Chapter 29! Hope everyone enjoys this one. :)

He stepped through the steel warehouse door into the scummy polluted air of London's Harringay Warehouse District...there were few unoccupied buildings left here, so choosing one had been a bit of a challenge.

This one had been perfect...out of the way, not bordered by anything, and a convenient lack of streetlights.

Slipping his phone out of his pocket, he dialed Naoki's number. He answered on the second ring.

"Hai, Izumi."

"Are you in Bath yet?"

He could hear the sound of the motorway in the background.

"Almost. About fifteen more minutes."

"Good. Our friends should already be there. Get what information you can from them, and then send them on their way."

"Daijōbu. Did you happen to catch the press conference?"

"No, I was too busy escorting our hostages."

Naoki curved the corner of his mouth up. "So you got her then?"

"Of course I got her. Suzuki may have sharp edges, but everyone has their weak points. Did the cops say anything interesting?"

"Not much. They think they have a starting profile of the bomb suspect."

"Of Mr. Sparrow, you mean."

"Hai. Apparently, he is 'slim', he drives around in sports cars, and he is...single."

"Well, I beg to differ on that last point. But alright, see if Unwin and Slaymaker know anything more than that."

"What are we going to do about the Cartel?"

"I...have a few avenues we could explore. They rarely turn down money...but they are even more susceptible to blackmail...as long as you have the right ammunition."

"And you do?"

"Hai, Naoki. It wouldn't take much to implicate them in several different...areas."

"So you threaten to expose them...and they...what? Just fold?"

"If they're smart."

"And what about the girl?"

"The girl...think of her as...a very valuable bargaining chip...or a very useful tool. Whichever suits my needs. She will prove worth the trouble we went to to acquire her, I'm sure."

"What are you going to do in the meantime?"

He slipped another phone out of his pocket.

"While my lovely assassin is tied up and gagged, I am going to take a look through her phone. I'm sure I can find something interesting."

"And after I talk to the cops?"

He smiled a bit.

"Go back to the airport and retrieve Suzuki's car. Bring it back here."

"Her...car?"

'That's what I said. I think it's time we send Mr. Sparrow a message. Whether he is smart enough to listen to it...that remains to be seen. Understood?"

"Understood."

Shutting the door, he watched the minimal light from outside get smaller and smaller, until the door closed with a loud click.

The warehouse was massive, with a manufacturing plant, several offices, and a few storerooms.

He crossed through the empty cavern where all the machines used to be to the back office, and stepped in.

The light was a piss yellow color in here, evidence of a bulb that had not been used or changed in a very long time. The room had the distinct smell of factory sweat and moth balls. Dry and rank.

A lone chair sat in front of a barren desk, and a lone figure sat on the chair, bound and gagged.

She barely moved, barely showed any sign of being bothered by her situation. Her long dark brown hair was loose, and her expensive tailored suit was disheveled.

"Before I take your life," he started, as though he was making a proposition to a potential business partner, "I need one more thing from you. You're too stubborn to give me the actual password, and I am not quite patient enough to torture it out of you."

Suzuki was annoyingly resilient.

Her head turned a fraction towards him, and her eyes burned.

"Your fingerprint, if you please."

Kneeling down next to her, he softly took her right hand and raised her thumb to the button on the bottom of the phone. It lit up and opened to the home screen.

Quickly disabling the lock feature, he stood back up, catching her icy glare. "Thank you for your cooperation. Not that you had a choice."

Leaving her there to contemplate her short future, he headed back to the other side of the building, where another office sat empty.

He sat down in the lone office chair, the leather on the seat ripped and faded from years of use. Navigating through the phone interface to the messaging center, he surveyed through the list of names there.

Of course they were all cleverly abbreviated to only the first letter.

...All of the one that was still there.

H.

He tapped on the message.

The first bubble at the bottom read "Fuck you."

Appropriate.

The one above that read "See you in London."

Who were you meeting, Bellwood?

The words and bubbles blurred as he scrolled all the way to the top.

"Are we one less bird in the sky yet?"

"His wings are currently still attached."

