She glanced at his instrument cluster. “We don’t have enough gas to make it.”
“Even if we did, we can’t keep this car.”
“My moped is only really good for city driving.”
As if he’d ride bitch for a long road trip. But rather than say that… “We can’t go back to your house. We run the risk of being spotted and followed.”
“I could rent something with my credit card,” she offered.
He shook his head. “Too easy to trace. I wish I’d not lost my stash of cash.” He’d brought a hefty wad with him for the voyage, but, by now, it would have been found and confiscated. “I don’t suppose you have a discreet friend who could loan us something? I’ll pay them to borrow it.”
“How? No offense, but you just said you have nothing.”
“My friends will help out. Give me access to a computer and I can get in touch with someone who can wire us funds.”
“Then why not get a rental?”
“Because, even without a credit card, it leaves a paper trail.”
Nadirah’s lips pursed. “I know a place we could borrow a car for cash.”
“Really? That would be perfect.”
“As to a computer, we could hit up a café.”
The next few hours were spent getting in touch via a special messaging service he and the other escapees had setup. Getting the money proved a tad more difficult, since they wanted to avoid using identification to do a pickup at a Western Union or other money-exchange service. It led to his buddy Idris digging to find a location with laxer rules—AKA, someone who would take a bribe.
Nadirah also managed to get in contact with her grandmother, who, once she learned her granddaughter was safe, actually encouraged her to keep helping Phoenix. Or so Nadirah claimed. There must have been more to it, considering how she blushed mid-conversation with her grandma.
Once they had the cash in hand, they hit up Nadirah’s friend, who, despite grumbling about the late hour, came through with a base model Suzuki Swift sport. A little cramped for his long legs, and not exactly a race car if chased, but it did what it needed to and got them out of the city.
Just in time.
Nadirah stiffened as the music on the radio station changed to the radio host.
“What’s wrong?”
“There was a fire,” she whispered.
The assholes who’d come after Phoenix had burned down her home.
Chapter Nine
How hadNadirah ended up on the run with a stranger? Gotten embroiled in a situation where people she’d never met thought nothing of torching a home or of shooting at innocents? But most baffling of all, why hadn’t she told Phoenix to go on his journey alone?
Nadirah couldn’t have said why she felt the need to be with Phoenix as he sought answers to his condition. Yes, he might be good looking—and drool worthy with his shirt off—but she’d never been the type to lose all her wits over someone handsome. Could it be because she knew he needed help, not just with the language, but getting around a place foreign to him but familiar to her? In that case, she could have suggested he hire a guide who spoke English. Then at least, she would have been able to support Nenek and help her deal with the loss of their home.
Instead, she dozed on and off in the passenger seat of a car on her way to Taman Negara Endau-Rompin, a protected park holding the ruins where some harimau artifacts had been found. A jungle that had not yet been fully explored. However, her trepidation over what they planned paled in comparison to the excitement of hunting for clues about the mysterious tiger shifters—and spending more time with Phoenix.
The journey, even via the back roads, usually took under five hours, but they stopped a few times along the way, overspending on basic supplies at the stores that remained open overnight. They grabbed a pair of tourist-imprinted backpacks that boldly declared their love for Malaysia, paying a crazy cost for flimsy material. The spare clothes they bought proved to be a mishmash of mostly cheap cotton, again emblazoned and meant for visitors, not residents. Cheap running shoes—knockoffs of a famous brand—finished their ensemble. When they arrived at Taman Negara Endau-Rompin, they actually fit in with those clustered waiting to start their adventure in the park.
Phoenix had acquired a pay-as-you-go phone at a gas station, which he’d loaded with data. At one of their stops—where she spent a few moments in the lavatory wiping the stink from her flesh—he’d managed to save a few maps and marked the general location of the ruin they sought. He’d also allowed her to give Nenek a call, his friend having done something to ensure the connection couldn’t be traced.
A conversation that didn’t entirely go the way Nadirah expected.
“I’m so sorry the house got burned down,” she’d apologized to her grandmother.
“Bah. It was old.”
