Bad Nerd Falling (28 page)

“
I’ve made my arrangements
to leave.” Tia made that sound momentous.

“
When?” Maria
asked.

“
My cousin Mark is coming
sometime today or tomorrow. He plans to stay a day or two and then
he’s flying back to America. I’m to go with him. It’s earlier than
planned.”

She started. “That means you leave in
two or three days.”

“
Yes, but Aleksi really
wants me to return home with Mark.” Tia sounded baffled by this
abrupt change in plans.

“
I suppose that makes
sense.” Maria sounded dubious. She agreed. It sounded a little
fishy.

“
It does. I’ll have
someone to travel with and it will make the trip easier.” It
sounded like Tia was attempting to convince herself this amendment
to her plans was a good one.

“
You’re going to be a
mess,” Jorge declared. They all turned to stare at him. “What?
She
is
going to
fall apart the minute she steps on that plane.”

They all turned back to Tia. She bit
her lip. “I don’t think it will hit me until after the plane is in
the air.”

“
Going back with your
cousin is actually a great idea.” Aleksi’s plan was brilliant, at
least in light of Jorge’s observation. Still it rang a little
hollowly.

“
Are we far enough along
with your work that you can leave this soon?” Maria took a delicate
sip of her coffee.

Tia sighed. “Yes, we’re in good shape
there. They already know I’m getting married and the head of my
department is wonderful. He’s okay with my leaving.”

“
Do they have someone to
take your place?” Helena stared into her mug. Somehow it was nearly
empty already.

“
Yes, actually. There’s a
grad student who has filled in since I left and he’s willing to
continue until they find someone permanent.”

“
Are you going to miss
it?” Maria asked.

“
No. I don’t mind
teaching, but it’s not what I want to do. I far prefer the lab, and
the type of research we’re planning to conduct is exactly what I’ve
been wanting to do all along.” Tia looked happy at that prospect.
Her face did sober though, and Helena bet it was because she just
remembered she was leaving Aleksi for several weeks.

Leaning over, she patted Tia’s knee.
“Don’t worry. The time at home will speed by.”

Tia jiggled a foot. “In addition to
the lab stuff I also need to sell my condo. I’ll be there for
months.”

Jorge brushed that off. “Plenty of
people have sold their homes from a remote location.”

Tia perked up while her thoughts
strayed to her own situation as she rose to make another pot of
coffee.

If she and Vlad did get together, what
would happen to their living arrangements? Would he travel
extensively? If he was gone more often than not, she wouldn’t enjoy
living in a house. At least in her flat, she had Beau downstairs
and since he could hear if there was trouble, it calmed a lot of
her fears. Not to mention the others in the building she was
friendly with.

Really, she did enjoy her living
situation very much. “I’m glad I have a great place at a great
price.”

“
How is Beau?” Tia
asked.

“
He met Vlad who
apparently approves of him because we introduced him to
Molly.”

Maria sputtered. “My
Molly?”

“
Yes, your Molly. Beau
really wanted to meet her.”

“
How did that go?” Maria’s
eyes were extra wide as she reassessed the possibility of Beau and
Molly.

“
Really well. They play
beautiful music together. He offered any of his instruments for her
to play.”

Her three companions all looked
shocked. “Really?” Even Maria knew how possessive he was of that
collection.

“
I don’t think she
realized the significance of his gesture.”

“
How could she? She
probably has no idea.” Maria frowned. “How is it that Beau has
never met my children before?”

“
He was born here in
Rurikstan, but then his mother took him to America soon after.” She
mentally urged the coffee maker to hurry up.

Jorge glanced at her. “Do you believe
that’s a problem?”

“
No, merely an explanation
of why Beau doesn’t know many people here.”

Maria nodded. “I had heard his mother
took him to her family in America.”

“
I wonder why she left
Rurikstan.” Tia swept her hair off her neck and secured it with a
ponytail holder.

“
She probably needed her
family.” Maria watched the coffee brewing with no
expression.

“
What about his father’s
family?”

“
He never talks about his
father, so I’m not certain.” Why was that?

“
I’m amazed he’s
interested in Molly.” A mother’s hope strung Maria’s words
together.

“
If you think about it,
they have a lot in common.” If Molly’s happiness from the night
before was any indication… “She’s definitely interested in
him.”

“
Does he live here
permanently now?”

“
He has dual citizenship
as far as I know but has put down roots here.”

Maria bit her lip as she stared into
her coffee mug. “Molly works in America. And she loves her job
there.”

She didn’t have to read minds to
understand Maria desperately wanted Molly back in Rurikstan. “I
imagine she could find another job here. Or he might be interested
in moving back to America. He does have family there.”

Maria looked up at her. “That’s true.”
Her expression blanked before she turned all bright and sunny. “So,
what’s on the agenda for today?”

The poor lady wasn’t fooling
anyone.

Tia reached out and covered Maria’s
hand with her own. “She just met the man. I don’t think you should
worry about this.”

“
You’re right.” Maria’s
voice sounded thick. “I’m worrying about something I have no
control over.”

“
She’ll come home when
it’s time.” Somehow she knew that much was true.

“
How do you know
that?”

“
Molly is young and
enjoying her time abroad. But I’m guessing eventually she’ll want
to return home. Beau seems pretty serious about remaining here.
He’s bought a house and he has a job he seems to really
love.”

