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Wondering how the guy had managed to evade Kalugal's compulsion, Negal reached into his mind and changed his perception of what was happening.
They weren't intruders or hostiles taking over his boss's yacht. They were distinguished invited guests, and what was happening in the salon was an important business meeting. Negal also added that the cook should feed them.
"I'm so sorry." The guy lowered his gun and bowed. "I've made a terrible mistake, señor y señoras. Let me serve you dinner."
"I'll take that gun." Negal extended his hand.
"Of course, señor." The cook rushed over and put the gun in his hand. "Please, make yourself comfortable in the dining room. The kitchen is not the proper place for the distinguished guests of Señor Modana."
61
MARGO
"How did you do that?" Margo asked as Negal lifted her into his arms again. "And I can walk."
"Not yet." He carried her out to the dining room. "I don't want you falling over and hurting yourself."
"That's very kind of you, but you didn't answer my question. How did you make the cook lower his gun and give it to you?"
"I didn't do anything." Negal lowered her into the chair that Jasmine had pulled out for her. "He must have realized that he knew the two of you, and you were Modana's guests."
"What about you? He didn't know you."
"I was with you." Negal treated her to a brilliant smile that took her breath away.
"So, Negal." Jasmine unfurled a cloth napkin and spread it over her lap. "How did you know where to find us?"
It seemed that Jasmine was doing better with the narcotics. She didn't seem as loopy as she was before. Margo still didn't know what kind of drugs Alberto had used on them, and even if she did know, she didn't have her phone with her to search the internet for advice about shaking off the effects.
Negal hesitated for a long moment, then looked around the dining room and shook his head. "I'd better not say. There might be hidden cameras or voice recorders in here."
"Is it such a great secret?" Jasmine said in a teasing tone that grated on Margo's nerves.
She'd really liked the woman until Negal showed up, and suddenly Jasmine started acting like a floozy and flirting with him.
Well, Jasmine wasn't really acting like a floozy, and Margo wasn't sure that she was even trying to flirt with him, but she suddenly felt very possessive over a guy she had no business feeling possessive over.
He was a gorgeous stranger, chivalrous, kind, and intelligent, but that was no reason to act as if he belonged to her.
The thing was, Negal was like one of the supernatural heroes in her romance novels, and he checked all of her boxes and then some, but it must be a fantasy that she was creating in her head.
He was just a good-looking guy who’d saved her, and she was having a damsel in distress moment, fawning over her savior.
"Perhaps I can tell you some of it." Negal reached for the napkin and mimicked Jasmine's move, unfurling it and draping it over his lap. "Mia called Margo, and when Margo didn't answer, Mia got worried and called the sister-in-law, who was partying at a club at the time. When she returned to the hotel, she checked Margo's room, and when she didn't find her, she called hotel security. Hotel security performed a perfunctory search and informed the sister-in-law that she should contact the police after Margo had been missing for more than twenty-four hours. Mia suspected that your so-called boyfriend had something to do with Margo's disappearance, and she told us what Margo had suspected him of. She also remembered that Margo told her that you were staying at the penthouse. We used the services of a hacker to hack into the hotel's surveillance server and check the footage from the camera across the penthouse door. We saw a waiter deliver dinner, and a couple of hours later, the same waiter returned with a laundry cart and another staff member with an additional cart."
"I knew it," Margo exclaimed. "I knew they would use a laundry cart. It's just like in the movies."
Negal nodded. "The two left the penthouse with the laundry carts, and a short time after that, the boyfriend emerged with two pieces of luggage. The hacker followed him from one camera to the next until he saw him get into a large SUV. He didn't see you being loaded into the vehicle because they were careful to do it out of sight of the camera at the loading dock, but we assumed that you were there. The hacker followed the vehicle through the street cameras until it stopped at the yacht club. From there, it was easy to find out who the yacht belonged to, where he lived, and therefore where the yacht was heading to."
Jasmine shook her head. "It's like a James Bond movie. How did a bunch of computer nerds know to do all that?"
Margo chuckled. "Don't you know that geeks and nerds rule the modern world? And these particular computer nerds make the most amazing virtual adventures, which means that they have great imaginations. No wonder they solved the mystery. We are so incredibly lucky." She shivered. "I expected the worst. Alberto said that Carlos was cruel to his women, and I was to be his pet. If not for the drugs keeping me feeling like I could conquer the world, I would have probably thrown myself overboard and drowned. Death would have been better than that fate."
62
NEGAL
At Margo's words, fury washed over Negal, and as his fangs started elongating, he slapped a hand over his mouth. "Excuse me," he mumbled as he shot to his feet.
