The DeCadia Code (The DeCadia Series Book 1) (2 page)

Tobias led her deeper into the slave hold to where he’d set up shop. Several crates bound together created a makeshift desk and old powder keg barrels stood for seats. Tobias motioned her to sit. Val declined to take the offered seat and moved instead to the one at his right, the one where her back was against the wall. A kerosene lantern helped illuminate the area. The lamps along the wall hardly gave off enough light to cast shadows. The fact that Tobias had a kerosene lamp was quite telling. He had to have an arrangement with either the Captain or his first mate.

Two battered tin cups were set in front of them with a substance that smelled like ale wafting up. Val hated the stuff, though she’d drink it if it meant keeping herself out of danger. Val pushed her tin to Tobias. “You first.”

He attempted to stare her down; it didn’t work. Better men than he had tried and failed in the past. A slow grin broke across his face and he picked up Val’s cup and threw out the contents. He then took a drink of his and passed it to her. Val nodded and took a swallow of the swill. “I like you, girl. How’d you end up here?”

“Stupid mistake I plan on rectifying as soon as we dock again.” Val debated on what to tell him. She’d gone over this conversation many times over the last three years as she searched for Tobias. Telling him the truth upfront wouldn’t serve her purposes. This secret had long been kept and she needed to earn Tobias’s trust in order for him to open up to her, to share his secrets. She’d worked too hard to ruin her chances now.

“Tell me about this mistake.” Another cup landed in front of Tobias. He grunted his thanks before taking a long drink.

Val decided to stick with the story she had told the Captain, only she added a few additional details. “My ship had docked and I found my way to Cravet’s Inn. I just wanted to relax, but there were several who decided I should be their entertainment for the night. Didn’t turn out too well for them. In the meantime, I didn’t know that the barkeep had drugged my drink while I fought. I finished my drink and left. I don’t think he’d counted on that. He looked upset when I left. Took about twenty minutes for the drugs to kick in. I stumbled into an alley. That much I remember. When I woke up, I was sitting bound up with the other slaves at auction this morning.”

Tobias looked at her thoughtfully and Val fought the urge to squirm. She couldn’t tell whether he believed her or not. She was betting not. “Did the Captain say why he wanted you?” Tobias asked instead of pressing her reasons for being caught.

Val made a disgusted face and Tobias chuckled. “Thought as much,” he laughed. “You’re too beautiful for your own good, girl. You need to ugly yourself up a bit.”

Laughter burst out around them. “She could be pockmarked and it wouldn’t matter with ‘er body. Man don’t need a face.”

“You’ll be sleeping with me, girl,” Tobias declared after a moment.

“Don’t make me regret not killing you, old man,” Val told him softly. And she would kill him. No one would make her a whore, not even someone she needed.

Tobias laughed outright. “Girl, if you want to show me some appreciation, fine. If not, that’s fine, too. I’m more concerned about your safety at night. Can’t watch you if you’re out there in the dark. Safer with me.”

Val cocked her head and stared back at him thoughtfully. “Why should you care?”

“Don’t know,” Tobias shrugged. “Something about you. Not sure what yet and I want to keep you close till I figure it out.”

Val wanted to deny and tell him he was wrong, but she wouldn’t lie to him. He’d catch her in a lie faster than Madame ever had. It was just something she knew to be true and she never ignored her gut instincts. “I think I need to worry about the Captain before I do this lot,” she muttered instead. Wouldn’t do to kill the Captain, still he wasn’t going to touch her.

“Leave the Captain to me,” Tobias said, another grunt escaping as he shifted on his barrel stool. “Now, what’s your name, girl?”

“Does it matter?” Val asked. “Girl works just as well.”

Tobias waved the others away, leaving only him and Val. “If you want my protection,
girl
, you’ll be telling me your name and no lies.”

