Page 42 of No One Aboard

“Francis, wait...” she whispered.

He paused, one hand propping him above her, the other hand on his belt. “Why wait, Lil?”

She sat up but cupped his face. Held his focus. “I could ask you the same thing, my love.”

Francis leaned into her. “You should trust your captain, Lila Logan.”

She should. She did. Well, she almost did, but she knew him too well to trust him again.

“I just have to know why,” Lila went on with care while he watched, unreadable. “I have to know, and Iwantto know because we’re on the same team.” She unspooled his fingers and threaded hers between them while he considered her words and her.

Francis sat back on his heels and broke their grip. Lila resisted the urge to yank him back again, but she was a patient woman. She waited for him to nod and explain and mostly for him to kiss her once more and paint a silver lining on this horrible day.

“No,” he said without a shade of apology. Then he stood, adjusted his belt buckle, and left with a brief twist of the watertight door.

The place where he had been, heavy and burning, froze over.

No...

The tequila she’d already consumed was no longer enough. Lila made her way to the galley, and for once she was thankful Alejandro wasn’t there. She poured herself a double shot and added a slice of lime and a rim of pink Himalayan salt.

The galley was empty, but it didn’t feel like it. A net of bananas swayed over the kitchen sink, and a Florida-shaped spill of truffle sauce had congealed on the steel counter. A sweaty plastic bag of meat loaf was left defrosting next to the stain. Lila supposed Alejandro would have thrown everything from the freezer out now that they could no longer store food there. Why keep the meat loaf? Their freezer was now a coffin.

There’s a dead woman in that freezer.

She knocked back the glass.

Maybe, in a beautiful and terrible way, it was better like this, she told herself. The reporters would smell a scandal. But Lila could guide it. She could massage the narrative.

MJ was like an older sister to me. A member of my own family. The ocean stole her, and I will never forgive it for that.

Lilawasprofoundly disenchanted with the ocean; no part of that was a lie.

And the death had been a rather cinematic one, hadn’t it? What if it got made into a movie? But what would the overall plot be?

She pinched the lime’s juice into the empty cup and poured a fresh shot. This time she didn’t bother with the salt before she drank. Her body thrummed with anticipation. She couldn’t hold still. She swept down the hall, alit with nervous energy, and hovered outside the twins’ door.

They’d been slack and catatonic when they’d descended the companionway hours ago. They hadn’t reemerged since. Her children were unraveling. Her husband wasn’t listening.

No, Francis had said to her, but now she wondered what exactly he had been referring to.

No, Lila, you don’t have to know.

Or maybe,No, Lila, we’re not on the same team.

Or worst of all...No, Lila Logan... you don’twantto know.

Chapter 22

Tia Cameron

Call sign: Thimble

Day 3 at Sea

The anchor locker ofThe Old Eileenhummed with the pressure of the sea as Tia sat inside it, listening to the ship surge through the Atlantic. There was something comforting in it. At least here, the sea sounded just as dangerous as she now knew it was.

At least here she could be away from Rylan.