Hey Pearlies, thank you very much for your votes, comments and adding this book to your lists. A big shoutout to PriyankaBhati4 mayamadhuvanthi Vinnie_Vuriti fathimasafy dishtaniya Taareyians  meuzmarahbar isharai16 Day_Dreamer023 Vinnie_Vuriti MounikaGottimukkala AakritiArya8  Devi-21  for your lovely comments. A special shoutout to carzy_Manan_fan GungunPandey6  for binge reading brutal beast. Hope you enjoyed it. 

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The sharp blade threatened to pierce my neck if I made any wrong move. I closed my eyes with fear clouding my mind and feeling helpless. 

"Who are you? What do you want?" I questioned with trembling voice. 

"Shut up and don't move." His voice was rough. 

"Hey, she has some stuff with her. We can snort them after hurting her." Another guy suggested. He came to my sight as the other one still stood behind me. This guy had no brooch or badge which means he did not belong to any territory. 

His rugged clothes moved as he walked towards my bag. "Please leave me. I need to live my life."

They laughed and the man behind me asked his friend to hurry up. He snatched the bags from my hands and went through the stuff inside throwing everything on the floor. 

"Shit! This is all shit!" He said holding his hair.

"What happened?" questioned the other from behind. 

"She don't have any stuff. It's all cash and clothes. It's useless for us." he cried.

His hold on my neck tightened. "Where do you have the stuff?"

"What stuff?"

"Drugs!" He yelled and my eyes went wide. "Don't tell me you don't have them on you."

"It's the truth. Why would I even have such things when I am planning to run away?" I tried to explain but they were in no mood to listen. 

"A lonely woman, in a deserted zone, fully loaded with cash, is claiming innocence. Did you already sell the stuff?" He questioned. 

"No. Trust me. I would never sell drugs. After all smoking and drinking is injurious to health."

The other guy chipped in, "it causes cancer too."

"Exactly." I smiled but dropped seeing his serious face. 

"Stop with all the crap. I am going to hurt you either you sell me the drugs or not." He said loud enough to blast my ears. 

The knife on my neck and two strong men in front of me made clear sense of my forthcoming trouble. I should have made clear to Alya to drop me in the mainland. 

I scrunched the trousers in my fists in fear and I frowned when I felt something hard in my pocket. A smile broke on my face realizing it was the big, round, red fruit from the morning.

I held the blade in my hands to remove it from my neck which was a huge mistake. My soft palm got cut with the knife hold and it hurt mire than the orange liquid Manik brought. Tears filled my eyes and I blew air on my palm to soothe my pain. There was a slight stream of blood which tormented me with every passing minute. 

"Hey, you dare to move away from me?" The guy who held me in his grip came to my view. "I will kill you."

My blood boiled for three reasons; one due to the pain from the cut and two I was held by this drowsy, drug addict and three he is bald. 

I pulled out the hard, red fruit from my pocket and held it firmly in my fist and it hurt more. It only provoked me more as I lashed on this idiot. I can't pull his hair so I used this fruit to hit him repeatedly on his head. 

"Drugs. Are. Injurious. To. Health." I hit him with every word and he forgot he was holding the knife in his hand. 

He was screaming for help and his friend covered his face not to witness this scene. The were really high and can't differentiate between things around them. 

I did not leave his shirt lapel from my hold and continued hitting him with this fruit. I am so glad to have this nameless fruit with me. That's the reason elders asks us to have a fruit everyday. "Leave me. Leave me. Leave me."

This guy tried to dodge the hits. "You are the one holding me, crazy. Please leave me."

I finally left him and he crawled next to his friend. "You said she is harmless but she is brutal."

His friend still closing his eyes replied. "I don't think so dude, she is harmless. She is so tiny and we could fling her to another city."

His laugh stopped abruptly as the other guy started hitting him. "If she was so harmless you should have targeted her instead of me, then you will know how harmless her beating are."

While they were busy I tried to fill my bags which were messed up by these guys. The money bundles and clothes were lying on the floor and thankfully they did not go far away making it easier to collect. 

"We need more people." The guy who got beatings from me said and howled like a wolf. 

Within a few seconds I saw many people running towards us. Each one of them had at least a spear in their hands as if they were hunting. The howl was a code to call more of his friends to attack me. 

The apple in my hand was crushed which means I had no weapon with me. Apple? Oh yes! It's the name of this fruit. This is a clear indication how fast my mind is running right now. I even remembered the name of this fruit in a second. Rest in peace, my dear Apple. 

I threw this crushed apple at the man closest to me and started running away towards the Malhotra Empire territory. These guys were coming from the west which means they do not belong to the North - Malhotra Empire or the South - Clark Territory. People who do not belong to any territory are the most dangerous in the mafia world as they are answerable to none. 

That's why the leaders usually hunt for these kind and kill them to avoid the harm to their territory. Which gives me another strong reason to find my identity as soon as possible. 