Val heaved a sigh inwardly, keeping her blank face. She did not want to give him her name for many reasons. Lying to him was going to be tricky. Val could already tell they shared a common knack for sniffing out the truth. Her middle name then. That wouldn’t be a lie. “Aurora or Rory as everyone calls me.”

His eyes narrowed and Val cursed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Her middle name was the name of a highborn citizen. “That’s an unusual name,” Tobias said softly, his hand on his knife.

“I was born to the daughter of a Duke,” she said. “My grandfather allowed my mother to keep me until I was three, when her marriage contract came due. The old man sold me to a woman who raised me in a brothel. I learned from the security they employed how to protect myself.”

Tobias nodded slowly. “That why you’re so opposed to sharing yourself? Had to do it all your life?”

Val laughed. “No one touched me in that place. They learned right quick that they got a knife in the ribs if they dared. I watched women become whores, demean themselves and all for
nothing
. They died with naught but the legacy of a whore. I won’t do that. I turned my eyes to other things.”

“What
other
things did you do, girl?”

“I learned ships,” Val told him. “There’s not a job on a ship I can’t do.”

“What else, girl?”

“I have certain skills that are sometimes employed by a select clientele in order to procure items of value.”

“Fancy way of saying you’re a high priced thief,” Tobias laughed. “Why are you working ships if you’re thieving?”

“I do only select jobs of procuring goods for my clients, but being on a ship – feeling the wind in my hair, the rumble of the steam engines under my feet – there is nothing like it.”

“You sound more like a captain than a crew hand.” Tobias gave her another of his deep looks that made her squirm on the inside. Going into this, Val knew it would be tricky. She knew there would be times, even when she guarded against it, the truth would slip out unknowingly. She loved her ship, loved captaining her and she thought of her crew as family. It was hard to lie about that.

Instead of trying to find something to say that wouldn’t get her into hot water, she changed the subject. “What time do we get fed? I haven’t had anything to eat since early yesterday morning.”

Tobias’s gaze was measuring, though he let any further questions slide for now. “Come on, let’s feed you, girl.”

Val had no doubts they’d come back to this conversation, however was grateful Tobias let it go. She was starved and had an incredibly foul, bitter taste in her mouth, she’d sell her own soul to get rid of right now. She got up and followed Tobias deeper into the hold, her stomach growling.

What passed for dinner in the slave hold was hardtack, dried meat, water, and of course, the prisoner’s own deck-made rum. After her meal, Val was content to be led to her sleeping quarters. It had been a long day and she did need a little rest.

It was clear the other slaves in the ship’s hold respected Tobias. When he spoke, his word was final. She saw an admiration in their eyes as the old man gave instruction – something beyond respect or fear; they genuinely liked him.

As Tobias led Val deeper into the slave’s quarters she was surprised to see decorations placed on the wooden walls. The pictures were torn, artifacts mounted on the walls were worn and, in most cases, broken; still, what kind of slave ship allowed their slaves to set up décor along their living spaces?

“Whose your interior decorator?” Val asked. “You don’t strike me as the type.”

Tobias threw her a glance over his shoulder with a toothy smile. “Well, when you’ve been a slave for as long as I have with the reputation to bring a crew together to get work done, you’re offered a few privileges.”

Val’s eyes shot skyward. “So, you have a deal with the Captain?”

Tobias shrugged taunt shoulders making his canopy of tattoos contract and retract with his movement in the faint light. “I keep the slaves in line and the ship operating as it should. In return, we’re treated better. Simple as that.”

Val did a double-take, repeating Tobias’ words in her mind to make sure she was understanding him right. “Wait, you’re not saying you actually want to be a slave, are you?”

Tobias paused in front of a large door with a brass handle. In the light of the lantern he held in his right hand, with his left he reached down for the thick ring of keys hanging off his belt. There was twinge in his eyes that made Val wonder if she’d asked the wrong question.

Tobias’ normal alpha-like personality was clouded for the briefest of moments. A shadow
crossed the man’s face. In a fraction of a second, it was gone. “There are worse things in this world than becoming a slave to a ship, Aurora. Much darker things lurking where you’d least expect them.”

