Bad Nerd Rising (28 page)

What if he’d never had permanent
intentions?

He needed his wells fixed, and they were on
their way now to being normal.

He didn’t need her any more.

That terrible thought felt
like a stab through the heart by a serrated knife.

Chapter
20

With Plan A section 1 close
to completion, Aleksi nearly rubbed his hands together in glee. Now
he could initiate Plan A, section 2. That consisted of the final
courtship of Dr. Tia Morrison. His wells were on their way to being
fixed, and now the only major problems he had were the lead pipes,
his mother’s illness, and finally, his lack of an heir.

He had the lead pipes under
control. The plumbers assigned to the task of replacing them were
more than competent, and understood the seriousness of their jobs.
His mother was undergoing treatment that was already helping her.
Therefore his only problem now was his heir. And he needed Tia for
that.

There shouldn’t be any
problem with convincing her to stick around. His people loved her,
since she’d fixed their wells, and they wouldn’t have to boil their
water any longer. His mother would come to love her, once they
cleared the lead poisoning from her system. That left only
Tia.

Aleksi started to whistle.
Life looked good.

***

“So what’s happening in
Hershey these days?” Tia figured she might as well get the gossip
from home while her brother was here and currently finished with
his tour.
Not
that
he was always the best source of information but he’d have to
do.

Nick shrugged. “Cousin Julie is trying to
avoid some man sniffing around her.”

“Julie as in Ben’s sister?”

“Yeah.” Nick took a sip of the drink in his
hand. His interest appeared to be with the lines of the palace
rather than their conversation. He was an architect, so that made
sense.

“What man?”

“Some SEAL who’s worked with Ben. This last
project or whatever they were on, they worked with a woman who
wanted to find her daughter.”

Tia frowned. “You mean Julie’s birth mother
wanted to locate her?”

“Yeah.” Nick looked relieved at her figuring
the situation out.

“Why’d she give Julie up in the first place
then?”

Nick looked pained. “I don’t have all the
answers, you know.”

She ignored him and repeated her
question.

“I guess because like Greg Gilmore, she was
some sort of secret operative, and had to give Julie up. That’s
classified information, by the way.”

That meant she had to keep that information
within the confines of the Morrison family. She lived in Rurikstan,
who else would she tell? “Greg had to give Ryan up.” Also
classified information.

“Yeah, same thing.” Nick took another sip of
the iced tea in his glass and squinted up at the ceiling. Tia
figured she had about half his attention, which was probably more
than she normally received.

“So this guy is trying to do what with
Julie?”

“How should I know?”

“Well is he good looking?”

Nick’s expression could only be described as
exasperated as he scraped his attention from the details of the
ceiling to stare askance at her. “How should I know?”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. You wouldn’t know
good looking if it fell over you.” Tia rolled her eyes.

“I do too. I married Macy, didn’t I?” Now he
just sounded smug. And rightfully so. Macy was perfect for him.

“That you did. So, back to Julie,” Tia
glared at him. “Pay attention, I’ve got questions.”

Nick’s gaze returned to the ceiling. She
should have known this palace would fascinate an architect. “Is
this guy interested in dating Julie?”

He shook his head. “The aunts and Mom didn’t
know. I think that’s what they were trying to figure out.”

“But you said he was sniffing around
Julie.”

“From a man’s perspective, I’d say he was
definitely interested.”

“You’re definitely a candidate for Captain
Oblivious.” Tia tried to figure out what held such fascination for
him about Aleksi’s ceiling, but then decided she didn’t want to
know. He’d launch into a boring dissertation she didn’t feel like
enduring.

Julie’s love life, on the other hand, was
far more interesting. “So is Julie encouraging this guy?”

“Nope.”

Tia grinned. That sounded like Julie. “He
has his work cut out for him then, doesn’t he?”

“He doesn’t appear to be the type to give up
easily.”

“Is he after Julie or does he just want to
tell her all about her mother?”

“I think the jury’s still out on that
one.”

She laughed. “So what else is
happening?”

“Leo has a new friend.”

Just the way Nick said that caused Tia to
turn and stare at him. “A new friend?”

Nick grunted. She reached out to poke him so
she could figure out what kind of “friend” Leo had snagged.

“Yes. She’s actually really cute and a
doctor of some kind.” He shrugged like doctors were a dollar a
dozen.

After a few blinks, as Tia
tried to process Leo in a relationship, she turned back to her
oblivious brother. “He’s not dating her? They’re friends? Or are
they dating
and
friends?”

“Yes,” Nick said and took another sip of
tea.

She let out a frustrated growl that caused
him to turn wide eyes on her. “What?” he asked with usual brother
belligerence.

“They’re friends or they’re
dating? That question requires an answer that is
not
yes or
no.”

Nick paused in his perusal of the walls to
turn blank eyes on her. “I don’t know.”

“You brought this subject up,” she reminded
him. The thought of her best male cousin in a relationship seemed a
little weird to her. It was nice, but it seemed odd.

Not that Leo wasn’t a cutie, because he was
tall, muscular, and sweet as a lollipop. Not to mention with his
dark hair, Morrison blue-green eyes, and square jaw, as handsome as
any man running around Hollywood. Still, he hadn’t shown much
interest in women before.

Tia sighed. This all indicated they were
growing up.

“I don’t think Leo knows he’s dating
Katy.”

That ripped Tia’s thoughts right down the
center and it was her turn to set blank eyes on him.

Upon seeing her expression, Nick grinned.
“Yeah, that’s sort of how he looks at her, too.”

“What are you talking about?”

Her obnoxious brother let loose with one of
his long-suffering sighs. She was so used to them she ignored it.
“Leo and Katy meet, right?”

“Right,” she agreed, used to the way Nick’s
brain worked.

