ch 37 Kicked his ass off
Night had fallen silent, suffocating. The air around was thick with dust and the faint smell of rusted chains.
ashiana's eyes fluttered open slowly, the dim light from a cracked bulb swinging overhead making shadows dance on the walls.
her head throbbed painfully when she tried to move, her wrist stung where dried blood had stuck to the skin.
she looked aroundthe same old room... the one they always locked her in. The same peeling walls. The same broken window. The same silence that once swallowed her cries.
A chill ran through her as she realized she was back.
Tears welled in her eyes. her lips trembled as she whispered, voice barely escaping her throat,
"D... Dad... please... s-save me..."
A single tear rolled down her cheek as her vision blurred again, the darkness closing in.
And she fainted into the same haunting silence that once caged her soul.
meanwhile
At the Mafia base, the atmosphere was nothing short of chaos wrapped in fear.
The giant screen in front of them flickered with multiple CCTV feeds, live road footage, and city surveillance access that Raghav had hacked into within minutes.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, eyes bloodshot, jaw clenched.
"Check every route leading out of the city," Raghav snapped. "She wouldn't leave without luggage so someone took her."
Aditya stood nearby, his hands pressed flat on the table, knuckles still bruised. "I searched all the bus depots, train stations, toll gatesnothing. Someone must've planned this."
Kabir slammed his fist on the metal table. "Tell me who took her, and I'll burn their world to ashes!" he growled, fury flashing in his dark eyes.
And Aarav... stood silent. His calm was gone. The king's mask had cracked. His voice was low but carried a deadly weight.
"Find her," he said, staring at the map glowing on the screen. "No one touches what's mine and lives."
The room fell into stillness for a second just before Raghav's system beeped.
"Got something," he muttered. "A car same route as the bus depot area, no license trace. It turned off the highway fifteen minutes before we reached."
Aarav's gaze hardened. "Send the coordinates to everyone. We move now."
Within seconds, engines roared to life in the base's underground garagethe hunt for Ashiana had begun.
---------------
at ashiana ' s house
Sameer's face was inches from her, spitting hateful words,'' so is it enough or should I ...'' he trailed the words with evil laugh.
He crouched down, voice low and cruel the same voice that had owned her for years.
her wrist throbbed where he'd dug in before her head still fogged, but something snapped inside. she couldn't live another second of that voice telling her who she was.
she gathered whatever strength she had left. her fist moved of its own accord it connected with his nose with a hard, surprised crack.
He staggered back, stunned, blood spitting hot at his mouth. For a breath ashiana just stood there, trembling, breathing too fast, heart hammering in her ears.
"Run!" a small, urgent voice in her head screamed.
she didn't wait for him to recover.
she scrambled up on unsteady legs and pushed past him, stumbling into the hallway.
In the living room her stepmother barreled toward her, fury in her eyes. She reached and ashiana saw the menace in her face, the same threats that had kept her small for years.
Panic made her reckless. ashiana grabbed the nearest object a heavy ceramic vase and swung.
It hit her head the impact sounded monstrous in the stillness.
''hayyeee maar dallaa ree''
She crumpled to the floor with a thud. For a second the world narrowed to breath and blood and the pounding of her own heart.
Then she ran.
Feet slapped the marble. Doors flew open shouts tore through the house, "Stop her! She's leaving!" she didn't look back.
she only heard the chaos rise behind her Sameer cursing, servants shouting, the household exploding into motion.
Out the front door into the night she fled rain or wind, she didn't notice.
The cold air hit her face and for a moment she felt like she could breathe.
she cut through the garden, vaulted the low boundary wall, landed on the damp grass, and sprinted onto the dark street.
But before she could go far, her foot hit a loose stone she tripped with a gasp, the world tilting as she braced for the hard fall...
Strong arms caught me mid-fall.
she blinked up, breath trembling, and there he wasAarav.
His face was tense, jaw clenched, eyes blazing with a fury she 'd never seen before not the cold, distant mask of the Mafia King, but something raw, protective, personal.
"Shh... I got you," he murmured, his voice low but shaking slightly, betraying the panic he'd felt all along.
And that was it she broke. her fingers fisted in his shirt as she clung to him,
sobbing into his chest, every ounce of fear and pain crashing out in a single breath. "Sir... I–I tried to run... they locked me again... I—" her words broke into hiccups as he held her tighter, one hand on her head, the other shielding her close.
Behind him, headlights flashed Raghav, Kabir, and Aditya jumped out of their cars, rushing forward, weapons half-drawn, scanning the dark for threats.
