Chapter 11
“Are you certain you haven’t figured out that password?”
Emerson was, without a doubt, his most annoying friend. “Yes, I’m certain.”
Maks stirred. “Your father wanted you to know that information.”
“Yes.” They had already talked about this. It still hadn’t helped him figure out the USB drive password.
“He gave it to Vlad.” Maks’ voice didn’t change but something in the manner he said it made Aleksi pause.
“What are you thinking?”
“It’s obvious your father trusted Vlad to give you that USB drive.”
“That’s one thing about Vlad, he’d crawl through a war zone to give you that stick.” Emerson also turned to stare at Maks.
“My father trusted Vlad for some reason. There was something there he admired.” Aleksi tapped a finger on his desk as his friends all sank deep into thought with him.
Maks got a text message and soon waved goodbye. Someone called Emerson. In a matter of moments, they left him to contemplate alone. It wasn’t lonely, not with the thoughts swirling through his mind. That annoying niggle that he was on to something evaporated when a knock sounded.
“Come in,” he called. Not ready to welcome whoever appeared.
Except that the individual seeking his attention was none other than Tia. His heart rate increased after he identified the hot look in her eyes.
“I’m working on the lab budget.”
That didn’t sound like fun. “I see.”
Her lips curled into a femme fatale smile. The one that always made his breath catch in his throat.
“I’ve come to negotiate my budget.” She sashayed across the floor, barely tripped, then dropped into his lap.
In order to keep her there, he wrapped both arms around her. “I’ve never conducted budget negotiations like this.” He decided that from here on out, this was the only way this particular woman received any money.
She laughed as her arms curled around his neck. “I’m very happy to hear that.” Her fingers slid into his hair.
His heart sped even faster. “I’m guessing your chances of getting any money out of me in the future, princess, won’t work unless you start your negotiations exactly like this.”
“So my chances are pretty good?”
He curled his hand into her hair and tugged her mouth to his. “Your chances are excellent.” He sealed that with a kiss.
The shudder that undulated through her body made him smile. He kissed her thoroughly before allowing her to take her lips back. Tia didn’t seem to mind when he kissed her again.
“Is this going to take all day?” She sounded breathless.
He liked how she thought. “I hope so.”
***
When he checked on Aleksi in his office, it was in time to see Tia drop onto his lap. Yeah, any chance of speaking with the man evaporated. Especially when they engaged in a lip lock that should have set fire to Aleksi’s heirloom desk.
Then a wicked thought erupted into his brain. That quickly, Vlad was on his feet and hurrying toward the lab. He needed to finish blocking the tunnel exits, check in with palace security, help monitor everyone’s safety, and contact his team standing by but instead he was hurrying down the tunnels to where he could pop out near the lab.
No one was about so he hurtled through the secret panel then bent to tie his shoe when he heard someone coming down the hall. The maid squeaked when she saw him, but he offered her a nod and waited until she passed before he slid into the lab.
Helena didn’t squeak when she saw him. Instead her lips curved into an intimate smile he especially liked. “Are you lost?”
“No. I found my way with no problem.”
She rewarded him with a bigger smile, then took his hand and dragged him into the large storage closet. “Since you made the effort to come here,” she murmured and worked hard to kiss his socks off.
He didn’t argue. Instead, he wrapped his arms tight around her and held her close, kissing her back with the same ardor. Loving how her arms looped around his neck and the way she pressed her curves against him. Like they shouldn’t be separate, but the same being.
When they finally parted, her eyes rounded. “Oh no, you didn’t come to see your mother did you?” Her cheeks flushed.
His smile was slow. “I came to see you.”
The pink receded, and her answering smile was a bit shy. “I’m glad.”
“I needed a kiss.”
“Then you came to the right place.” She freely offered him another one.
“So I can visit you whenever I need a kiss?” he flirted.
She pretended to scowl, but flirted right back. “I do need to get some work done.”
He laughed. “Right. I’ll refrain then.”
Helena looped her arms around his neck again to draw him closer. “You’re here now so don’t worry about refraining at the moment.”
“I won’t.” And he took her up on her sweet offer. It was beyond nice.
“I’ll consider this a perk of my job.” She brushed a hand across his cheek, her eyes warm, gaze tender.
“You like working here?”
“Yes.” Then she wrinkled her nose. “Although when Tia returns to Hershey we have to go back to the hospital.”
“When is she leaving and returning?”
She shrugged. “There’s no word on the final dates.”
“Aleksi’s going to be a bear.”
“Or depressed.”
“Maybe a depressed bear?” This was the silliest, most fun conversation he’d ever had.
