Sometimes It Is Rocket Science (9 page)

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Georgiana Collier walked away from Robert Norwood.

“Incoming call from Robert Norwood,” ERIC said, interrupting the second verse of Frank Sinatra’s ‘Come Dance with Me.’

“Zin i’ ta boysmay.”  Georgiana extracted a pearl embellished bobby pin from between her clamped teeth and secured a stubborn tendril of hair to the side of her head.  The creamy, light ivory color contrasted strikingly with her dark hair. 

“You have programmed me with the ability to translate over two dozen languages, Georgiana, but I do not recognize the one you are currently speaking.”

“Sma’ ess c’puter.”  The light over her head flickered.  She spit the remaining bobby pins into her palm.  It figured ERIC would understand
that
sentiment.  “Send it to voicemail.”

“This is Mr. Norwood’s third attempt to make telephone contact.  Judging by the tenor of his previous messages, I advise answering this call.”

Her freshly glossed lips curved downwards.  She’d been in the bathroom for thirty minutes listening to a Frank Sinatra compilation disc and getting ready for a dinner engagement.  Her cell phone had been synced with ERIC since she’d arrived home, and he’d made no mention of an incoming call.

“Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”  She hoped it there wasn’t a major coding flaw in his system.  Finding and fixing any problems would require help from either Tab or Robert.  She was afraid any attempt she made to correct the issue would lead to an unmitigated catastrophe.

“The first call came while you were in the shower.  The second call came when you were applying mascara.  I believed it prudent to avoid a second eye-related mishap this week.”

The potential flaw suddenly wasn’t an issue.  She was going to rip ERIC’s coding apart line by line.  Then she was going to kick her brother’s ass.  Tab had been the one to give ERIC his personality.  “Patch him through, please.”  While waiting for the telltale click, she used another bobby pin to smooth back the hair on the other side of her face.  “Hello, Robert.”

“You’ve run away from me twice, and now you’re hiding from me,” Robert accused, his voice like a razor blade wrapped in silk.  “Keep this up, Georgiana, and you’re going to hurt my feelings.”

“I think your ego can handle it.”  A spritz of hairspray across her curled bangs later, she was finished.  She’d kept the makeup to a minimum and concentrated on drawing attention to her eyes while covering the sprinkle of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Prask was not her choice for a dinner partner, but that was no excuse to look like a slob. “You’re not calling about the meeting with Doctor Flores, are you?  I told Dan I wasn’t legally family, and you could handle it yourself.”

“But I thought you’d be here with me.” 

She grimaced at the petulance dripping off his words.  No self-respecting man over the age of seventeen should ever
whine
.  ERIC recorded all phone conversations patched through his system.  She wondered how much Robert would pay to destroy proof of his juvenile behavior.

“I have plans.  You’re a big boy.  I’m sure if you ask nicely, Doctor Flores will use small words.”

There was a pause.  When he spoke, the peevishness had been replaced by a dangerously enticing tone.  “I hear an echo.  You’re in the bathroom, aren’t you?  You’re getting ready to go out somewhere.  A date?  Do you have a date, Georgiana?”

“I have plans to eat with someone who is not Tab, Yvonne, Dan, or anyone from the office,” she said, unwilling to divulge the name of her companion.  While she merely disliked Prask, Robert had no qualms letting the world know how much he loathed the unscrupulous businessman.  She didn’t want a picture of Robert punching Prask with her standing in the background to wind up in the newspaper or on the Internet. 

“Who is he?”  Robert chuckled dryly.  “Or she,” he amended.

“
He
is none of your concern.  Look, I’ll meet you for breakfast in the morning.  You can tell me all about what Doctor Flores said, and we’ll make a plan for how deal with Dan once he’s home.”  She could have pretended jealousy motivated his inquiry, but she was far too practical for that.  Robert only cared about her plans because they interfered with his.  Everyone in New York may have bowed and scraped to him, but Houston didn’t revolve around Robert Norwood.

“Breakfast?  Do you think it’s wise to make plans for breakfast before the date’s even started?”

