Posted: July 25th, 2020

♔ Aarav ♔

2.51 Smokin Gun

       "Dove?" I call her out spotting her walking down a corridor. She turns to face me and I scold crossing the distance between us, "Did I not tell you to stay in your room instead of wandering the halls? Why do you not take this seriously? It's not safe to..." I abruptly stop my lecture when, on reaching her, she hides her face in my chest and wraps her arms around my body in a bear hug. "Hey, what's wrong?" I grow concerned at once, wondering if everything happening around her scared her.

I should have known not to give in to her insistence. I never should have brought her to the palace.

She shakes her head, but she cannot lie to me. I am her brother. I know when something has rattled her enough for her to want to return to her safe haven. "What happened, Aru?"

"I want to go home."

I faintly recall that two doors down from where we are standing is Randeep's room. "Did you just walk out of Randeep's room? Did he do something? I swear, if he..."

Parting from the hug, she denies, "No, bhai. He didn't do anything. I just want to go home."

As much as it's something I have been convincing her of the past couple of days, it doesn't make sense for her to agree suddenly at the last moment. "You couldn't wait to get ready just an hour ago. What changed?"

She shrugs her shoulder, offering, "Nothing, I just miss mom and dad. Plus, you were right. I don't need to get in anyone's way. I know the travel ban was just lifted and it might be tough to arrange, but any way you can get me on a flight back home?"

For her, ofcourse.

I may not still understand exactly what happened - because I am sure that her reason isn't as simple as missing mom and dad - but I would still get her home if that's what she wanted. Then, tomorrow, I will talk to her when she is ready to explain why she couldn't wait to get away from here. And if that reason has anything to do with Randeep then I officially have my first reason for disliking him. This time, not even Annie could stop me from punching that guy.

"Meet me by the parking in half hour. I'll send someone for your bags."

She hugs me once more before leaving for her room to pack. Retrieving my phone from my pocket, I call Vikas to get a car and then Mohit to check with airlines for three tickets - Ishaan, Arshiya and himself. Those two wouldn't stay if Arshiya wasn't.

I walk down the corridor towards the room I am currently occupying to get her passports that I had kept with myself for safekeeping. A worker walking by crashes into my shoulder and apologizes. I wave it off, not getting into scolding him. He seemed to be carrying a heavy plate and there's probably last minute preparations that they are rushing about.

A few steps later, I pause. He was carrying a plate full of marigolds. But why is he walking in this direction - opposite from the stairs that go towards the throne room? "Listen," I say to stop him, but my vision is blurred as he turns towards me. I don't catch his face as I fight the haze, but give in to the drowsiness quickly.

. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .

          When I come to, a groan escapes my throat as I force myself to a sitting position. Vikas says in a blank tone, "About time."

I squint through the headache to look around at our surroundings. We are locked up in some room with no door visible, just a high window acting as an air vent close to the ceiling.

Mohit warns, "Don't even think about it. There is nothing we can use to get that high up."

While I was unconscious, the two must have already brainstormed ways to get out of this place. "What happened?" I feel my right arm sore - where that worker had bumped into me. Did he inject me with something to get me unconscious and bring me here to lock me up with them? But, even if that is what happened, how did they get the upper hand on Vikas and Mohit?

Mohit starts, "I went to get Arshiya and Ishaan but her door was locked. I knocked and was waiting when someone hit me in the head from the back. Next thing I know, I am waking up tied to him."

I look at Vikas for his explanation, "I got the car as you said. I was waiting for you guys when car started filling up with smoke. It was odorless so by the time I caught the smoke in the rear-view, I had inhaled enough to be knocked out."

I contain my shiver even as goosebumps appear on my skin, "These people are scarily organized." Arshiya and Ishaan leaving for the airport was a last-minute plan. How could they have accounted for the unexpected variable and still get one over us? "Did you try warning Aarush?"

Vikas says. "No signal."

Mohit shares his theory, "I have a feeling we are in the underground tunnels." The two of us must have looked confused since he adds, "Arshiya was telling me about one of the tunnels she took with Randeep to get to the gardens. I imagine there are a lot more tunnels from back in the days."

That only means one thing. "If they know of these tunnels, then..."

"Then someone from the inside is on their side." Vikas confirms. That is not a good thing. At the end of it all, when the smoke clears, someone is going to be left heart broken and betrayed.

Suddenly, my heart grips with fear. "They have Arshiya." Neither of them say anything, and I realize it was something they had already connected but hadn't wanted to say it. "Why would they take her? She has nothing to do with this! She is just a child."

