Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
DHEER
I was debriefing Raksha about what had happened after I found Manto Singh when she held up a hand.
“Why aren’t you chasing after your wife?”
“Because she’s right. My actions were unforgivable. There’s nothing that I can say to change that fact,” I replied defeatedly.
“How about the truth?”
I let out a bleak laugh.
“The truth will send her running for the hills, and you know it. We’re better off leaving things as they are.”
“Don’t you love her?” asked Raksha incredulously.
“Of course, I do! More than life itself.”
“Then how can you let her go so easily?”
“Because she’s better off without me! You know what I am! You know exactly what I am, Raksha.”
“You’re a good man, Your Highness. That’s all that matters. The past is past. You did whatever you had to do…” she broke off as my intercom rang.
I answered impatiently.
“Yes?”
“Hukum, this is Kirit Singh from the main gate. One of my guards has just informed me that Her Highness, the Rani Sa, left the palace five minutes ago on foot.”
“And why wasn’t I informed immediately?” I thundered, jumping to my feet.
“Maafi, Hukum. The man is new to the job. He believed Her Highness when she said that you knew about it.”
“Get someone to go after her immediately, and keep my car ready,” I snarled. “If anything happens to my Rani Sa, you’ll all regret the day you were born.”
I slammed the phone on the desk and ran out of the room.
A car pulled up in the driveway and I was about to get in when a guard came running up the drive.
“Hukum, she got into an auto-rickshaw,” he wheezed, sounding scandalised. “I just saw her!”
“Get someone to follow it and stay with the vehicle until I catch up. And bring me a bike. That will be faster.”
It took only five minutes for my valet to bring my motorbike and helmet, but it felt like a lifetime. Meanwhile, I turned to Raksha who had followed me out of the house.
“Track her location and keep me informed. I think she’s heading for the airport.”
I hopped on my bike and roared out of the palace gates, hoping I could catch up with her. My phone rang as I hit the main road.
“Hukum, there’s a problem,” said Kirit Singh sombrely.
Five minutes later, I pulled up by the side of the road where he was interrogating the terrified auto driver.
“Maafi, Hukum! I didn’t know she was your wife, otherwise, maa kasam, I would have driven her straight back to the palace,” he whimpered.
“Just tell us what happened,” I said, tamping down the fear that rose in me.
“That woman slapped her and dragged her to her car.”
“What woman?”
“Alka Goel,” he wailed.
My blood ran cold at his words because there wasn’t a more vicious, vindictive woman in the world than Alka Goel. And Diya and I had just put her precious son in jail. I strode over to the armoured car that had followed me and the driver threw open the boot. I pulled out an assault rifle and slung it over a shoulder. Then, I pulled out my portable rocket launcher and slung it over the other shoulder because you never knew when you needed one.
I got on my bike and raced towards Goel House. Raksha was on the phone with me all the time, keeping me posted about Diya’s location. If her phone was still on her, then she was in the mansion. In the courtyard, to be specific.
I needed to create a distraction if I had to breach the building, and right now, the house would be on lockdown. They wouldn’t open the door for any distraction, I thought frustratedly. How the hell was I going to get in?
As I stared at the big impenetrable wall that surrounded the property, I smiled slowly. I was going to blow the wall down, I decided, as I pulled out my rocket launcher.
One shot took down the wall like it was made of Lego. I walked through the huge, gaping hole I’d made and surveyed the scene in front of me.
A spurt of fury raced through me when I saw that Alka Goel’s thugs had cornered Diya against a wall.
How dare they touch my wife!
“Stay where you are, Randheer,” said Alka Goel laconically.
I ignored her words and six of her men rushed towards me. I sprayed them with a hail of bullets from my assault rifle. I didn’t hesitate. Didn’t try to minimise the damage. All I knew was that these men had touched my wife. Which meant they had to die.
Alka Goel waved her hand again, but this time, none of her men made a move on me because they knew they’d just be volunteering to die. I walked up to her unchallenged and stared down at her hate-filled face.
She rose to her feet slowly and came closer to me. A slow, unhinged smile spread over her face as she tilted her head towards Diya.
A man stood behind her, with a knife to her throat.
“Did you really think it would be so easy, Randheer?”
“Let her go,” I bit out, placing my rifle against her temple. “Or I’ll blow your brains out.”
“Go ahead,” she invited. “He will slit her neck as soon as you press the trigger. You’ll win the battle, but you’ll lose the war. You’ll lose your precious wife.”