Then, from the shadows of the gate, Sameer and her stepmother stumbled out faces twisted with shock and fury.
Sameer shouted, "She's mine! You have no right to take her!"
Before she could even flinch, Aarav's grip tightened around her. His voice turned into a growl, cold and lethal the Mafia King in his full form.
"Touch her again," he said, eyes locked on Sameer like a predator ready to strike, "and you'll beg for a pain you haven't even imagined."
Raghav's gaze sharpened, calculating; Kabir stepped forward like a wall, his fists flexing, while Aditya quietly reached into his coat a silent promise of what would happen if anyone moved closer.
she trembled in Aarav's arms, clutching his shirt tighter as he whispered against her hair, "You're safe now, Ashiana... no one will ever hurt you again."
Samar's voice rattled off like a dare.
He thrust the gun forward, chest heaving, pride blooming where fear should have been.
"Give her to me," he spat, eyes wild.
"You don't know who I am... I know good goons, gangsters, ministers.
The MLA knows me well. You rich company people can't touch me.
You think you're big? You won't break me. "
His words landed like a challenge and they had the exact opposite effect to what he wanted.
Kabir's laugh cut through the night like a blade. "Oh, please," he said, amusement heavy in his voice. "Someone tell him we're not a startup, will you?" He stepped forward, casual as a man in a bar, but every muscle coiled like a spring.
Raghav didn't laugh.
He only looked at Samar, his face an unreadable mask. "You made a very poor choice tonight," he said, voice flat.
He reached into his pocket, tapped his earpiece once. In two seconds the phones in three other cars chimed locations already locked.
Aditya's smile was small and cold. "Bravado fills empty heads," he murmured. He moved a hair's breadth faster than Samar could follow, closing in from the side.
Aarav's presence folded over the scene like a storm cloud. He didn't shout.
He didn't threaten he merely stepped so that his shadow fell over Samar, making him exposed. His voice was very quiet, but it carried an absolute finality.
"Put the gun down," he said. "Now."
Samar's chest puffed.
He barked a laugh and fired the pistol not at them, but into the air, a desperate attempt to scare. The report cracked in the night birds scattered. For a second everything went bright.
That second was all Kabir needed.
He moved like a strike fast, clean, practiced.
In one fluid motion Kabir closed the gap and seized Samar's wrist, wrenching the gun from his hand. The weapon slid across wet stone and skittered under a parked car.
Samar went rigid, disbelief flickering across his face.
he grabbed Samar's other arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing him to his knees
Raghav barked orders into his watch and forced Samar's phone face down into the dirt.
Within moments, two plain-clothed men who had emerged from the other cars moved in and cuffed him.
Samar's stepmother shrieked and reached for him aditya coldly shoved her back. "Shut up," he said. "You two make a sound and you'll wish you hadn't been born."
Aarav didn't gloat.
He crouched down so he was eye-level with Samar, his face close enough that man could read every cold word.
"You dragged her out of her home. You thought your contacts would save you," Aarav said.
aarav fisted samar's hair, jolted his head up at sky.
samar gasp, ''Ahhhh..''
but aarav with dark expression, he didn't flinch instead he raises hand and aditya keeps the knife in aarav s hand.
Aarav leans and draws a pattern a one line starting from his forehead with knife to samar s face to his neck blood spilling out.
'' can you feel it, its nothing to the pain you gave to her.. to my life, my heart. my Ashiana.. and now- Aarav laughs with no humor samar' eyes wide tears spilling out with terror and pain then
Aarav tooks samar's hand. '' this the same hand which hurted her.. right, samar's terriified.
''No.. no. .pl.. please.. i.. i am .. so-''
but before he could say aarav breaks his wrist with one swift motion.
''aaahhhh.. '' samar's scream ran through the night.
they three Aditya, Raghav, Kabir where just looking at the scene, as its the normal thing they see everday.
step mother closes her eyes as she can't able to see her son like this, Ashiana puts her hands on his face since aarav clutched samar's hair.
Aarav stoods a gaurd comes and gives aarav silk cloth. Aarav wipes his hand and says '' take them away''.
Aditya kept his hand on Samar's shoulder, squeezing it hard enough to be a reminder. "You almost hurt her tonight," he said quietly. "You won't be making that mistake again."
their man drags the samar as samar is unconscious now and takes step mother with them too.
then Aarav closes his eyes calms himself and opens his eyes and turns at ashiana with calmness and softness.