Scheming Women Seek Revenge, page 13
part #2 of Tales of the Undead & Depraved Series
Again they were the only ones in there, the office small and unbecoming of the status Jerry felt Arloa deserved. Then again, she was a woman in a man’s world, and despite what the laws said, women didn’t have innate rights like men in Penum, and especially in Raegina.
“What are you doing here?” Arloa hissed, locking the door to ensure they wouldn’t be interrupted like they had been in the hall.
“What did you mean that I’ve registered?”
Arloa cocked her head to the side, her tender curls of hair bouncing from the move. Jerry rubbed her fingers together, resisting the urge to reach up and touch them. They stood a respectful distance apart, but she wanted to move in closer, wanted to touch. “I have you on my permanent list, so anytime you need to speak with me, you’re welcome here.”
“Interesting. He didn’t even ask my name.” Jerry gave in and touched Arloa’s hair. It was so soft against her bare fingers.
Arloa stepped closer, plastering her body against Jerry’s as she dragged Jerry’s mouth down to hers. The kiss was sweet, not heated like in the carriage, but Jerry was sure that was because Arloa had no idea where they stood with each other.
When Jerry broke the kiss, she asked, “Did they find the missing senator?”
“No,” Arloa murmured, her gaze turning down. “I don’t expect they will.”
“Pity.”
“For some. For others it’s likely a better situation all around.”
“And Canteron, what is his position exactly?”
“Pain in my ass.” Arloa giggled lightly. “He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. I apologize for him.”
“Don’t. He’s not worth it.” Jerry kissed Arloa again, still not sure how she would answer the questions from before. She knew Arloa held back because she needed to know where they stood with each other. “I was wondering if you had an update on Wench’s Dream.”
“From yesterday?” Humor lit Arloa’s eyes as she stepped away and leaned against her desk.
Jerry frowned. “I guess it hasn’t been that long.”
“Why do you want to know?” Arloa reached out and grasped Jerry’s fingers lightly.
“I want my ship back. I want revenge.”
Arloa hummed softly, taking Jerry’s hand and turning it palm up. She traced her fingers lightly over the skin, tickling. But more than that it was the tender touch of understanding, something Jerry had never experienced in her life. It had always been fucking for pleasure and to get what she needed or wanted, or what someone else needed and wanted. It had never been simply because gentle touches showed a softer side of herself and others solely for the purpose of comfort and love—if Jerry believed that’s what Arloa truly felt for her.
“Revenge is such a cold way to live,” Arloa commented. “But I do understand its tendency to grasp a heart and not let go.”
Furrowing her brow, Jerry looked up at Arloa’s steel-blue eyes. “You do?”
“Yes, Jer, I do.” Arloa didn’t elaborate, which had been Jerry’s hope.
Instead, they stayed standing next to each other. Jerry knew she needed to turn the conversation, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to make that shift. The real reason she had traveled all the way to the center of the city to visit Arloa in the first place, and it wasn’t for sweet kisses and understanding, although that was pleasant enough to warrant the trip.
“I need a ship,” Jerry stated. “Calluna has more problems than I thought. Azar found a hull fracture, and the engines are shot. We tried to go out yesterday and failed.”
“I know you did.” Arloa rubbed her temple. “I received a communication…”
“You what?”
“Something about a pirate ship in Raegina’s seas trying to play dead in the water.”
“We were dead in the water.” Jerry frowned. It was only a small lie, one that would hopefully get her what she wanted. Arloa would either accept it for what it was or she would allow the lie to stand. “And we weren’t pirating. I secured us our old contract that Ursula spurned, and we needed to test the vessel.”
“I see you made it back to harbor well enough.”
Jerry snorted. “We made it back. Well enough is subjective.”
Arloa’s lips parted. “Why not purchase a new ship?”
“I don’t have the credits.”
“I could—”
“No.” Jerry cut her a sharp look. “Absolutely not.”
