|VEER|

Who the fuck was this guy? And most importantly why the fuck was he staring at Meera with lust in his eyes? I'm going to break his fucking jaw. I believe his wife is standing next to him and has the nerve to stare at my Meera? Does he have a fucking death wish?

I looked at Meera waiting for her to answer my question. Meera cleared her throat and glared at the guy. That smirk on that asshole's face widened and he winked at her. Did he just do that or am I imagining it? "Veer, he's an old friend of mine Vishal and Vishal this is Veer. Now if you will excuse us we are very hungry and would like to have our lunch. Thank you it was nice seeing you. You may leave!"

Vishal I believe threw his head back laughing out loudly. "Really? I was just your 'friend' ?" He quoted friend with his fingers. Who the hell was this guy? What gave him the right to talk to Meera that way? "Ohh so you're with him now?" Vishal the bastard pointed his finger at me and clenched my fists. 

I glanced at Meera to find her fuming with anger. She banged her hands on the table and kicked her chair back to stand up. She pointed her finger at him. "Listen here Vishal who I am with or who I'm not with is none of your fucking business! Yes, I am with Veer if you have a problem then take it somewhere else! I'm not someone you can control or clip my wings like you tried to do in the past. Keep moving and hope you have a happy life!"

I have never seen her this angry. Sure she's always angry with me but this was completely unexpected. I wanted to get rid of this guy who was now glaring at Meera. "Keep moving buddy! You heard the lady!" His wife I believe just nodded and whispered something in his ears. The audacity of this man to behave this way. He was married! No respect at all. He rolled his eyes but nodded still glaring at Meera. Who the hell does he think he is?

"Yeah, whatever! Good luck with her man! She's a pain in the ass. Never listens to what the other person wants!" That's all it took for him to pull the cord that was holding my anger. I stood up kicking my chair which fell on the floor with a thud. I yanked him by his collar and was about to punch him when Meera pulled me back. He looked scared. Such a ninny for someone who pretends to be all macho and dominating.

"Veer! Everyone's looking he's not worth it! Let him go please." Meera begged into my ear and tried to pry my grip from him. My left arm began hurting because of how hard I was gripping his shirt. I was shaking with anger. How dare he speak about Meera that way?

I pulled away and Meera held my hands. "Leave Vishal! Else I'll do something that you'll be embarrassed about for the rest of your life!" He glared at both of us and I sneered at him. Meera moved her fingers and entwined it with mine. She rubbed her thumb across my knuckles trying to soothe my anger. No matter how badly I wanted to deck this guy she was right, I don't want to make a scene here and I have better things to worry about.

But, I still wanted to know who the fuck he was. Vishal glared at us one last time and walked away with his wife who gave us an apologetic smile before walking away. I pulled my hand away from Meera's and sat down on the chair. My head began throbbing. I raked my fingers through my hair. Meera too sat down. I could see how nervous she was.

I raised my brows waiting for her to give me a plausible explanation. She fiddled with her hands and bit her lip contemplating as to whether she should tell me or not. "Meera who was he? Who is he?" I gripped the glass of water and gritted my teeth.

Meera narrowed her eyes at me and shook her head. "Look Veer it's not like I was going to hide this from you or anything. Besides you can't say anything because you still didn't tell me a lot of things!" She was right there but I still wanted to know who he was. I swear to god I will hunt him and punch him if I get to know if he hurt her in any way. No one hurts Meera.

Except you, you keep hurting her every single second. My stupid subconscious mind chided at me. I closed my eyes and shook my head. Fuck that was true but I had my reasons. "Fine! Just tell me who he is or was whatever the hell!" I gritted out and chugged down the entire glass of water.

"Uhh well okay, then I'll just have to take your word for it! He umm he was m-my ex-boyfriend!" Meera stuttered and looked anywhere but at me. My mouth feels open. She had a boyfriend? Not that she couldn't have but just that how did I not know about this?

"What? When was this? None of us knew about him! Why didn't you tell me before? Do your parents know?" I threw a string of questions at her. She shook her head and cleared her throat. "Umm no I didn't tell anyone. Veer we didn't even go out for that long. It was umm a few years back maybe five years ago. It was a stupid mistake! It doesn't even matter anymore!" Meera answered super fast and waited for me to respond.

All her previous anger was forgotten. She was now nervous about how I would react. She bit her nails and gave me a nervous look. I'm pretty sure that I had a blank face. "Say something Veer! Goddamit!" I shrugged my shoulders and gave her a cool look.

"Why did you date him?" Meera sighed and leaned against her chair. "I don't know Veer! I just wanted to feel loved and cherished while you rubbed your relationship with Jia right on my face! Does that ring a bell?" My gaze remained on her face. I regret dating her. I know I did it on purpose to spite Meera but never in a billion years did I ever think that I would be successful.