She giggled. “A beast any way you look at it.”
“Where is she by the way?”
“She had a budget meeting with Aleksi.”
His eyebrows soared. It hadn’t looked like a meeting to him. “A scheduled meeting?”
“I’m guessing it wasn’t scheduled nor being conducted like any previous meeting of his.” Her expression was classic wry.
“That’s probably a good guess.”
She nodded, her eyes still warm. That’s as far as they got before brisk, tapping footsteps headed their way. “Time for me to leave.”
“I wish you didn’t have to.” She followed him to the space between the shelves and flitted between them with no difficultly. He fit, just not easily. But he was used to speed in a situation like this and managed to kiss her goodbye before he exited through the panel.
He heard his mother enter the closet. “Helena, what are you doing in here?”
“Do you think we can store the…” he didn’t hear what she said but guessed it was lab equipment.
They discussed that notion and Vlad concluded that he was probably safe to finish the work he needed to do in this tunnel. The sooner he closed off these passages, the safer the two precious women behind him would be. Their safety seemed more important to him than that of their prince. It shouldn’t have been, but somehow it was.
The thing was, Prince Aleksi wasn’t without resources. He had served in the military just like all of the other men in Rurikstan. So he possessed skills and could take care of himself.
Helena and his mother didn’t have the advantage of military training. Neither knew how to conduct herself in a combat situation. Therefore, in his mind, their safety came first.
***
“This concludes our meeting?” Tia’s eyes rounded in surprise.
“Yes. I do have a scheduled meeting with the general who is overhauling our military. Unfortunately,” Aleksi caressed a finger over her cheekbone, across her nose, and down to her lips. “I can’t miss this meeting.”
“I’d pout, but I do have samples I need to collect and other work as well.” Her lips pulled down. “If I don’t go, someone else will take my samples.”
“That’s bad?”
She smiled at him. “No, but they shouldn’t have to. I’m perfectly capable, just easily distracted by a certain prince.” Because she didn’t have a choice, Tia leaned forward and kissed him again.
“I’m really happy you’re easily distracted.”
“You would be.” She kissed his nose before wiggling off his lap. “So, Mr. Prince, do you approve my budget for next year or do I still have to convince you?”
His smile nearly melted her socks. “You’re going to need to convince me.” His eyes narrowed. “I should warn you, Dr. Morrison, it’s going to take a lot more effort on your part.” Then he leaned back in his chair, looking smug and utterly satisfied. And so masculine her femme fatale side purred.
“I’m relieved you’ve warned me, Your Majesty,” and her eyes flitted to majestic parts of him. The problem was, there were lots of them and she only had two eyes.
He laughed, and surged out of the chair to catch her. Tia, tart that she was, didn’t protest in the least. Aleksi tugged her close. She snuggled in, so happy she was a little afraid this was all a glorious dream and it would disappear come the early morning light.
“You’ve been warned, now you can work harder to convince me why you need so much money.” He sounded tough, but she was confident she’d get every last penny she asked for.
To reward him, she kissed him again before reluctantly heading for the door. “I’ll review my strategy.”
His eyes half-masted. “You do that.”
With a last smile and not-so-hidden promise, Tia blew him a kiss before she headed back to the lab.
It was a good thing she arrived when she did because she found both Maria and Helena about to embark on their sample taking. “You two planned to collect my samples, didn’t you?”
Maria’s eyebrow rose. “You were busy wringing budget money out of our prince.”
“Exactly.” Helena cocked her head. “It’s not like you don’t have a huge task ahead of you.” Her eyes narrowed speculatively. “Did you get the money we need?”
“Not yet,” Tia hedged. Her grin was probably cheesy cheek. “He claims I have a lot of work to do to convince him.”
“That’s what they do.” Maria smoothed her already perfect top. “String you along, never quite giving you an answer.”
“Apparently I need to rework my strategy.”
“I doubt that. You just need to weaken his defenses and bombard him with all your ammunition. That’s what has always worked for me,” Maria coached.
Tia laughed. “Is it bad that I’m looking forward to our next budget meeting?”
“Not at all. And he’s probably anticipating it as much.”
“Why did you leave so soon?” There was a crease between Helena’s pretty eyebrows.
“He had a scheduled military meeting.”
“Ah, he couldn’t get out of that.” Maria sounded like she knew what she was talking about.
“That’s what he said.” Tia glanced around the lab. “Now, about my samples.”
“What about them?” Helena smothered a yawn and glanced at the coffee pot. It was empty.
Too bad. “Why don’t I pack my box and I’ll go do my job for a change.”
“You already do. It seems ridiculous that a woman with a Ph.D. takes water well samples.” Maria scowled at her.