A stillness came over them. Arloa was about to speak when there was another knock on the door. She glanced over her shoulder, then to Jerry. “Excuse me a moment, would you?”
Jerry stepped back, allowing Arloa the space to move. She reached the door and looked over her shoulder before she opened the door. Canteron was back. Jerry had to hide the smile as Arloa stepped into the hall and shut the door behind her. Without hesitating, Jerry pulled up Arloa’s permanent device and slid the small piece of technology Vivian had given her onto the thumb pad. She waited until it clicked through the security and searched for Arloa’s codes. She knew it was a stupid idea, that it would put everything between them at risk.
Arloa’s voice raised, and Jerry worked quickly. As soon as she found the code, she committed it to memory. She closed everything down after erasing her trail and stepped to stand by the window. She didn’t want Arloa to know what she was doing. When the door clicked shut, Jerry turned to face down the beautiful woman in front of her.
“Canteron?” Jerry asked.
“He’s quite insistent you don’t belong here.”
“Well, he’s correct. I don’t belong here.” Jerry crossed her arms. “And I should leave you to do the work you were elected for.”
Arloa eyed her suspiciously but dropped the gaze when she came in to stand close. “I’m still waiting for an answer, you know.”
“I know,” Jerry whispered. Because she did. She had to tell Arloa one way or the other, and it would either end what they had or continue it. Jerry wasn’t sure what she wanted. She’d only just started to come to terms with the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about this woman.
Cupping Arloa’s cheek, Jerry brought their mouths together. She took it slowly, exploring not only Arloa’s mouth but her own feelings in the process. Together they stood for what seemed like minutes until Jerry pulled away and pressed her forehead to Arloa’s with her eyes closed.
“I just don’t see how this will work.”
“You don’t have to,” Arloa answered. “Because I don’t know either, but I would like to try.”
“I can’t even come here without someone trying to kick me out. Our lives are so different.”
“Different doesn’t mean not compatible.”
“True.” Jerry straightened her back. “I’m still thinking about it, Arloa, but know this, if there is anyone who could sway my mind, I’m sure it’s you.”
“That will have to do for now, I suppose.”
Jerry bowed her head slightly in acknowledgment before stepping around Arloa. “I’ll leave before Canteron comes back with reinforcements.”
“When will I see you again?”
“Don’t know,” Jerry answered honestly. “We start our runs to Beren Island tomorrow.”
“Please find the time, soon.”
“I’ll try.” It may have been the third lie she told that day in that office, and Jerry was determined to make it the last. “I am obsessed with you, Arloa.”
Without another word, Jerry shut the door and left. She needed to get out of there and breathe clean air, and the only way that would happen would be if she left Raegina entirely.
CHAPTER 14
Jerry shimmied the brand-new corset she had purchased the day before over her chest. Yafe helped her pull the laces tight, tying it as she made sure the crisp white undershirt was perfectly in place.
“Are you sure about this, Cap?”
“It’s the only way I can think of getting this done quickly. She won’t mind.”
Yafe’s frown in the mirror told Jerry that she disagreed with that assessment and it would be an argument for another day—one Jerry was willing to fight if it meant she had Yarrow in her possession. Yafe tied the skirts up, making sure they were tight against Jerry’s slim hips.
It would make it harder for Jerry to move quickly and efficiently, but she needed to look like a well-off woman if she were to sneak into the pier where the sleek white medical vessel was held. She’d stolen ships from dock before, but it wasn’t her preference. There were far too many variables that she wouldn’t be able to control.
“I’ll remind you when we finish this, Cap, that you chose a ship over a woman.”
Jerry’s nose wrinkled in a smile. “I will choose a ship over a woman any day, and if she doesn’t understand that, she’s not the woman for me.”
“Tell that to Arloa.” Yafe finished tying the skirts up and stepped back.
Jerry looked herself over in the mirror, her dark hair neatly braided down her back to the dark brown leather of the corset she had chosen. It was a beautiful one, nothing as fancy as Arloa’s with its subtle erotic embroidery, but she’d been limited on time and flat-out broke. She smoothed her hands over the deep blue skirts that brought out the color in her eyes. It was perfect. She could easily pass for a woman of some means in this.
