Chapter Thirteen

Lacey prayed as she heard the sounds of clanking metal and screams of dying men. She prayed for his safety. She told herself it was because he was a good captain as far as keeping them all alive. If he died, then another, who didn't care to let the men have her or Sarita, may take charge. She found her prayers were soon answered when Danny came tumbling in to the cabin. He was covered in blood to the extent that his face had splattered speckles of blood on it.
Danny plopped to the bed falling like a tree cut down in its prime. His hands still clung to the dagger as his knuckles whitened around it. His long sword had blood trailed clear up to its hilt.

Danny's eyes blinked but never moved from staring at the ceiling. His chest heaved in and out. Lacey could do nothing but stare.

"Captain, the spoils are locked away in the bottom deck to be separated once counted." Tyler's face was pale with fear. He cleared his throat. "Sir, the few sailors you left alive request to be a part of the crew. They said they will gladly bestow their loyalty to you."

Danny continued to not move his eyes. Tyler ran his hands through his hair awaiting an answer.

"Take care of it." Danny barely spoke above a whisper. "Have them sign the articles."

His presence was so still yet so overpowering that it stifled the air in the room. His eyes would blink once in awhile alerting Lacey that he was alive. Lacey looked up. She noticed Tyler's hands shaking as well as his legs trembling.

Tyler breathed out in shaky voice. "Sir, the ship. What do we do with it? It is a good ship."

"It doesn't provide our needs. Take what you can. Then burn it." Danny still never moved his eyes from the ceiling.

"Aye, sir." Tyler walked out still shaken. Therefore, he unwittingly left the door open.

Lacey could hear whispers from the deck. Whispers that dare not have been spoken if they knew the captain's door was open.

"That was the worst massacre I've seen in my twenty years at sea." The voice of an old sea dog spoke in a frightened whisper.

"Captain Danny was angry today. Those men paid for his wrath. He killed more men than five of us put together." Another voice. Another pirate.

"He was being attacked." Archie's voice was angry as he took up for his captain. "Should've he died instead?"

"The colors were Rinaldi's colors. The captain's anger was worse due to that. However, today his anger was more hate than I've seen in any man even our own captain." A gunner wiped his brow as he spoke with shaky words.

"We attacked because of his ferocious manner. We feared for our lives and so acted." Another frightened voice spoke.

"Mind your new position. Danny is now your captain. He is well respected. And very feared by us all. Your own captain died at his hands." Tyler's voice was still shaky.

Danny had killed more men than was necessary. His rage was evident to all who saw his cutlass slice and his dagger stab. He moved quickly and they died quickly. That was Danny's own strange mercy to the men. They die without pain.

Lacey blinked again feeling numb and frightened at the words spoken about Danny by both the crew he had captured and his own crew. Her thoughts ceased momentarily, when Sarita was tossed into the room landing on her hands and knees.

"Help the raven haired one clean up my captain." A pirate with long beard and long tangled hair stated. He then shut the door.

Danny still held his eyes staring at the ceiling.

"Is he alive?" Sarita walked over to him.

"Yes. Blood of another never satisfies the taste for revenge." Lacey stated. "Captain Danny is known for his brutality."

Danny's hand came up and grabbed Lacey's wrist tightly. "Speak not of my life."

"I dare not say a thing." She winced as he squeezed tighter. Her heart raced as blood stained her wrist from his hand.

"What say of me?"Danny never adverted his eyes from the ceiling.

"You say not to speak. Then you ask." Lacey was afraid. She wasn't sure what to do. This man frightened her more now than when his body lay on her. He was not the same one that lay behind her calming her in the storm.

"I ask for an answer. What do you know of the pirate Danny Desai?" He growled.

Sarita spoke up seeing the fear in Lacey's face. She figured the captain had already had his way with Lacey. "I hear that Danny Desai is seven foot tall. He has the face of an angel. The body of a god. But the heart that beats within him is of a demon."