Though Val knew it was all in her mind, she could swear the diamond-shaped birthmark on her back, just below her right shoulder blade, began to itch.
Was this it? Was this the time to confront Tobias about my real reason for finding him?

Since she had arrived it had been too dark to inspect all of Tobias’ tattoos. Still, she knew she had found the right man. It was a gut instinct she couldn’t explain. A feeling indicating her journey was coming to an end. Before she could make up her mind on whether or not to confront him there, Tobias found the correct key to open the door.

Val mentally kicked herself. She had to be sure before she broached the subject. If this was the man that had answers, he would share a replica of her birthmark in the form of a tattoo. Until she knew for sure, she would continue as planned.

“Well, come in; I’m not going to bite. If I wanted to kill you, girl, I would have a hundred times over by now.”

Val took a deep breath and entered the room. It was far from extravagant though large for a slave’s quarters. The old coot must have worked out an arrangement with the ship’s Captain in exchange for his room.

The walls were thin, draped with massive maps. A small bed stood in one corner with the rest of the room piled high with old, musty books. “You like to read?”

Tobias finished lighting the array of candles strategically interspersed throughout his room. Their glow sent shadows dancing across the walls in a series of flickering leaps and bounds. “What gave you that idea?”

Val was about to respond as she tore her eyes away from yet another mountain of books standing in the corner. Her mouth was halfway open as she caught Tobias’ twinkling eyes. “Yeah, I’ll just take that as a ‘yes’.”

Tobias busied himself gathering sheets and blankets, arranging a makeshift bed on the floor. Val walked around the room with her arms folded across her chest admiring his maps. No two maps were the same. Lines were drawn across them all in a pattern Val had never seen.

“There we go, all set,” Tobias said as he took a step back from the pile of blankets on the floor. He stood admiring his work as if he were a child who had just drawn a picture.

Val had to bite back a laugh. Here he was, the infamous Tobias Blood, looking at a pile of blankets and pillows with pride. To Val, the mess on the floor didn’t look like a masterpiece to cause pride. The blankets were crumpled, the pillows dirty and even torn in a few spots.

“It looks great, but you don’t have to sleep on the floor,” Val said.

Tobias looked at Val as if she had gone mad. “I said I liked you, girl, I’m not going out of my way to do you any favors. You’re sleeping on the ground.”

That night Val lay on the cold floor of the ship. All the lights were out, however her eyes had already grown accustomed to the darkness. She had finally found him. She was in the same room as he, sleeping within ten feet of his bed.

Val formed a plan to find his tattoo. She would need to get up and tiptoe to his sleeping form. With any luck, he would be sleeping in such a way, his mark would be exposed. All she would need was a quick peek to confirm if what she felt deep inside were true.

Tobias’ soft snore traveled through the quiet in a series of snorts and whistles. Val took a long, deep breath and slowly rose from her makeshift bed.

“Can’t sleep?”

Val almost jumped as Tobias’s eyes stared at her with question. The light was so poor, she couldn’t tell whether his eyes had been open the whole time or if he just recently made the transition.

“You should really get some sleep, girl. Tomorrow, we’re casting off and you’ll need your strength for the boiler room.”

“Oh, right,” Val said as she fell into an impromptu stretching session. “I had a kink in my shoulder. You know, the area right below your right shoulder blade?”

If Tobias had any idea what she was talking about, he ignored her. Instead, he took a deep breath and addressed what he imagined her situation to be. “Listen, just trust me. The ship’s a lot better having you sleep in here for now instead of out there.”

Val let her arms fall by her sides disappointed her ploy had failed. “What’s that supposed to mean? I can take care of myself.”

“I think you’re misunderstanding my meaning, girl. You’re sleeping here to save the men from you, not the other way around. I need men that can work tomorrow, not slave hands nursing broken noses and dislocated joints.”