“Thank you for the help, Yafe.”
“Anytime, Cap.”
Jerry stepped out into the main part of her cabin. “Do we have a crew ready to leave with us?”
“We do. It’ll leave Ursula with a skeleton crew, but if she’s just making salt runs, she’ll manage to survive.”
“We’ll be back before she knows it, and if she’s got income, she can hire a few extra hands on her next trip back into Raegina.”
Yafe frowned. “Are you sure you want to do this, Cap? There’s no going back from it if you do.”
Jerry locked her gaze on Yafe’s deep brown eyes. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out, all that black curly hair that haloed her face and her dark skin that glowed in the sunlight when they were on the waters. But mostly it was her kind heart that had never managed to be polluted by the grime of Penum—her everlasting compassion for others. Jerry took a moment to mull over her words before nodding. “I’m sure.”
“Then let’s get Yarrow back.”
Grinning, Jerry clasped her hands on Yafe’s shoulders. “I’ll meet you at Beren Island.”
“You better. I don’t need to be forging a plan to break you out of Joab.”
Jerry’s smile faltered slightly. She would die before she went back there, and if Yafe didn’t understand that yet, then she never would if it ever came to that. “See you soon.”
She stepped out of her cabin and down the hall toward Vivian’s. Yafe went the opposite direction to get Ursula ready to leave for Beren Island. Her boots clicked on the wood plank flooring as she made her way down two more levels in Calluna to Vivian’s door. Knocking, Jerry waited for an answer, trying not to itch the new clothes against her skin.
As Vivian opened the door, Jerry was impressed. She looked everything a young lady of society should. Jerry had splurged a little more on the outfit for her young counterpart, needing her to be able to run distractions while Jerry broke into the ship. Vivian was younger by a couple years, but more key than that, she looked younger because Jerry looked far older than she should for her twenty-three years.
Time in Joab had weathered her beyond what it should have. Still, Vivian’s light brown eyes and matching light brown hair was perfect, and she’d done it up in a curious little bun at the back of her head with tendrils of curls on the sides of her face. No one would suspect she was brilliant, and no one would suspect that she was really Jerry’s weapon of choice.
“Ready?” Jerry asked, her voice lower and deeper than normal.
“Aye, Cap.”
“Good.” Jerry led the way out of Calluna, closing up the door to the vessel as soon as they were on the dock. Yafe glanced out at them through the wheelhouse, nodding and bowing her head before Azar and Ursula took Calluna upward and out to sea. It was just Vivian and her now until they managed to join them at Beren Island.
“Cap, I’ve got the coding ready.”
“I knew you would,” Jerry mumbled. The pit of her stomach swirled with some kind of odd emotion she wasn’t sure she wanted to name, but the last conversation with Yafe hadn’t done anything to help her on that front. She was more worried now than she had been before.
They walked slowly, which was against Jerry’s nature, meandering their way inside the city. They stopped at several stores, playing as if they were there to shop instead of waste time. The plan was in place, and it was ready to go. Jerry’s entire body was ready for it to happen, for some type of movement to begin so that she could get Yarrow back and exact revenge on Blaise Lotchski for leaving her to die on an island with a usurper.
“What do you think?” Vivian called to Jerry.
Jerry spun to find Vivian’s dark fingers on a beautiful cloth. Jerry narrowed her gaze at it, a memory tugging at her. She moved in closer, touching the cloth, and realized belatedly that this must be where Arloa had gotten her embroidery done. Jerry couldn’t escape that woman no matter how hard she tried.
“It’s beautiful,” Jerry answered, knowing Vivian was still waiting for her, and that she would have to say something to get her off the topic and onto something else.
