She would have to hide his photo ID so T could see what a sexy beast her “fiancé” was. Her sister’s fiancé, Nadia corrected. He thought she was Nadine and was probably now wondering whether Nadine was bipolar. She grinned at his confusion. It wasn’t the first time she had pretended to be her twin sister, but definitely this was the most fun by far. She was pretty certain by now that her sister couldn’t possibly be dating this man. Nadine, when she did think of the opposite sex, tended to gravitate toward intellectuals and professorial types. Walker didn’t look like he’d do well on the lecture circuit.
She recalled the warm male flesh under that shirt. If he were, she would go back to school and would be seducing Professor Stillings, dammit.
Back to business.
It was easy enough to slide the card and message under the mirror. Her Chief would know where to look because she knew Nadia too well. GEM operatives mostly work alone but T had a way of keeping tabs on everyone and inserting herself into assignments. This wasn’t technically an assignment, so Nadia didn’t mind the help. Her sister’s name was on a target list for some reason and it was up to her to protect her from any harm. After all, she was the older twin.
She took a tampon from her pocket and pulled it apart, revealing a needle. She injected herself with the liquid inside, then flushed everything away in the toilet. After washing her hands, she turned on the noisy hand dryer. She gave herself a critical once-over in the mirror.
“It’s going to be bumpy weather,” she announced softly.
* * *
“So where are they taking Walker and his scientist?” Jared asked, putting Parker on speaker phone so he could quickly perused the files sent to his laptop. The kidnapping, Walker’s smooth intervention, the black sedan—everything was recorded from the dash cam in Walker’s vehicle. “Can we trace the number? Did Walker activate a tracker on the car?”
“Car license plate—working on that. Tracker, yes. He stuck that inside the door when he stumbled,” Parker said. “Hate to tell you this, Bossman, but they’re heading towards your direction.”
That made him sit up. “What? To our holiday cabin?”
“Well, in the general direction. They’re taking back routes and country roads. Wouldn’t it be funny, though, if you and Sugar had to go on a rescue mission with Baby Vi strapped on Sugar’s back?”
Jared coughed. “Don’t say that out loud. She’ll hear you.”
Parker chuckled.
“I heard you,” Sugar called from somewhere outside the room. “This cabin isn’t that big, you know.”
Parker chuckled harder. “Sorry, Bossman,” he said.
“How far away?”
“I’ll send you the coordinates and will keep you lovebirds updated. Meanwhile, I think I’ll go get Walker’s car.”
“Try a little B&E of our scientist’s place,” Jared suggested. “There’s something either the FBI isn’t telling us or doesn’t know. Sugar said she just have a feeling about this.”
“Copy,” Parker said.
“I’ll call them myself and see if they get excited that Dr. Kincaid is missing. If not, that’s something to think about too, right?”
“You mean, maybe they want her to be kidnapped? Why set us on this then?”
Jared had run over several strategic scenarios in mind. He had had enough dealing with the Feds to get a feel for their methods.
“They are suspecting or they know it’s international,” he guessed, “and they don’t want the CIA in for now. But they don’t want to leave their fingerprints all over, so...”
“Titans,” Parker finished. He paused as he thought about it. “Someone’s pulling strings to keep it within the Feds’ control.”
“Interesting twist, isn’t it?” Jared asked. “I’ll let you know later if our theory holds water. Call me ASAP.”
“I can handle this. You guys are supposed to be on vacay, remember? Doing the nesting thing without guns and bad guys?”
“You forget it’s Sugar we’re talking about,” Jared reminded dryly.
“Well, okay, without the bad guys,” Parker corrected. “But man, I’d think you can keep her busy doing other stuff but think of weapons and killing people for a few days, Bossman.”
It was good-natured joshing with a bit of male mockery. Jared grinned. “I know about the bet.”
Parker groaned. “Dammit.”