I was young and stupid. I just wanted her to be away from me. Every time I came near her the thing that happened on my eighteenth birthday kept flashing in my mind. "Don't bring her up in this conversation! At least she was nice but this asshole has no respect for you at all!" I slammed my hand on the table. Just then a waiter came to take an order. Meera asked him for a couple more minutes he smiled at her and walked away.

Once the waiter left Meera leaned forward, her eyes were blazing with anger. "Veer Gupta! Listen here and listen carefully! I'm not going to sit here and take all this crap from you! I don't care what you think! You have no idea what I had to go through all those years when you were a stuck-up ass and avoided me half the time! Yes, I dated him but I cut off the moment I discovered what an asshole he was. So keep your fucking opinions to yourself. You don't need to judge me! If you have anything else to say then go ahead else I'm out of here!"

My heart pained, I have already hurt her a lot. She doesn't deserve this, I don't why but I keep hurting her every single time when that's the last thing I want to do. Meera drank her water and slammed the glass on the table. I didn't say anything because I didn't know what to say. She was right! I didn't have the right to judge her.

"You know what Veer I'm done! Find me when you aren't being such an asshole! I'm going, I lost my appetite!" She stormed out of there before I could say anything and I let her go, again. I buried my face in my palms and groaned. Why do I have to fire away like that? Why can't I talk to her properly? This is a disaster. I need to clear my head. It's not her fault and I had no right to say those things to her.

This was supposed to be an apology lunch and it turned out to be the worst thing ever. I wanted to strangle Vishal now more than ever! If he hadn't shown up maybe Meera and I would have made up by now. At least something would have progressed. Fuck this! I really need a nap and I need to make things right with Meera as soon as possible.

I walked away and went straight to my hotel room. Karan was sprawled on the couch watching a movie. "Hey, so did you make up with her?" He asked and muted the television. I grunted and removed my shoes. I fell on the bed and ate the sandwich which he had ordered for himself.

He snapped his fingers trying to get my attention. "Hello! I asked you something! Did you make up or not?" I took another bite and shook my head. "If her ex-boyfriend showing up and we having another row means making up then yes Karan we made up!" I told him sarcastically in between bites. Karan cursed under his breath and slapped his forehead.

"Veer! I don't care what you do! Fix things with her! Life has given you another chance with her! Don't fuck it up! When will you realize that? After you lose her forever? Damnit! Why do you guys have to be this way? The both of you grew up together! Went through so many things. Don't let that one moment ruin everything for you! You're not like him!"

I was staring blankly at the television and eating the fries. I am ignoring his statement. He may be right but what if something happens to her because of me? I can't lose her. I did what I do every time he bought up this topic. I kept the plate on the table and gulped a pain killer. "Yeah okay, Karan! I don't want to talk about this right now! I'm going to bed. Wake me up in a while."

"Veer! This conversation isn't over! You will talk to Meera and fix everything! Just tell her everything. You can't decide everything for her." I closed my eyes and could hear Karan sighing loudly he knew this meant that I didn't want to talk about this. He increased the volume of the television.

How could I have ever thought that everything would be normal with us? Why did I drop my facade? I should have never let Meera in. These were the last thoughts before sleep overtook me.

***

Exactly twelve hours and thirty minutes later there was finally an Intel about Jeffrey. "Where exactly is that asshole hiding?" Karan asked me as I put on the bulletproof jacket and strapped a knife to my ankle. Karan loaded his gun with bullets and made sure to stock on some backup ones.

"In an abandoned building right in the middle of the city. But here's the catch, apparently that entire street is empty. It's like a ghost street or something. The hacker was finally able to get a signal from there. They have everything there and they are getting the supplies, all of it. Maybe it's one of those zones where they just make the bombs. Let's go get him. Half our problems will be solved."

Karan hummed and I attached the silencer to my gun. He eyed my arm and I knew what was about to come, a start of a very new argument. "Are you sure you want to come? Why don't you go with Aarav? He's going to be watching the building from the one that's opposite to the other building and cover for us from there."

"Karan! I'm fine okay? I just want to get my hands on that bastard! He hurt Meera! Fuck, he kidnapped her and used her as his bait! He's not getting off that easily. I'm just hoping that we're not too late. Let's just hope they didn't already send orders to plant the bombs."

Karan nodded and I made sure that everything that was required was there. Just then Meera entered the room wearing the bulletproof jacket and looking really beautiful. She glared at me as she retrieved a gun from the shelf. She loaded the bullets in the gun and twirled it in her hand like a pro. She looked so sexy and I wanted nothing more than to slam her against the wall and kiss the hell out of her.

Giving me one last look she walked out of the room. I hadn't spoken to her since that disaster lunch. More like I tried but she totally blindsided me. I will definitely talk to her after this and I hate to admit this but I do owe her another apology. The stack keeps getting bigger and bigger. I'm hoping it'll stop at some point.

