Free A Pirate's Bounty by Eliza Knight

man’s coat and then clicked the button to retract it back into his ring, watching the dying man look at his ring. “Thing comes in handy in a pinch. Didn’t even catch your name to ask the girl if you were her man. Could be I don’t have Lady Faryn onboard and my man was mistaken. Could be you died for nothing.”
    Wraith left the man to die with the thought of his vile mistakes the last on his dying mind.
    “We take no prisoners! Toss ’em to the sharks. Those who make it back to their ship are saved, those who don’t become feed for the fishes.”
    His men shouted and cheered, happy to toss their prisoners overboard. He could hear the splashing with subtle differences. The splashing of those who could swim making a mad dash for their ship, and those who could not swim as they thrashed for their lives.
    Life had made him a bitter man.
    Now to find out who exactly his new bounty piece was.
    * * * * *
     
    He opened the door and let it bang sharply against the wall. Faryn jerked from her place at the porthole where she peered out onto the expansive sea.
    “Men died today, woman. ’Tis your doing.” He scowled at her.
    She scowled back, arms spread wide. “My doing?” Her voice was high-pitched, exasperated. “How in the world can you see fit to blame your pirating ways on me?”
    “’Tis quite easy actually. They came looking for you.”
    “For me?” Her face lost all color and she sank to the floor in a puddle of white linen.
    “ Oui . Never got the maggot’s name, but he had blackened teeth and claimed you for his bride.”
    “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No, it can’t be!”
    “Are you calling me a liar?”
    She looked up sharply, tears glistening in her eyes, making his heart lurch. He longed to reach out and hold her, tell her everything would be all right, but he couldn’t. He needed answers.
    “Tell me everything,” he demanded.
    “I don’t know where to start.” Her voice was so small and vulnerable. Her hands clutched at the linen in a grip so tight her knuckles were white.
    “Start with his name, who he was to you.”
    “His name is Lord Menteur.”
    The name meant nothing to him. “He says you were sold to him. What does he mean by that?”
    Her face flushed red and she looked down at the wooden planks of the floor. “My parents gave him a large dowry to take me off their hands as no other man would have me.” She looked up, her wide eyes glassy with unshed tears. But he was struck more with the defiance he saw. She was a fighter and would not cower easily. “But you see, when you took me from the shore that night, he had not yet received the money. Menteur is in deep with his creditors. My father promised him a lot of money if he would only look the other way when there was no blood on the sheets. If he didn’t get the money, he would have been dead as the creditors would have killed him or sent him to debtor’s prison.” Her gaze flicked around the room, settling on anything but him. “Menteur would have killed me, I am sure. He all but promised once he got what he wanted, he’d be done with me.”
    “Who is your father?”
    “My father is Henry, the Vicomte de Bèziers.”
    Wraith drew a deep breath, excitement coursing through his veins. He’d known her father was a powerful man, but not how close he actually was to getting his future back. The vicomte would be instrumental in his freedom.
    “Was Menteur the man who took your maidenhead?” The bastard! He could kill him all over again!
    “No,” she said, shaking her head, her long blonde locks bobbing against her bare shoulders. “I was naïve. Fancied myself in love and let a handsome young groom seduce me. He promised to take me away, to marry me.”
    Wraith was affronted that any man would lead her astray—betray her, and so openly and on her father’s own land but then again, he’d kidnapped her… Women were so vulnerable. It made him angry, so angry in fact his blood heated with hatred. How