32. Mayukhi
THIRTY-TWO
Mayukhi
When Mayukhi held her hand out for the car keys, Ishaan didn’t argue with her. He just got into the passenger seat, put his head back on the car seat and closed his eyes. Being vulnerable clearly didn’t come easily to him. Mayukhi and Ishaan drove to the hospital in silence. Mayukhi parked and they walked into the hospital together. The silence was strangely comforting.
They looked around but didn’t see Sri or any of Naveen’s friends in the reception area. A few of them had peeled out after the ambulance earlier that night. Amay walked into the hospital waiting room, looking surprisingly bright eyed and rested. His gaze sharpened when he saw Ishaan’s face. Whatever he saw in his friend’s eyes only had his frown deepening.
“Come with me,” was all he said as he led Mayukhi and Ishaan to the elevators that would take them to his cabin on the topmost floor of the hospital.
“How is he?” Mayukhi asked, when the elevator doors shut, leaving them alone for a few minutes.
“The doctors are working on him.”
“Overdose?” Ishaan asked, his voice hoarse with exhaustion. Mayukhi knew it was more mental and emotional than physical.
Amay shook his head. “Looks like whatever he injected wasn’t pure.”
Ishaan snorted, a sound completely devoid of satisfaction and amusement. “Cheap fuckers. Would have figured they’d at least spring for the good stuff.”
“Either that or someone adulterated it.” Mayukhi’s clinical assessment drew surprised looks from both the guys. “What?” she murmured. “You guys don’t watch true crime shows?”
Ishaan cracked a tired grin. “Your brain is endlessly fascinating,” he told her. “I love the way it works.”
Mayukhi smiled, pleased to see a hint of his usual cocky swagger.
“The only people there were his friends,” Amay muttered, interrupting the moment.
“And us,” Ishaan reminded him. “We’re hardly his friends.”
“But he doesn’t know that. Maybe there was someone else there who was a pseudo friend.” Mayukhi shrugged.
“Virat’s digging into it. He should be here in a bit.” Amay led them into his cabin and shut the door. “Now what the fuck happened to you?”
The ‘you’ in question was Ishaan who did his own bit of shrugging. “Long day.”
Amay walked over to a small fridge in the corner of his room and pulled out a bottle of Gatorade. He held it out to Ishaan who shook his head.
“Take it,” Amay said inflexibly. “Or I’ll have you admitted and stick an IV line into you.”
Ishaan took the bottle. Amay scanned his face one more time before sitting down behind his desk.
“Anything else happen at that party that we should know about?”
Ishaan shook his head, opening the bottle and taking a sip. “Nothing worth talking about. Didn’t have the time to get to anything before the dipshit collapsed.”
“Then why do you look like shit?” Amay asked bluntly.
Virat opened the door and stepped in before Ishaan could respond. Mayukhi had a feeling he didn’t plan to respond anyway.
“The girl, Nisha, talked.” A quiet hum went through the room. “One of my boys got through to her. Her father works for Naveen. He’s an accountant who thought he’d skim tiny amounts of money from the firm. When he was caught, Naveen asked for his daughter in exchange for writing off his fraud.”
She saw Ishaan still, his entire body turning to stone. What was going through that head of his now?
“Did she give any other details?” Mayukhi asked, still looking at Ishaan. She saw him turn slightly away from her, giving her his back.
“She said she heard the men refer to someone as their ‘King’. He took his turn first and was, apparently, the most brutal. She didn’t see anyone because of the blindfold.”
Her heart shuddered in her chest as she listened to Virat’s quiet, unemotional recitation of the girl’s horrific ordeal. This was the world she belonged to? This was the world she had lived in all her life? These were her friends?
“Will she testify?” Amay asked.
Virat shook his head. “Her father still works for them.”
“Why would they retain an employee who stole from them?” Amay frowned.
“Naveen’s insurance policy for her silence.” Ishaan’s voice sounded like gravel crunching under a car’s tyres.
He wasn’t looking at her. He was looking everywhere but at her. A chill coasted down her spine. What was he thinking? Was he regretting the confessions of the night, the glimpse he’d given her into the real him? Was he regretting everything that had happened between them?
What had happened between that intimate, tender moment outside Naveen’s home and now? She continued to stare at the man she’d fallen stupidly in love with as he argued with his friends. Something didn’t compute. Something didn’t add up. And nothing irritated Mayukhi more than a puzzle she couldn’t solve.
Amay got a call on his landline. He picked up, listened carefully and then hung up before saying, “Naveen’s stable. He’s been shifted to the ICU. The prognosis is good. He’ll probably be out of here in a couple of days.”
“Forgive me for not throwing a party,” Ishaan muttered, his voice ice cold.
“Mayukhi.” Virat’s gentle voice had her looking away from Ishaan.
“Yes?”
He leaned against Amay’s table, his perceptive gaze flicking between Ishaan and her. “Would you be okay to go down and sit with Naveen’s wife? See if you could get some information about tonight’s incident from her?”
Mayukhi nodded, getting to her feet. “I’ll go.”
She looked at Ishaan one more time but he wouldn’t turn his gaze towards her and so she left without another word, her recently mended heart ripping apart at the seams with each step she took.