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

he’d seen besides these few people.
    Paula shuddered and started walking fast—past a brass statue of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, to a cluster of cast-iron tables and chairs. Beyond them was a door that led to a softly lighted bar decorated with peacock motifs. It was furnished with comfortable sofas and chairs grouped around small glass-topped tables.
    Again, no hotel staffer was on duty. But a dark-skinned man with shaved head and young woman with shoulder-length chestnut hair and light eyes were sitting at one of the tables. An athletic looking guy was pacing nervously back and forth. The woman wore the kind of running suit Mack had woken up in. The guy at the table with her wore khakis and a light blue golf shirt.
    The pacing guy looked at them. “I’m supposed to be at a lesson in twenty minutes,” he muttered. “They’re going to fire me.”
    “They’ll understand,” Lily said in a reassuring voice.
    He stopped and glared at her. “I don’t need your uninformed opinion. I need to get out of here.”
    “Did you try?” Mack asked.
    “Oh yeah. The front gate has bars. And on the other side, a couple of tigers were staring in at me like I was lunch.”
    “Tigers!” the woman at the table breathed.
    “Yeah. Like in a zoo. Only I got the weird feeling we’re the ones inside.”
    Mack took that in. Was the guy hallucinating? Making it up?
    The man snatched up a glass from the table next to where the other two were sitting and took a swig of what looked like Scotch.
    “That doing anything for you?” the dark skinned guy asked.
    “Hell if I know.”
    “But you can taste it?”
    “Taste it? Yeah I can taste it.”
    The seated black man picked up the glass in front of him and sipped. “This is supposed to be gin and tonic, but it might as well be distilled water for all I can tell.”
    Lily’s head snapped toward him. “You’re sure?”
    He thrust out the glass. “See for yourself.”
    When she took a small sip and said, “Gin and tonic,” he glared at her. “Someone else try it.”
    The travel agent picked up the glass and sipped. “Gin and tonic.”
    “Christ,” the black guy exclaimed. “Then what the hell’s wrong with me?”
    Mack could feel the tension building in the room, and he could imagine some kind of mass panic attack. “We need to stay calm and figure this out.”
    George Roper glared at him. “Figure it out how, smart-ass? You have some inside information?”
    “I wish I did,” Mack admitted. “We could start by exchanging particulars and see if we have anything in common.”
    “What particulars?” Roper demanded.
    Mack took a seat at a table adjacent to the others. “Name, occupation, where we were before we got here.”
    “What does it matter where we were?” Roper demanded.
    “Because those are our last memories before we got here,” Mack answered.
    Lily sat with Mack. Paula and Roper sat together. The ones who had already met Mack and Lily repeated what they’d said earlier.
    “I’m in insurance,” Roper added.
    “You look more like a football player,” the woman at the table said.
    “Used to be. In college. I play for fun now.”
    “And you live where?” Lily asked. “Boston.”
    “I was on a train from DC to New York,” Paula told them.
    Mack looked at the pacing man who was too restless to take a seat.
    “Chris Morgan. Ski instruction. “The last thing I remember is a rundown an advanced slope—to check it out for one of my students.”
    The black man who’d complained about the drinks spoke up. “I’m Ben Todd. Lawyer. I was at a home improvement warehouse in Alexandria, Virginia. I needed some stuff for a project.”
    “What project?” Paula Rendell asked.
    “Is that relevant?” He shrugged, then said, “I’m adding a patio in the backyard.”
    The woman with the chestnut hair had scrunched down in her seat, obviously hoping to avoid talking.
    “And you?” Mack asked.
    She gave him a nervous glance. “Jenny Seville.