I was circled by the dangerous looking men who had maddening glint in their puffed faces. None of them looked like a normal human I have seen till date. Their spears were pointed at me as fear settled in my stomach. They roared at once and lifted their arms to stab me with it but stopped as soon as they heard vehicles whirring in the background.

Everyone's attention including mine went  to the source of the sound to see five or more vehicles coming from the Malhotra Empire. I sighed in relief when Dhruv and the guards jumped out of the running vehicles and lashed on these living zombies. 

A huge chaos of fights started leaving me no space to walk. All of a sudden there were shooting from the guards and one by one these men scattered to their hiding spots leaving us alone. 

I sat down hugging my knees and still trembled with this scene. I could have died in a second or I could have lived in a second. Everything changed so drastically. 

A strong palm came to my view to help me stand up as I looked at the owner of the face. It was Harshad Malhotra. He had a gentle smile with his hand still offering me his help. I immediately held on to it and stood up and began crying. 

"It's okay, you are safe." He shushed me. "Let's sit in the car and talk." He guided me to the car and we sat inside and he locked the door. "Dhruv ask the guards to collect the bags."

I sipped the water from the bottle Harshad handed me till I felt safe. Dhruv came back with the bags and handed it to us. He locked the door and stood guarding the cars along with his men.

Harshad looked at bags filled with money and questioned me, "What is this?"

"I don't want to stay with you all, I want to run away." I said silently. 

"Where? Whose territory?"

I shook my head. "No one. I want to be in the mainland."

Harshad pulled the bag with cash and showed me a bundle. "How much money is in here?"

"25 million cash and 25 million cheque." I replied.

"50 million for mainland? Do you even understand how much that is?" His eyebrows were high.

I frowned. "This is nothing, Mr. Malhotra. We barely bought a house with 30 million. This amount is so little to live my entire life."

"No! Mainland is different from underworld. The living cost is very low in the mainland. You can get a lavish house with just a million."

My eyes were huge with surprise. Mainland really is amazing. I never knew we could live lavishly just by one million. Looks like mainland people are having all sorts of luxuries compared to the mafia world. 

"Also it is not easy to walk around the mainland with 50 million cash in your hand. It is black money and the government is extremely strict." He paused and immediately continued. "Please don't ask how the money is black when it is in pink color."

That was my exact question in my mind and luckily he spoke it out. 

"In layman terms, black money is something which you can not prove to the source of your money. Can you prove where you got this money?"

"Yes, Alya gave me to leave Manik." I answered honestly.

He slapped his forehead. "No. You will cause trouble to everyone. The government will either kill you or raid the mafia world. There will be huge chaos in the cities. You have to turn the money to white before you can spend it. I mean turn the money into legal money."

I nodded with half understanding.

"You need not know all of this at once. I can help you slowly." He said and patted my head. "I was living in the America so trust me when I say things are very different from the underworld and the mainland."

"Can I have the freedom to speak my thoughts in the mainland without the fear of getting killed?" I questioned. 

"Yes. There are many freedom rights movements. It is a basic right of an individual to voice their thoughts. And killing is a serious offence in the mainland."

I smiled. "That's all I want! I do not desire anything more or less. Just my freedom."

Harshad shook his head. "It's not that easy. You need to have an Identity card tagging with you and that can not be related to your mafia past. Take me for an instance, I had a new identity when I was living in America so that the police could not trace me till here. Nobody knows that my name is Harshad Malhotra and I am from the Mafia. They think I am a son of a business man from the mainland."

It was shocking to know that we need to use a new identity to live in mainland if we are from the mafia. I could have been a threat to everyone living here. One thing was sure if I have to run away is to learn more and modify my plan. 

"Mr. Malhotra, could you please help me with everything. I promise to give you 1 million from this cash as payment." I requested him joining my both hands.

He smiled. "I will surely help you." He looked like an angel as always in his white coat. "But first tell me what we have in this bag?" He pointed to the suitcase next to the cash bag.

I smiled sheepishly. "Now that I was ready to run away I wanted to punish and cleared Manik's wardrobe."

Harshad went through the bag and frowned. "But these are only clothes, there is no jewelry, precious gems, bond papers, nor any property papers."

"Why would I insult myself by touching somebody's heirloom? These clothes are recently bought and not passed from generations so clothes are an exception but I would never touch my enemies generational wealth." I said tightening my lips.

"And what would happen if you touch someone's heirloom, Nandini? It's practical to bring valuable stuff instead of these clothes." He threw the bag down and it landed in the same place from where he picked it up.

"No. If I steal or use someone's wealth it means I am accepting that my family has given me nothing and I am desiring for somebody's things. It is a question to my family's upbringing and I can't risk it." I said and folded my hands above my chest. 

A shiver passed as soon as realization struck my dumb brain like a bolt of thunder. He addressed me by my name. Harshad Malhotra knows that I am Nandini Murthy. 

...

Precap

Hey Pearlies, How is the update?

What do you think about Harshad? Is he good or evil? Will he help Nandu or not?

What should Nandini do next?