Pirate Wolf Trilogy Read Online Free PDF Page B

became clearer each
time he put his weight on his left leg. His hose, from the knee
down, was split, the calf beneath was wrapped in filthy strips of
bandaging. And the reason he had not set the second musket aside
was because he used it for a crutch. “Have you a winch and cables
on board?”
    “ Oh aye.
Aye,” Spence said, striving to suppress his excitement. “Cables
thick as my arm an’ a winch stout enough to lift a brace of
oxen.”
    Visions
of crates full of gold and silver bars sent a visceral thrill
through the members of the boarding party, for surely the grateful
Frenchman would offer to compensate Spence for his troubles. As
spry as she was and as bold a captain they had at the helm,
the Egret had been
plagued with nothing but foul luck on this voyage. Two months into
the venture a storm had forced them into Tortuga, where most of
their trade goods had been confiscated by greedy port officials.
They had some barrels of rum and bales of spices, but it would
barely bring enough in Plymouth to cover the cost of the
expedition.
    Spence’s
thoughts had taken a similar turn and were abuzz with so many
possibilities, he almost did not hear what Dante said next.
    “It isn’t gold
we’ll be transferring, Captain Spence. It’s guns.”
    “Eh? Guns, did
ye say?”
    Dante
nodded. “A commodity far more valuable than gold these days and as
you have already noted, we have a pretty arsenal on board
the Virago. I may be
able to do nothing to save my ship, but I sure as hell can save the
guns to use again another day.”
    Spence
looked again at the monstrous bronze demi-cannon. They were surely
beauties, with scrolled snouts and great winged eagles molded onto
the barrels; worth a small fortune to anyone whose intent was not
honest trade. “But … what of the gold ye took from Vera
Cruz?”
    “ We have
already been relieved of that burden,” said the pirate wolf, his
voice rusty with the same anger that kindled in his eyes. “But I
promise you, the guns are far more valuable. They are unique, in
fact, cast in the royal foundry at Marseilles. Mr. Pitt assures me,
if your beams are sound, you can take the weight. Your Egret is what… one hundred and eighty
tons, thereabout?”
    Spence nodded
mutely.
    “ The Virago is
one-sixty and she bore up with no complaint. It is well worth the
risk,” he added, grinding his teeth against a surge of impatience.
“These demi-cannon fire thirty pounds fourteen hundred yards, with
enough power behind them to blast any ship clear out of the
water.”
    “Any ship
except the one that found you,” Beau remarked under her breath.
Spit glared at her again, but he was too late.
    The startlingly
piercing eyes located the source of the whispered sarcasm and Beau
felt the tiny hairs across the back of her neck ripple to
attention. He walked toward her, pushing past the coughing
McCutcheon, whose attempt to camouflage what she had said went for
naught.
    He came right
up and stood in front of her, close enough for the menacing heat
that radiated off the masses of muscle and brawn to have melted any
man’s courage.
    “ Did you
say something to me, my
boy?”
    The
gunmetal jaw was level with the top of Beau’s head and she had to
square her shoulders and tilt her chin up to meet him directly in
the eye. It was a gesture her father knew all too well and she
thought she heard him groan but could not be certain; the blood was
suddenly pounding in her ears, too loudly for her to hear anything
but the sound of her own heartbeat.
    This
close, she could not help but be awed by the sheer size and
presence of the silvery-eyed sea hawk. His legs were long and thick
with muscle, barely contained by the filthy woolen hose; his waist
was lean, his belly—where it showed through the carelessly open V
of his shirt—was flat and hard as a board. Chest and arms would
have flattered a gladiator, with power flexing through every
sweat-sheened sinew. His neck was a solid pillar, the jaw blunted
somewhat