Mohit looks as if he hates to point it out, but does none the less. "A child who is smart enough to figure out the tapes at the hospital were tampered with."

I stand up and walk to the walls, pushing around. "There has to be a way out of here." I cannot sit by and wait to be let out. I have to get to her. "Come on. Help me!"

"Aarav..." Vikas says my name, defeted.

I cast a sharp glare his way, "No. Her brother is still alive and till that is the case, I am not letting anything happen to her."

There is a moment of silence between the three of us. It might be a lost wish, but how can I give up when every second since her birth, I have taught her to fight for her life? Family means everything to me and in no world should an elder brother outlive his younger siblings. It's my job to protect her from everything remotely harmful in this world. There is no way I can accept defeat already. I could give my life for her and that would still not be enough for all the happiness she has brought in my life just by being her. No one had been happier than me when I had found out Khushi was pregnant. Okay, well, I can't speak for dad, but still, you know what I mean.

Mohit stands up, putting an end to the silence. If Vikas has been with me for the longest, then Mohit has been her shadow. I can see it in his eyes. He feels responsible for her as well. He has been her silent partner in crime all these years - deciding upon the situation whether to side with her and keep her secrets or come to me and tell me of the latest blunder she'd have gotten herself into. As much as I did not like it the very first time I found out that he kept things from me, I have since came to appreciate the fact that he cares for her and takes this as more than a day job. He is loyal to her and that is what helped me trust him with Arshiya.

"Let's find her," he squeezes my shoulder. I glance at Vikas, who falls in line as well. He has never been one to back down from a tough fight either.

Taking his gun from its holster, he aims it at the window and shoots before any of us can react. While I flinch at the sound, feelings as if my ears have popped, Mohit scolds, "What the hell you do that for?! You just announced to our kidnappers that we're awake. We don't have the element of surprise anymore."

Vikas counters, "Who cares for element of surprise, man? Face it, the only way we are getting out of here is someone from out there comes in to see what the ruckus is about - giving us the window we need to kick their asses and get the hell out."

Mohit grumbles even when we both realize he's got a point. "Could have warned us first."

"Oh stop whining and man up," Vikas snaps in an authoritative tone as if his superior. The only sense in which Vikas would be his superior is that he has worked for us longer than Mohit. In terms of expertise, they both were on equal footing.

I interject, "One of you better hand me a gun too." As much as I know how to throw a mean punch, something tells me I'd be long dead if I depended on that while our attackers would have all sorts of revolvers and knives on them that they can aim at us from a distance.

Mohit reaches for his spare and turns it in his palm, offering it to me. I may be rusty given it's been a while since I was in a shooting range, but this determination inside of me is all the fuel I need.

I don't have the choice to miss.

Vikas puts his hand on top of mine when I reach for the weapon, "If possible, just stay behind us."

"Vikas, I..." I start to object, but he's a step ahead of me in interrupting.

"Do I say a word when it comes to running a business? No. So stop being a control freak and let me do my job - which is to protect you. Shooting a paper target is one thing and pulling at trigger at a man is another."

He is right. I have no idea what it is like to shoot someone. Or the toll it could take on one's soul. And so, I simply nod my head in agreement. There is no time to argue either as the ground shakes with footsteps running our way. I would not be an expert, but from the feel of it, I will still assume that there's more men than the three of us could take on.

It didn't mean we were backing down, however.

. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .

          Dimitri is the last person I expect to push open a door camouflaged in the surroundings of the wall. All three of us lower our guns and I breathe a sigh of relief... until he marches in as if a hungry lion the wild. Before I can even blink, he has me pinned to the wall with his arm across my chest, holding me in place. "Where is she?" He barks, pushing against my chest with the intention to hurt me.

I would be pissed at him in any other occasion, but I have only ever seen him care for Annie. And, that has me tongue tied as I look around. Men blocking the entrance. All those footsteps we heard belonged to his people. They were all armed.

"Angel," I breathed out, my heart replacing with emptiness.

A voice instructs, appearing at the doorway. "Let him go."

Dmitri's stance shifts between wanting to slam me through the wall and listening to his boss. Nicolás Genova.

He calmly says his name, but his tone holds all the command necessary. "Dmitri."

If there ever was a calm before the storm, it is now. And it is brewing inside a very dangerous man, Nicolás.

Dimitri releases me, but with a booming echo pouring the blame on me, "It's all his fault. He is the reason she wouldn't leave!"

Nicolás sets his undivided attention on me, "And now he will lead us straight to her." He takes a step closer to me, and somewhere I do wish Dmitri had instead buried me in the wall. It was better than looking into this man's eyes. "When I find her, she is going back with me."

