CHAPTER THREE
The situation was totally getting out-of-hand and Walker didn’t like it one bit.
He carefully wiped Nadine’s face with a wet paper towel. Her face felt hot to the touch, her eyes looked back blankly at him, as if she barely recognized him, and she moaned. A lot.
What the hell did she do to make herself this sick? The Russians had gone through her purse again and other than the usual womanly stuff, had found nothing—no medications, suspicious-looking powder, nothing he could see, anyway. Besides, this was fucking serious sickness. The fever was real. Even he was beginning to feel worried she didn’t do this on purpose.
Sergei was speaking in Russian fast and furious on the phone again, reporting to this Vadim fellow about Nadine’s condition. The fever was getting worse, he said. The scientist was belligerent. She vomited a lot. He’d glanced back when Nadine emitted a particularly loud groan.
“Yes, that’s her doing that. I think she’s going to vomit again. This looks really serious, Vadim, not a pretense. What do you want me to do? Take her to a clinic? We think it’s food poisoning.” There was some yelling coming from the other end of the phone call. Sergei frowned. “I’m not an idiot. It was just some food from the convenience store. What did you want me to do, taste-test everything she ate first? Do not threaten me. You aren’t Petrovich.”
Walker mulled over all that he knew. This Petrovich guy had been mentioned several times. He must be their boss or higher-up. Vadim? Maybe the second? Sergei didn’t seem to be too subservient to him, although he was following orders.
Why were they kidnapping scientists? Moreover, why were the Feds not contacting the other agencies about this? DARPA scientists did cutting-edge experimentation for the DOD, so it was logical to assume the scientists being taken had some kind of connection to a project in which the Russian was interested. He glanced down at his charge.
What did Nadine do, besides what her file said? And as the Feds deemed her “lower” priority, why exactly did the Russian pick her? Sure, she conveyed earlier she’d sent out some signal on a black market site that she had something to sell. Would someone like Nadine Kincaid know how to go about doing that? An ordinary person just didn’t pick up the phone or type in a site address on her laptop and go about selling on black market channels.
His fiancée just stared back up him, almost doll-like, her wide dark eyes hardly blinking. Her mouth was slightly open, her lips relaxed in a soft curve that made him want to...what the hell was wrong with him? He wanted to kiss a stranger who called him ‘Honey Bun Bun.’
But there was something about her....He just hadn’t had time to process it yet, but one thing was for sure.She—he looked down hard at her—was responsible for this situation being out-of-hand.Shehad kept it that way.Sheseemed to revel in it. And therefore, as illogical as it sounded, as out of it as she looked, she somehow really wasn’t. The somehow part was the thing bothering him. If she managed to have done all this herself, what was her final plan? She couldn’t just remain sick and hope to...hope to what?
This delay tactic meant she had plans. Someone else was tracking them, besides his own Titan operatives. Which meant Nadine was working with another agency besides the Feds. She sure had been taking charge of this situation like a pro, though, which made him frown harder down at her.
“Relax,” the Russian sitting by them said. “We aren’t going to let our beautiful scientist die. She’s too important.”
Walker nodded. “I just don’t know why she did what she did.”
He knew his words would be wrongly interpreted, but when going undercover, honesty was the best policy. That way, he didn’t have to try to remember too many lies. He found his method a good way to dredge information.
“I love her so much,” he continued, “but this is foolhardy. This is just totally unplanned.”
“She wanted a nice honeymoon with her Honey Bun Bun,” the Russian joked and then laughed. “I don’t know many woman who would sell secret documents to do that, but hey, more power to you. You must be doing something right in bed.”
“I bet she’s the wild one,” the driver chimed in. “Walker here looks like he likes to just lie there and let her take charge.”
“Who wouldn’t? Who would think a scientist would have a body like hers? That ass....”
“That’s my fiancée you’re talking about,” Walker interrupted. “She might be doing shady business but there’s no reason to talk about her that way.”
“Oh, fuck off,” the Russian in the back with them sneered. “Once Vadim is done with her, I’ll be the first she—”
“Ivan,” Sergei cut in. “That’s enough. She’s a scientist and will be on the ship to Russia with the others. You aren’t touching her any time soon.”
“That’s too bad because she’s going to miss her Honey Bun Bun.”
“Eh. Maybe Vadim has something else in mind.”
The others laughed. Walker kept quiet. He got the relevant information he wanted. The scientists were being shipped to Russia.
He shifted about, as if he was trying to get comfortable. Despite feeling and looking sick, the darn woman still managed to have one hand under his shirt. He carefully disentangled her hand from his belt, casually readjusting it without bringing any unnecessary attention. He had delay tactics himself.
* * *
Nadia took a swallow of water from Walker. He really was taking care of her like a lover. She felt like shit. She was going to have to complain to T to get extra pay for...oh wait, this wasn’t a job. She was doing this for her sister. Shit. Well, Dina better pay up something.
She stared up at Walker, knowing she probably looked glassy-eyed and slightly crazy. The drug was experimental—DARPA’s newest, in fact—but it was doing its job. She was acting sick, felt like she was running a fever, and yet her brain was functioning fine. She could see and think quite clearly. Even while puking. So weird. It felt, like most drugs, as if she were watching herself doing these things, but unlike hallucinogens, she was aware of everything happening, even her darling fiancé’s conversations with the kidnappers. It was comparable to being drunk, at that point when one started thinking and talking about two or three different subjects at the same time.
So, she was still perfectly coherent in her head about what she needed to do, the different ways she could tackle any problems that might come up. But also, at the same time, a part of her was thinking about Mr. Walker Stilling’s rock hard abs and tummy and what he looked like under that shirt. Yeah, if he were really Dina’s guy, she would totally steal him from her.
