Reynolds remained quiet and vigilant at my side. He would guard me with his life, but he couldn’t protect me from Priest. The damage my husband inflicted on me was never delivered with steel or gunpowder.

“End this marriage.” I straightened my spine. “Let me go, and you can have the compass.”

I didn’t mean it. Relinquishing my father’s gift would’ve been worse than losing a limb. I wouldn’t give it up without a fight.

“I already have the compass.” He twirled the instrument beside his leg. “As for you, I’m incapable of letting go.”

The instant I’d heard his Welsh lilt in the tavern, I knew it would come to this. He wanted me for reasons I couldn’t fathom, but none of those reasons mattered. Not after what he’d done to me.

Evading him for two years had been sheer luck, and now my luck had run out. The only way to escape him was to kill him.

Might as well run a sword through my own heart.

I couldn’t do it.

His gaze stayed on mine, and somewhere in that cruel scowl, he knew.

He knew I still loved him.

But if he thought we could pick up where we left off, he was out of his mind. Did he think that after the lies and infidelity, I would graciously forgive him? That I would welcome him back into my bed?

As if he gave a damn what I wanted. Priest Farrell took, plundered, and raided for his own enjoyment. He was a cold-blooded pirate who acted without moral restraint or conscience, especially when it came to his primitive desires.

“Where’s your ship?” I glanced at the shore behind him, unsurprised to find him alone. “No crew?”

“I released them this morning when I located you. Gave them the ship as a parting gift.”

Cold, silent dread filled my stomach, solidifying what I’d already surmised.

He had every intention of coming with me. And why not? His loyalties lay with no one and nothing. He was a lone sea wolf, bouncing from ship to stolen ship, seizing and discarding without attachment to the crews or the vessels he captured.

He meant to treat me with the same callousness.

Again.

“Return the compass.” I held out my hand, knowing damn well he wouldn’t surrender his only insurance.

“Not until we’re aboard Jade.” His mouth curved up at the corner, and his tongue caught the crease with a teasing lick, as his gaze descended to the bodice of my gown. “Once I remove that garish travesty from your body with my teeth, I’ll reacquaint myself with what lawfully belongs to me. Then I’ll return your precious compass.”

My nipples hardened in memory of his fastidious touch, and my pulse fluttered angrily in my throat. “The devil fetch you, you rotten, unfaithful bastard.”