"Larry asked, "Why Nicole?"I said, "For three reasons. One, you want to live. Two, you wantnurture and not hurt. Three, you have learned it is what on...the insideand not the outside that makes a person. I don't care if you are mybrother or my sister. This new look from you needs to be rewarded andprotected."After that Larry was sent to the Wellman Clinic. Two days later, Ipicked up Larry. All Belle would tell me, is that Larry would be fineand received a gift from St. Joan. Larry did tell me. So unnecessary. And now look at where it had gotten her. Trevor would hate her after this. All of these thoughts whirled around her head, as if her brain was trying to distract her from the imminent danger she was in. ‘Strip. Down to your boxers.’ Avery blinked, barely keeping herself from jerking at the odd command. She watched the confusion flicker across Trevor’s face, cutting through the anger. And then the hesitation. Oh god, please don’t hesitate. Any other night she’d be cheering to see. " Aye Captain," Henrique shouted back in acknowledgement before getting back to his job.Even as the guns barked again and a cry of 'hurrah' rose up from the gunners to tell Pedro that Henrique's men had found their mark again, Pedro was already moving back towards Bartholomew and his helmsman."Bring our portside about," Pedro ordered the helmsman, "and let's give these bastards a taste of our heavier guns." Aye Captain," the helmsman responded with a broad grin upon his face. Quickly he carried. This in itself used to excite me for it added a kind of illicit feel about our meetings.One day, on one such break I'd been asking him about his weekend and happened to casually mention if he had taken his girlfriend out somewhere nice. The strange thing was, this many weeks down the line I'd realised he'd never mentioned a girlfriend and I'd never asked. It was then he informed me he wasn't seeing anyone and that most of his time was spent out and about with his male friends.I suppose I must.