They eventually moved into a small store filled with jewelry. Jerry recognized some of it immediately as the jewels they had stolen months ago before she’d even gone to Potelia. It sent a thrill of satisfaction through her at the capture, but at the same time, pity because it hadn’t sold yet, which meant Miriam had been absolutely right to barter the price down.
Taking Vivian’s hand in hers as they finished, Jerry walked with her toward the docks. Surely it had been long enough at that point. They stopped to surveil the ships harbored in their individual slips. Jerry knew exactly which one they were going to, and it wasn’t anywhere near where they stopped. She pressed her lips together hard, deciding once again that this was the plan in place and this was what she wanted to do. It was the only way to get a move on rescuing Yarrow.
“Thank you, Cap,” Vivian’s sweet and soft voice reached her ears.
“For what?” Jerry turned to her shorter companion, wondering where this sudden expression of gratitude was coming from.
Vivian slowly looked up at her. “For everything really, but I didn’t know what a ship was supposed to be like until you took over Calluna.”
“That shouldn’t have happened. Ursula—” She stopped short of disparaging her captain in front of her crew. If Vivian were to continue on Calluna, she shouldn’t have a tainted view of Ursula if Jerry were to allow Ursula to continue on. And thus far, Jerry hadn’t decided one way or the other. She would leave her in control for now because it was necessary until they retrieved Yarrow.
“Ursula was overwhelmed,” Vivian started.
Jerry worried she’d already done too much damage. “She was. Doesn’t excuse how she treated the crew or Calluna, however.”
“Will you end her contract?”
“Perhaps. I don’t know yet. We’ll see how she does while I’m away this time.”
Vivian’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “I’m excited to work with you, Cap.”
Jerry couldn’t fathom why someone would want to work with her, not now. Perhaps when she had started her business and was doing everything legally, but now, all she did was risk them death. Their run-in with the island and Blaise were all too clear in her mind as to what they were risking.
“Are you ready?” Jerry asked, bypassing having to comment on that.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Good.” Jerry took Vivian’s arm and looped it in hers.
Together they walked down the harbor, skipping quite a few piers to the ships that were for the rich. They were smoother, cleaner, and newer. Jerry spotted the one they were going to well before they reached it. The small white medical vessel that had rescued them from the island really was the perfect choice for their hijacking of Wench’s Dream.
A lump tried to form in her throat, but she swallowed it down. She led the way as they maneuvered down the pier toward its dock. Jerry made sure to keep her gaze on the planks in front of them, not wanting to alarm the harbor master that they were there for any other purpose than a walk along the water.
Vivian made idle chitchat while they moved, which Jerry was quite thankful for. Her mind was a web of disasters coming from every direction, including Arloa miraculously showing up and finding them in the midst of stealing her ship.
They took a few turns down the pier to the dock they wanted. No one was on it. Jerry resisted the urge to look wildly for anyone who was going to stop them. Instead, she slowly lifted her chin, narrowed her gaze, and found absolutely no one in the vicinity.
Jerry stood next to the ship and stared at the small device that needed her palm print in order to open the door. Each one of her ships had one as well. She pulled open the small number pad next to the hand sensor and pushed the code she had spent all night memorizing. The sensor blinked three times before it clicked and stayed lit.
The door to the ship lowered down to allow them to walk across it. Vivian still held her arm wrapped tightly in Jerry’s, as if they were a couple out for a stroll or perhaps two very close friends. They stayed silent until the door lifted and shut, locking in place. Jerry released of a breath she hadn’t known she was holding and immediately stepped away from Vivian. They had a lot of work to get done.
Jerry immediately stepped to the interior of the vessel and made her way to the wheelhouse. She hadn’t been there when Arloa had rescued her, but she knew the way. She would in just about any ship as she’d been in so many growing up and frequently roamed them throughout her tenure.
As soon as they were in, Jerry immediately stared at the dash in absolute awe. It was beautiful. Perfect lines, buttons and knobs that would lift and drop, turn and maneuver. It was stunning to see how clean it was. Vivian didn’t wait as she got onto her knees at the base of the dash and pulled out a panel.