Who?

"The longer Jack lives, the more fucking annoying he gets. Fix it."

Both eyebrows raised.

"Remind me again how much you are paying me."

"For what?"

"Motivation."

"Your motivation is keeping your life."

"Nan demo, Handa. It will get done."

Handa?

Sekar Handa?

A wealthy Indian businessman. Kind of a prick, if he was being honest.

The longer Jack lives…

Handa had hired Suzuki to kill Jack…

What business did Handa have with Jack?

Just then, the phone buzzed.

"Found your hotel room."

Rubbing his finger along the edge of the phone for a moment, he considered his options.

Play along as Suzuki, or inform Handa that Suzuki's tune was almost over…

"I'll pass it along to Suzuki for you."

A few seconds went by before he got a reply.

"Who is this?"

"You have an interest in Jack Sparrow?" he texted back, ignoring the question.

"Who is this?"

"The Dragon. How much were you paying her?"

"Where is she?"

"Comfortable."

"Her pay is irrelevant if she is no longer able to do the job."

"Fair enough. Jack?"

"A thorn in my side. Why?"

"Dead is the way we would both prefer him. However, you know him, I don't."

"So?"

"Why don't we meet? You're in London, I assume. I know a place."

"I want your name first."

"...Tatsuo Izumi, Yakuza."

A long thirty seconds went by.

"Give me a time."

He grinned a predator's grin.

Perfect.

He parked the sleek black Lexus in a particularly dark spot in the lot, and waited.

It didn't take long for the hapless constables to amble on in with their cute little police car.

Hopefully they have something that will make this ridiculous meeting worth my time.

The door made a luxurious click when he shut it, unlike the loud clap that their door made, and he cringed a little from it.

Straightening his suit, he quickly made his way over to them. "Naoki," one of them said, but he was too busy with his cufflinks to care which.

"Could you two at least try not looking like rookies?"

Unwin made a strange little cross between a cough and a hiccup, and the other one just continued staring at his shoes.

"...Are you going to make me waste my time?"

The other one recovered enough to look up. "They had a press conference-"

"-Yes, I know that. Anything actually relevant?"

"We have a recording of the phone call that the suspect-"

"-For fuck's sake, say his name. Jack. He's not fucking Voldemort."

"Right. Jack. We have the recording."

"...And are you going to play it?"

Unwin fumbled with his phone for a second before a deep voice started to play.

It didn't take him long to realize that the man was very good at pissing cops off.

When it was finished playing, he stared at the two idiots.

"So...you're telling me that one man sent the entire police force into a panic over a phone call?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

"And stole valuable evidence right under their fucking nose?"

"...Yeah."

"Hm. I bet you two wish you could be as smart as him."

The other one opened his mouth for a second.

"Don't try and argue that. Is that all you have?"

"The...uh, the airport security staff spotted Izumi with Suzuki. Trivoly was told about it."

...That could become a problem.

"Fine. And the cops still have no idea where Jack lives, what he looks like, or what he will do next?"

"Not that we know of."

The weather was cool, and a slight hint of warm rain hung in the air.

This town would have gotten boring a long time ago had Jack not lived in it, and it had only been a week.

"How do you live here?"

He side-eyed her. "It's quiet, out of the way, and the land was nice."

"An island in the Caribbean is also quiet, out of the way, and-"

"-which is why I have a cabin there."

She pressed her lips together, trying to hide her smile.

Hopefully, you'll have a ship there too. Soon.

"Oh, it wasn't because that particular location was nostalgic?"

"If nostalgic here means life-threatening, annoying, wet, and heavy, sure."

"Life-threatening?"

"I did almost die-"

"-and heavy?!"

"The dress. The dress was heavy, which is why I took it off of you."

She remained quiet for a moment.

"I'm not annoying."

"Never said you were, love."

She would have come back with another smartass retort, but Jack's voice had trailed off, and she turned her head in the direction that he was looking just as he pulled off to the curb.

"What?"

"Look."

There was a black Lexus hidden in the dark corner of the lot, and three dark figures standing a few yards away from it.

