Take Me Forever (16 page)

“Don’t know Captain.
 
We just got her secured,” Snake lied trying to cover his tracks.

“Bring her to me,” Hawkins bellowed.

Mercy recognized Hawkins’ name and knew right away that she
was in more danger than she thought.
 
Once she was standing in front of Hawkins, he knew she had to be
Corbin’s whore.
 
She was too beautiful
not to be.

“Aye, ye are Corbin’s bride or should I say widow,” Hawkins
said as he smiled a toothless smile.

“What?”
 
Mercy asked
in disbelief.

“That’s right.
 
Yer
husband is dead.
 
I killed him
myself.
 
I found great pleasure in
running my sword through his heart,” Hawkins bragged.

Mercy could hear no more as she burst out into tears.
 
Cain was dead.
 
She couldn’t believe it.
 
He had to be alive.
 
He just had to be.

“Take her to the ship.
 
There’s nothing more on this island I want,” Hawkins said as he licked
his lips over his new found treasure.

“You disgust me,” Mercy sneered.

“Listen to me and listen good.
 
Ye now belong to me.
 
Ye will warm my bed at night,” Hawkins said.

“Never.
 
I hate you,”
Mercy screamed and then spit in his face.

Hawkins slapped her and ordered her gagged as they found
their way back to the beach.
 
Mercy could
not believe the devastation of the island.
 
Hawkins had destroyed everything.
 
Mercy was taken aboard
Satan’s
Curse
and thrown into the brig.
 
Hawkins went to the house and told all of his men to board the ship and
warned them if they touched the woman in the brig, they would die a severe
death.
 
Hawkins told Elese that if Cain
happened to return to be sure and tell him that he had taken his most prized
treasure.

“Be sure to tell him that the woman will be in my bed,”
Hawkins said as he left the house and boarded his ship.

Cain stood at the wheel of the
Devil’s Dilemma
with his head handing low and a bottle of tequila
in his hand.
 
He had been at sea for a
couple of weeks and still had not seen or heard anything about Black
Hawkins.
  
It seemed his journey had been
without a reward.
 
Hawkins was still out
there.

Hawkins was the last thing on Cain’s mind as he retired to
his cabin.
 
He couldn’t bear another
restless night without her.
 
Ever since
his ship left his island, Cain could think of nothing but Mercy.
 
He yearned for her smile, her voice, her
silky skin, and her innocent eyes.

“Mercy,” Cain slurred as he downed the last of the tequila
in the bottle.
 
His loins throbbed as he
pictured his bride warming his bed and waiting on his safe return.
 
That was it.
 
He could not wait another day for her.

After sleeping off his stupor, Cain ordered his crew to plot
a course and head for home.
 
Hawkins had
obviously disappeared, so there was no need to waste any more time.
 
By his calculations, he should be within
viewing distance of his island in three days.

For the next three days, Cain paced the ship from bow to
stern.
 
His feet were constantly moving as
he anxious to set foot on his island.
 
One thing this journey taught him was that Mercy was more important to
him than he ever realized.
 
From this day
forward, his revenge no longer mattered.

As Corbin’s Crow became closer, Cain saw people gathering
along the shore to welcome them home.
 
When his eyes searched the crowd, the one pair of eyes he wanted to see
more than any others was not among them.
 
His gaze followed the path leading to his house.
 
Still, he did not see her.

While Cain was searching for Mercy, he neglected to see that
his village had been burned to the ground.
 
As soon as they were ashore, his crew members stopped in their tracks as
they saw the devastation before them.

“Who did this?
 
What
happened?”
 
Cain bellowed through the
crowd.

Elese stepped forward and answered, “Cain, it was Hawkins.”

“What?”

“That’s right.
 
He
burned everything except for your house.
 
He said he wanted your people to suffer,” Elese said quickly as she
darted her eyes to the ground.

She had seen Cain’s wrath before and didn’t want to be
anywhere near him when he exploded.
 
Just
as she stepped back in the crowd, Cain went into a frenzied madness.
 
He ran to the remains of the burned village
and kicked the charred logs.
 
Then,
realizing he still had not seen Mercy, he ran to his house.

Moments later, Cain emerged with a red glare in his eyes
that would make Satan himself tremble with fear.
 
Elese shook as Cain approached her.

“Where is my wife?”
 
Cain asked between gritted teeth.

“He said he took her, but we didn’t actually see it.
 
We have not seen her since.
 
She was out when he stormed the island.
 
When he left, he told me to tell you that he
had taken your most prized possession and she would be in his bed at night,”
Elese said.

“Luke, come with me,” Cain ordered as he ran to where the
stables were.

Once at the stables, Cain immediately noticed the white mare
was missing.
 
He concluded that Mercy
took that horse to the waterfall.
 
They
saddled two horses and galloped as fast as they could to the outskirts of the
wooded ravine.
 
Rage swept through him as
he neared the lagoon and found nothing.
 
That bastard had really taken her from him.
 

“Captain, over here,” Luke said as he entered the tiny
alcove behind the waterfall.

As Cain joined Luke, he saw what Luke had found.
 
Crumpled on the ground were Mercy’s clothes
and fragments of a torn shift.

“What now Captain?”

“What the hell do you think?
 
We search the seas until I find the bastard and kill him once and for
all.”

When Cain and Luke came back to the beach, they found the
crew aboard the ship and ready to sail.
 
They knew Cain would go, and they were with him.
 
Cain and Luke boarded the ship and
immediately set sail.
 
Their destination
was unknown.
 
One thing was clear.
 
There would be no coming home until Hawkins
was dead and Mercy was found.

Over the next two weeks, Cain checked every port and every
ship they passed.
 
