Page 6 of Captured By the Scaled Outlaw
I stare at him in silence, my mouth frozen.
Guy was right. Lowell is not like the other Lizardfolk. At all.
The skin above Lowell’s eyes raise, a smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. He turns to Ginny, resting his hands on his narrow hips.
“What’s her deal? Just wanted to waste my time? That it?”
Ginny nods in acknowledgment, her face stoic. I notice the number two in Roman numerals embroidered on her jacket and the number one embroidered on Lowell’s. From context, it looks like she is his second-in-command.
“She refuses to eat or drink water unless she speaks with you. As you know, the human body can only sustain itself for three days without water before perishing. We are nearing the end of day three,” she says, motioning towards me. “She insists on knowing why she was captured. I informed her that you were busy and would have to be patient, but she took matters into her own hands and attempted to asphyxiate herself to get her way.”
Anger tenses my jaw, words returning to me as quickly as the blood rushing to my face. I glare at Ginny.
“You kidnapped me from my job and threw me into a dungeon for days without an explanation,” I scoff. “I don’t deserve any of this! I’m just a surveyor here to collect sand—”
Warm, scaled fingers wrap around my jaw, cutting me off.
Lizardfolk aren’t supposed to be warm.
My gaze snaps to Lowell, his face now inches from mine.
“Nilsan Government Lead Scientist May, employee number 246, age thirty-two, recently demoted to Land Surveyor and assigned to the Sandpit Railway Construction Project.” He tilts my head in his grasp, tongues lazily dangling from his maw. “But please, tell me more about how you’re ‘just’ a Land Surveyor, sweetheart.”
I choke on my breath. “H-how—whywould you know any of that?” I sputter, my cheeks pinched between his clawed fingers.
“I know everything about you that has ever been written,” he says with a self-satisfied grin. The scars on his face pucker with the curvature of his lips.
I frown, my breathing becoming labored while my voice becomesfrantic.
“Why would you care about me? Or is harassing random government workers an interim Gaia 4 project between destroying civilian homes?” I snap.
As the words leave my mouth, I realize my bid for diplomacy is slowly losing traction.
Lowell blows air from his nose in a snort. “You’re a feisty one, huh? Brave, given your position.”
I press my lips together, straightening my worried brows. “I want to get back to my work as quickly as possible. I don’t understand why I was taken or why you’d have business with me.” I attempt to relax my face to appear friendly, but it doesn’t work. “I assure you we can work out whatever misunderstanding has occurred here. But first I need to know why you care so much about someone like me.”
Lowell’s eyes widen, excitement coating his words. “Why do I care? Oh, wow, you don’t know anything, do you?”
I look at him in confusion, shaking my head.
He laughs manically, a breathy laugh that illuminates his disbelief rather than his enjoyment.
“May, I’ve beendyingto tell you about my major grudge against the Junior Scientist who approved a project you might know as the ‘Misya Swamp Pipeline.’But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”he asks, tapping a claw against the scales of his chin playfully.
I wince at his words, a flood of anxiety filling me to the brim. My blood runs cold; Lowell’s warm skin burns like fire.
I haven’t heard that name in ten years.
The ‘Misya Swamp Pipeline Project’ was my first assignment out of college. The area bordered four major cities, including a close ally to Nilsan. After ten months of both hunters’ and foragers’ complaints about the state of the land, the Nilsan Government decided to repurpose the land by laying multiple pipelines throughout theempty swamp. Supposedly, this project was meant to stimulate the local economies that were in jeopardy due to the desolate habitats.
Being that it was my first project, I’d wanted nothing more than to make it a success. However, my desire for success came with less-than-desirable decisions, including improper testing as pushed by the former Director. Although I’d initially fought the improper tests due to my stalwart beliefs in following the rules and guidelines, my morals lapsed in favor of career advancement.
Unbeknownst to us in Nilsan, the area had been secretly retested by one of our allied cities, and our blatant disregard for proper protocol had come to light. Although the Allies had proved that the land was indeed barren, they’d found abnormalities that should have been expanded on if not for the irreparable razing from the current construction.
My haphazard findings may have been supported, but my obvious negligence had been chastised. Because of this, the Director had been fired immediately I’d been placed on year-long probation.
Shortly after my return, Kinsley had been promoted from within the Department of Biological Warfare to his current Director position. He’d made sure that the previously incriminating documents had been buried to cover up any potential investigations by the Nilsan Board of Ethics. Kinsley continues to use that as a source of control over me.
