ll be locked in here until we get safely past the Brits. Try to relax and stay low to the floor.”
    “Low to the floor?” she asked in confusion.
    “Aye, you’re less likely to lose your head should a cannonball come crashing through the wall.”
    “Is that a jest?” she gasped.
    When he didn’t answer, she turned to the dark-haired man. “Is he joking?”
    “Nay.”
    Jack pulled a set of keys from his pocket. “Don’t worry,” he said with a taunting smile. “If the ship starts sinking, I promise I’ll come back and unlock the door.”
    Her stomach sank faster than a capsized boat.
    Lorelei was too stunned to move until after the two men had left the room and closed the door behind them.
    Rushing to the door, she rattled the knob as Jack locked it. “Nay!” Lorelei shrieked. “You have to let me go.”
    But it was no use. Jack locked the door and she listened as he and his companion walked away from her room.
    Lorelei closed her eyes in defeat. Her fate was sealed and she was doomed.
     
    J ack, I know you’ve—”
    “Listen,” Jack said, cutting Morgan off as they headed back topside. “I need you to deliver a message for me to Lieutenant Justin Wallingford.”
    “I don’t care if it’s to…” He watched as the name dawned on Morgan. “Wallingford?”
    Jack nodded. “She’s engaged to Lord Wallingford’s son.”
    The color faded from Morgan’s face. “You can’t be thinking what you’re thinking.”
    Jack rubbed his aching, wounded shoulder. He needed to get Morgan off his ship and tend his wound. The last thing he wanted was to bleed to death before he had a chance to even his score.
    “Morgan, I don’t have time to write the letter myself. I need you to do it after I’m gone. Tell Wallingford I’ll be waiting for him at Isla de Los Almas Perdidos .”
    “This is suicide, Jack.”
    “No,” he said, narrowing his gaze on the docks. “This is revenge.”
    Morgan glared at him for several seconds before he spoke again. “You know Thadeus wouldn’t approve of this.”
    Jack felt a tick begin in his jaw as