Free Wherever You Are by Sharon Cullen

her and her relationship with his family that she now had no one in the world?
    She looked at him and smiled, the false sort of smile bestowed during a particularly boring dinner party while you were seated next to a particularly boring dinner companion.
    She cautiously settled against the mast, careful of her wounds. “Tell me about your family.”
    “I have no one either,” he said automatically and maybe a little defensively. It was the truth, strictly speaking. He had no one anymore. Not since the fateful night he’d left his family and Juliana.
    “Pirates weren’t born pirates,” she said. “They had to have family at one point. Or is there some island where you’re all hatched?”
    “My family is dead.” And that’s what he needed to remember. If not dead then at least gone from him. Looking back wasn’t doing him or Juliana any good except to distract him from the important things like staying ahead of the sloop still hovering over the horizon and deciding what to do with Juliana. Would she be better off not knowing who he was?
    The rigging above creaked. It was such a common sound that Morgan gave it almost no thought until the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The rigging wouldn’t creak like that while they were becalmed.
    He lunged toward Juliana, knocking her off the stack of sails as a dagger went flying through the air and imbedded itself in the mast Juliana had been leaning against.
    “Morgan!” she shrieked. “What the heck? Let go of me.” She struggled against him, but her hands and arms were pinned between their chests. He saw the flash of panic in her eyes. She struggled harder as small whimpers escaped her. He held on tightly knowing he was hurting her back but unable to let go.
    “Quiet,” he ordered in a low whisper.
    Juliana quit struggling and to his relief, her body sagged against his.
    “Are you hurt?” he whispered close to her ear.
    She shook her head. A tremor ran through her, echoing inside him.
    He let go of her and she rolled off him. With a flick of his wrist, he silently told her to stay put while he unsheathed his knife from his boot and rounded the sails at a crouch.

Chapter Seven
    Furious, Morgan took off in the direction the dagger came from. He was more angry than he’d ever been before. Not because someone tried to kill him but because Juliana could have been hurt. He strained to hear anything out of the ordinary. All the lanterns had either been extinguished or turned low to conserve fuel. In their becalmed state there was no fear of another ship running into them but it also made it nearly impossible to see. Morgan heard the sound of running feet not too far off and gave chase. Whoever tried to kill him surely had been planted on this ship by Barun and therefore wouldn’t know the ship's layout as well.
    Unfortunately, whoever it was got too far of a head start and Morgan quickly lost him. He stood on the upper gun deck for as long as he thought safe, trying to hear where the person went. He could be anywhere by now. He could even have turned around and headed for Juliana. With that thought Morgan made his way back to her.
    He found her sitting behind the sails waiting for him. He expected her to be a quivering mass of hysteria. Instead she appeared calm, as if almost getting killed was an everyday occurrence. John was with her as well as Patrick but both kept their distance.
    “What did you see?” he asked them quietly.
    “I was on forecastle,” Patrick said.
    Too far away. Morgan looked at John.
    “I was on the upper gun deck,” he said.
    No help there. Of course the killer would have struck while no one was around.
    With a nod from Morgan his men dispersed. Morgan yanked the dagger out of the mast and pocketed it. Juliana watched his every move.
    “Let’s go below deck.” All the way down he felt her presence behind him like a black cloud following him.
    She climbed onto his bed and sat cross-legged. His clothes were so big on her they nearly