He nodded at his grim quartermaster, and with one practiced flick of his wrist, Gideon flung the screaming man overboard. Sarani gasped, though she felt no sympathy for the blackguard. He’d shown her none. And if she’d been a weaker person without the means to defend herself, she could very well have been at his mercy. She stared at Gideon and swore she could see a twinkle and a glimmer of respect in those hardened eyes.

Or maybe it was pure, deadly delight. He scared her, but Asha insisted that he was a gentle giant. Though if her tenderhearted maid had seen him chuck a man over the side of a ship without batting an eyelash, she might reconsider her opinion.

Holding her shirt closed, Sarani propped herself up on one elbow, staring at Rhystan, who looked as though he was going to murder everyone. “I had it handled, you know.” She grinned and caught sight of Red’s mop of hair behind the captain. “By the—how do you say it again, Red?—ah, yes, the big, hairy ballocks.”

Red cackled. “Not his. They were probably the size of peas.”

Sarani rose and made a show of wiping the blood off her kukri on her pants and looked up to meet the wary eyes of the surrounding men. “I don’t know if any of you were friends with that piece of filth, but I swear you’ll sing like a nightingale if you come near me. I’m just as good with a pistol as I am with these. Steel or lead, your preference.”

“No one will touch you,” Rhystan snarled and then glared at the crew. “No one touches her. No one looks at her. No one sneezes in her direction, or you’re shark bait if she doesn’t gut you first. Understood?”

“Aye, Cap’n!”

“Now get the fuck back to work!”

They scattered like ants, until it was just a few of them standing there. Tej remained, but Sarani dismissed him with a quick jerk of her head. He left with reluctance, his gaze trained warily on Rhystan as if he didn’t like what he saw. And no wonder. The duke was furious. Sarani opened her mouth and shut it at the ferocious thunderstorm brewing on his face.

“Sodding hair on the devil’s arse, I should have turned back and braved the cyclone instead,” he muttered, raking a hand through his hair before turning his glare to her. There was more lightning than anything else in those gray-blue eyes fastened on her, and a wary trickle slid down her spine when he advanced on her, stopping short of crowding her. “What on earth were you thinking to fight him?”

Sarani narrowed her gaze at him. “Are you saying that was my fault? That I provoked him into cornering me and groping me?”