Chapter 17: My Terms

Will felt bile rise in his throat at the sight before him. His wife was being held by a psychotic man who had shot Romi only days before, and now this same man had a pistol at her head.

Jack walked up calmly in front of Will facing Diego. "Diego, ye know ye'll never get away with this. With only three men and there's nowhere to run now."

Diego held a firm stare with Jack. "I see it differently Captain Sparrow. Knowing that I have Mrs. Turner will make you think twice about following me. And now that I am seemingly in control of the situation you will listen to my terms."

Jack was becoming quite irate at this point. He wanted nothing more than to pull his pistol out and shoot this man in the head, but he knew he couldn't risk Angela's life.

He replied with clear aggravation in his voice. "What terms did ye have in mind?"

"Firstly, neither you nor none of your men can follow us off this ship. I see we hit land and so we will stay on the island until morning comes. When it does I want you to leave one of your life boats on the beach on the other side of this island, but I don't want to see any of your men near that boat or I will kill her on the spot."

Jack was playing all this out in his head as Diego spoke and was even now forming a plan. "Is that all?"

Diego gave him an unsettling smile. "I know you have gold on this ship Sparrow. And though I know you have many chests to spare, I am not a greedy man, I want one chest of gold in that life boat. Once I see the boat and the gold, I will let Mrs. Turner here go free. But don't think I would be so foolish as to just let her go so that you can quickly come after me. She will stay on the beach in my sight until the boat makes it as far away as possible. I will have my pistol aimed at her pretty little head, until we are far enough away. Also I would like for my men to be armed so kindly have yours slide 3 pistols across the floor."

Jack could see that this man was not as foolish as he thought. He nodded at his men to do just that. "We will carry out ye'r terms, but ye had better not hurt one hair on her head Diego or so help me God."

"Or what Sparrow? You'll take care of me the way you did before I killed your wife?"

Jack remembered, Diego had no idea that Romi was alright, he decided it would be best to let him think she was dead.

"You have no idea what occurred between me and Romi do you? I'm sure she didn't tell you that I courted her for quite some time before I was vanished from Spain."

Jack still held his gaze, "Aye she told me. She also told me that ye liked hitting women. An obvious sign of a coward."

Diego's smile faded, but only for a moment. "A coward am I? Romi didn't think so when I came to her bed while you were away Sparrow. You came into the room when I had already left the bed. I don't think you knew that I had taken advantage of your wife in that time did you now Sparrow?"

Jack did not know, and now his face had become beet red, his fists were balled at his side and his breathing came in large huffs. Diego was obviously looking to get a reaction from him, and he got what he wanted. He was now looking at Jack with a very smug look on his face. He began to back away.

"Well, now that my terms have been discussed I will be leaving ."

He was backing away slowly and his men quickly made their way to the deck to lower the plank so that they could disembark the ship.

Diego was still facing them with Angela in his grasp. Will felt nothing but desperation to see his wife being dragged away from him, and all he could do was watch. He felt tears run down his cheek as Diego and the others left the ship and disappeared into the thick murky fog. He could no longer hold it in and suddenly let out a loud cry that traveled into the night and echoed across this grim island. Jack came over to help console his friend.

"Don't worry mate, we'll get Angela back and this will all be over."

"Jack I can't stand to just sit here and watch my wife being taken away from me with some madman holding a gun to her head. And this same man who obviously likes taking pleasure with other men's wives is going to be out there for several hours with her."

Will was becoming hysterical. "Mate, I understand how ye feel, but we can't go out there in this fog, we can't see where we're going and if he hears us he'll kill her for sure."

Will was not thinking rationally, but he knew he had to calm down.

Jack rounded up his men to meet in the chambers where they can talk and figure out a plan. But first he went to his room to make sure that Romi was alright.

He walked in and saw his wife sitting up as best as she could in the bed.

"Jack what happened? I heard Angela scream, is she alright?"

Jack lowered his head and stared at the floor as he answered her. "Diego escaped his cell and he has Angela as his captive."

Romi's eyes welled up with tears. "Jack you have to go find her, you have to save her Jack." Jack sat down beside her and held her in his arms.

"Don't ye worry luv, I'm going to get her back." He gave her a kiss on the forehead and stood up.

"I have to go now to meet with my men. Please luv, try to get some sleep, you have the baby to think about." Jack tried to give her a reassuring smile.

Romi took a deep breath and lay back down. Jack left the room and proceeded to the meeting chambers. His men were already there sitting around the large dark wooden table. Will was there but he was very quiet. Jack took his place and removed his hat. He placed his hands on the table and the crew immediately stopped talking and looked on to hear what their Captain had planned.

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