Nadia took great pride in being able to function by the seat of her pants. In her world, things could happen quickly and people wound up dead if she hesitated too long. The key was to learn to read a situation in a split second and go with the flow. And most important of all, if possible, have fun doing it. What was life without a little fun?
So when the hottest man she’d seen in a while stepped in and claimed her as his bride-to-be, why not? Sexy beast. That was her first thought when he appeared, stalking toward her so damn purposefully. Tall and looking a tad uncomfortable in suit and tie, square-jawed and slightly crooked nose, he didn’t seem to be aware that he looked powerful, in spite of the whole ‘oh wow, look honey, a gun’ routine. She hadn’t bought that act at all, not with those piercing blue eyes trained on her for those few seconds. They had the look of someone who had seen stuff.
Her sister dating a sexy beast? And they were either eloping or getting married in secret? Hersister? Who had been calling and yelling at her on the phone until Nadia decided to block her number because she needed to concentrate on the bad guys coming her way. Perhaps Nadine was frantic because she really was meeting this guy who, right now, had his arms around her.
She snuck a peek as she hid against him, keeping up the pretense of being intimidated. That beautiful jaw line. Hmm. And he was absently stroking her back, as if he was thinking. So, what was his plan now that he’d gotten himself into her game?
That he thought she was Nadine, yes, of course. That he thought Nadine needed help, yes, of course. But who would just knowingly insert himself into a kidnapping situation unless there was a special operation going on? But she’d checked with contacts and there was no FBI tail on her sister. They’d thought she was low on the list of important scientists.
That hadn’t jived with her at all. So she’d taken it upon herself to be her sister’s guard, even if it was against her sister’s wishes. Those FBI people hadn’t even secured her apartment or checked her phone! A simple run-through had revealed her sister’s main cell line had been hacked and tapped. Fortunately, Nadine had a private secured phone, thanks to her because that was how she rolled, and she’d used that when necessary.
It was easy enough to test her theory that whoever was targeting and kidnapping scientists were after the ‘secondary’ list, as she was pompously told by the agent she’d managed to get hold of. She—Nadia—would pretend to be Nadine, making a call from the hacked cell phone, to someone she’d asked to act the part of a black market middleman, talking about the need for money and that she had some scientific plans to sell.
The fake call had been successful. Within the hour, Dr. Kantor had called and after some “probing,” she’d reluctantly admitted to him about her need for cash. He’d offered to help because well, because he was her friend, of course.
Nadine was shocked and outraged at the idea that someone inside was doing this and had wanted to call the FBI. Fuck that. Nadia totally disagreed. She was going to find out what exactly these people were after and if it were connected to any international going-ons, she was so on them like white on rice. Because then, it would no longer be a national security affair and the FBI would have to let her people at COS Command in on this.
As usual, Nadine was difficult to persuade. Locking her in the bathroom helped. Her sis wouldn’t betray her too much because very few people knew about Nadia’s existence.
“Are you okay?” Her sexy beast murmured, interrupting her reverie. “You’re so quiet, honey. What are you thinking?”
What would he say if she told him she was busy thinking about ways to kill people and trying to figure out where he fit in the scheme of things? Their kidnappers had been so sure they were basically harmless, they hadn’t even checked them for weapons. Not that they had time on the street, but this ride was taking them out into the country roads, so one would think they would stop first to check them over.
“I think it was a very bad idea to get married today, Honey Bun Bun,” she told him truthfully. “Look where it has gotten you.”
She almost laughed out loud at the way he clenched his jaw when she called him that. Served him right, barging into this thing and expecting her to cooperate. She didn’t even know his name. Honey Bun Bun was Nadine’s beloved pet bunny when they were kids. If he were really Nadine’s secret boyfriend, well, then of course he would be codenamed Honey Bun Bun by Nadia.
“Do you know these guys? Who’s Dr. Kantor?”
Nadia shook her head. “Don’t know them, but they seem to know Dr. Kantor, who called to meet with me this morning. You were early,” she said, pointedly noting that their kidnappers were listening.
“Yeah, well, if I weren’t you would have disappeared with these guys without me,” he retorted. “Then I’d start thinking you’d stood me up. Left me at the altar. Having second thoughts about being Mrs. Walker Stillings.”
Ooooh, Honey Bun Bun was good. Walker Stillings, huh? She released a loud sigh. “It’s all my fault,” she wailed. “If I hadn’t been so set on giving you that expensive honeymoon gift, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“Is this what it is?” Walker asked.
“Yes, it’s my dumb idea to get cash quickly. So dumb I thought no one would actually want to buy scientific papers. Not in such a quick time, anyway. Butvoila! Dr. Kantor heard about it through some grapevine before I could even change my mind. What he offered seemed too good to be true.” She sighed again. There, her story in a nutshell. Let’s see how good Walker Stillings was at cutting out the bullshit and reading between the lines. “He was so persuasive, though, that I simply couldn’t refuse.”
Actually, Dr. Kantor wasn’t only persuasive. Nadine had told her he wasn’t her immediate supervisor but during that conversation with Nadia, he sure made it sound like he was.
“That was a dumb idea,” her ‘fiancé’ told her bluntly. “You put yourself in danger without me?”
He made a growl, like a protective bear, which was kind of cute, since she didn’t even know he existed before this morning. But she got his point. She was supposed to do the correct and normal thing and informed the FBI. Perhaps the latter had actually been listening to her sister and this man was one of their operatives. It didn’t matter now. She might as well have fun while on this ride. She looked at him again with wide eyes.
“You would never believe me. I can do this and you’d never know. And you’d be soooooo happy during our honeymoon,” she cooed, almost grinning when he blinked. She knew how to use her husky voice to her advantage, had been trained to do so, and did so now. She glanced around at their captors, who appeared to be captivated with their back-and-forth, and declared, “My Walker is totally harmless. He’s my love slave in bed. Total. Love. Slave. I had it all planned. With the extra cash, I would rent an island and there I’d tie him up for a week. He’d be my naked Honey Bun Bun. He could eat nothing but these cute edible underwear I have on. What—Honey—why are you choking? Too much information, isn’t it?” She glanced around and added, “I’m sorry. I’ve been planning this sexy honeymoon in my head so long I forget and talk too much.”
She pounded Walker’s back. “Are you okay?” She asked.
“I like her mouth,” the kidnapper spoke in Russian to the other. “She’ll be easy to get to talk.”
“I like her mouth too,” replied the other. “Maybe we could use it for other things besides talking after she’s done her job and give Vadim what he wants.”
They both laughed.
“Vadim will never approve.”
“Vadim hasn’t heard her speak.”