Her fingernails cut crescents into her palms.  She wished he was in the room so she could slap the undoubtedly lecherous smirk off his far-too-attractive-for-anyone’s-good face.  “I’m not one of your girls, Robert.  A nice meal and a couple of drinks don’t guarantee I’m going to do any
dancing
afterwards.”

He sighed, swore softly.  “Georgiana, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean…”

“I know.  I really need to go, though.  I’ll call you in the morning.”  She instructed ERIC to end the call before Robert could finish his apology.  Talking to Robert, especially when wearing nothing but a fluffy blue robe, put her off-kilter, and she needed to be at her best for her dinner with Prask. 

Ten minutes later, with one arm wrapped around her chest and the other curled around her back to hold her dress up, Georgiana hurried into her brother’s bedroom.  The strapless sapphire, tiered organza cocktail dress was one of her favorites, but she hadn’t mastered the art of putting it on without assistance.

“Zip, please?”

Tab dropped the video game controller and scooted to the end of the bed.  Nimble, cold fingers tugged the small zipper into place.  His fair eyebrows knit together when she twirled away from him so that the a-line skirt flared around her knees.  “Isn’t that a little fancy for dinner with Prask?”

“Nope.”  Georgiana returned to her bedroom with Tab trailing behind her glaring at the hem of her dress.  “Prask’s like a bloodhound when it comes to weakness.  If I show up looking like I’m unprepared or easily ruffled, he’ll eat me alive.  Think of this as my suit of armor.”

Tab dropped onto the armless office chair beside Georgiana’s roll-top desk and eyed the miniscule silver clutch on the corner of her unmade bed.  “Not much room for a sword in there.”

“I’ve got Mace, does that count?”  She grinned at him in the mirror over her antique vanity.  He gagged at her pun.  “Plus, it’s so stuffed I can use it as a flail if necessary.”

She didn’t miss the flash of grief across his face when she extracted a necklace from her jewelry armoire.  Their father had given her the necklace of pearls and round, brilliant diamonds set in platinum her last birthday before his death.  When cleaning out their father’s dresser, Tab had found the matching earrings and given them to her for Christmas in Jerome Collier’s place.

She slipped into a pair of strappy, metallic silver sandals.  Tab stood and handed her the clutch.  “Thanks, little brother.”

He looped an arm around her slim waist for a quick hug.  “You look great, Gigi.”  He pressed dry lips to the apple of her cheek.  “If Prask does anything to make you uncomfortable, pepper spray his ass.”

She linked her hands behind his neck, rested her forehead against his.  His long eyelashes, similar to the ones she’d also inherited from their mother, tickled her cheeks.  “If you don’t want me to go, Tab, I won’t.  I’ll change back into my sweats and spend the night kicking your ass in Robo-Assassins IV.”

Laughter burst out of his lips.  It smelled faintly of sour cream and onion chips.  “No.  Go.  Eat overpriced food and drink good wine.  Bring back dessert.”

She nodded, pleased he hadn’t insisted that she stay.  Prask was a sleaze, but she needed a night away from the sorrow seeping out of every corner of the townhouse.  Guilt over the selfish thought rapidly followed the rush of relief.

“Chocolate or cheesecake?”

“You decide, but I wouldn’t say no to a little of both.”  He ducked out from her embrace.  “ERIC and I will wait up for you.  Text me if you need an excuse to leave.  If you do spray Prask, make sure you record it with your phone.  I won’t put it up anywhere, but it’d make Dan’s day.”

“Oh,” she started, heading for the stairs, “I can think of a lot of people who would pay to see that footage.”

Robert slouched in the visitor’s chair beside his father’s empty hospital bed.  Dan had insisted on going for a walk down to the cafeteria by himself.  He claimed Robert hovered worse than the nurses; Robert suspected Dan wanted the chance to flirt with a nurse or two on his way to the cafeteria.  Robert’s assistant Cedric was getting acquainted with the staff at Norwood Systems’ Houston office while his driver/bodyguard Allan was getting acquainted with Dan’s personal fleet. 

He was bored.  Disappointed.  He’d expected Georgiana to be waiting for him at the hospital.  He’d pictured listening to Doctor Flores with her at his side and then whisking her away to dinner under the premise of hashing out an arrangement for Dan.  He couldn’t believe she was blowing off the meeting with the doctor for a date.  A
date
!  Who did she think she was… him? 