Only one ship he
stopped had any information on the whereabouts of Hawkins.
 
The captain told Cain that he had encountered
Hawkins about a week back.
 
He told Cain
that Hawkins was headed north.
 
As soon
as the two ships parted, the
Devil’s
Dilemma
turned about and headed due north.
 
Hawkins was a week ahead of him, and Cain was bound and determined to
catch him.
 
Cain pushed his ship to its
limits.
 
The sails were extended, and
Cain prayed for strong winds to carry him to her.

Day after grueling day, Cain pushed his crew.
 
His efforts paid off on day four.
 
He caught a glimpse of a pirate ship through
the spy glass.
 
Quickly, he summoned his
crew to battle stations.
 
They readied
the cannons and awaited instructions.

“Steady,” Cain said uneasily.

What was he thinking?
 
He couldn’t attack the ship.
 
Mercy was aboard.
 
He couldn’t risk firing the cannons.
 
There had to be another way.
 
He ordered the ship to a full stop and
ordered a new course.
 
They were
approaching a small cove just large enough to hide his ship in.
 

As the crew maneuvered the ship into hiding, Cain kept his
spyglass on the
Satan’s Curse
.
 
Hawkins didn’t seem to notice he was being followed.
 
Cain would wait for an opportunity to arise
and then he would make his move.
 
Cain
was going to have to be patient because any wrong move could jeopardize Mercy.

For the remainder of the day, Cain waited silently in the
tranquil waters.
 
Once night had fallen,
Cain stealthily sailed up beside the
Satan’s
Curse
.
 
It seemed the lookout in the
crow’s nest was fast asleep.
 
Cain
ordered his strongest crewmen to board the vessel as quietly as possible and
take out the weapons.
 
They threw ropes
across and secured the two ships together.
 
They were still undetected from anyone about Hawkins’ ship.

In mere moments, Cain heard the secret whistle and knew that
it was safe for the rest of his crew to board the ship and attack.
 
Once they were on the ship all hell broke
loose.
 
Hawkins and his men emerged from
their sleeping quarters half dressed and swords drawn.

Inch by inch, Cain’s men took commanding control of the
enemy ship.
 
They dueled back to back
leaving no survivors behind.
 
Cain heard
a distressing cry from Luke.
 
His eyes
found the sound as he cleared a path to him leaving three dead bodies.

“Luke,” Cain cried as he crouched at his side.

“Mere flesh wound Captain,” Luke answered in shortened
breaths.

“I’ll kill the man who did this to you,” Cain raged as he
fought off yet another brutal attack from one of Hawkins’ men.

“Hawkins,” Luke repeated over and over until his last breath
left his body.

As Cain mourned his friend, he knew that Luke was trying to
tell him that Hawkins was the one responsible.
 
His blood began to boil.
 
Hawkins had murdered his family, possibly his
wife, and now his best friend.
 
Cain was
at his breaking point.

“Hawkins!”
 
Cain
screamed in a blood curdling voice.

Cain searched the ship leaving a path of destruction behind
him.
 
As he entered the brig, Cain saw
Hawkins run towards him with his sword aimed at Cain’s head.
 
Cain narrowly dodged as Hawkins raced past.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Cain smirked.

“I have done better than that.
 
I raped your pretty young wife.
 
I must say, she was a feisty one.
 
After I finished with her, I let my crew have
a turn then we couldn’t stand the site of her so I cut off her head and fed her
body to the sharks,” Hawkins sneered.

“You bastard,” Cain
yelled as he slashed Hawkins across the face leaving a nasty cut.

“Ye cut me,” Hawkins said in dismay as he wiped the blood
off of his face.

“I’m going to do more than just cut you,” Cain boasted as he
and Hawkins locked swords.

“Pity, you weren’t here to witness your wife begging me for
mercy before I cut off her head,” Hawkins scoffed.

Cain could stand no more.
 
With a flying lunge, Cain centered his sword on Hawkins’s wrist severing
it.
 
Hawkins was helpless as he watched
his sword fly across the brig.
 
Without
giving Hawkins a chance to find another weapon, Cain made a slash through the
mid section of Hawkins.
 
Next, Cain made
a stroke that would be his ultimate revenge.
 
He castrated Hawkins as the brig was filled with Cain’s laughter.

“This is for my mother, my friend, and my wife.
 
My vendetta is over.
 
Look at me you son of a bitch.
 
I want you to see my smiling face as you take
your last breath,” Cain said as he knelt over Hawkins.

While Cain waited on Hawkins to die, the rest of the crew
joined him in the brig.
 
Relief swept the
room as Hawkins took in his last breath.
 
Cain’s laughter quickly faded into silent tears.

Cain’s crew had killed every person onboard and now they
pillaged the ship while Cain picked up Luke’s body and carried it back to the
Devil’s Dilemma
.
 
After saying a final good-bye, Cain retired
to his cabin to mourn in quiet.
 
A half
an hour later, Cain was interrupted by his third in command, Samson.

“Captain, we have stripped the
Satan’s Curse
of its contents.
 
We found a couple of things that you might want,” Samson said as he
handed Cain two items.

As Cain examined the items, he found another piece of a torn
shift like the one Mercy had.
 
The other
item, Cain tossed onto the table.
 
Before
Samson left the cabin, Cain ordered him to torch the
Satan’s Curse
and plot a course for home.

When Samson closed the door, Cain sat with his hands
covering his face.
 
He was triumphant and
could finally find peace in ending his vendetta but he still felt so
burdened.
 
As he clutched the fragment of
Mercy’s clothing he wondered if Hawkins had told him the truth about her.
 
He hoped Hawkins had lied and that Mercy had
a swift death and did not suffer.