They waited until the person on the right started to walk away, and the stripe of light from lone street lamp caught his face in a perfect yellow glow.

"Yakuza."

"Well, looks like we won't be driving to London after all," she mused. Jack pulled into the parking lot across from their target, and turned the key. The Challenger's engine died, a mighty beast going to sleep for the night.

He eyed the two, wondering what on earth made Izumi keep them on. They were practically useless.

"What about the other fronts. Ishii...the Russians…"

"They're floundering. Stuck. Trivoly seems to believe that Jack is somehow the key to everything."

"And the Cartel?"

"Quiet, for the moment. Though, once they figure out that the girl is missing, it will cause a stir."

"The Cartel will soon have bigger things to worry about."

A small ding sounded on his phone, signaling the timer on this conversation.

"Unless the two of you have anything else pertinent, you can go back to...wherever you hole up."

They started to walk away, before he called after them.

"And what are you going to not do?"

Unwin actually rolled his eyes at him.

"If we talk, we might as well jump off the London Bridge."

"Fair enough."

The darkness swallowed them once they turned the corner, and he turned back to his Lexus, digging his phone out of his pocket once he made it to the door. It was buzzing. Izumi.

"So?"

"Not much. Will fill in when I get back."

"Īdesu ne."

Slipping the phone back in his pocket, he opened the sleek black door and dropped onto the scooped black leather seat.

Just as he turned the key in the ignition, he felt a small prick in his neck and a voice in his ear.

"Nighty-night."

Colors blurred together, his hand fell off the steering wheel, and his head tipped back.

The world shut off.

The first thing he felt was his own hot breath coming back into his face, making his cheeks warm and his eyes water. It was dark, and what breath he could force out was short and laboured.

Shifting a little, he realized he was sitting...his hands and feet were bound with a zip tie, the plastic digging into his skin. It must have been twenty minutes at least...where was he?

"You'll feel a little groggy for a bit. Should wear off."

There was a twisting noise...metallic...then the sound of a gun being loaded.

"Just in case."

The voice was coming from behind him...the same voice from Unwin's recording.

A flash of friction against his face, and then the slow focusing of a dark, dimly lit room. Yellow fluorescent light coming from the ceiling...a steel table in front of him…

The voice behind him made his way around the edge of the table, and dropped into the other chair.

He found himself staring into a handsome face with dark eyes and a neat mustache.

Jack.

"So, do you have a name, or should I just refer to you as Yak?"

"Do you have a name?"

The man smirked, his eyes glittering. "I do, but I reckon you already know it, with the way you're glaring at me."

"Jack."

This time he actually barked out a little laugh. "Wow, you Yakuza do gossip..."

"...Naoki."

"Hajimemashite. It's a pleasure."

He didn't respond.

"You know, I am honestly surprised it was so easy to get you in here. Have the Yakuza gotten sloppy, or am I just that good?" He paused for a moment and then waived his hand in a dismissive manner

"Nevermind, don't answer. What I do want to know is what you were talking about with our two mutual friends."

"Friends"?

He eyed the man, noticing his now dirty suit and the disgruntled look on his face because of the dirty suit...being tied to a chair probably had something to do with it too.

"Yeah, dipshit and dumbfuck."

Lizzie snickered from the corner of the room.

Tranq dart receptacles. Hapless policeman.

"I wouldn't call them friends." Eye roll.

"Fine, slaves then."

"Closer. And why would I tell you anything?"

"Come on, this isn't a big budget action movie, Bruce Lee. Let's skip the dramatic stalling."

"You wouldn't kill a Yakuza."

He gave the man a long cool stare that clearly made him rethink that assertion. "I don't particularly care if you are the Prime Minister of England buried in a hooker's ass. If you get in my way, the next thing you are going to be buried in is a grave."

"Point taken."

"So. Do I need to ask again?"

Naoki twitched his head to the left in what he supposed was a 'no'.

"They were telling us about the bomb threat case."

"And what did they say? That the suspect was feared to be a Joker copycat, heavily armed, and crazy?"

