Power and money allow even the most wretched of men to rule.

Life in the colony of Rhode Island is no easier than life was in Ireland, and having an ocean between her and the dreadful man she was betrothed to marry brings little peace to Hannah O’Rourke. Even so she’d risk the dangerous journey again to remain free. 

After her closest friend dies giving birth to a sea captain’s bastard, Hannah finds herself in the newly cherished position of surrogate mother, and vows to do everything in her power to provide a good life for the baby. 

When she learns the baby’s father is not only happy to take the child, but he’s the same vile pirate she was to marry, Hannah is unable to control her fiery temper. She publicly accuses the man of deliberately ruining the baby’s mother and demands he be made to atone. 

Paying off the authorities and making it clear he has every intention of raising the baby at sea, Captain Black whisks the child from Hannah’s arms without allowing her to say a proper goodbye. As the pirate carries the little boy away to a roaming life of carousing, violence, and womanizing Hannah’s freedom is no longer important. 

Heartbreak and anger mixed with rum turn into an abduction plan that lands Hannah in the pirate’s brig on his ship bound for Ireland where she’ll be forced to marry the man she worked so hard to escape.