EDGE OF TEMPTATION Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  Rule #1. Never call your new boss in the middle of his sort of second honeymoon. To his credit, his new boss, Jared Westin, picked up at the first ring.

  “You realize you’re calling in between baby time. Which means, you’re calling during my time with my wife. This better be good, Walker, or I’m docking your pay.”

  Walker heard Sugar in the background, “And he has to do babysitting duties when he gets back. Rookie.”

  He shuddered at the thought. He knew he shouldn’t have called. “Umm, Bossman, do scientists wear fuck-me tight white leather to work?”

  He eyed his charge from the car. That could not be Nadine Kincaid. The woman turned in his direction and he had a good look. Yup, that was definitely her, in a tight leather get-up burning a hole in his eyeballs, carrying her usual work briefcase.

  “Is this a trick question?” Jared asked. “Because I’m not an expert in leather clothes. Sugar is, though....Baby Cakes, he wants to know whether scientists wear fuck-me tight white leather to work.”

  Walker sighed. “Don’t give me a hard time, Bossman. Something’s wrong. She’s wearing leather.” He watched her walk past him, in her usual path, but holy hell, that walk. He muttered, “She’s wearing fuck-me high heels too.”

  That sashay of a walk was a slow prowl. She bent to pick something up, her leather-encased ass in perfect view. That slow burn in his eyeballs was making a direct heat blast down to lower regions.

  “Fuck-me high heels,” his boss repeated. He sounded amused.

  “Did we hire you for fashion analysis, Rookie?” Sugar’s voice came through loud and clear now. Either Jared handed her the phone or she snatched it from him. “What do you have against fuck-me leather, anyway? I wear leather.”

  He did not want to get into a fight with Sugar Westin, especially about leather outfits. That woman wore it like armor. Rule #2. Never discuss the clothes a woman wears with her. He cleared his throat.

  “Nothing, but the target is wearing something she hasn’t worn to work in the last five days I’ve had her under surveillance,” Walker replied. “I called to tell Jared that something’s up.”

  He gritted his teeth. Wait for it. Wait for it.

  “Jared, our boy here said, while looking at our scientist in fuck-me leather, something’s up.”

  He knew they were punishing him for interrupting their little getaway-from-it-all weekend. He knew he shouldn’t have called. But something was up, and this was his first Titan gig where he was given permission to call the shots and he didn’t want to fuck up. Everything was still kind of new and he didn’t want to be like his old self, stepping on everyone’s toes. This was the new Walker, a more kinder and gentler Walker.

  His boss must have taken pity on him. “What do you want to do, Walker? It’s your call, remember? You were supposed to just update me, while I’m away with my girls, on the situation this evening unless there’s an emergency. Is this one?”

  Walker watched Nadine Kincaid fishing out her phone from her purse to answer a call after looking around.

  “I have a feeling, Bossman, that something’s up,” he repeated.

  “And?”

  “Is your FBI contact sure she’s clean? She’s been acting suspicious.”

  “What do you think our DARPA scientist is up to?”

  “Usually she walks to the subway station to meet with her ride. Today, she’s just...standing there. So far, from studying her, she’s a very to-the-minute kind of lady, but not today. Besides the...” Walker paused, trying to find another description. “...can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it leather outfit.”

  Sugar’s chuckle let him know he’d been right. He was on speaker phone.

  “Also,” he continued, “she’s scanning the road and making calls.”

  “Maybe she’s talking to her ride. Maybe today, she’s being picked up at a different spot,” Jared suggested.

  Those reasons had gone through his mind but something still didn’t add up. He discreetly and quickly looked through his mini binoculars. Suddenly, it dawned on him.

  “She isn’t just talking on the phone. She’s arguing with someone. She looks pissed-off. Jared, the FBI might just be asking you to keep an eye on the scientist while they round up particular Russians for an interview, but I’m thinking they forgot a few people. Two men are heading toward the target from opposite directions. Our scientist is totally absorbed in her phone conversation and doesn’t even notice. Gotta go, Bossman. I needed to give you the heads-up to track me because I might not be updating this evening as planned.”

  “Will do.”

  Walker slipped the phone in his pocket as he weighed his options. Those two thugs were easy to spot to the trained eye. Split second decisions in the field were easier—to shoot or not to shoot, shoot to kill or not, one body or many bodies. But this was not in the field, this was outside DC and those over-the-top options would make a lot of noise here in this neighborhood, as well as in the Red Tape department. Those options became moot when he spotted a black sedan sliding quietly toward the target, and no doubt would be coming to a stop conveniently in front of her.

  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 W
alker 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.

  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? Her sister? 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. Yo
u 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. But voila! 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.”