Page 51 of No One Aboard
Nico threw back his head. “Man, fuck you, Cameron.”
Tia crossed her arms over her chest in mock offense. “What?”
“You’ve driven a Bugatti.”
“I’vestolena Bugatti.”
He put a pillow over his face as if the conversation physically pained him. “I don’t want to hear it, princess.”
Tia smirked. “What’s the second-worst thing you’ve ever done?”
She couldn’t see his face but could practically hear the air whir as he thought.
“Board this boat,” he said at last.
Tia looked at him. “You mean because of what happened to MJ?”
“My uncle told me we aren’t going to Florida,” Nico murmured.
So Alejandro had known too. That made sense. Francis and Alejandro were partners in everything. Tia had learned that the hard way the time she asked Alejandro to keep it secret that she was in trouble at school when he had picked her and Rylan up. Francis had known less than a day later and grounded her.
“My dad just told us too. Do you know anything else?”
Nico shook his head.
Tia hesitated, then lay down beside him, letting her head rest on his tattooed upper arm. Had Francis hired Nico without telling him the real plan? It wasn’t right. Nico had a life to live that didn’t involve the Camerons’ forever vacation.
Tia frowned to herself. If Francis had decided on this surprise from the beginning, he must have prepared the route for their alternate destination, right?
Those coordinates.
Tia sat straight up.
“What is it?” Nico stretched out his arm, inviting her to lie back again.
“I... I might know where we’re going.”
Nico propped himself up on his elbows. “Shit, really? Where?”
“Well, I know how to find out, I mean.” Tia could picture the messy chart house desk. It had caught her attention days ago with all the maps, the protractor, the ruler. And the ship’s log lying open with a seemingly random string of coordinates written in her father’s penmanship.
“He wrote it in the log book. It has to be where we’re going. And if I can find out where we’re going...”
Then she could figure out how she could run from there instead.
“Then we’ll find those coordinates.” Nico reached out and rearranged a red strand of Tia’s hair.
She faced him fully, blood hot beneath her skin. She was close to his face now, close enough to smell the kind of toothpaste he used. She wanted to tell him right then about her own plan, but the more rational side of her won out. She liked him, but that didn’t mean she really knew him yet. What if he told Alejandro?
“Are you sure you can handle carrying out such a dangerous mission, de la Vega?”
Nico tilted his head one degree to the side. Tia could have sworn his eyes flickered to her lips.
“General, I’m at your command.”
Tia let her nose brush against his, tantalizingly near his lips. “Still think boarding this ship is your second-biggest regret?”
Nico reached up to cup her chin with his large, calloused hand. “I revise my previous statement... I have no regrets.”
