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Dr. Casava? Olivia practically jumped up from her seat to grab her Vegas-issued tablet, her pulse racing. Can it be?
She opened her personal email. Sure enough, there was a new message in her inbox from Lauren Casava. The subject line read, “Reply requested: Interview for VB Researcher Position.”
Her lips stretched into a silly grin. Dr. Casava was the leading scientist on VB in the United States with her lab in Vegas. Olivia had found the job posting and applied three days ago. Since she wasn’t sure she’d get it, she hadn’t told Marek. They hadn’t discussed her job situation since their initial clash over it. She wasn’t sure how Marek would react and hadn’t wanted an unnecessary fight if nothing came from the application.
The email was standard.Thank you for your application. Your education and experience are impressive. I’d like to schedule an interview as soon as possible within the coming week. Please respond with the three best dates and times for you.
Olivia pulled up the calendar and wondered if she’d seem too eager if she chose sometime today. Yun had reached out a few more times, trying to get her to end her vacation early and return, but she’d ignored him. It sucked losing her research, but she couldn’t return to Zylotech.
At least she’d taken precautions to ensure Zylotech wouldn’t gain anything from her either. After Jacob had stolen her research, she’d developed her own code for her notes, and Yun hadn’t been particularly timely about reviewing them. He’d receive quite a shock once he realized all her detailed notes were unreadable to anyone but her.
Feeling pleased with herself, Olivia replied to the email with the earliest time for tonight. To her utter shock, Dr. Casava responded thirty minutes later, confirming their appointment.
“Yes!” Olivia pumped her fists in excitement. Never in a million years had she thought she’d get a chance to work for Dr. Casava.
She shot to her feet and was halfway to the door when she stopped. She’d been about to find Marek and tell him the good news. Not yet. For the same reasons she didn’t tell him about applying for the job. Knowing him, he might try to stop her from interviewing or intimidate Dr. Casava into not hiring her.
No, she had to lock down the position first.
An uncomfortable feeling wriggled in her stomach. If Marek genuinely loved her, if she trusted him, she wouldn’t need to hide this from him. One more reason they weren’t ready for the mating bond.
Olivia pushed the worries to the back of her mind. Eventually, she and Marek would have to talk about their long-term plans, but first, she had an interview to prepare for.
Marek clicked off his screen and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a sigh. Another interview done. Fortunately, this human hadn’t completely frozen when Marek smiled with fangs in the middle of their conversation.
Why did the humans even apply to work in Vegas, with vampires, if they couldn’t manage talking to one?
“How many more tonight?” he asked Tristan.
“Three.”
“When’s the next one?”
“In fifteen minutes.”
Good. Time to get out of this godforsaken box-shaped prison, aka his office. He really should’ve remodeled this floor to give himself a bigger office, like the penthouse-sized one Julian had in the Central Tower, but he hadn’t expected to spend so much time cooped up here.
No, he’d imagined being out in the field, rescuing vampires from Hunters, instead of interviewing an endless string of candidates to build out the CDI. It was unavoidable. If CDI were to succeed, they’d need more than soldiers. Methodical planning and intelligence gathering were equally as important as the army itself. For that, he needed to hire humans to spy on the Organization, to go undercover. Humans he could trust.
Marek could count on his fingers the number of humans he trusted. His mind automatically turned to one.
Olivia.
His senses sought her out of their own will. Since he’d risen hours earlier, he’d done everything in his power to avoid thinking about her. Until he lost the battle.
She was in her room a few floors down, as she always was. He ached to return to her, to take in her comforting floral and vanilla scent, even if all he did was hold her while they translated the grimoire.
But he’d shirked his responsibility to the CDI enough already, having spent half the waking hours with Olivia the last few days. He’d requested to lead this new department to spearhead their fight against the Organization. He would not disappoint them.
You’re nothing but a disappointment.Marek slammed a fist on the table with a growl at his father’s condescending voice. A familiar dread curdled his stomach, something he hadn’t felt in centuries. He thought he was long past his father’s ridicule, but meeting Olivia, talking about his family, had dredged up parts of his past he’d rather forget.
His heartbeat returning didn’t help matters, along with Olivia’s generous soul enveloping him, calling out to his own missing soul and thawing the ice where he’d locked away his past.
The fear of failure reared its ugly head.
You’ll never amount to anything. I should’ve saved myself the money raising you.
Boss, Rowan found the vampires in Denver.