"Sure."

He pushed his lips out a little bit in annoyance. "See, that's the problem with cops. They always assume that the suspect is a bad guy."

"And the bad guys always think they are the heroes of their own story."

Sliding the chair back and standing up, he placed his hands palm down on the table and leaned forward. "I'm neither a hero or a villain. I am just here to have fun and fuck shit up. And you and your idiot friends," he paused to raise a finger off the table in a pointing gesture, "seem to be hell-bent on making me get serious."

Naoki nodded his head in the direction of the corner. "Is she your fun?"

"Every damn second of it. And if you look at her again I will fucking murder you in that chair."

With a swiftness that brought him massive satisfaction, the man's eyes snapped back to his. "Point taken." But it was said with an ounce of fear now, and a little quieter.

"What did dipshit and dumbfuck say the cops knew about me?"

"Nothing, besides that they think you're single and like to drive nice cars."

That gave him pause.

"So you bribed two constables to feed you information, and then they...don't feed you information?"

"You're remarkably elusive. They do have your phone call, though."

"That was the point. I love torturing detectives."

"I must say, I'm impressed."

"Am I supposed to care?"

The only response he got was a curled lip.

Pushing up off the table, he wandered to the right. "Right, so you have ears and eyes in the police department. Well done. Moving on. Tell me about Izumi and his talent for murdering prosecutors."

A semi-startled "what" slipped past Naoki's lips, but he collected himself rather quickly. "Suzuki told you."

"She did. Quite handy, that one."

It was a long two minutes before Naoki finally decided to give up any information.

"Ishii...he was a persistent investigator, and his persistence got him too close to uncovering one of our operations. Izumi wanted to eliminate the problem before it turned into more."

"Recklessly putting a bullet in the man's skull in the middle of a parking garage seems like a problem by itself."

"The Cartel-"

"-Yeah, I was getting to that. Shooting Ishii might have been reckless, but trying to pin it on the fucking Cartel? Jesus Christ, have you dipshits been taking some of the powerful drugs?"

"It was convenient, and at the time-"

"-at the time your brain was three sizes too small?"

"Ok, I admit that Izumi-

"-Is quickly becoming less of a challenge and more of an annoyance?"

Naoki fell silent, glaring at him.

"Sorry, I'm a smart-ass."

He heard Lizzie's "we all know" in his head before he heard her say it.

"Ok. So Izumi shot Ishii in a parking garage, then scraped together some evidence to frame a Cartel guy, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

There was no response, only the same glare being leveled at him.

"And you. What are you, Izumi's sex slave?"

"I'm a close friend and confidant."

"You were."

Naoki chose not to respond to that.

"And the only reason Izumi is here was to try and intercept the evidence?"

"Not...entirely."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"He is hunting someone."

"Hunting? Someone who?"

"That I don't know. He won't say her name."

"Typical squirrely Yakuza bullshit. Well, while you may have fucked yourself over by dragging the Cartel into this, they aren't who you need to be worried about."

"Oh? And who is?"

"You getting the answer to that question depends on how you answer this question. How did a child get involved in this?"

"A child?"

The shot exploded out of the pistol, rocketing through the air and striking it's target. All of the color drained from Naoki's face as his arm shook, and his shouts of pain echoed around the room.

"I'm the wrong person to play stupid with."

"I don't kn-"

"-There's six more bullets in this pistol you dumb motherfucker. Stop. Lying. To. Me."

Blood was starting to soak the man's shirt sleeve, and his eyes were spasmodically opening and closing. "There-there is a child. A girl."

"Go on."

"She...she's one of the Cartel...her father is, anyway."

He flashed the gun in warning. "And?"

"As far as I know...fuck...as far as I know, Arturo was using her as incentive for her father to remain in the Cartel...and Suzuki was asked to retrieve her. Arturo saw an opportunity to get the evidence."

"Did she?"

Naoki hesitated, just for a second, before answering. "Yes."

Squaring his shoulders, he walked around the table until he was behind the man, leveling the barrel of the pistol at the base of his neck. "Finish the sentence."

