In the Arms of a Pirate (A Sam Steele Romance Book 2) (2 page)

Luke stopped to gather Sam in his arms, but Aidan marched until he reached Claire and Nate. He took a deep breath and shook the fists from his hands. The need for revenge snarled within him, a rabid beast desperate to be set free, but he fought to contain it. He wasn’t the only one who’d lost tonight.

“Claire,” he said, setting his hand on her arm. “I am so terribly sorry.”

“Oh, Aidan.” She turned to him and he pulled her closer when her tears soaked his shirt.

He rubbed her back and looked over her head to Nate. Nate had little Will in his arms while the twins hugged his leg. “Had we known Roche was trailing us, we never would have led him here. I swear we never would have put you, your home, and everyone else at risk.”

Which was yet another reason to go after Roche. Willingly or not, it was because they’d attacked Roche’s ship to begin with and taken Grace from it that the man had set out after them.

“It’s just a house, Aidan. It can be replaced.” Yet the loss was evident in his every feature, in the drooping of his shoulders.

Claire sniffed, patted Aidan’s arm, and, with a shattered expression, went back to her husband’s side. The twins reached for her, sobbed into her skirts. Will’s chin wobbled, likely more due to the emotions he felt around him than any real understanding.

Beside Nate, Grace’s silent tears trailed down her face. Aidan knew she took the blame for what had happened tonight. But she, like the rest of them, hadn’t anticipated the lengths Roche would go to in order to get her back. Once she’d realized the extent he would go to, however, Grace had risked her life to spare the others.

“You saved us, Grace.” Aidan hurried to reassure. “We’re all alive because of you.”

“Look about, Aidan. There are dead on the ground and ’tis be my fault.”

“You are not responsible for Roche’s actions and there would be plenty more dead had you not risked yourself to save us.”

With the house burning around them, with Roche outside waiting to shoot as they escaped the flames, Grace had refused to come out until he’d let the others reach the safety of the trees. It was God’s truth more would be dead if it hadn’t been for her.

It weighed on him to see her hurting, to know they were all hurting, yet the soothing and comforting would have to wait. He glanced over his shoulder, struggled not to react when he saw Cale heading toward them. Their eyes met but Aidan looked away. He focused instead on Luke, who’d also noticed Cale’s approach. Luke’s glance jumped from Aidan to Cale. Aidan gave a slight shake of his head.

Turning his back on Cale, Aidan leaned in and said to Nate, “If Roche decides to come back, we are ripe for the picking. Our weapons are depleted and we’ve nowhere to hide.”

It didn’t take long for grief to give way to anger. “He won’t get another chance at us, of that you can be sure.”

“You live on this island. Is there somewhere safe you can take the women and children where they won’t be at risk?”

Claire wiped her tears. “How about Vincent’s House?”

“Go Vincent’s House!” Will exclaimed, his mood brightening as fast as only a child’s could.

Vincent’s House was the name of a trio of orphanages Claire and Nate ran. Besides Santo Domingo there was also one in San Salvador and Port Royal.

“You think it wise to go to the orphanage?” Luke asked. Apparently, the others had heard Will’s outburst as they were gathering round. Nate, Claire, Aidan, and Grace stepped back allowing everyone to form a large circle.

“I’ll not put children in danger on me behalf,” Grace said firmly, her Irish accent coming through thick.

“We have more weapons stored there,” Nate answered. “Under lock and key, well away from the children,” he added when Grace looked horrified.

“It’s not nearly as remote a location as this is,” Claire explained. “Vincent’s House may be on the edge of Santo Domingo, but it is still within the city’s walls.”

“If Isaac led Roche here, he may have also told him about Vincent’s House. It may not be safe,” Aidan continued.

“Who’s Isaac?” Claire asked.

“One of my crewmen,” Cale said. “After he tried to attack Grace, I marooned him for his efforts. Roche must have been trailing us and somehow managed to find him. It had to have been Isaac who led Roche here, as how else could he have known where we were?”

“There was a ship that kept weaving in and out of sight but it never came any closer and both”—Aidan stumbled on the name and had to swallow before continuing—“both Cale and I dismissed it as a threat.”

“Obviously, we know now it must have been Roche’s ship and Isaac was definitely on it as he’s the one who shot me,” Cale said, drawing attention to the bandage the doctor amongst his crew—Jacques—had placed over the wound. He looked apologetically to Nate and Claire. “Isaac threw the firepots that started the fire. By the time I saw him, it was too late to keep him from tossing the second one, but I ensured it was the last thing he ever did.”

“Well, that’s something at least,” Nate muttered.

“Still, wouldn’t have been necessary if he hadn’t led him straight to us,” Luke taunted with a jab toward Cale.

Cale’s eyes glinted. His mouth hardly moved when he snarled, “You weren’t there, you don’t know. About any of it.”

Before Luke could answer, something shifted in the woods. Everyone sprang into action. Husbands and crew alike grabbed children and hoisted them off the ground or from their mother’s arms to hasten the group’s retreat. Then, fast as their feet would take them, everyone fled toward Santo Domingo.

*

Despite the fact
they did not appear to have been followed, they took no chances. The moment they were inside the orphanage, doors and windows were reinforced, women took the children to the cellar and weapons were gathered. Once they were armed, a dozen of their crew was sent outside to keep guard while another dozen was sent back to Nate’s. If indeed Roche came back through the clearing, they needed to cut as many pirates down before they could reach the orphanage.

