The Blue Diamond (The Razor's Edge Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

snatched the now sweetened
bread from his hand. “Well? Are you going to explain that statement…Maddox?”
    He placed the knife down
slowly to his right as he leaned in towards her and said, “You’re of absolutely
no value to me dead.”
    “My value is out there,” she
stated, pointing her spoon towards the open doors that led out to his veranda
overlooking the beach, and then leaned back and stretched, taking a long, deep
breath. “Can you smell that, Captain? That’s the sea, and that’s where I
belong. Not sitting here in a satin robe making civil conversation with you—no
offense, of course,” she remarked, rolling her eyes.
    “Aye, but you are mistaken,
love,” he said, sitting back in his chair and raising his fine china cup to his
lips for a sip of English tea.
    “Oh, I’m afraid not. I’ve
quite a lot to tend to—although those who have noticed my obvious absence may
think me gone to Davey Jones’s Locker. They’ve most likely heard what happened
to the Blue Diamond , but like you I
have men…and women… depending on me. You really must understand, Maddox.” She’d
taken on a tone of nonchalant, yet matter-of-fact reasoning, and she believed
by appealing to Carbonale’s sense of duty and his own need to make a living
that he’d see she made perfect sense and let her go. “All I need are clothes, a
horse, and my weapon, and I’ll be out of your hair before you return from your
meeting.” She closed her argument with a wide smile and her cheeks full of
fried eggs and then went back to work on her breakfast.
    “You really don’t know… do
you?” he asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his now closed thighs.
    “Know what?” she asked,
never looking up from her plate.
    “You’ve a hefty bounty on
your head. That ship you took possession of, the one you prized and modified
and paraded across the Caribbean for months? The British merchant company you
stole it from has put a bounty of fifty thousand pounds on your pretty little
cotton top, and I intend to collect that bounty.”
    Ivory coughed and choked
until she spewed a combination of eggs and tea across the table and rose to her
feet, hunched over and gagging. Carbonale leapt from his chair and began
patting her hard on her back. Zara dashed into the room, handed her a glass of
water, and together they lowered her back into her chair.
    “You…you bastard!”
    “I told you, I am completely
legitimate.   Now, with said fifty
thousand pounds, I can promote Master Green for a vote to Captain of my ship, Le Chat Noir , and retire a wealthy and
free man.”
    Ivory’s only response was a
cough-ridden bitter and contemptuous laugh.
    “Oh, yes! I can assure you,
I’ve already made arrangements to turn you over next week in Nassau. They have
no desire to take you back to England for a trial. They’ll try you there, and
please don’t worry; they rarely desire the hanging of women. However, they have
been known to make an exception now and then,” he said, rising from his chair,
blotting his mouth with his napkin, and turning his back to her as he walked
away.
    Zara stood at Ivory’s back
with her hand on her shoulder as she still struggled to catch her breath. “You
won’t get away with this, Blacksnake.” Ivory had no sooner set the words free
when she heard the loud crack of a whip and, simultaneously, a lock of her
white hair fell into her lap.
    “Do you know how I got the
name Blacksnake?”
    Ivory shook her head.   Her hands clenched on the arms of her chair
until her burned red knuckles grew white. He walked slowly towards her, looking
down and winding his lash loop over loop in his hands. Zara squeezed her
shoulder tighter in warning with every step he took in their direction. “Well,
you do now,” he said though his teeth. “Roman!”
    “Yes, Captain?” Roman
answered, rushing in from the veranda.
    “Please escort Captain Ivory
back to her room, and Zara, tend to Lasher until I return.
    Chapter
Four