Bad Nerd Falling (37 page)

When it was time to leave for work,
she collected her things and left the flat. It was odd to have Vlad
right behind her. He checked that everything was secure in a far
more extensive fashion than she used. Still, it was nice to be
protected by this big, capable man.

They hit the stairs and met up with
Beau. “Did you have breakfast?”

He shook his head. “No, I’ll grab
something on my way to rehearsal.”

She nodded. “You’ve been up working
all hours.”

“
It’s what I do. When an
idea comes, you have to get it down.” Beau didn’t sound in the
least bit put out by this.

He and Vlad exchanged nods and mutual
respect, she thought a bit sarcastically, because there was an easy
air about them as they traversed the stairs. Beau turned toward the
garage behind the house and she turned to start her walk to
work.

Vlad steered her toward the opposite
end of the street. Beau waved to them as he reached the garage and
entered it. With the same casual elegance, Vlad returned the wave
before ushering her into a sedan parked along the street. It was
already turned in the direction they needed to go.

“
We’re driving this
morning,” he announced as he slid in behind the wheel.

She finished hooking her seatbelt. “I
can see that. Why?”

He didn’t seem any more inclined to
answer her now than he had earlier when she asked the exact same
question.

The thing was, she didn’t really need
an answer. It was rather evident that he intended to drive her to
work.

With a quick, sardonic glance in her
direction he returned his attention to the morning traffic. “You
have to ask that?”

“
Wasn’t the incident last
evening a fluke? A wrong place, wrong time kind of
scenario?”

“
No.”

When he didn’t elaborate, she exhaled
loudly. “Are you certain?”

“
It wasn’t an
accident.”

Really, highly trained military men
were quite annoying.

“
Would you care to
elaborate?”

To his credit, he
did
think about it.
“No.”

“
Vlad
,” she managed through clenched teeth.

The traffic light in front of them
turned red, so he glided the car to a neat halt. It was really
amazing to watch him do anything. Always coordinated, fluid, and
graceful. In many ways it wasn’t fair that this man had been given
so many gifts.

“
We’re being careful
because we know it wasn’t an accident. Since you’re wearing scrubs
that means you’re working at the hospital today?”

“
That’s
correct.”

The light changed, so Vlad accelerated
through the intersection and turned left to take her to the
hospital.

“
Once you finish at the
hospital you’ll work full-time in the palace?”

“
Yes. But we have to
finish out some projects in the hospital and train our
replacements.” She sighed. “It’s ridiculous because they’ve been
working in our positions since before Tia came.”

“
It’s probably a
technicality.” Vlad turned at the next corner. “How long do you
think you’ll be at the hospital?”

“
We’re scheduled to remain
for a business week. I doubt I’ll need that long.” She hoped not.
It was going to be awful as it was.

“
No one will be in the
palace lab then?”

“
We’ve worked out a
schedule so that one of us will check on things and
such.”

He slowed as they approached the
hospital. “What time do you get off?”

“
Four o’clock this
afternoon.”

“
I’ll be here waiting for
you. In this car again.”

She nodded.

Vlad made the turn into the parking
lot then slid into a spot. They were here. Her stomach dropped in
response.

“
What’s wrong?”

“
I’m missing Tia, your
mom, and Jorge.” She eased out of the car and stared at the
hospital. This was the last place she wanted to be.

“
You’re not happy to be
back here?”

A knot blocked her throat so she
doubted she could talk. Instead, she shook her head and swallowed
hard.

“
Don’t you work with my
mother and Jorge here?”

“
No. Different labs.” The
problem was that she had loathed working in this lab. When the
offer to move to the new palace lab arose, she jumped on it. Before
that opportunity she actually started hunting for a new job. “Come
in with me?”

His eyebrows rose, but he nodded and
then curled his hand into the small of her back. Vlad’s big body
shielded her smaller frame as he walked with her through the many
corridors that led to her old lab.

When she swiped her badge, the
ponderous door opened and she led the way through. The awful smell,
a muted stench, assaulted them first. She breathed shallowly, that
skill returning instantly.

As they stepped inside she remembered
another reason why she hated it so much. Everyone who worked here,
in this particular lab, had sought to make her life difficult. Not
outwardly. Definitely not in a way that she could use to file a
grievance.

But an underground, sneaky, nasty
campaign that battered and disparaged. That had all changed when
she moved to the palace lab. She wondered if Graham had been aware
of her unhappiness.

When she looked around, she actually
saw several new faces. They appeared as happy to see her as she was
to see them.

“
Hello.” The new people
introduced themselves. Another young woman as well as an older one
she had seen countless times in the corridors. An older gentleman
she had never seen, and a young man who appeared a bit
timid.

“
I’m Helena Dubrinsky.”
Only to be interrupted by the jeering of the lab supervisor. A jerk
she had particularly disliked.

“
Helena, baby, so you’re
back. Why don’t we…” He hadn’t been in the room when he started
spouting off. As soon as he entered the lab he came face to face or
more accurately, face to bristling chest with Vlad.

The idiot had the good sense to
actually look up. Upon doing so, he encountered Vlad’s war face.
Not a pretty sight in the best of times. Right now he was downright
scary, which was the point of that face, she figured.

She was really glad he was on her
side.

“
This is Vlad.” Her
colleagues had never believed she actually had a man she was
waiting for. The son of their hospital director, no less. Her
evidence now proved undeniable.

It was hard to squelch the
overwhelming urge to laugh.

