Page 2 of Protecting the Nerd

YORK

“Absolutely not.” I shot Shannon a dark look. “Hell to the fucking no.”

Shannon crossed her arms. She was the CEO of EDS, the company where I worked as a research engineer. I usually dealt with Teddy, my direct boss, but for some reason, Shannon had wanted to handle this. Lucky me. “I wasn’t asking if you wanted a bodyguard, York. I was informing you that you’ll be getting one. Period.”

“I don’t need a glorified babysitter.”

“Yes, you do. According to the FBI, there have been credible threats against the company and against you specifically.”

Panic bubbled inside me. A bodyguard? Some jacked-up, high-testosterone dude on my ass twenty-four-seven? The idea of some asshole observing my every move, dissecting my habits, and invading my personal space was intolerable. I’d built my life on carefully maintained schedules and solitude—not surveillance. I couldn’t think of anything worse. “They’re overreacting.”

She leaned back in her chair, plucking some invisible lint from her sleek black jacket. “Remember what you always tell the sales department when they’re lecturing you on missing another deadline?”

Oh fuck. She was bringing out the big guns. “You may have to remind me.”

“Does ‘they need to do their job and you need to do yours, and you don’t tell them how to sell what you create, so they shouldn’t try to dictate how you create’ sound familiar?”

“Somewhat, yes.”

“Your motto has always been to let the experts do their job. Well, the FBI are the experts, and they’ve picked up chatter on EDS and the Chameleon.”

My heart skipped a beat. “They called it by that name?”

She nodded.

“But that’s?—”

“—an internal name, yes. We have a leak, York. A serious leak.”

Shit. Until now, I’d taken the whole FBI involvement with a grain of salt. When Teddy, the head of the research lab, had informed me he’d contacted the FBI, I figured he was overreacting. I was well aware that the chameleon technology I had developed was revolutionary. Although not my preferred term, it had been the easiest way to explain to nontechnical people how my military defense system determined the specifics of the attack and adapted its response based on the parameters. But I hadn’t expected people to be willing to go to such extreme lengths to get their hands on the technology.

The news about the internal leak had me cornered, and no amount of intellectual prowess or mathematical genius could calculate my way out of it. “I’m hoping you’re working on finding that leak.”

“That’s one of the reasons the FBI is involved, but in the meantime, we have to keep you safe. The last thing we want is for you to end up in some ramshackle dark basement with a bunch of bad guys set to torture this information out of you.”

My stomach dropped. “If it was your intention to scare me shitless, I’m happy to inform you that you’ve succeeded.”

Her eyes softened. “Good. I’ll do whatever I have to to keep you safe.”

Dammit. I hated it when people used emotional tactics. Did they think I wouldn’t notice? Or did they simply not care? I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Do I at least have some kind of say in who’ll be guarding me? You know I don’t like people, so the idea of having someone with me at all times is terrifying.”

“We’ve hired a reputable company, and they’re sending someone over in”—she checked her watch—“a few minutes.”

“You gotta be kidding me. I don’t even have time to get used to the idea?”

“Time in which you could be kidnapped, you mean? Nope. I’m not playing around, York. This is happening, like it or not.”

Fuck. My. Life.

“So you waited until the last possible moment to tell me…”

She shrugged. “Can you blame me? The less time you had to try and convince me to forget about it, the better. You can argue the socks off anyone, and what’s worse is that people actually end up thanking you for it.”

“I can’t help it if I have better arguments.”

She snorted. “No, you can’t, but you still haven’t learned that having better arguments doesn’t mean you’re right. It just means you’re better at arguing and logic.”

I didn’t dignify that with an answer. Arguing with Shannon was as fruitful as explaining quantum physics to my Star Wars collectibles. She always stood her ground. And I respected her for it, just like I admired the way she ran EDS. She tolerated no BS from anyone and ran a tight ship—no easy feat with so many geeks under one roof.