“That’s my thought.” Helena joined Maria in staring her down.
“Jorge also gets on me about it. But if I don’t take these samples, then you all have to. There’s no reason why I can’t help out.” Tia kept her voice firm.
“You have an advanced degree. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on sample taking.”
Tia shook her head. “If I can’t do your jobs, if my skills aren’t on par with yours, then I’m not a very good boss. It helps me to maintain those skills and I enjoy getting out and seeing the wells.”
Helena was the first to relax. “I can understand that.”
“You have a master’s degree. You could just as easily be running this lab.”
“I didn’t know you had a master’s, Helena.” Maria sounded scandalized.
“I ended up winning a paid graduate level scholarship here in Rurikstan, so I took it.” Helena shrugged.
She wasn’t fooled. “I looked into that program. You don’t win them, you earn them. Your competition was fierce that year, but you still beat everyone out by a huge margin.”
“I’ve heard they’re very difficult to obtain.” This round she joined Maria in throwing the censorious looks.
While Helena winced, she didn’t refute their statements. Probably because she couldn’t.
That reminded her of another order of business. “I’ve also reviewed your pay scale.” She had spent several hours on this in fact. And brought in Maks due to her findings.
“Uh oh.” Helena exchanged a glance with Maria.
“The one budget concern I was most concerned with was the pay rates of those working in this lab.”
Both Helena and Maria stopped what they were doing to turn and stare at her. Helena had grown a little pale. She understood that. The woman had worked really hard to gain that advanced degree and she wasn’t being compensated for it, at all.
“What did Aleksi decide?” Helena’s voice was just above a whisper.
Maria stepped closer to the alarmed woman and brushed a soothing hand over her back.
“I pointed out that you’re being paid the starting rate of a bachelor’s degree candidate. Of which you are neither.” Tia kept her gaze on Helena.
“What happened?” Helena stayed tense but Maria relaxed. She, better than Helena, discerned what was about to happen. Smart lady, Maria, who wasn’t being properly compensated either.
“It didn’t take Maks long to review your file and realize that you weren’t paid what you should have been at the hospital either. Then when you moved to this lab to help during a crisis situation, you also weren’t fairly compensated. As of today, your pay will be assessed and you will be granted any back pay owed you. Your pay scale is also being reevaluated, as is Maria’s and Jorge’s.”
She kept her eyes on Helena, but she still heard Maria gasp. “Shouldn’t Graham have discovered this?”
“No, there’s another man in charge of wages and he’s not well-liked by Maks. Graham has also expressed reservations about him. Aleksi has taken over that project because his word is law. He plans to research this and he will discover what’s wrong.”
“Graham hasn’t said much good about Bertram.” Maria bit her lip.
“Maks’ words weren’t repeatable. He’s going to assist Aleksi, but he was pretty upset when I showed him the file I collected on your wages.”
“What does all this mean?” Helena was still pale, but now looked perplexed.
“Money isn’t of much interest to you?” Tia smiled. The woman was a brilliant scientist but couldn’t balance her own checking account.
“No, I’ve never understood it. It baffles me and is so frustrating I generally don’t pay much attention to it.” Helena scowled. “I hate finances.”
Maria patted her. “You need an accountant, Helena.”
“Or someone in your life who is good with numbers.”
“Why don’t you have Maks take a look at your finances? He can fix them.” Maria’s suggestion was more of an order.
“He already does.” Helena sounded a little guilty.
“Is Vlad good with money?” She asked because she was nosy.
“Yes. He’s got a good head for numbers. There isn’t much Vlad can’t do.” Maria’s face turned pensive.
Tia nodded. “He seems very capable.”
“He is. Sometimes I worry he’s too capable.”
Because that statement puzzled her, she left it alone. How could someone be too capable? From Helena’s bemused expression, it appeared she didn’t follow Maria’s thoughts either.
Maria appeared to be very aware of what she said though as she turned to rifle through her sampling box.
“You didn’t follow that either?”
Helena whispered back. “No.”
“That at least makes two of us.”
“Right,” Helena replied but she sounded… odd.
“What’s wrong?”
Helena was silent for long moments. “The more I learn about Vlad the more I realize I know nothing about him.”
“And?”
“It’s hard to date someone you know nothing about.” Helena chewed on her lower lip for a moment. “How can I date a man whose entire life is a mystery?”
“I don’t know.” She felt for her. “Don’t you think you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself? New relationships are always exciting but also hard. Shouldn’t you give this more time?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I need to do.” Helena didn’t sound convinced in the least. In fact she sounded morose and unhappy.