Bad Nerd Falling (7 page)

“
So have I.” Jorge’s shoes
didn’t make a sound.

“
I haven’t.” Helena’s
voice indicated she was rather enjoying herself nonetheless. In
fact, all three of them sounded like they were.

“
I hope this doesn’t dead
end.” None of these passages did.

He shined the light, keeping watch for
landmarks that told him where the other corridors branched off.
When they reached those, he shined the light on the opposite solid
wall to keep his companion’s attention off the more interesting
aspects of the tunnel. Knowing his mother and Helena, though, he
didn’t doubt both would bring their own lights and thoroughly
explore this space.

That meant he better rig up a system
whereby it looked like the entire wall was solid. Mentally counting
up the passages off this one, he realized he would be busy for the
next few days. That should be enough time to build what he needed
to block off the other corridors.

Hopefully Tia would have plenty of
work for them to do in the next few days since it was obvious they
wouldn’t be working today. Up ahead the corridor turned, and he
shined the small light on the corner, then disappeared around
it.

“
Are we following the
outer wall of the palace?” Jorge sounded far too
interested.

Uh oh
. That meant Jorge was just as likely to investigate this
tunnel in his spare time.

“
I believe so.” He kept
his own answer vague.

Since this was fairly close to the
outer palace wall, there were two exits. He stopped in front of the
first one. It led outside, right to the palace garages. He stepped
back so they could all peek through the door he cracked open. “It
leads outside,” Helena whispered.

“
Yes, this is a great
alternative if there’s a fire.” Hopefully they wouldn’t need this
route but just in case…

“
It’s nice to know we have
options.” His mother peered around Helena.

“
Right.” Jorge joined her.
“It looks as though this passage continues though.”

Everyone stepped back and he eased the
door shut again, making certain it was secure before he took point
once more. The other entrance wasn’t far from here and it lead to
the very center of the palace, at the cellar level. There were
several ways one could take to escape the palace, but if they were
under attack, this might be the safest place for them.

He quickened his pace, like he was
eager to explore. Three more steps should take them to the swinging
door at the end of the corridor. Pretending a little befuddlement,
he stopped and shined the light around the space. “That’s
odd.”

His mother stepped around him to shove
against the door. She toppled. He caught her before she did a
faceplant on the other side. “That explains this mystery,” he
said.

“
Thanks for saving me
again, love.” She brushed herself off. Then in typical fashion,
swung the door open and sailed through.

“
Here we go,” he muttered.
Both Helena and Jorge laughed as they followed him through the door
and they all found themselves on a landing. A staircase led
down.

“
Stairs.” His mother
clapped her hands then stepped forward to most likely hurtle down
them in her too high heels. He grabbed her arm and hauled her
behind him.

“
Mom, you don’t know if
those are safe or what’s at the other end. Would you
please
allow me to go
first?”

She stepped back, disgruntled, but he
had been on these stairs. They wound and curved and someone not
paying attention could easily grow dizzy and disoriented. In a few
areas, they could use some repair. They weren’t crumbling yet, but
were well on their way.

He set the pace down the
stairs.

“
Do you think this will
lead us to lunch?” Jorge asked hopefully.

“
Don’t know.” It didn’t,
but one of the other passages would take them to the room where the
palace personnel stored their belongings. He didn’t intend to show
them that source today.

Instead, once they reached the bottom
of the stairway, it led them into a small lobby. There were
built-in benches all around the space and a door leading off it. He
knew from experience this door was locked, although the key hung
from a nail nearby. He didn’t show them that. Instead he shined the
light all the way around the room so they could take
stock.

“
This looks like it could
withstand a bomb.” He tested the stone with his hand.

“
Oh I hope we never have
to test that theory,” his mother fretted.

“
I second that motion.”
Helena stopped beside her.

Jorge was too busy prowling around the
room to comment.

After they drank in the atmosphere, he
turned back to the staircase. “Maybe we better return to the lab.
Tia might be wondering where we are.”

All three of them snorted.

“
That’s not
likely?”

“
Not at all. She’s busy,”
Helena answered.

Jorge nodded. “We should tell her
about this passage.”

“
It might come in handy in
an emergency,” his mother agreed.

He made short work of leading them up
the stairs and through the passages to the closet. After the four
of them stood in the more spacious part of the storage closet,
Jorge’s stomach rumbled. A glance at his watch revealed it was well
past lunchtime. One peek into the lab showed the room wasn’t any
less crowded. “We’re going to have to wade through that
crowd.”

His companions eyed him
dubiously.

“
Trust me.”

Chapter 7

When they opened the storage closet
door Helena glanced around the still crowded benches and realized
this could take some time. Of course they did have organized
storage closets and cabinets, a table that didn’t give one a hernia
to move, and a secret passageway. The cherry on top was
Vlad.

On that thought, Vlad curled a hand
around her waist and gently shifted her to the side. He stepped in
front of her and forged a path through the lab coats like he was
royalty. Of course he was.

In a matter of moments, they all stood
in the hall. Jorge brushed off his shirt and sent an admiring
glance at Vlad. “That was impressive, Vladimir. I could have never
gotten us out of that lab so efficiently.” He smiled at Vlad before
wondering off toward his lunch.

