The Pirate Read Online Free PDF Page B

lazy too,” Daphne said. “He was trying to convince me to let him play video games all summer instead of going to the academic camp I signed him up for.”
    Laz arched an eyebrow at her, “Did it work?”
    â€œNo,” she said. “I want my boys to have every opportunity and only a good education can ensure that.”
    She just shook her head at him. He was charming and that was a big part of her problem. She didn’t want to like this man, because she didn’t trust him.
    â€œFight!”
    Another man yelled something she didn’t understand but she recognized the telltale sounds of a crashing chair. She looked over at the tables behind her in time to see two men fighting.
    Laz stood and reached the men in two long running strides. He didn’t reach into the fighting men but just stood next to them.
    â€œBreak it up.”
    His voice was a bellow that made her ears ring. The command was clear, but the men he spoke to weren’t fazed at all and didn’t pause in their fighting. She didn’t know what Laz was going to do but he waded into the mess and slammed the men’s heads together. They both fell to the deck but continued fighting.
    Laz kicked the back of one man’s knee and he fell to the floor moaning. He grabbed the other man and punched him in the gut. They were both on the floor. The tall African man whose name she couldn’t remember was bleeding.
    Daphne walked over to the crowd of men on the deck. The coppery smell of blood brought back memories of her residency days when she’d worked in the ER. She’d enjoyed that time and the adrenaline rush that came from treating patients who had critical needs. There was a lot to be said about doctoring like that. Though she did enjoy her pediatric practice she’d always liked ER medicine.
    â€œStay where you are,” Laz ordered.
    She shook her head. “That man is bleeding profusely, and I can help him. In fact, that’s what I’m trained to do, Captain. So let me do my job.”
    â€œIn a minute,” he said. “I doubt that Renault’s wound is critical. He can wait until I get to the bottom of this ruckus.”
    Renault said something in a language that Daphne didn’t understand. But Laz nodded and spoke back to the man. How many languages did he speak?
    It was another facet of the man she was starting to know, and she realized that the more she learned about him the more questions she had.
    Why would a sea captain speak that many different languages? She guessed fluency came from traveling. She was looking for suspicious behavior and kept finding it.
    She didn’t know if she liked this side of Laz but she did find comfort in the fact that he knew how to handle himself. She felt just a little safer knowing that he wasn’t a man who’d run away from a fight.
    Â 
    Laz signaled to Hamm and another crew member to take Renault and Fridjtof down below. They had a small first-aid room, which is where he ordered Renault taken. He really needed to bash some heads together to get rid of the excess anger that was riding him.
    The tension of waiting for the pirates to attack and of hoping that their plan would work was getting to him. Having his men act like teenagers with no discipline also pissed him off. He needed his men to behave like grown-ups. There was enough tension on this tanker without adding testosterone posturing into the mix.
    â€œIs it safe for me to go with the injured man?” Daphne asked.
    â€œYes,” Laz said. He didn’t want her alone with any of his men. “Hamm, stay with her. I need to talk to Fridjtof.”
    Daphne followed Hamm down the gangway. Laz didn’t like the trouble that Fridjtof had caused. What was going on with that man?
    Laz entered the hold—a rather large room that was used to transport private containers that weren’t large enough to make the trip on deck like most of the containers they hauled.