I snapped out of my trance when Karan began patting his hands near my lips. I swatted his hand away giving him a disgusted look. "What the hell are you doing?" Karan laughed loudly while I sneered at him. "I was just wiping off the drool that's dripping down your mouth!"

Asshole! He had to say that. I punched his shoulders and flashed him the middle finger. "Just shut up Karan! Let's go catch that piece of shit!" Karan being the asshole he is closed his mouth and laughed harder. I don't have the patience to deal with this. I rolled my eyes and ask him to stop doing that again.

"I don't get you both! Seriously, what's so hard to sit and talk your shit out! Oh, I know! Your egos are always coming in the way it's either that or you say something stupid that pisses her or vice versa! Are you blind or what? All jokes apart I can only say one thing Veer, don't wait till it's too late. Our jobs are risky and god forbid if something happens to either one of you do you think you can live with yourselves knowing that you didn't tell Meera the truth? The things that she deserved to know. I'm just thinking out loud here. Take the chance when you have it that's all is I'm saying. The rest is up to you."

He patted my shoulder and exited the weapons room. What started as teasing turned into a full-blown emotional lecture. I know he's right but I'm not ready yet. I shake my head trying to clear all my thoughts. I need my head in the game today. I'll think about all of this later. I need to protect my country, catch that bastard and make sure none of my teammates and civilians get hurt.

I left the room and buried all my thoughts deep inside my brain. I know it's going to pop out soon but I don't want to deal with this now. We drove straight to the building. Before that, we enquired some of the locals asking them if they had seen anybody living in that lane or that building.

Everyone told the same answer. They said that no one lived there and also that the entire street was haunted. I would be willing to bet a million dollars that the ones who are haunting the entire street are Jeffrey and his men. It's so convenient for them to make up such a story and hide here making their bombs to hurt innocent people. Damn convenient.

"That's really clever!" Karan whispered and I nodded. "But not that clever, because if he was then he wouldn't be getting caught right now!" Karan clicked his tongue and nodded. Aarav and Dhwani were standing on top of the opposite building and covering us in case these assholes surround us.

Meera, Suraj, and Kabir will enter the building from the south entrance while Karan, Diya, and I entered from the north. As usual, we were all connected through our Bluetooth. "Okay, guys let's do this! I don't want any mistakes at all! We need him! He's the key to this entire mission! Only with his help can we drag Adam here. Am I clear?"

Everyone nodded and scrambled to enter the building. "Okay, Aarav what do you see?" The building was previously an office and now it's been used by a psychotic former chemical engineer who is using it as his base to make explosives.

"Well, there's no one in the first three floors. I can see some moment in the last three of them. Quick go there. He has to be on the seventh floor because I see a lot of them guarding a particular door." He informed and Dhwani confirmed.

The building in total had about nine floors. "Quick people to the seventh floor! Let's get him and get out of here. Aarav how many of his men are there in this building? Approximately?" I asked him as we ascended the floors. It was so dark except for some lamps on the staircases.

"Veer, look out!" Karan screamed. I ducked at the right moment and my left arm hurt like hell because of all the jerking. I shook it off and shot the man. There wasn't any sound. His body fell on the floor with a thud. "Aarav I'm still waiting! How many?" I asked and kicked the gun out of one their hands shot him straight.

I could hear Kabir yelling at Meera that someone was behind her. Then I let out a breath when she said she's fine. Karan and Diya shot a few of them. "Right I would say about forty of them but now there should be at least thirty since you guys shot some of them. Give me the signal and I'll call for the backup team."

"Copy that!" I grunted and ascended the stairs. On the way up I could make out that on each floor there were explosives. It was fucked up and crazy. Aarav shot a few from the other building when they tried to attack us unexpectedly. We finally reached the seventh floor and I found the room or more like the office in which that asshole was residing. There were at least five of them patrolling one side and another five of them strolling on the other side.

"Meera? Did you reach the other side?" I asked her as I peeked from the pillar. "Yes, we did! There are at least five of them here! I can't see properly it's a bit dark as the path goes but I can definitely make out their silhouettes." I nodded and signaled to Karan and Diya to take their positions.

"Okay, all of you take your positions! Let's deal with this. Remember we need him alive." I whispered and everyone agreed. We shot each one of them who were surrounding the office. Many more of them kept coming. I immediately asked Aarav to call the backup team. How does he even have so many men watching over him?

I could be shocked but I'm really not. It was kind of expected. He's after all one of the partners who run the organization. "Hold them down! Call for the backup team, there are too many of them! I'll go get the bastard!" I shouted as more people started coming.

I kicked the door open to find Jeffery seated on the couch comfortably and drinking a glass of whiskey. The asshole was wearing some headphones and watching a movie. Are you kidding me right now? Well, at least the good part was that he was shocked. That had to count as something.

