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I gaped. “You knowfourlanguages?”
“Don’t sound so surprised, Piccolina,” he said. “After you know two or three, the rest get easier. Mandarin and Russian were a more difficult challenge, since they’re not under the Romance umbrella—that means based on Latin, not swoony romance, although I excel in the latter too.” He shot me a smile that made me absolutely certain he was flirting with me. “Hen gaoxìng jiàn dào ni? Vasha siyayushchaya ulibka voshishchayetsya dazhe nebom!”
He switched between the two languages without missing a beat, sounding totally comfortable with both. “Six languages,” I muttered, hardly able to believe my ears.
“Eight if you count Tagalog and Arabic, but I’m not proficient in those yet. Those are my current projects.”
Okay, clearly there was a lot going on behind that handsome face that I hadn’t realized. I only knewonelanguage, unless you counted the wide assortment of scientific terms I’d had to add to my vocabulary, which thankfully didn’t require their own grammatical rules or anything like that.
The thought of how much I hadn’t known about Slade brought my mind back to the mysteries surrounding Logan—and my main reason for being here. I pulled myself away from the table and meandered farther into the office as if aimlessly checking the place out. “And Logan’s doing computer science and engineering, right?”
“You should know.”
Should I? I kept my voice as even as I could manage. “A double major like that has got to be intense. Is that what’s got him on edge?”
“Ah, he’s a natural at that stuff, so I doubt he has any more trouble with it than you do with your biology work.”
That wasn’t much of a question, but there was a firmness to the words that hadn’t been there before. I could tell if I tried to push further, Slade would only deflect me. His loyalty was to Logan, not me, of course. I could hardly expect him to spill his best friend’s secrets.
I forced a laugh, letting my gaze skim over the computer desk. They hadn’t left anything out around the computer other than a takeout menu that I suspected was for their own benefit, not an investigation. “It’s been a bit of a challenge adjusting to the slightly different curriculum here, transferring in the middle of the year, but I’m getting back into the groove.”
Slade cocked his head. “That’s right—this is the first semester I’ve seen you around campus. You finally followed us here, huh? Missed being in the presence of the great Slade Galvezo that much?”
My next laugh came out more genuine. “I always wanted to come here—well, since I first started thinking about college, before any of you got accepted anywhere. But I didn’t get in at first—I had to start at the community college back home.”
It was Slade’s turn to arch his eyebrows in shock. “You weren’t accepted? A smarty-pants like you?”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “I might have been smart in certain ways, but I didn’t handle school politics all that brilliantly. There was this one teacher—American History—he was always playing favorites: offering bonus assignments only to the students who’d joined the comics club he ran, giving them extra time on tests, that kind of thing. It drove me crazy. So I stood up to him, started calling him out loudly in class, and he hated me after that. Suddenly all my essays were getting Ds. I nearly failed the class, and it tanked the GPA I needed.”
Slade let out a low whistle. “I do seem to remember you being a bit of a hardass back in high school. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Sometimes jerks like that need to be put in their place.”
“Yeah, well, it lost me three semesters here for my trouble. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but I’d have gone about it a little differently if I’d thought things through more ahead of time.”
“It’s too bad we weren’t still around to get on his case and prove he was screwing you over.” Slade shook his head and tapped his prosthetic foot against the floor with an emphaticthunk.
The artificial limb drew my attention again. I paused, a sudden memory tickling up through my mind—but should I say anything?
Well, Slade seemed like the type to tell me off without batting an eye if I deserved it. “Would it be horribly rude if I say something about your leg?” I asked, lifting my chin toward him.
Slade waved off any concerns I’d had. “I’m curious to hear your thoughts, Dr. Maddie. Should I tell you about the awful shark attack and how I harpooned the beast that chomped it off?”
I gave him a baleful look at the obvious joke. “I was just thinking—I follow a lot of different areas of medical research, just to stay on top of new developments. There are some teams that’ve been making a lot of progress with new types of prosthetics with robotic elements and things like that.”
“Becoming part robot? Sounds interesting.”
I couldn’t tell if he was making fun of the idea or honestly intrigued, but I barreled onward. “Some of the companies are looking for volunteer amputees to beta test the parts. I’m not sure if it’s something that would interest you since you’re so good with the prosthetic you already have. It’s not like you need the help of fancy gadgets. But if you thought it’d be worth giving a shot, I can always point you in the right direction.”
Slade stared at me for a long moment, his expression suddenly impossible to read. I hoped I hadn’t pissed him off with the suggestion despite his reassurances, especially when my intention had been the exact opposite.
Then his lips curved with a warm smile that met his eyes. The teasing note dropped from his voice for just a moment. “That’s a pretty fantastic offer. I’d be happy to become an even more spectacular cyborg. Thank you, Piccolina.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I appreciate the gesture.” He motioned me back toward him. “I’d be happy to look into it. I’ll give you my number, and you can text me the deets—or, y’know, if you’re ever in the mood for a booty call…”
He smirked so widely with that last remark that I couldn’t help laughing. “I’m not really the booty-call type, but I’m very flattered. I can send you the info, for sure.”
I passed him the phone and gave the room another scan while he fiddled with it. My gaze latched on to the filing cabinet I hadn’t checked yet. I sauntered over and gave the top drawer a little tug.