"What?"

"Finish. The. Fucking. Sentence."

Naoki went quiet again, and he waited. Then, in a quick hushed tone, he got an answer.

"We have the girl."

He yanked the pistol away, spun the chair around so Naoki was facing him, and clutched the man's face with a white-knuckle grip. "You what?"

The defiance shining in Naoki's eyes pissed him off more than it should have.

"And Suzuki?"

"That's not a question for me."

Releasing the man with force, he took a few steps back and aimed the pistol at his forehead for a moment before shoving it back into his trousers.

"For Izumi then. I assume I will be meeting him eventually."

"You're...not going to kill me?"

He didn't answer for a moment, as he was busy collecting the syringe from Lizzie. Once he was back in front of Naoki, he smirked, and knelt so he was eye-level with him.

Slowly puncturing the man's neck with the needle, he smiled a little. "No. I won't have to."

Only a few minutes passed before the tranquilizer did its job, and Naoki slumped back over in the chair.

"Well, that was enlightening."

Lizzie was eyeing the unconscious man as she made her way out of the dark corner. "You were a little mean."

"I was having fun."

She smiled, but it was a tired smile. "I'm sure. Come on, let's get out of here before any of his friends show up."

"Let me put him back in his car first. The tranqs inhibit memory, but it will still be a little suspicious if he wakes up in here."

"Maybe you forgot, but you did kind of...shoot him."

"Yeah, but that will just confuse the fuck out of him. If he wakes up in here, he might just be smart enough to put two and two together. Can't have that."

The light from the street lamp was flooding his vision every time he opened his eyes. Pain throbbed in his arm, and the warm trickle of blood was running down his skin.

What…

Everything was foggy. He'd gotten in his...car, and then...the thought ran away from him, his head was swimming and nothing made sense.

A tune of some kind of techno music punctured his haze, weaving in and out of his consciousness. Louder, then quieter, then deafening. What is that?

Fuck his arm hurt.

Taking several swallows and a deep breath, he adjusted himself in his seat. Once the miasma of pain stopped invading, he peeled off his suit jacket to examine his arm.

A bullet.

What the fuck happened?

The techno music started again and jarred him into realizing it was his cellphone in the other seat. Reaching, trying to ignore the bullet wound protesting, he grabbed it and swiped to the right.

A few seconds passed before he actually answered.

"H-Hello?"

"Jesus Christ, Ki, I've been calling for fifteen minutes. Where the fuck are you?"

Koji.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, I'm in my car, but last time I was in my car I didn't have a bullet hole in my arm."

"A bullet hole?"

Some excited voices bounced back and forth in the background, including several repeated "give me the phone".

He heard Koji's protests as Izumi won possession of the cell. "Naoki. What happened?"

"I don't know, I just explained that to him. I was in my car, completely fine, and now I am in my car with a 9 mm bullet in my arm."

"Can you treat it yourself for now?"

Looking down at the wound, he noticed the blood was slowly coagulating. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good, do it, and then get back here."

"Understood."

"Yoi."

Wincing from the dull throbbing, he slowly pulled the car into the parking lot of the warehouse. Koji and Izumi were already waiting at the door, halfway illuminated by the fluorescent light above it.

Gingerly, he exited the car. Izumi was in full interrogation mode, his face set in a hard line. "Did you see anyone else there?"

"Besides the two fools? No."

"You're sure?"

"No, sorry, the whole Scooby Gang was there, I just forgot to mention them."

Just for a second, he thought he saw Izumi smirk, but it vanished before he could be sure.

"Let me see your arm."

Pulling back the button up shirt, he revealed the angry wound. "Hurts like a bitch, but fuck if I know how it got there."

"If I were to guess...someone attacked you, and then chickened out, so they threw you back in your car and took off."

"...Maybe."

"What?"

"It's just that...an hour went by before I actually woke up from the time I got in my car."

"Ok, so you were knocked out for an hour. I don't see the point."

Thinking carefully, he tried to shake the fog from his head, but it wouldn't budge.

"Nevermind, it's nothing. Let's go inside."