“So they’re instant best friends.” Nick took
a swallow of tea, swirled the glass, and fortunately for him, kept
talking. “They’re together all the time now.”

“All the time?”

“Yeah, he brings her to Morrison family
functions and picks her up for work when the weather’s bad, and
they stay in contact all the time, but as far as we know, they
don’t kiss or anything.”

“Huh,” was all Tia could manage. Leo de
Vosse in such a relationship amused her. And made her a little sad
she wasn’t there to witness this. The downfall of Dr. Leo de Vosse
would be rather fun to watch.

“It’s kind of funny to see. He has no idea
they’re in love.”

Tia’s lips tripped up. “He’s in love?”

“Oh yeah. It’s easy for those of us who are
in love to tell this. Leo, dummy that he is, has no idea.”

***

When Jorge’s shoulders
slumped again, and he shook his head, scratched his ear and tapped
the computer keys, Tia grew suspicious. She rose and padded across
the lab to perch on the stool behind him. Watching the numbers on
the screen in front of them, she frowned as they started to make
sense.

Then wished they hadn’t.

“Jorge, is this telling us
every well we just cleaned is still contaminated?” Her voice
sounded sharper than it should have.

He jumped and with a guilty
start, wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I keep running the numbers, but the
tests all say the wells are still polluted.”

Tia thrust a hand through
her hair. What? Those wells had all been cleaned, even the leaded
ones. By trained professionals. There was no reason why they should
still be contaminated.

But numbers didn’t lie. And
the evidence was right before her eyes. The numbers looked to be
off the charts in some of the wells.

“What about well twenty-six?”

Jorge hit a few keys and
she read the data. They had taken a sample of it before they
left.

“That’s the only one that appears to be
clean.”

As she read those numbers,
Tia relaxed her shoulders a fraction. That well was fine. The
numbers looked as they should. A few scattered colonies, but
nothing that shouldn’t be there.

But why were the others
reading so...
wrong?

Maria and Helena drifted
over to where she and Jorge frowned at the screen. “Why would these
numbers be showing like this?”

“I don’t know.” Tia shook
her head. Now what were they supposed to do?

“Only half of the wells are
showing as not potable,” Helena pointed out. One long finger tapped
the screen.

“But the numbers are still high.”

“What I don’t understand is
how they can be higher now, after cleaning, than from before.”
Jorge’s sigh was long and loud. Tia appreciated his
frustration.

“The people are going to throw shoes and
tomatoes at us,” Helena said in the most mournful voice Tia had
ever heard her use.

“They’re going to kick me
out of the country,” Tia added her own gloom and doom to this
depressing conversation.

“Only Aleksi can do that,”
Maria soothed and patted her. It didn’t help that Maria not only
sounded unhopeful, but there was a tinge of despair in there,
too.

Tia forgot about him. The
Prince had hired her to do a job. One she had obviously failed at
miserably. One didn’t receive kisses and accolades when one screwed
up. Especially this badly.

Numbers didn’t lie.

With a sinking heart and a
nauseous tummy, Tia turned to head out the door. No time like the
present to inform Aleksi they still had a problem.

He would wonder what he’d
ever seen in her, a complete idiot and moron. A microbiologist who
couldn’t even clean up water wells properly. If she couldn’t do her
job ...what good was she?

***

“What do you mean my mother
is here?” Aleksi stared at Emerson like he’d never seen him
before.

“She’s here. Or she will be
in a moment. I sent a car to the airport for her.” Emerson raised
an eyebrow at him, but Aleksi ignored the inquiry.

“She’s supposed to be in London.”

“She’s not,” Emerson
announced.
Thank you for the obvious,
Emerson.

“Why is she here?” Aleksi
scrambled from his chair to peer out the window. Emerson didn’t
answer because he had already left the room to greet
her.

He watched the car sweep to
a stop in front of the palace stairs and the chauffeur open the
door. His mother definitely exited from the back of the
car.

Why?
She should be undergoing treatment in London. He watched, but
his aunt apparently wasn’t with her. Did Loletta even know she had
left?

His mother tugged at her
suit jacket, smoothed her skirt and breathed deeply. She looked
both ways, as if seeking an escape.

Aleksi frowned. His heart
sank as he stared at her. This didn’t seem right. Why would she
want to escape her own home?

Emerson showed her into
Aleksi’s office and he didn’t miss the look his friend sent him.
Aleksi didn’t know how to respond. He had no idea what was so
important that she left important,
necessary
medical treatments
for.

Tia treaded down the hall
toward them and Aleksi, finally galvanized into action, leapt
across the room. He needed her here. The sinking feeling in his
stomach and his mother’s odd behavior told him he needed
support.

“There’s no need....” his
mother started, but she fell silent. The tension knot in his
stomach increased threefold. Like she understood he needed Tia.
Even if she didn’t understand, he still needed her. Tia sent him a
questioning look, but must have felt the undercurrents in the room,
because she squeezed his hand but didn’t say anything. He thought
her mouth seemed a little pinched.

He wanted to kiss the
tension he felt in her spine when he pressed a hand there to guide
her into the room. What was bothering her? Did she and his mother
know something he didn’t?

Aleksi indicated to Emerson
to remain as well. Might as well have several support systems in
place. Emerson glided to the door and shut it with a decided snap.
His mother had a secret, he was sure now, and it seemed she wanted
to share that secret. Today. He understood what his aunt meant when
she thought that secret might include him. The nausea bubbling in
his stomach threatened to erupt. This was not princely
behavior.

Swallowing helped alleviate
the problem, some. When no one spoke, Aleksi decided to simply ask
what was going on. “What is wrong, Mother?”

“You’re not your father’s son.”

Chapter
21