The perfect English indicated a tourist, and given Nadirah didn’t look local because of her mixed heritage, it wasn’t surprising he chose to address her. She turned to see an older gentleman, stocky in appearance, salt-and-pepper hair cut very short but mostly distinctive because of his eyepatch and facial scar.
“Can I help you?”
The man grinned widely, and a chill went through Nadirah as he said, “It is you. You’re a hard woman to find.”
“I’m sorry, but you must have mistaken me for someone else. I don’t know you.” Unease spread through Nadirah and extended to Farah, who moved closer.
“You don’t know me, but I’m well acquainted with you. You’re the Negara Zoo tiger attendant who went missing more than a month back.”
At his words, Nadirah froze and couldn’t speak.
“You’re wrong. This is my niece, Tania.” Farah offered up the false name, but the man snorted.
“Don’t bother bullshitting me. I am more than familiar with her appearance, seeing as how she was the last person seen with Lieutenant Phoenix Erickson.”
The nausea returned full force, and Nadirah blurted out, “You’re General Davidson.”
A sly smile tugged his lips. “So we’re done lying then? Good. Where is the lieutenant?”
“I don’t know. We parted ways after the fire at my house.”
The man moved so fast Nadirah didn’t have time to react. He gripped both her arms in a steel vise that hurt as he yanked her close. His breath stank of stale coffee as he snapped, “You do not want to play games with me. I want the lieutenant.”
“Leave her alone,” Farah hissed.
His head half turned as he mocked, “Or what? What will you do, old woman?”
Farah stiffened, and her eyes took on a menacing—inhuman—glow.
A chuckle escaped the general. “Well. Well. Must be my lucky day. A therianthrope. I’ve been searching for your kind for months in this godforsaken country.”
Too late, Farah realized her mistake. She took a step back, only to stiffen. A gun suddenly shoved into your spine would do that.
Men surrounded them, locals by appearance and, given their rough exterior, most likely a gang hired to act as the general’s muscle.
Davidson snapped, “Tie their hands and get them in the truck. We’re taking them with us. I’m sure it won’t take too much for them to reveal where the lieutenant is hiding.” He released Nadirah so abruptly she stumbled on the uneven payment, falling to the ground hard enough she grunted and lost her grip on the bag with her book—which spilled onto the pavement.
She quickly tried to shove it out of sight, but the general scooped it up before she could.
As he eyed the cover of a woman cradling her rounded belly, his eyes widened. “I’ll be damned. You’re pregnant. Is it his?”
“No.” A quick reply that he didn’t believe for a second.
The general’s lips curved. “Won’t be too hard to find out. Dr. Levy will be more than happy to test the DNA of the fetus.”
“How did you find Nadirah?” Farah questioned.
“Not easily,” he had the nerve to grumble. “I thought I wasted my time keeping the bounty on you and the lieutenant active, but it paid off. While there’s a lack of CCTV in the country, that didn’t stop the hackers looking for an easy payday from constantly scanning. Imagine my surprise when they notified me you’d surfaced at a shopping mall, and in even better luck, you happened to be in the same city as me,” said the general as one of his bully boys roughly tied her hands behind her back.
“Why are you here?” Farah had also been tethered and visibly steamed at the treatment.
“Because I got tired of people failing me. One simple job. Bring me the lieutenant or a therianthrope. And what did I get? Nothing but incompetence. Sometimes, if you want a task done right, you have to do it yourself.”
As they shoved Nadirah in the direction of a panel van with no rear windows, she grumbled, “You won’t get away with this. You’re a foreigner in my country. You can’t simply kidnap one of its citizens.”
Davidson snorted. “I can do whatever I like so long as I throw money at anyone who objects. And you’re one to speak of being a foreigner. You look more North American than Malaysian.”
“You’re wasting your time taking us. We won’t lead you to Phoenix,” Nadirah stated with her chin held high. She’d never betray him or the hidden village of harimau.
