What he decided to do next was out of reflex, honed from years working undercover in the Middle East when he’d had to step in many a time to protect a woman from being taken by warlords or their underlings. He stepped out of his car, crossed the street and put himself in the path of the two goons, and in front of them, noisily and determinedly claimed the woman as his own. Except, over there, he would have a big weapon and one could just snarl “Mine!” to make a point. He reminded himself he was back in civilization, so that tactic might not work.
“Nadine, babe, my most beautiful bride in white,” he proclaimed loudly. “Everyone’s waiting.”
His ‘bride’ swirled around, looking at him wide-eyed, and conveniently fell into his arms. She fit perfectly, all womanly curves against his body, and he took advantage of her momentary surprise by pulling her closer even as the two men advanced nearer and reached them, trapping them in between. He looked both ways, acting surprised.
“What the hell—who—” he mouthed, mentally crossing his fingers that Nadine Kincaid would either keep her mouth shut or go along with him.
One was speaking on the phone. The other showed them his gun like a good CIA man or a mobster, by lifting a side of his tailored suit. He grabbed Nadine by the arm.
“Hey, let go of my girl,” Walker said, loudly, holding on to his scientist firmly. “My God, a gun!”
He didn’t try to wrestle the weapon from the goon. His objective was to stay with Miss Kincaid, so he did the protective fiancé act, making it difficult to be shot without getting her shot too. Either she was too surprised or shocked, because she didn’t fight him at all, hugging him with a compliance as if she knew him.
“Hey, hey, hey! Please, just take my wallet and let my girl go,” he exclaimed.
“Don’t hurt us. Please don’t shoot my fiancé,” Nadine finally spoke.
If a voice could stop traffic—good Lord, with that voice, the woman should be a phone sex operator, not a scientist—hers just did. Hand still resting on his weapon, the hostile hesitated a couple of seconds, long enough for his companion to bark out orders.
“Vadim says to take both of them,” he said, in Russian, a language Walker understood perfectly. “Don’t kill the man. Find out his name.”
“Get in the car and you won’t get hurt,” the one with the gun threatened.
By now, the black sedan had pulled up at the curb beside all of them, and Walker and Nadine were pushed unceremoniously into the back. He didn’t fight too hard. And all they took from them were their phones. Through it all, his charge hadn’t let go of her briefcase and now it sat between their feet. She turned and gave him a long, cool stare before hiding her face in his jacket.
“What’s happening, Honey-Bun Bun?” she asked, a little sob rising.
Honey Bun Bun? No. Just.... Fuck. That was worse than Bossman calling his wife ‘Baby Cakes.’
He patted her hair. It felt so soft. “I don’t know,” he replied truthfully. “But everything’s going to be all right.”
He hoped. Once he figured out what was happening, then he could start making things right. He didn’t feel fearful. He’d been in plenty of close-to-death situations and instinct told him this was nowhere near those points yet. His scientist was wanted for a reason, so she was reasonably safe. He needed to be close at hand, first to find out why, second to get her out of this pickle before he could let loose and be his usual self, meaning yeah, he could get to be uncivilized. Something told him these guys weren’t going to play nice for very long.
He knew the dash cam on his vehicle back there would record everything of the incident needed to let Jared and the rest of the team get on the move. His short time with the Titans had taught him that they worked very fast and efficiently, and if one of theirs was taken, they would figure a way to get him or her out. That was what he liked about them best—a no-nonsense team when it came to action. Also, they had jobs overseas, so that provided an outlet to escape from here, when he needed one.
“Where are you guys taking us?” Nadine Kincaid asked. “At least tell me what’s happening. This must be a misunderstanding. I’m not rich and my parents can’t afford any ransom.”
The man, the one who had been speaking on the cell phone before, turned from the front seat. He perused the two of them menacingly for a few seconds. Walker felt Nadine cringing against him and he put a reassuring arm around her. Her fear seemed to satisfy the bastard because he sneered and spoke to them in a heavy accent.
“Dr. Kincaid, you work in DARPA and you’re supposed to meet with,” the man flashed Walker another sneer before continuing, “Dr. Kantor this morning. We know everything.”
Nadine’s fidgeting stilled. “Oh,” she said. Walker couldn’t see Nadine’s expression as she leaned forward. “He called to meet with me. I was...say, you don’t have anything to do with his phone call, do you? What’s going on?”
“You’ll be meeting him soon,” their kidnapper said.
“Yeah, but I’m going to be late for my wor—”
“Our wedding,” Walker interrupted pointedly. “With our guests waiting with the judge. They’ll be worried when we don’t show up.”
To her credit, Dr. Kincaid didn’t appear flustered with all this new information. Not a twitch betraying she didn’t know him or anything about a wedding fifteen minutes ago.
“Well, Honey Bun Bun,” she announced. “I’m guessing we’re going to be late.”
Fuckin’A. If he hadn’t read her file forwards and backwards and if he hadn’t been observing the good scientist and her quite-boring life, he’d swear this woman was teasing him. Why did she keep calling him that?
* * *
Either things were more complicated than a simple operation of protection and diversion, or her sister had been living a double life and was dating a very sexy beast on the side.