"Hai, I have some interesting things to tell you."

"Oh?"

This time Koji cut in, earning an annoyed glare from Izumi.

"Izumi has a new friend."

"What about Suzuki?"

"Koji has her car. After I decide she is no longer useful, we are going to stage a pretty little scene for Jack."

"And the girl."

"She is to be treated as a guest. I may have many uses for her."

He looked up from glaring a hole in the couch out of boredom and the inability to sleep when the front door clicked open. Jack and Lizzie slipped through quietly, thankfully in one piece.

Not that he expected it, but Jack didn't even flinch when he spoke up. "How did it go?"

"I swear, Chris, sometimes your insomnia is as bad as mine is."

But it wasn't insomnia. It was worry, the fucker. "Not everyone's best friend likes to go kidnap and interrogate Yakuza."

That earned him a tired little smirk. "Are you saying you were worried?"

He rolled his eyes. "I realize that you are...well, you, but this was dangerous. I half expected you to come in here with a bullet in your other shoulder...or worse, in a body bag."

"He had a larger chance of me putting him in a body bag than he did the Yakuza, Chris," Lizzie said, patting his head as she walked past him on the way to the bedroom.

"Now that I can believe."

"Good night," she said over her shoulder. "You coming, love?"

"In a minute, darling."

She smiled and then disappeared into the bedroom.

Jack crossed to the fridge to dig out a cold beer and then turned back to him. "We didn't learn a whole lot. Just that ol' Izumi is apparently looking for someone, and that the Yaks...they have Gabriella."

"They what?"

The look that flashed across Jack's face betrayed the barely buried trepidation he felt. It took him a whole minute before he answered. "Yeah...I don't know what for, but they have her. And Suzuki."

"...Jesus."

"Yeah," he said again, taking a swig of the beer. "This is fucked, Chris, this whole thing."

"Are you gonna get her back?"

Something else surfaced in Jack's eyes...an anger...a righteous anger. "Yeah. I am."

He waited for a second before responding. "Good. She didn't deserve to be dragged into this."

"No one does."

"And Suzuki?"

"...she can handle herself, and if she can't, she isn't my problem right now. I don't even see a way to-" he paused, squaring his jaw, glancing towards the bedroom. "Suzuki isn't my priority."

He chose not to comment any further on that. "How did you manage to-"

"-snatch the Yak up? Funnily enough, he was already here. Evidently, this is where they chose to meet up with the dipshits."

"Interesting coincidence."

"Yeah...maybe. Anyway, all it took was a little stealth and a quick needle into the prick."

"He gonna run to Izumi?"

"Nah, he barely remembers it. Tranq dart. And if he does tell Izumi anything, they'll kill him, so…"

Now what?

Jack must have seen the question cross his face. "Izumi has finally made a move. An unexpected one, the bastard, but a move nonetheless. For now...I feel like this move of his isn't over, so for now, we wait for him to finish."

"And Gabriella?"

"She is safe for now. Killing her is the last thing they are going to do, and they won't do anything else until they have to. Yakuza are smart, not crazy."

"And you had no indication of who Izumi was looking for?"

"Just that it is a she."

"That's helpful." He paused to climb off the couch, his back protesting. "Well, I am going to try and head back to bed. By 'bed' I mean the downstairs couch. Shawn is taking up the couch in the garage, and Ringa has the spare bedroom."

"Yeah, yeah, I've been meaning to add an extra room somewhere. Actually…once all of this shit blows over, I may just relocate."

"Mm. Sounds exciting. Night."

"Night."

He crept up behind her just as she lifted the shirt over her head, her long hair tumbling down her back. She giggled a little when he slipped his arms around her. "How does my girl feel about a little dip in the pool before we pass out for the night?"

Ending his question with a little nibble on her neck, he watched her slowly turn around with a little grin on her face. "Mmm, I could do with a little swim I suppose...but I don't have a suit."

"A suit? What on earth do you need a suit for?"

Come on Lizzie, you know me better than that.

