Chapter 36

 

They were nearly finished, finally. The police were wrapping up their questions and all the tangos here were gone, even the dead ones. He stepped into the passage and helped as the last of those men were hauled off. All of these were alive, but still out from the gas bomb. It would make them really sick once they came to. Hopefully sick enough to confess everything his side needed to know.

They had discovered a dead Rurikstani woman in the tunnels. She had obviously let the terrorists in as she was part of the housekeeping staff, and from the state of her body, had suffered greatly at their hands. From something Helena and his mother mentioned, she might be Barstow’s aunt. They had to look further into that situation.

The first man with the huge gun had not made it either. Whether the tangos or his side had done the deed he didn’t know, but there was no doubt the terrorist was dead by the time they arrived. He was still impressed with his mother and Helena for using available resources to defend themselves. If he had been in their shoes, he wasn’t certain he would have thought to set the enemy on fire.

The second man, the leader, was badly burned, but he lived. For now. He would likely die of his wounds, so he had taken some time with the man before the police arrived to question him.

Due to his questioning, they had a lot more information than before. He sent military teams across the city and they countered the planned attacks on some of the government buildings with only the loss of two tangos. It was a huge victory for Rurikstan.

It wasn’t the only victory he expected today. He turned and scanned the lab before his eyes settled on Helena. Her gorgeous green eyes were huge in her pale face, and the resultant violence had left her shaky. Yet this amazing woman kept it together in the face of danger, and used her brain to save herself. And his mother.

There was no doubt but that he had chosen well.

Since the only place he wanted to be was by her side, he loped across the lab to her. It was like a magnet that tugged him relentlessly, and he gave in to that subtle, but powerful pull.

When he reached her, he maneuvered her to a secluded area of the lab, and then into the storage closet. He deserved a kiss and bent his head to take her lips in one that hopefully expressed his feelings. Like how much he wanted her and how proud of her he was.

It took several long moments before he realized she wasn’t clinging to him. Instead he could taste the saltiness of tears. Rearing back, he stared down at her with what was probably a gaping mouth and disbelieving eyes.

“What’s wrong Helena?”

Was she sick? Had she been hurt? He had examined her, quickly, but also thoroughly. None of the men had touched her or his mother.

Helena’s eyes made his heart falter, skip, and then plummet. Never in all his years, even facing his toughest assignment, had he ever tasted fear like this.

The sickening taste made his stomach lurch and he couldn’t even frame the question. It was like his brain stalled. His heart debated whether it should start beating again or not.

“I’m sorry Vlad,” she said in a tear-husky voice. “I’m so sorry.”

His heart beat too fast now. “Sorry for what?”

“We can’t be together.” Those big green eyes shimmered with unshed tears. They also pleaded with him to understand, but there was no way that was possible.

Not when his head spun and it hurt to take a breath.

“Why not?” At least he managed that, albeit in a raw voice.

“I can’t even begin to compete with what you do.” Her eyes were two huge pools of despair. “You’re a superhero.”

His heart twisted and hurt like it never had before. He breathed deeply, trying to quell his instincts so he could think.

But coherent thought resisted his efforts. “I’m not following what you’re saying.” He couldn’t have followed turn-by-turn directions from Shively.

Tears trembled in her eyes, in sync with her quivering lips. Helena looked like she was barely holding on. With a ragged sob which she swallowed, she stared at him. Under the despair was the light of awe. Yet unhappiness poured off her and he couldn’t figure out why she was ending their relationship. He at least comprehended that much. She intended to end what they had.

“You don’t want to be with me?” Denial twisted his guts as wave after wave crashed through him. She couldn’t fake how she felt about him. Just like he couldn’t fake how he felt about her. He didn’t want to. He wanted her.

She jerkily shook her head. “It’s more of a case that I’ll just be a weight around your neck.”

“How will you be a weight?” That made no sense.

Beaumont leaned around the door. “Welly, we go wheels up at nineteen hundred hours. Hurry.”

That gave him ten minutes. He explained this to Helena. “The leader gave us information we needed. I have to go.” He couldn’t leave right now.

“We’re over, Vlad. Just understand that. You have to go,” she said with calm acceptance. But waves of heartbreak undulated from her and it broke his heart. Shattered all the hopes he had for their future.

His throat was raw and thick and he couldn’t speak. There was twenty hours worth of prep to do and he only had ten minutes. Now nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds.

The only thing he could do was lean down, kiss her possessively to let her know this wasn’t over and then he ran. He shoved this unsettling conversation with Helena away to focus on what he had to do.

The only thing he was sure of was this wasn’t over. So long as he could convince her. The memory of her face cut through his hope though. She had looked very much as though her decision was final.

