Page 18 of Commander

Chapter Five

Three hoursafter the most uncomfortable pre-wedding dinner on the face of the planet, I sat with my mom on a quiet bench in the rose garden of the White House.

“Are you sure you don’t want to change your mind and start drinking?” I joked to my mom.

“That man could drive a person to do it, but I have more resolve than that. Plus, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.”

After Ashur’s statement, the evening was anything but pleasant. Minesh spent the dinner complaining about everything from the food to the uncomfortable chairs to the stuffiness of the old building. The only saving grace was when Samina and Devin arrived with their two children, DJ and Mira. The toddlers were so full of life, asking questions and requesting kisses that even the asshole cracked a smile.

However, the moment dinner ended, my mother and I escaped to the gardens, Anya and Samina left for Sam’s townhouse to put the kids to bed, and the men…well, I wasn’t sure where they’d gone. Mummy and I wanted out of the Residence so badly that we barely said our goodbyes.

My phone rang with a tone that made my stomach hurt. This was not good.

I was no longer part of this world, so why were calls still forwarded to me?

I glanced around, opened my purse, and then pulled out the mobile, scanning the caller ID.

My heartbeat accelerated.

It was Ameera’s mobile, but I knew it couldn’t be her.

God, I hoped Tyler was monitoring this call.

“Hello,” I answered, trying not to fidget as my mother scrutinized me.

“Where is my daughter?”Hamir Ustaf’s deep, agitated voice said in Urdu, a language native to the area around North India and Pakistan.

I’d grown up speaking the two languages of my parents. My father’s being Urdu and my mother’s being Gujarati, a language spoken in the Gujarat region of India. My parents had been the scandal of their age.

They’d met while studying abroad in the United States at the University of Texas. As my mom liked to tell me, one look from across their university classroom and she knew her destiny was sealed.

I’d had the same reaction to Ashur when I’d walked down the hallway of Kumar Technologies for a lunch date with my father.

I shook the thought from my mind and focused on the dipshit on the phone.

“Who is this?” I responded in English, knowing it would annoy the shit out of Hamir.

“Don’t fuck with me. That girl is my property. She was supposed to come to me, but because of you, they kept her. And now there is a third bidder.”

My hand shook with anger. I knew if I were standing I’d have swayed. This bastard had arranged for Ameera’s kidnapping. How had our intelligence team missed this? The agents who constantly watched him hadn’t picked up an inkling of news he’d been involved in the abduction.

I kept my voice cool as I said, “She is no one’s property.”

“My daughter, my property.”

“Sperm donor doesn’t make you a father. You abandoned her mother for a lucrative marriage in another country. Do your wife or heirs know you have an illegitimate child with an American model?”

“Because of you, her cost has tripled.”

“I’m not the one who expected a terrorist group to play fair when he had his biological daughter kidnapped. Did you really think I wouldn’t do everything I could to find her?”

“Drop out of the auction or I will make your life a living hell. How do you think your husband will feel when he learns your secret activities?”

“What makes you think he doesn’t know?” I glanced at my watch and then clenched my fists.

Twenty more seconds and we’d have a trace in addition to the recording of this conversation.

If I went with my first instinct, the second his location was established I’d send in the most overzealous team in Solon to get rid of the bastard immediately.

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