She nodded. Walker opened the cap on the bottle and put it against her mouth and helped her as she took a swallow. Then she turned away and spat the water out before gagging again.
She was facing him, away from the car. She moaned. “I think I’m going to die, Honey B-B-B-Bun.”
And then she winked at him. Walker almost sat down in surprise. He put a hand to her forehead. No, this was no pretense. The puking and fever were real. She winked at him again. She had to be pretending because she was still using that damn nickname she gave him.
“Your forehead is really hot,” he said loudly, so the others could hear him.
“But I feel so...c-c-cold,” Nadine complained, then fell forward.
Walker caught her in his arms but lost his balance because of his position, falling backwards. She snuggled against him like a small cat.
“This is so n-n-nice,” she said. “Hot and nice. Let’s s-s-sleep here.”
“Uh...” Walker said, lifting his head to look at the man stalking toward their prone bodies. “Honey, we can’t sleep here. We’re out in the open.”
The Russian pulled Nadine off him and she turned around swinging a fist drunkenly at him.
“Kid-kidnapper! H-h-help! Kidnapper!”
“Get back in the car!” The man snarled, then yelled out a string of curses when Nadine promptly vomited on his shoe. “Fuck! You stupid woman! Get her into the car, Sergei, before I kill her.”
Sergei, still leaning against the car, only laughed. “I’m not getting any of that puke on me. You can bring her yourself.”
Walker got back to his feet and the Russian holding Nadine shoved her back into his arms. “Take her!” He wiped his shoe on the grass patch, still cursing. “She’s sick as a dog.”
Shrugging off Walker’s hold, Nadine turned and holding her tummy, ran to the bushes again. The Russians watched as she stood there bent over, heaving whatever was left in her stomach.
“Food poisoning can be serious. Why the hell did you buy her that stupid sandwich?” Sergei asked.
“We were all hungry!” The one with the puke on his shoe replied. He turned to Walker. “You get her. I’m done with that barf on me.”
“What are we going to do?” Walker asked. “She’s terribly sick!”
“We stop each time she wants to puke,” Sergei said. “Maybe she has nothing left in her stomach soon.”
“But she’s still sick!”
“Water, ple...please,” Nadine called back. “I’m going to faint now.”
Walker rushed to her. “Nadine!” He was more than a little alarmed at how real this illness looked. What the hell did she do to herself to get like this? She toppled into his arms again. “Nadine!”
“Ohhhhh, Honey B-B-Bun!” she moaned. “My head feels like it’s going to ex-explode.”
Walker scooped her into his arms. She couldn’t be as sick as she sounded because she was lucid enough to keep calling him that.
They got back in the car and they continued the journey. The Russian in the back eyed her warily when she slumped against him. When she put a hand over her mouth, he pushed her firmly back against Walker.
“Your problem,” he told him. Then in Russian to his partners up front, “I’m glad we’ve got the fiancé to take care of this. I hate cleaning up vomit.”
Sergei looked back. “If she gets any sicker, Vadim isn’t going to be pleased. He doesn’t have much time, he said. Something’s going down with Petrovich not being here.”
Walker listened quietly as he stroked the back of Nadine’s head. His sick fiancé bit his neck gently.
“Can we get a doctor?” he asked. “She’s really, really, really hot.”
Sergei shook his head. “Don’t be stupid.”
Nadine groaned against him and made a wretched sound. “Water!” She sat up and snatched the bottle nearby. She drank it down greedily, then turned and glared at the Russian beside her. “You poisoned me! I’m going to die before my honeymoon! I’m going to...”