Maria also stared up at him with
pride. She patted his chest. “You are impressive, my son.” Standing
on tiptoes, she kissed his cheek, ruffled his hair, and then
trailed after Jorge.

She eyed him with a lot of
brattiness.

“
If you mess up my hair,
it’s all over between us,” Vlad warned.

She rose up on her own tiptoes and
trailed her fingers through his hair, her lips mere millimeters
from his. “Are you sure?”

“
Okay, you can mess my
hair.” His arms tightened around her like bands of platinum. They
raised her another notch so that their lips were on the same level
and his took hers in a shockingly intimate kiss.

Her spine melted, and her knees
disintegrated. Yet she didn’t mind in the least. Her fingers curled
around his scalp as she pressed closer, her tongue vying for even
more attention from his. The man tasted better than anything she
had ever savored. If he stopped kissing her, bad things would
happen to him.

“
You are aware this is a
public hallway, right?” An unwanted, but thoroughly amused voice
asked right beside them. The voice was
really
close.

One of them, she wasn’t certain who,
said, “Go away.”

“
No. My fiancée is busy
entertaining mouldy scientists so I don’t have anything better to
do.”

With reluctance, she and Vlad
retrieved their own tongues and ended that amazing kiss. It took a
long moment before they accomplished this. She was happy his heart
wasn’t into the extricating exercise any more than hers. Both of
them turned to glare at the unimpressed and still quite amused
Aleksi.

“
Think on it this way, at
least it’s me who caught you and not
Emerson.
” Aleksi rocked back on his
heels as he waited for that to penetrate.

Once it did she and Vlad
sprang apart like they had set each other on fire. In her case,
Vlad had accomplished that goal. Heat continued to speed through
her as her hormones protested,
really
loudly
, at the demise of that
kiss.

“
Emerson.” Vlad
groaned.

“
I’ll tell him you’re
sorry you missed him.” Aleksi looked quite pleased with
himself.

She settled her nastiest glare on him.
“I do know where you’re ticklish.”

He sniffed, not impressed at all. “I
just saved you from the biggest gossip in Rurikstan.”

“
Good, you can eat lunch
with us then.” Vlad’s smile was bland, but it still caused skitters
of excitement up her spine.

Her stomach effervesced in
anticipation as he slid his hand in hers and tugged her toward the
room where her colleagues disappeared.

Before they took two steps, Aleksi
stopped them and steered them in the direction of the palace dining
room. “Apparently Tia is otherwise occupied so you can suffer
through lunch with me.”

When Helena indicated she planned to
use the water closet, he and Aleksi waited outside for
her.

“
Have you read what’s on
that USB drive?”

Aleksi shook his head. “It’s password
protected. You haven’t thought more about what could be on
it?”

“
No.” Vlad frowned. “He
didn’t say much.” He suspected the contents related to him, but he
didn’t know for certain. His prince had only stressed that he give
the USB drive to Aleksi.

“
None of his known
passwords have worked.”

“
So it’s a completely
different one then.”

The prince sighed and
nodded.

“
I don’t recall anything
other than his initial instructions.”

“
How long ago did he give
it to you?”

“
Thirteen or fourteen
months ago.”

“
That was right before he
died.” Aleksi avoided his gaze by bouncing his attention all around
the hall.

“
Yes. He told me during a
sane moment that it was vital.”

“
He didn’t mention
anything
about the
password?”

“
No.” In the middle of
shaking his head, he stopped. “Actually he did.”

Aleksi’s eyebrows disappeared into his
hairline as his gaze finally snapped to him. “What did he
say?”

“
That you would have to
work it out.” His mouth turned down. “He didn’t have many of those
clear spells near the end did he?”

“
No.” Sorrow etched
Aleksi’s face.

“
For what it’s worth, he
definitely loved and respected you.”

“
Why do you say
that?”

“
When I left him near the
end, he didn’t doubt that you would lead our country to greatness.
He had a lot of confidence in you.”

“
Thank you, Vlad,” Aleksi
said, sounding stunned.

He could relate. He hadn’t intended to
mention that, but after witnessing the new prince’s utter sorrow at
the passing of his father, sorrow he related to, the words were
yanked from him.

He was relieved when Helena rejoined
them. By that time Aleksi regained his composure and set to teasing
Helena. It was reminiscent of their childhood years and told him
without a doubt that Helena and Aleksi’s relationship was solid and
quite platonic.

This brought relief because he wanted
Helena for all time. Whether she wanted him was still in question,
but that kiss gave him hope.

Sometimes that’s all a soldier had.
Hope. It was a fleeting, sometimes contrary emotion. Yet it was all
they had to cling to at times. If a warrior lost hope, he was lost.
Those who gave in to despair didn’t last.

That was one of the most
basic rules of combat.
Keep
going
.
Put one
foot in front of the other and look ahead
.
Do not take steps back, keep
moving toward your goal
.

Right now, his goal was keeping
everyone in Rurikstan safe, especially Helena. That’s all he had at
the moment. The rulebook discouraged taking up with the locals, yet
he couldn’t ignore this particular Rurikstani. She was everything
he wanted.

He would keep Rurikstan safe. He would
also keep Helena in his life for as long as she allowed
it.

***

Now she finally understood
what that word
brooding
meant. It had always escaped her in the past.
Vlad currently offered an impressive definition. Brooding meant
dark, menacing, and definitely deep in thought.