The Pirate Read Online Free

was always active and this time of night was no different. It had taken a lot of careful planning to make sure the deck would be empty when Savage and the team arrived.
    He wasn’t bothered that Daphne had been up on the deck tonight. He remembered his first time on the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. He’d been anxious to see how these seas were different than the ones back home.
    And he had found that for all that he was on the other side of the world there was sameness to the oceans. A feeling of home that came to him only when he was on the seas.
    And like that feeling of home there was now the familiarity of having to deal with a fractious member of his crew. Since they’d left port in Madrid, Fridjtof had been running around making trouble.
    Laz knew it was past time that he stopped it.
    Â 
    Tankers were like a city at sea and he was the man in charge. Laz hated the bureaucracy that went along with being the captain. He wasn’t sure how Savage put up with it. Laz laughed to himself. Savage put up with it by ruling with a iron fist.
    More than once the Savage Seven had had a knock-down, drag-out fight to settle differences of opinion. Violence was its own kind of peacekeeping method for their team. And right now Laz was running high on testosterone. He needed to get rid of his excess energy. He couldn’t take it out on the small crew they had on the tanker, though.
    They were running with a small crew on this trip because of the recent piracy. Maersk and their clients wanted the pirates stopped, which was why they’d agreed to allow Hamm and Laz to infiltrate the crew. The rest of the Maersk Angus crew totaled ten men.
    Fridjtof was the one man who made Laz uneasy. He was always poking around where he shouldn’t be. And twice Laz had caught him coming out of the radio room. The crewman was a loader so he had no business in the radio room.
    Laz had already had a run-in with the man once before when Fridjtof was bullying one of the rookie crewmen. He was a tough man who only respected brawn. He wasn’t the type of man that you could talk around—fists worked best for him.
    Laz rubbed the back of his neck. Or was that his wishful thinking coming into play? He needed the release and sparring with Fridjtof that would do that.
    And now he was on deck in the middle of the night when everyone else was sleeping. Well that wasn’t true, Laz thought. Daphne had been up here but somehow he didn’t think she might be working a double-cross on the tanker crew. To be honest he did believe that Fridjtof had two bosses.
    â€œFridjtof? What have I told you about being on deck after hours?”
    â€œAh, sorry about that, Captain. Just needed to get out of my bunk for a few minutes.”
    The night was calm and clear and not the type of weather for the men to stay belowdecks, but the dangers of the waters they were traveling through had made the “no deck” rule that Laz had put into place viable to the men.
    â€œNo exceptions,” Laz said.
    â€œI thought I saw a woman up here. Was she an exception?”
    â€œShe’s none of your damned business. You will do what you’re told,” Laz said, pointing his finger at Fridjtof’s chest.
    The other man took a deep drag on his cigarette and blew smoke back in Laz’s eyes. “I guess if I had boobs you’d feel different.”
    Laz punched the other man on the shoulder. “Watch it. Our guests will be treated with respect.”
    â€œYeah, I know. They are off limits as well but not for you, eh, Captain?”
    Laz narrowed his eyes on the other man. What had he seen? Maybe it would be simpler to simply take Fridjtof captive and send him with Savage and the rest of their team.
    Daphne? How long had Fridjtof been up here? He didn’t really like the thought of this man talking about Daphne.
    â€œShe isn’t used to life at sea the way a seasoned crewman like yourself is.”
    â€œI just