***

Helena watched him leave through numbed eyes, numbed brain, but with a heart that shouldn’t have shattered any more, because the pieces were already tiny. Perhaps this was the final step, crushing them into dust so there was no way she could recover the pieces.

It was better that he had to leave.

Perhaps not seeing him for a few days or weeks or months would help maintain her sanity. She couldn’t believe she had broken up with the only man she loved, had ever been interested in, right here in the middle of the lab. There was still blood on the floor.

Ashes from the clothing of the two men she and Maria had set on fire still littered the floor. Maria—Vlad’s mother. Could she work with his mother? A constant reminder of what she had given up. After seeing what it might have been between them, it was so much harder to think about life without him.

No mere woman of science could hold on to a man like Vlad though. He was like the wind. Blowing wherever he was needed. Subtle at times, and then a force of nature such that it could destroy with one solid gust. She couldn’t begin to be what Vlad needed and she loved him too much to see him start to resent her.

Either way, she was going to lose him. It might as well be now rather than later.

Before she could contemplate her barren existence, Beau breezed in. He nodded to a few of the remaining police officers as he forged a straight path to her. When he opened his arms she leapt into them. She fought valiantly against the impending tears but lost the battle. Beau correctly read the signs and hauled her off to a small room nearby.

In privacy she sobbed against him, aware of and thankful for his patience.

When she finally gained control of herself he loosened his hold. “Vlad should be the one holding you.”

“We broke up.” She moved further away from him and shoved at the hair clinging to her wet cheeks as she slumped into a chair.

Beau gaped at her as he slid onto a nearby settee.

“What?” He stared at her for long moments before his eyes narrowed and he nodded to himself. “What did you do?”

She sent him a glare. “Why does it have to be me who decided?”

“Because he knows a good thing when he finds it.”

That made no sense.

She angrily wiped more tears away. “So do I.” But her voice was weak and both of them heard it.

“No you don’t or you wouldn’t have ended the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”

“I had to.” Her voice was small.

“Why?” His was hard.

She stared at the silk rug under their feet. “Because he’s a superman and I’m just normal. He’d grow bored with me eventually.”

“Are you certain you won’t get bored with him? That when you see past the superhero you won’t like the man underneath?” There was an edge to his voice that made her pause.

That edge made her wonder if there was something eating at him. Like he was worried about this happening to him. Molly was a bit in awe of him.

Even as she pondered his love life rather than her own, he changed the subject. “You set a man on fire?”

“No,” she denied. “We set two men on fire.”

His smile was slow in coming but it did appear. “Good girl.”

She swallowed, hard, and then cleared her throat. “We had to do something. The first man was scary.” She paused as she remembered all too well that hideous moment. “He kept stroking his gun.”

Beau nodded. “His dying was no loss.”

Her head jerked up. “He died?”

“Absolutely.” Beau’s tone indicated he knew what he was talking about.

She had obviously missed something. “How do you know all this?”

“I was in the control room.”

“What’s that? Where is it? How did you know to be there?” The questions spilled from her in random order.

“I have been expecting this attack, just like Vlad and the SEALs. All of us with military experience were on alert. We responded the second the signal came through.”

Her mouth opened, closed, opened again, and then she realized she wasn’t going to be able to speak.

“Since I’m still not one hundred percent, I chose to make myself useful in the control room. I’m good with all that equipment.”

She shook her head, uncertain what to ask. Even more uncertain about what to think.

“It gave me a birds-eye view of every part of the palace and the targeted government buildings. We quelled all tango efforts.”

“I see,” she finally managed, but she still didn’t quite understand.

“You probably don’t, but be aware that I did miss you set fire to those men and I’m a little peeved about it.”

A shaky smile probably wasn’t what he wanted, but it was all she could offer. “Maybe we can reenact it for you someday.”

He didn’t respond but sat staring at her instead.

Normally she’d have bristled and confronted him, but a strange sense of numbness that had been creeping over her now settled in. She didn’t care.

In fact, she found she didn’t much care about anything.

“Let’s go home.” He stood and nodded toward the door.

Rising, she trailed him out of the small lounge and into the room where she kept her belongings. They encountered Maria and Graham and she and Maria embraced long and hard.

“Aleksi told us not to come in tomorrow.” Maria looked pale and shaky.

She nodded. Then she glanced at Graham. “I’m not returning to the hospital.”

He smiled. “You finished up there yesterday. So you’re now officially a member of the palace lab staff, not of the hospital.”

That was good. Because she’d quit if she had to return to the hospital. If she quit maybe she could go somewhere else.

Like America. Glancing at Beau and Maria, and thinking of Tia, maybe she would go to America.

She’d always wanted to see that country. And right now it was far, far away from Vlad.