"W-what the hell? H-How did you find me?" He spluttered out while I smirked pointing the gun at him. "Well, it seems like you are after all stupid! It was you who activated the signals." He glared at me stood up. His eyes frantically moved around the room as he tried to search for something or rather someone.

Oh well, tough luck. No one is coming to save him. This must have been really unexpected if he's so freaked out. This has to be the highlight of the entire week. Last time he blackmailed me by kidnapping Meera but now the tables have turned.

I raised my brows when he began calling out for some names. "Call for as many as you want no one is coming here! It's game over Jeffrey! You're officially under the custody of TIIS!" He glared at me and cursed under his breath. It was quite comical actually.

"Fucking hell! These morons can't do one job!" I almost laughed but controlled myself at the end. "Veer! The back team just got here! The situation is under control! I hope you captured him!" I smirked when Karan's voice floated through the Bluetooth.

"Not to worry Karan he's right here and isn't going anywhere for a while!" I muttered and glanced at Jeffery who was sneering at me with his hands clenched in tight fists. "Veer Gupta let me go right now and maybe I'll forgive you for how you're insulting me today!"

I rolled my eyes and flipped my gun. What is it with people thinking that they can get away with throwing such empty threats? And the same fucking dialogue every single time. I'm kind of bored listening to it. "Yeah, Jeffery tell me something new!"

We stared at each other for a solid minute. Jeffery smirked and made himself comfortable on the couch. I still had the gun pointed at him. He swirled his drink and took a sip of the amber-colored liquid.

"Now I remember going over your file. You are Viraj Gupta's son aren't you?" He asked me and I tightened the grip on my gun. He's saying all of this to instigate me! I will not fall for this and lose my cool. "Just shut your mouth! Don't say a word, you bastard!"

"Oh come on! Why are you getting so cranky? I know everything about you Veer Gupta! About you and your little lover, Meera Raichand!" I gripped the barrel so hard that my knuckles were turning white. Fucking bastard had to take her name. "Shut the hell up and don't you dare tell her name!"

He clicked his tongue and sipped his drink. Where was my team? I want to get out of here. "Ohh you want to know another fun fact? You're adopted, aren't you? Your real father is who is that I know! Mihir Desai right? I know him very well Veer!"

My breathing grew heavier. How the hell does he know so much? Who the fuck was this guy? I know he's Jeffrey but he has some other connection as well. "Ohh look at that! You both have the same look of anger and determination!" He was fucking playing with me and I wasn't going to fall for it. I hissed and swallowed the dread.

"Mihir Desai! He was a fucking waste of space! Always getting high and lacking at his job! But we had to keep him! You know because of all the resources he had but thanks to you he's behind the bars! No problem I'll get him out soon and you will regret that day!" My eyes widened but the quickly covered it up.

It always has to come back to that bastard. My biological father is such an asshole. He was working for them? "Ohh you didn't know that he worked for me? Well, this is fun!" Jeffery said casually as if he could he mind and stood up he paced around the room. "You couldn't have known he was shadowed well and not to mention his drug cases were higher than the jobs he did for us!"

He tilted his head and waited for my reaction. Fuck him! He's not going to get that from me. He smirked and moved closer until the gun touched his chest. "It's a pity that he killed your mother! Who knows you might turn out to be exactly like him! After all, it's not Viraj Gupta's blood that runs in you. The blood of Mihir Desai runs through your veins!"

That was all it took for me to completely lose my shit. The things that I had been avoiding for the past few years sprung open. I screamed as he smirked victoriously. This was what he wanted. Fucking Mihir! Should have killed him long ago.

I slammed the gun against his face. Blood spluttered out of his mouth as he fell on the floor. "You have no fucking right to tell all this shit!" I kicked him again and again. I could vaguely remember Karan pulling me away from him and yelling at me to keep my shit together.

My head was throbbing and felt anger blazing through my body. I am nothing like Mihir yet I fear that I would become like him. I felt lightheaded, Meera held me and pulled me towards the couch. She gave me a sympathetic look. I glanced at her beautiful face and traced my fingers over her face. I would never hurt her. Will she see me the same way after she finds out the truth? That was my biggest fear.

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A/N: Cliffhanger! At least I think it's one. Took me days and hours to write this people. I know all of you are frustrated with Veer's behavior but trust me things will get better, in terms of Veera's relationship. 

Moving on, I would like to thank all of you for your support and love. I couldn't have come this far without any of your help. I am really sorry for the irregular updates. I am finding it a bit difficult to write the coming chapters. I want it to be good so I keep erasing again and again. I'm hoping that you guys are enjoying the story so far.

Hope you liked this chapter! If you did please do vote and comment! I would love to know what you guys think.