Rx Missing (Decorah Security Series, Book #10): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novel Read Online Free

working—or the computers? Where is the staff?”
    Mack looked toward the double glass lobby doors, thinking he should get the hell out of here instead of standing around quizzing people who didn’t know any more than he did.
    If he was in India as the Rendell woman suggested, he should call the U.S. Embassy. Let them know that Lieutenant Commander Mack Bradley wasn’t dead. But he was willing to bet a month’s pay that walking out of this place wasn’t going to be so easy.
    “I’ve had enough of this. I’m splitting,” Roper said as he started toward the door.
    “I wouldn’t advise it,” Paula answered.
    “Why?” Mack asked, curious to hear why she sounded so sure of herself.
    “Because this is India. Or maybe it isn’t.” She ran a hand through her bouncy curls.
    “The point is, there’s an enormous difference between the atmosphere in a luxury hotel in this part of the world and what’s on the street. If you’ve been to India, you know what I mean. Beggars who won’t take a polite “no” for an answer. Cows wandering all over the place. People sleeping on the side of the road. Like the movie Slumdog Millionaire, only you’re in the middle of it. Take my word for it. You don’t want to go stumbling around on your own. There are too many bad things that can happen.”
    Did she believe what she was saying or was the warning a ploy to keep them where they were. Was she really a travel agent? Or was she here to ride herd on a group of strangers who were struggling to figure out what was going on? Or was someone else the ringer? Another hotel guest he hadn’t met yet. Or one he had.
    “I’ve never been out of the U.S. You think this is really India?” Lily asked. She seemed too worried to be in on the joke—if there was one. Or maybe she was a good actress. Like in that Truman movie, where Jim Carrey is raised from birth in an artificial environment, and everybody else is an actor. Even his wife and parents.
    The travel agent shrugged. “Is this really India?” she repeated. “Either that or an elaborate stage set.”
    Which was something like what Mack had been thinking. But what was it for? And how had they gotten here?
    “We might as well hook up with the other people in the bar,” Lily said.
    Mack considered his options. He still wanted to get the hell out of here, but he’d come to the conclusion that it would be smarter to get some more information first.
    “The bar’s around the corner and down the colonnade.” Paula pointed toward another exit from the lobby. “I don’t know about you two, but I could use some fortification.”
    She led the way across the lobby and out onto a covered walkway that bordered a courtyard, surrounded by the hotel on three sides. The far end was open, leading to a wide lawn that ended in the high stucco wall Mack had seen from his bedroom window. Beyond that were the trees he’d also seen.
    “Are we out in the country?” he asked.
    “No. The Mirador’s in the city, but most posh hotels in India have a wall and a strip of forest separating them from the hoi polloi . A luxury hotel here is its own little world. With security guards at the gate.” The travel agent stopped talking and surveyed the scene. “It doesn’t feel right.”
    “What do you mean?” Lily asked.
    “The temperature out here seems to be the same as inside. It should be a lot hotter outside the air conditioning.”
    “So you think we’re not really outside?” Mack questioned.
    She shrugged, then looked at the blue sky overhead. “No pigeons.”
    “Pigeons?” Mack asked.
    “There are a lot of them in India. They’d be all over that fountain, unless there was a guy standing around flapping a towel to scare them away.”
    A sudden flash of movement had them all looking toward the trees. A huge black bird came swooping down, circled the woods and disappeared into the greenery.
    “More like a buzzard than a pigeon,” Mack muttered, thinking it was the first animated thing