Page 30 of Hungry Like the Wolf

CHAPTER 12

Nadja didn’t so much wake up as slide into consciousness. She pulled the quilt up to her chin and sighed, knowing she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep but enjoying the in-between space too much to get up just yet.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so well. It wasn’t an especially comfortable mattress and the curtains were so thin as to let even the low light of dawn into the room, but she was so warm that those complaints weren’t so great. She shifted slightly, and her back pressed against something warm and hard. Suddenly, she careened into being very much awake.

Robbie.

She rolled to face him. She had the quilt, but the top sheet was twisted around his legs. He lay on his back with his arm flung over his eyes, back to looking almost as gray and feverish as he had when he’d stumbled into her office. She put a palm against his forehead and found that he was burning up.

“Robbie?” she asked, gently prodding his shoulder.

He groaned.

“Robbie, what do you need?”

He didn’t answer, just kicked the sheet off and whined.

Nadja was on her feet in an instant. She went to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet concealed behind the mirror, hoping like hell there was acetaminophen or something to bring his fever down. No luck. She went to the kitchen and began ransacking cupboards to no avail.

Maybe they would have medicine at the mess hall. Surely. And if not, maybe she could find that woman she’d met yesterday—Rose, was it?—and ask her if she had any. Nadja was walking toward her pile of clothes on the floor just as someone pounded on the door. She shrieked and clutched her chest.

From the other side of the door, she heard JJ’s deep voice. “Knock, knock.”

She wrenched the door open.

“Godsdamnit, JJ. You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Nadj, we both know you can’t die from a heart attack.” He looked her up and down. “I take it the night went well?”

Her confusion lasted but a moment before she realized she had answered the door in her bra and panties. In the movies, the heroine would have snatched a blanket or, preferably, the hero’s shirt to cover herself. But she had nothing to grab, and JJ had seen it all anyway. Many times and much less covered.

She glared at him. “It’s not like that.”

“It could be.”

“It would be about fifty ethics violations.”

JJ snorted. “You know, for someone who supposedly hated painfully litigious bureaucracy, you sure do cling to it.”

Nadja chose to ignore that comment. “Robbie’s sick. I need something for his fever. Is there a first aid kid or some medicine in the mess hall?”

“He doesn’t need medicine.”

When she opened her mouth to argue, he held up a hand. “This is not some bullshit where I’m telling you that people don’t need to take medicine when they’re sick. He’s not sick. He’s just approaching his first shift. And there isn’t enough Tylenol in the world to help that. He needs to run.”

Nadja went to the couch and sat down heavily, dropping her face into her hands. JJ crossed the room and disappeared into the bedroom, where she heard him say, “Up and at ’em, sleepy head. It’s morning, you know.”

Robbie’s answering groan was loud.

“That was not a request. Get your ass out of bed.”

Moments later, Robbie emerged from the bedroom and shuffled across the small hall to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

JJ came out and sat down beside her.

“How are you, Nadj?”

She sighed and dropped her head back against the top of the couch. She was hungry, that was the primary answer. She would need to feed soon.