Aidan understood the reasoning and he agreed it all needed to be done, for he would die before he let any more harm come to his family. Yet every time he was called on to move this or help here, he envisioned Roche sailing further and further out of reach. The bastard couldn’t get away with what he’d done to Aidan’s mother. Taking a plank of wood from the pile at his feet, Aidan slapped it over a window.

“Damn it man, you almost crushed my fingers!”

“Get them out of the way, Chunk, or you deserve to lose them,” Aidan stated.

His comment earned him a glare from the burly man but that was the least of Aidan’s concerns. He hammered in the nail, then another, imagining they were Roche’s face. The clang of metal on metal was not as satisfying as the crunch of bone, but he swung with the same intent. He never missed. With the last board nailed in place, Aidan tossed his hammer aside.

Whatever remained to be done now the others could do. The orphanage was fortified enough that Aidan could leave without feeling he was leaving them vulnerable. After what felt like days, though couldn’t have been more than hours, he was finally ready to go after Roche and the
Revenge
.

The orphanage was a sprawling structure and despite the fact Aidan had been there a few times, he never failed to get lost in it. Hallways, arms of them, mocked him. Every time he rounded a corner thinking he would come upon the stairs, he simply found another corridor lined with bedrooms. Bloody hell, he’d just finished nailing boards on these very bedroom windows, why the devil couldn’t he find his way to the stairs? He was near ready to rip the damn planks off a window and take his chances jumping from the second story.

Finally, he heard the unmistakable sound of boots on steps. Aidan heaved a frustrated breath. Coming around the corner he nearly collided with Cale.

“There you are, I’ve been looking for you. I wanted to talk to you before—”

“Where is everyone?” Aidan’s words rolled over Cale’s and if the man didn’t get out of his way, his body would as well.

“In the dining room downstairs. I’d hoped—”

“You hoped wrong.” Aidan’s shoulder clipped Cale’s as he hastened past.

Cale was a solid bulk of a man. He grabbed Aidan’s arm and held tight, forcing Aidan to stop. They may have been father and son but where Cale was thick through the shoulders and chest, Aidan’s frame was long and lean. He may not have Cale’s bulk, but he wasn’t weak either. And he was taller. He used that fact to glare down at the man who’d sired him. “Let me go.”

“Will you listen to me if I do?”

Aidan’s lip curled. “It’s a bit late for explanations and excuses.”

Cale lowered his hand. “Clearly you’re not ready to talk to me yet, but you’ll have to one day. I won’t give up.”

Aidan glared at the man he’d considered friend for the past four years. Now he knew Cale was so much more. Yet despite his conflicting emotions, despite the hurt and the longing, there was one fact he simply could not get past.

“Funny that. I thought you already had,” Aidan said.

*

It was a
somber group that greeted Aidan when he strode into the room, Cale directly behind him. Although it was night and the windows would have been dark regardless, the room felt dimmer, more confined with the boards covering them. The fact that they all smelled as though they had bathed in smoke helped little to ease the oppressiveness hanging in the air. Not even the flickering lamps or the thick columns of candles burning on the table chased away the gloom.

Faces were long and stark, eyes troubled, mouths curved downward.

The dining room in the orphanage could easily sit fifty children. Two long tables sat next to each other, benches on each side. Three sideboards, which would be laden with food come morning, rested against the far wall. The way Aidan saw it, there were likely children
with
parents who had less food than Claire’s orphans.

As far as Aidan knew, there had never been more than two-dozen orphans sitting at these tables at one time, but that hadn’t stopped Nate and Claire from building it large enough so no child in need would ever be turned away. With the share of Steele’s plunder given to them, acquiring supplies was never a problem.

Holding tight to Sam’s hand, Luke slid over on the bench. Aidan took his seat next to Luke while Cale settled on the opposite side next to Grace. Cale looked at Grace, gave her a reassuring smile. He took her hand, held it close. It only took seconds for his eyes to lock onto Aidan’s.

“I’m going after Roche,” Aidan stated. “It makes the most sense, as I have neither children nor a wife. Luke, if I take the
Freedom
and a crew and we leave now, we can catch Roche before he gets too far.”

“If you’re going after Roche, I’m going with you,” Cale stated.

Aidan’s spine stiffened. “Absolutely not.”

“
I’ll
be the one going with Aidan,” Luke growled at the same time.

Nate held up his hands. “Nobody is going after Roche tonight. I understand you want him, but there is no way to know which way Roche is headed.”

Envisioning Roche sailing away had Aidan seeing red. The man had killed his mother and destroyed his family. He’d turned Aidan’s life upside-bloody-down and he’d be damned before he let the scoundrel get away with it. On the ship that was meant to be his no less.

“How do we even know he has left the island?”

“Because we’re alive,” Cale answered Alicia. “Had it been Roche in those trees, he would have followed and caught us and we would not be sitting here now.”

“I saw him sail away and he’s getting further the longer we sit here and talk about it.” Aidan slapped his hands against the table. The candle nearest him wobbled, the flame danced crookedly before righting itself.

“Leaving now will not guarantee you catch him. There is still no way to know where he’s headed,” Blake repeated.

“And he has the
Revenge
now as well. You plan on attacking two ships with one?” Nate asked.

“If I have to, yes. The man nearly killed us all tonight, not to mention what he’s already done to me. I won’t have him sailing away free as a bird.”

Sam leaned forward in her seat. “What did Roche do to you?”