That is a battle I will pick with him tomorrow because there is no way in hell Annie is going anywhere with him. "I don't know where she is," I inform, standing my ground.

"Not yet you don't," he cryptically says. My brows furrow until he lifts an envelope in his left hand that I hadn't noticed he had been holding. "Read this letter and tell me what it means."

Taking the envelope, I pull out the letter inside written in Hindi. I read it to myself first. My back stiffens. Blood boils, firing up my insides. He chose the wrong day to mess with me. He chose the wrong people to involve in his fight with me. Rather than translating the words in a language Dmitri and Nicolás will understand, I announce. "I will get them back."

I start to walk around to leave this god-forsaken tunnel when Nicolás grabs my elbow, stopping me in a stand still. "Forgive me if I don't take your word as my assurance that no harm will come to Andreya."

I jerk my hand out of his hold, gritting. "Her name is Annie, and I will kill him before he even lays a hand on her - so, my word is all you are going to get."

Mohit and Vikas seem to catch on who is behind this part of the night going haywire, but Dmitri and Nicolás don't. Or, that is what I thought until Nicolás laughs. "You think you have what it takes to murder a man in cold blood?"

"I won't lose a night's sleep over him if that's what you're implying," I seethe back, meaning every word. I have wanted Shyam dead since I have learned about him. He has hurt my family enough in the past. I would be damned if I let the cycle continue.

Nicolás stares at me for the longest passing second, as if debating who I am and whether to believe me. Then, he announces, "No."

"No?" I challenge, for he doesn't know the first thing about me. "You don't know me."

"On the contrary," he argues, "do you think I wouldn't have done my research on the guy my daughter is in love with? I know exactly who you are Aarav Singh Raizada. You are just like your father."

I clench my jaw in fury, "I am nothing like him."

There is still that calm expression on his face as he continues to speak softly, in a normal voice. "I was speaking about Arnav."

I lose my bearings for a second. "How do you know him?"

"You didn't think I would entrust my daughter to just any man, did you?"

"What does that mean?"

Does dad know him? No. Dad wouldn't keep such a big thing to himself. How would he have ever crossed paths with Nicolás? I tell myself, he is just trying to get in my head and confuse me.

He dismisses my question and instructs in a compelling voice, "Now, if this message is from Shyam, then you are going to tell me exactly where he's called you and then, you are going to do nothing. I warned him to stay away and he didn't. Now it's time he learn his lesson of what happens when I ask something and people don't listen."

I want to defy him. I want to tell him that he can't barge into our lives unannounced and take matters into his own hands. I want to yell so many things at him just because of the man he is and how it affects Annie. Yet, a sane part of me keeps quiet. That sane part wants him to deal with Shyam. Would it be so bad if he did take care of him? We'd be free of his terror once and for all.

But then, that moral compass my family instilled in my values fights back to the surface.

Before I know it, I find myself negotiating, "I'll tell you where he is, but you won't kill him."

He lets out a humorous laugh as if I am an innocent child making an undeliverable request. "That's not how this works."

"It does today." I hold my own against him.

I am very well aware that with a flick of his eye, he could instruct his men to end my life. They wouldn't have any difficulties prying the letter out of my dead hands and getting one of the people in or out of the palace to read it to them. But, the only source of my confidence is the fact that he knows what I mean to Annie, and if he has any hopes for her, he wouldn't hurt me. Annie would never forgive him for it.

I look him straight in the eye. It must not be every day that he comes across someone daring or foolish enough to stand in front of him unafraid despite knowing his identity. "You are no longer in your world, Nicolás. This is my world. Annie's world. And, you may not like how things work in our world, but it's something you'll have to adapt to. It's the only way I'll tell you where she is. Else, even without you, I still am quite capable of saving my family."

I can see the change in his expression. A slight twitch in his jaw. He hates bowing down to another, but he is still an intelligent man who knows what is better for him. "Fine," he accepts. "Today, we do things your way."

I exhale quietly.

He quickly adds, "But we get there and I see that he's harmed her, all bets are off."

What am I to say to ensure that does not happen? Nothing. I reckon I myself would not be capable of containing myself if Shyam has touched either Arshiya or Angel.

. . . ∞ . ∞ . ∞ . ∞. . .

∞ author note ∞

As you may have noticed, timeline goes back and forth in this chapter and the next few because of the way they are written in first person POV. 

QOTC: Should Annie speak to Nicolas in future chapters?

Hope you like the chapter! Don't forget to vote and comment!