72

After Ixora bid him farewell, Jake headed towards the car to retrieve the forgotten picnic bag. His thoughts lingered on how furious Cherry would be once she woke up and realized she was in the one place she never wanted to be.

Lost in his thoughts, a tingling sensation crawled up Jake's neck, alerting him to the feeling of being watched, stalked. He halted and scanned his surroundings, but no one was in sight. Yet, the eerie sensation persisted.

Reaching the car, Jake glanced up and locked eyes with three men standing a few feet away. They didn't resemble ordinary city dwellers; clad in black attire with half of their faces concealed by caps, their muscular builds surpassed even Jake's own physique. His gaze fell upon the closed pocket of one of them, noticing something that an average person might have overlooked—they were armed, unmistakably assassins.

The leader of the group, Anwaaraddin, or Araddin for short, had been sent with his two assassins from Afghanistan to capture the el