There had been no mention of a boyfriend.  It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.  Georgiana was a striking, intelligent, rich woman.  She could tell a joke or participate in a serious conversation about bioengineering.  She dressed to flatter her slim frame and walked the line between feminine and comfortable; he couldn’t forget how luscious those lavender sandals had made her legs look.  

He slid lower in the chair.  Of course she had a date.  The city wasn’t full of blind, stupid men.  A fierce pang of something he was decidedly
not
calling jealousy sliced through him.  Brow furrowed, he opened the file Cedric had sent him the previous evening.  Cedric had outdone himself pulling up every news item available on Georgiana and assembling them in chronological order.  Robert flicked through the photos searching for some indication of what had happened to Georgiana and if there was any competition. 

The first twenty pictures were familiar.  They featured the Georgiana he remembered: dressed to kill and smiling warmly.  The dozen pictures taken after the previous October surprised him.  With each photo, she grew thinner, paler.  The shadows under her eyes darkened.  In the black-and-white pictures, she bore an eerie resemblance to a ghost.

He checked for news stories written about her during that time period, but there was only dry information on Collier Analytics.  Whatever had transformed her from a vibrant woman into a zombie wasn’t business related.  It was more than that.  Worse, he feared, than that.

Was it the mysterious boyfriend?  Was that why Dan didn’t know about him?  Why she’d avoided answering his question earlier?  His phone case creaked when his fist tightened suddenly.  If someone was hurting her, even just a little, he was going to make them regret it.

Robert clicked out of the file when the door opened.  Flushed but looking healthier than he had in days, Dan stumbled into the room and collapsed onto the bed.  Dan dabbed at the sweat on his forehead with the edge of the sheet.

“I thought Doctor Flores warned you about overdoing it, Dad.”

”
Pshaw
.”  Dan waved his hand limply.  “Don’t take everything that ol’ worrywart says seriously.  He’s determined to suck all the fun out of life.  Just look at what they’ve been feeding me here.  Not a speck of red meat to be seen.”

“I don’t believe Doctor Flores has ever had a heart attack,” Robert observed.  The doctor was two years older than Dan, but looked like he was twenty years younger.  

Dan harrumphed.  He eyed his son critically.  “What’s got you looking like someone set the server room on fire.”

Both Norwood men immediately rapped their knuckles on the wooden tabletop attached to the wall.  Robert grumbled under his breath.  If a server room at any NS location caught fire, he was blaming his father. 

“Georgiana’s not coming.”  Robert locked his phone and slid it in his pocket.  He would have to do a bit of research on his own.  Perhaps he could use her assistant’s fondness for fashion to his advantage.  Georgiana had said it was Ms. Ruiz’s weakness.

“Of course not.  She has a dinner appointment at seven.”

Robert’s eyebrows shot up.  “You knew about it?”

“Yes.  I told her it wasn’t a problem.  I don’t need her to put her life on hold just because my ticker decided to go on the fritz.” 

“Who is the lucky guy? I can’t imagine it’s anyone who works for her.  Is it an NS employee? We were disconnected before she could answer my question.”

Dan grinned mischievously at his scowling son.  “She blew you off, didn’t she?”  He shook his head.  “I take it then you haven’t explained about Tammy yet.”

“She hasn’t given me a chance.  She’s surprisingly slippery.”  Robert straightened, leaned forward on his elbows.  He relished the thought of cornering Ms. Georgiana Collier.  He could take his time explaining, watch those expressive eyes widen, and breathe in her beguiling scent.  “It’s only a matter of time, though. She can’t hide forever.”

Doctor Juan Flores appeared in the doorway.  He motioned for Robert to follow him in to the hallway.  After exchanging a confused look with his father, Robert joined the doctor and closed the door quietly.

“I have been going over the results of an expanded panel of tests performed on the blood taken right after your father’s admission.  I had the work done because the Dan’s cardiac enzymes are not consistent with those that normally follow a natural heart attack.  Rather than involving only one or two chambers, this affected his entire heart.  The test results are puzzling, at best.”  Doctor Flores ran a hand through gray-streaked black hair.  “Disturbing, at worst.”