“
I don’t know him that
well.” Maria took another sip of her coffee.

“
I do. He seems really
happy here and like he wants to stay. I can’t imagine him leaving
right now.” Of course, if he was interested in Molly, that would
provide a definite incentive to leave Rurikstan.

The chemistry was there between them.
He had opened his precious instruments closet to her as though they
were mere toys. Several of those musical masterpieces were
heirlooms and one was nearly priceless. A revered manufacturer had
been impressed with Beau and given him the instrument because Beau
made it come alive.

Yet, it hadn’t been that huge a
sacrifice for Beau because he understood that Molly would recognize
the value of his instruments and wouldn’t mistreat them. Was that a
metaphor for him handing her his heart? Did Molly understand the
value of that?

That led her to Molly’s brother. She
had probably handed over her heart to Vlad. Did he understand the
value? Did he appreciate it like Molly had appreciated Beau’s
trust?

Perhaps Vlad didn’t understand the
significance though. Despite his parents and family, she wondered
if his childhood had been happy. In many ways he had been robbed of
a typical childhood. One couldn’t learn all about being a warrior
at an early age, be given far more responsibility than some adults,
and expect to understand the finer emotions.

With that thought came a
jolt of fear. What if Vlad
couldn’t
love? What if that had been trained right out of
him?

While his military training was
superb, she suspected his emotional wellbeing had been overlooked.
Severely. A good fighter had to squash emotions. She didn’t doubt
he was a good fighter.

What she doubted was his ability to
love.

Chapter 21

“
What do you think they’re
going to come up with?” Emerson asked this question before the
three of them even seated themselves at the small table in his
office.

Aleksi shook his head. “I wish I
knew.”

“
It’s bad enough that
terrorists might be targeting us, but it’s even worse to think that
someone here in Rurikstan is in cahoots with them.” Maks’ voice was
grim. It matched their moods.

“
Again, we don’t know for
certain that this person knows they’re terrorists.” He reminded
him.

“
Whoever this is knows,”
Emerson stated in a flat voice.

He shifted in his chair. “You heard
that SEAL. There’s a good chance even military people don’t
recognize terrorists on sight.” He stood, strode to his desk where
he tugged out his tablet computer, then returned to the
table.

“
We didn’t just get lucky
with these SEALs helping us.” Maks’s fist tightened around his
phone.

He glanced up after he opened his
notes. “No. My father realized terrorists were going to be a
problem.”

“
He took one look at Vlad
and realized he had the very solution he needed right there within
the family.” Emerson uncharacteristically gave nothing
away.

Maks broke the silence. “I was there,
yet I can’t imagine what Vlad’s childhood was like.”

“
So was I, and I
don’t
want
to
imagine,” Emerson added.

He scrolled through some lines. “He
didn’t have one.”

“
How do you know
that?”

“
Because my dad’s notes on
that USB drive told me so.” He started another note
file.

Emerson tapped the table. “How bad was
it?”

They received the impression that Maks
couldn’t bring himself to ask. He turned to him. “Before you start
feeling guilty, don’t. I spoke with Vlad about this, and he assured
me my father’s coursework for him was exactly what he
needed.”

“
I just keep remembering
how surly he was when we were teenagers and now that I know why…”
Maks sounded unhappy and a little chagrined.

Before either of them could reply,
someone rapped on the door. It opened the next moment and Vlad
strolled in.

“
How did you…?” He stared
up at the ceiling. “Oh right, you have my office
bugged.”

“
We have the entire palace
bugged.” Vlad helped himself to coffee and offered it to them. They
all shook their heads. After he poured some, he joined them at the
small table. It was a tight fit with four big men.

“
It’s pretty obvious we
all share the same genes.” He shoved his chair over a bit to make
more room for Vlad.

“
At least Emerson got
different coloring.” Vlad had to be the quietest coffee sipper he
had ever witnessed.

Maks also shoved his chair back in
attempt to gain more room. “But the same body type.”

Vlad nodded as he took a long sip of
coffee. When he set the mug on the table he stared around at them
and his expression turned businesslike. “I do not regret my
childhood, so you shouldn’t, either.” He stared pointedly at
Maks.

“
We had normal childhoods,
you didn’t.” Maks didn’t break the eye contact.

“
It used to bother me that
you three were so close and did everything together.” Vlad cupped
the coffee mug between two huge fists. “I hated that you all were
such good friends.”

“
Why?” They would have
included Vlad. Mostly.

“
Because I didn’t fit
in.”

At his bald statement they all stared
at each other and then at him. “How could you feel that way?” He
stared down his cousin.

“
I might look like you,
but I’m not
like
you. It was hard to not fit in with my own
family.”

“
My father realized this.”
Some of his father’s notes finally made sense.

“
Yes. He gave me a goal to
focus my energy and aggression on.”

Maks set his phone on the table. “You
had a lot of that.”

“
I did.” Vlad nodded. “It
was reassuring that Prince Aleksandr knew how to siphon it
off.”

“
Yet you didn’t fit in?”
Emerson looked like that was so far beyond his comprehension he
couldn’t fathom it. Probably he couldn’t as Emerson was the one
person who fit into any situation he found himself.

“
No. I didn’t feel like I
belonged until I hit SEAL training in America.”

They all stared at him. “You were
eighteen or nineteen then.”

“
I was twenty.”

“
It took until you were
twenty to fit in?” Emerson stared hard at Vlad.