“What do you want?” I asked hoarsely.
“Blood,” she snarled. “Yours and hers. Nothing else will quench this fire in my heart. Now, be a good boy and drop your gun, otherwise, my boy will start slicing into her skin.”
Before I could do that, I heard a grunt and the man holding the knife to Diya’s throat staggered back, holding his nose. Diya had slammed the back of her head into his face.
I turned my rifle around and shot him before he could recover.
“Diya, run,” I yelled as chaos erupted in the courtyard and a bunch of thugs launched themselves at me, dragging my weapons away. I fought my way through them, punching and kicking them out of the way until I reached the spot where Diya was standing. I grabbed her by the arm and pushed her towards the hole in the wall.
“Keep going,” I ordered, as one guy came at me with a sword.
Diya yelled a warning and I ducked just in time.
“I’m not leaving you here,” she said fiercely, jumping out of the way as another guy swung a lathi at her.
I pulled him forward by the stick and head-slammed him, ignoring the sharp pain in my forehead.
“Get out of here,” I growled. “I’ll be fine.”
I followed this up by drop-kicking another guy in the abdomen, but she shook her head stubbornly before I pushed her behind a pillar to avoid getting a punch in the face.
“Go, Diya! I can’t focus on these guys if I have to keep you safe at the same time. Get out now so that I can end this drama,” I ordered again, and she backed away slowly.
A bullet flew past my ear and I froze at the sight of Alka Goel aiming my own assault rifle at me. I turned to look for Diya, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.
“I’ll take over the ending, if you don’t mind. I’ll take you out first and then kill your wife. Slowly. Painfully,” she said with relish, hooking her finger around the trigger. “Where the hell is that little bitch?”
“Right here,” said Diya hoarsely, just before she stuck a small knife into the side of Alka Goel’s neck. Hard. With all the force of her anger and grief behind the movement. And then, she pulled the blade out. Blood spurted out of Alka’s neck and the rifle dropped from her hand as she collapsed to the ground.
It was as if her death pulled the stuffing out of her men. They ran into the house, calling for Ayush’s father. I grabbed Diya’s hand and dragged her out of there to my car which was waiting for us down the road. Kirit Singh rushed to open the door and I threw Diya into the backseat.
“Send your men in to clean up the mess, Kirit. And make sure the remaining Goels get the point. If they hadn’t messed with us, Alka Goel would still be alive. If they want to take this further, tell them I will show no more mercy. If they want a war, I’ll give them one,” I said fiercely.
He nodded to show that he understood, and we drove away.
Diya stared out of the window silently.
I cleared my throat roughly before I spoke.
“I know you want to leave right away but it might be wiser to stay for a while until we know that the Goels are off our back.”
She still didn’t say anything. Her silence was unbearable, and I was relieved when we reached the palace. We were both covered in blood and Isha’s eyes widened in horror when she saw us getting out of the car.
“What the hell have you guys been up to? Go straight to your room before Ma sees you,” she scolded after she made sure neither of us was badly hurt.
I ran up the stairs and Diya followed slowly. Luckily, Ma and Dadi Sa were in their rooms and didn’t come out.
We washed up silently and I stared at her in the mirror, but she didn’t meet my eyes. I wished she’d say something. Anything.
“You need to go for therapy after this. Promise me, Diya,” I said, because she looked like she was in shell shock.
She had killed another person. Again in self-defence. But murder was murder.
“And what about jail? Won’t I go to jail?”
“No! They brought this on themselves. Trust me, Diya. The Goels will not involve the police in this. By tomorrow, they will have cremated Alka Goel with a death certificate that says she died peacefully in her sleep. What they will do after that is anyone’s guess,” I said wearily.
She walked to the door without replying.
“And don’t worry about the divorce. I won’t contest it,” I added.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, taking the wind out of my sails.
“What! Why?”
I knew I sounded panicky, but the situation warranted panic. A lot of it.
I needed to get Diya out of this mess before she was dragged even deeper. I wanted her out of the country if possible, out of reach of these murderous Goels. It wasn’t going to be easy to negotiate a truce with them after we killed their matriarch. We’d just brought a war on ourselves, and I wanted her away from all of it because none of this was her fault.
This might be my lot in life. But I didn’t want it to be Diya’s.
“Because you saved my life again,” she said shakily, turning around to face me. “Every time I try to leave you, you do something that makes it very difficult to walk away from you, Dheer. If you can risk your life to save me, how can I leave you when you’re preparing for war with the Goels?”