“
Vlad?” Frederic
repeated.

“
I didn’t make him
up.”

As she said it, the two other men who
had likewise harassed her entered the lab. They looked prepared to
harass her as well. Only Vlad swung his head around to stare at
them, growling like a hungry wolf. Both men stopped in their tracks
and tried to appear small, or better yet, not there.

“
This is Vlad,” she
repeated. Was it petty that she enjoyed their discomfort?
Probably.

Now that Vlad had made an appearance,
she hoped this week would be okay. With the four new faces, she had
hopes anyway of if not a pleasant atmosphere, at least a manageable
one. She turned to those same people now and smiled. “Vlad is
Graham and Maria Wellington’s son.”

Most people at least knew Graham,
since he ran the hospital. Vlad sent glares with his war face at
the three jerks before he guided her out of the lab.

“
Why didn’t you go to my
father?”

“
Because I didn’t have
anything concrete. And there were seven of them who hated me, not
just the three jerks.”

“
So you came to work every
day and worked with seven nasty people?”

She rubbed his arm and enjoyed his
masculine, familiar scent. “Yes, although not at first. There were
nice people when I started here. But over time it ended up
deteriorating into a toxic environment.”

His mouth thinned.

“
I was really eager to
move to the palace.” She smiled. “And now I work with your mother
and Jorge and Tia and it’s wonderful.”

He nodded. “I have to go now. If you
have any trouble, call me.”

“
Trust me, I’d love to
watch you in action all over again.” Her lips curled up in a happy
smile as she replayed Vlad quailing the three jerks.

Vlad kissed her, and that gave her the
final courage she needed to get through this day.

Now she could breathe a little easier. Although
still shallowly.

Chapter 28

Vlad drove out of the hospital parking
lot, aware that he was still growling under his breath. That
wouldn’t do. Not at all. He needed to take a firm grip on himself.
Never before had he come so close to losing control.

Those men had made Helena’s life
miserable for years. He wanted to rip their heads off. The growls
revved up again, so he cut off those thoughts. He had done what he
could to ensure she was protected today. All he needed was one
little excuse to stomp them into the tile.

With a faint trace of humor, he was
willing to believe those men were well aware of the fraying leash
of his control. They better learn fast that he would not tolerate
them anywhere near Helena. He’d make them fertilizer faster than
they could blink. Hopefully the idiots understood.

If not, he’d be happy to reteach
them.

He caught sight of his smile in the
rearview mirror. It was feral.

“
That man was your
boyfriend?” the new woman, whose name she couldn’t remember, asked.
She sounded awed and a little fearful. They were working at an
island bench across from each other.

“
Yes.” She looked up with
a smile and was startled by the cold look in the woman’s eyes. It
disappeared so quickly it might not have been there, but its affect
on her, the resulting chill, lingered. That meant she hadn’t made
it up. The cold black benchtop couldn’t have been icier than the
look in the woman’s eyes.

She hadn’t been expecting to see that
look in a colleague’s eyes. Especially in a woman who worked in a
lab and appeared on the geeky side. Did she have a rival for Vlad’s
affections?

Hopefully not.

The carnage that ensued would not be
pretty. She’d take out SEALs in her attempt to keep Vlad. He
belonged to her.

Just as she belonged to him. She
paused in extracting a sample to be tested, her pipette hanging in
the air, tube open as she stared off into space.

Yes, definitely they belonged
together. Despite her doubts, she was feeling better about that.
And it wasn’t just that she appreciated his help with the jerks. It
went deeper than that. It wasn’t even that he was unbending on the
matter of her safety. The man was obsessed with her remaining safe
at all times. To where it seemed he went overboard on his measures
to ensure this.

The thing was, he hadn’t gone over the
top with any of his measures. He protected her yesterday from that
car. Today he did the same, only from speeding, obnoxious mouths
that spoke before they thought. At least that’s what she always
told herself about the threesome in this lab. The other four had
been marginally better, but the three woman had all hated her for
some reason, and the last man had been interested only in climbing
to the top and hadn’t been concerned about who he stepped on to
reach the pinnacle.

There had been no ally in any of them.
After she left she heard one of the women’s husband had been
transferred, while another decided to retire. She didn’t know or
care about the fate of the third. That one in particular had been
nasty. A single woman, not unattractive physically, but she became
outright ugly when she opened her mouth. Helena also heard that the
position climbing man ended up changing careers. Whether that was
true or not, she didn’t know. Or particularly care.

The woman across from her smiled
gently. “Do you need help over there?”

“
What?” She glanced at
her, and then at her pipette and the sample tube. “Oh, no. Sorry,
got lost in my thoughts.” She reddened, chagrined that she was
caught woolgathering at work. There was no sign of the frigidity
now but she better stay on guard anyway.

Not that woolgathering hadn’t happened
in the palace, only the audience there was a lot more forgiving.
This lab wasn’t conducive to forgiveness. Of course, they had now
met Vlad, so maybe they were more understanding about her tendency
to slip into thoughts about him.

A happy warmth surged through her.
With a smile, she took her sample and continued her work. This
wasn’t as complicated as their tasks at the palace, so she gave
herself a break on her thoughts.

This was routine at best, really
boring at worst.

She grimaced and set about taking the
rest of the samples. With little effort she managed to breeze
through the samples and move on to the next chore. Yet she couldn’t
shake the uncomfortable feeling that the woman working across from
her wasn’t harboring any warm fuzzies for her.