Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
This dinner was going to kill Nannette.
The fact that they were even having dinner after the Twins’ attack was completely absurd to her. But Elenor had announced that they were going to eat together like civilized people before stomping off to the kitchen.
Evelyn was still unconscious. Aiden had spent the last few hours flitting in and out of their quarters, alternately trying to gather as many supplies as he could float into the room to make her more comfortable and peppering Mathias with rounds of questions as to the nature of her burnout.
He was back in their cabin now, having slurped a packet of nutrient paste in solidarity with the sleeping woman in his bed.
Cairn looked like someone had strapped him down to a chair and made him watch videos of children kicking puppies for an hour.
He’d directed the Dawn to orbit around a space station that they did not normally frequent, hoping to avoid as many prying eyes as possible as they got the ship back in fighting order.
Lillian was still staring daggers at Tariel. Tariel was still allowing her to berate him.
The vibes were not immaculate. Nannette couldn’t remember a more awkward dinner onboard.
The food itself was delicious, as always. Lillian and Elenor would never feed them anything that didn’t meet the minimum standard of “Good God, can I possibly fit a third serving in me?” It was a wonder they continually managed to fit in their clothes.
Then again, that might be due to the rigorous training schedules Nannette had made for the crew, and then nagged them into fulfilling.
She believed in doing her part. Even if that meant they all were a little over-prepared for a galactic apocalyptic event.
No one was shirking cardio on her watch.
No matter how much Veselko whined about it.
She poked at a meatball on her plate. It was tender, perfectly spiced, bathed in the red sauce Evelyn had been so fond of the night they’d found her. Nestled in a pile of spaghetti, parked next to a large wedge of toasty garlic bread, it was as comforting a meal as she’d ever had at the table.
Yet it was doing nothing to allay the uncertainty their dinner guest had sparked in her. Carbs could only provide so much comfort.
Mathias was sitting directly across from her. Again. He chatted genially with the rest of the crew, laughing at jokes when Veselko cracked them and nodding earnestly when Lillian made another pointed comment about security. He wiped a bit of sauce off his bottom lip, then winked at her.
Furious to be caught staring, she stabbed her meatball with her fork while Mathias returned to his conversation with Tariel about the time Tariel had replaced a famous painting in a museum on Taurus Twelve with one of his forgeries.
Her meatball slid an inch on her plate, but the garlic bread prevented it from careening off onto the table.
Nannette wasn’t used to being emotional.
She had feelings; she just had them privately.
Behind an impeccable poker face. Alone, in her quarters, under the cover of darkness. And sometimes the literal covers.
Her complicated family situation had taught her that it was best to feel her feelings privately. Putting anything on display just provided the enemy with a weakness they would exploit. Why hand over a weapon to be used against you later? That was just foolish.
Nannette was no fool. She wouldn’t have lived this long if she were, not on the colony and certainly not on this ship. But the second she’d crossed paths with Mathias Ariti, all her well-honed control had flown out the airlock.
She refused to believe her control had shattered simply because she was presented with a handsome face.
Nannette was surrounded by handsome faces every day.
Aiden was very good-looking, with his sharp green eyes and lush beard he kept trimmed just so.
Veselko was also quite pretty, in a sort of himbo, meathead sort of way.
Nannette could do without the man bun, but he made it work.
While Tariel was wildly inappropriate for her to consider, age-wise, she had to admit that he, too, was handsome.
All elegant lines and lithe, strong limbs.
She was pretty sure she saw enough of their mugs on a daily basis to be immune to good-looking men.
He is very pretty, though.
Nannette chomped on her garlic bread, hoping the sweet sting of allium would knock the traitorous thought out of her head. She crunched. She looked across the table. He was still handsome.
Et tu, ciabatta?
She wasn’t shallow enough for it to be about his looks.
It had to be about the way he’d stared through her when they’d first met.
He’d tried to cover it up as well as he could, but they all knew that the second he’d seen her, something had triggered his precognition. Whatever he saw, it must’ve been something big from the look on his face when the vision had cleared. Not knowing was eating at her.
Then he’d come to shake her hand, and the sound of her name on his lips made her want to rub against him like a cat. Embarrassed at her physical reaction, she’d decided to be a giant bitch to him. He seemed to like it, if the number of winks he shot her way was any indication. It was infuriating.
Vinnie had told them all that he didn’t like to give hints.
Something about how knowing what was going to happen could just make you rush toward your fate at breakneck speed the harder you tried to avoid it.
This reasoning skirted far too close to the logic her father had tried to use to control her every move for Nannette’s comfort.
She couldn’t make decisions because she “couldn’t see all the angles”.
Couldn’t make friends because she “didn’t know how badly their associates might reflect on the family.
” The reasoning completely ignored the fact that if she had all the facts at her disposal, she was smart enough, savvy enough, to make good decisions for herself.
She had been given that privilege until her mother had died, and the vice grip on her life choices tightened along with her father’s grief.
Mathias knew something that she needed to know. She knew it. He knew it. The whole damn ship knew it.
His morals were colliding with her acute need for information. Lots of people thought knowledge was power. Nannette knew knowledge was safety. Informed consent was the only kind that mattered.
Nannette picked up her bread again and took another giant bite as her gaze drifted, once again, to the seer before her. He was laughing at something; the sound was too rich, too sweet to ignore, lush ribbons of caramel. His speaking voice was hell on her nerves, the laugh was fucking lethal.
He was opposed to hints about the future. Fine. What counted as a hint, anyway? How much intelligence could he give up without spoiling the entirety of the operation? Weighing every comment that came out of your mouth had to be exhausting.
No wonder he keeps his talent under wraps.
She still wasn’t quite sure how the whole crew of the Dawn fit into helping to plan a coup. Just about any crew could manage to arm those clueless farmers. She had the military bases poised to flip on her command. Vinnie only really needed a handful of the folks on this ship for her plans to work.
After Elenor and Aiden had shown up in the gym to discuss their strategy with the ground troops, the conversation had become much more productive.
While Mathias did tend to swing from a far more reckless position than Nannette or Aiden would ever take, she could admit that some of his ideas had merit.
Nannette knew they were trying to save an entire planet, but she knew she would pull the plug and go rogue to get the crew out of danger.
There was no way she’d risk her family, no matter the cause.
Evelyn was the noble one around here, and see what that had gotten her?
Locked on a medivessel for a century. No, thanks.
She was getting that lady out of this alive if she had to blow up Tanalia instead of saving it.
Nannette also knew she should keep that sentiment to herself.
After dinner, Cairn was going to the space station to load up on supplies to try and fix the ship themselves in orbit.
If they could avoid landing anything but the jump ship, their anonymity could be preserved a bit longer.
Mathias would join him, help him load up, and then hire his own way back to Tanalia.
Cairn wasn’t confident in the Dawn’s ability to do two such drastic jumps in its current condition.
There should be no reason to see Mathias again until the Rising Dawn was ready to transport Evelyn down to the planet to fulfill her duty and regain control of Tanalia. After that, Nannette would probably never see his stupid, handsome face again.
Which is exactly what you want.
She had the distinct impression she was lying to herself.