Danny dropped Lacey's hand. His hand just hung almost lifeless.

"That is a lie." Lacey submerged a rag in water and then pulled it out. She began to wipe Danny's face. "He isn't seven foot tall."

A small smile curled on Sarita's lips. She hoped the captain wouldn't kill them for their banter. Danny never moved nor acknowledged them. Lacey's hands began to shake as she unbuttoned Danny's blood soaked shirt. She ran her hand over the wetness of the tacky blood on his arms to his hand still grasped around the dagger. Her small fingers tenderly pried his whitened fingers from the dagger's handle. It fell from his hand causing a clank of metal hitting bare wood floor. His storm was raging full force although the sea was now calm. Maybe it was time to return the favor of soothing him as he did her the night before.

Lacey pulled off Danny's bloodied shirt. Sarita rinsed the cloth from the blood as Lacey wiped him down. He still didn't move. She reached down and unbuckled Danny's trousers. Sarita frowned sideways. She could tell Lacey was timid in her actions. Her body trembled in fear that any moment the captain would stop his stare. Thus, he'd slap either girl for being near while he was still with anger seething in his heart.

Lacey pulled the belt out slowly dropping it beside the dagger on the floor. Her small hands tried to force off his pants. Sarita finally gave in and helped remove his trousers. All that was left of his clothing was the long underpants that lay beneath his trousers. Even they were soaked in blood. And the blood was still soaking into the material.

"Captain Danny, you have a wound." Lacey could see the material gaping on his left leg. "Your underpants have to be removed."

"So take them." Danny was too exhausted to care or to think about Lacey's hands removing his clothing.

Sarita and Lacey removed Danny's underpants. She cleaned his wound just above the knee. Luckily, it wasn't too deep. Lacey looked up to see Sarita staring wide eyed. She followed Sarita's stare. Then she grabbed a blanket to toss over Danny's nakedness. She felt a strange sense of possession over him. She too had glanced up to check out his manhood. But Sarita should not have as far as Lacey was concerned.

As Lacey continued to take the rag over every valley on his chest, she gulped. Danny was soon asleep. But Lacey continued to clean the blood from his body.
Her hands were no longer nervous because he slept. Yet, her trembling came unexpectedly as she watched the water trickle from the rag down the valley on his chest. His belly sunk in and out with heavy breathing. Lacey licked her lips. Without hesitating, Lacey traced the bead of water sliding down the patch of hair under his belly button. Her finger quivered as it followed. She stopped at the covers edge wanting so to dip her finger below and continue down. Lacey stopped and closed her eyes. Who was she to touch the captain like this? She was married. Yet, this man's body lured her to touch more than she had ever been tempted. She steadied her breathing before rinsing the rag. She continued to take all remnants of his killing spree from his tanned skin.

"It is true." Sarita whispered so not to wake the captain. "He has a body of a god."

Lacey never answered. Instead a tear trickled down her face. She was unsure why she was crying. But deep down she knew that she cried for herself being so weak as to want to touch this man. This evil man who kidnapped her from her home and killed the men on the merchant ship, caused her body to burn inside as hot as the fire pits she was bound to go if she didn't stop the thoughts of him.

"I'm sorry. I guess his body taking you is upsetting." Sarita sat in the chair once she saw the captain clean of blood.

"He never took me. He was…" Lacey hesitated. The word sounded strange but it fit the circumstances. "a gentleman."

"You both may return to the master's cabin." Tyler poked his head through the door.

Sarita stood up. She turned to look at Lacey.

"I'll stay with your captain. He has wound I should tend to so he doesn't lose his leg." Lacey glanced at Sarita hoping that Sarita understood her silent stare. She knew that the wound was small and in need of little care.

"Shall I get the surgeon?" Tyler questioned in a worried tone.

"No." Lacey swallowed as she took her eyes over Danny's entirity. "I'll take care of him."