"I mean, wouldn't want you to accidentally drown-"

He cut her off with a little peck on the lips. "No, but I might accidentally tire you out."

The laugh that spilled out of her mouth was musical. "That I don't doubt. Come on, Captain, or should I say fiend."

The stone was cool under her feet when she stopped at the edge of the pool stairs, untying the silk robe she had slipped on. Checking to make sure Jack had shut the sliding glass door and drawn the curtains, she let the robe melt into a puddle at her feet.

A small intake of breath behind her made her quirk the corner of her mouth into a little smile. Stretching for a moment, for maximum reaction, she slowly stepped into the warm water of the pool.

It soothed her tired muscles, and felt wonderful on her skin.

The sound of disturbed water behind her made her turn to be greeted with the sight of Jack, gloriously naked, joining her.

She backed up to the edge of the pool, crooking her finger in a 'come here' motion as she went. The reflection of the water and the warm light from the lamps around it gave his skin a beautiful glow that she couldn't take her eyes off of.

"Almost as nice as the Caribbean, hm?" he purred once he was pressed against her, brushing his lips across hers.

"Almost," she responded, the word coming out in a whoosh of breath. Beneath the water, his hands were dancing across the skin of her hips, sending little thrills through her body.

"I thought about having you in this pool...every time I swam in it. You gripping the edge as I," he slid his lips in a trail down her jaw and up to her ear, "fucked you. And sometimes I left a few marks on you...just so everyone knew you were mine."

As he spoke, she felt his arousal growing against her stomach. "Your moans and the way you begged me to let you free...when all I wanted to do was drive you mad with want...intoxicating."

His head dipped forward when she wrapped her fingers around him, squeezing, as though she was trying to calm a monster.

"Not the only one driven mad, love," she breathed, thrilling at the heat and power...the man she held.

He was soundlessly murmuring against her shoulder as she softly stroked his length. "No," he finally agreed, reaching behind her to grip the wall edge. "God no."

As she moved her hand on him, his other hand found its way between her legs, crumbling whatever resolve she had to stall. "You're always so wet for me," he whispered, just before closing his mouth around her nipple.

"We're in the bloody pool," but she barely managed to get the words out as his fingers strummed across her clit. "Jack."

Quick as a fox, he was lifting her and then sliding an arm behind her to protect her back from the rough stone.

His mouth fastened to hers, a hot brand, just as he glided inside of her, a familiar ache boiling through her body at the delicious invasion.

They exchanged hot breaths and quiet moans with his slow thrusts, something coming alive between them...a tangible desire to finish the other curling around them in a vice. He thrust, and she pushed back with her teeth in his bottom lip, her fingertips digging into his arse. "More," barely left her lips in a heated command before he thrust in an aimed attack, sending fire through her. "Yes," she moaned.

"Harder," she commanded again, but it wasn't a need, it was the energy that he was pouring into her trying to escape.

"Shhh," the word heating her ear when he whispered it, "I've got you."

Increasing the pace until the water churned around them, she started to spiral into that welcome abyss, the sweet insanity screaming through her, cries piercing the cold night air, her captain's moans vibrating everywhere, against her lips, her slick neck. "Coming," tumbled out of his mouth in a growl at the top of a rough thrust, and the fuse that had been burning in her lit, sending her core into a tight storm of pleasure.

"Yes, yes, God," was all she could choke out before she plunged down, all the way down, and then she was climbing into heaven, a bright light washing out everything else. Tremors rocked her, over and over, before finally receding into a dull tremble. Somewhere in the wild distance, she had felt him flex and jerk, then spill into her with a deep groan.

The water took a little while to calm, while they clung to each other in the afterglow, each using the other as an energy source. When she thought she could finally speak again, she nipped his neck, re-considering an earlier statement. "It is as good as the Caribbean."

A smoky little laugh barely preceded a soft kiss he pressed onto her jawline, still buried inside of her. "Mmm, no, I think it's just me, love."

She slid her hand from his arse to his chest to feel the still rapid beating of his heart. "Me too."

Moving his head so that he was looking at her, he smiled softly. "Aye, you too."

Us two.