Chapter 20

20

V edant worked on his laptop, staring at the numbers his team had sent him. Business was good, but he had to get back in action. The ministers of two European nations desperately sought a meeting with him. His team had put them off for the time being, but sooner or later, they were bound to lose patience, and the last thing he wanted was people in power holding a grudge against him. It was bad for business.

For the time being, one of his brothers would have to take these meetings for him. He stretched his right arm up as much as it could go. He still couldn’t raise it fully, but it was improving with the exercises Reina had prescribed for him.

He smiled as he looked around the room. His study was a work space and a relaxing space for him and his brothers. They had such a room in all their homes. He was glad to be working again now. His work was his passion, and he felt immense delight to be back in the thick of things.

But apart from being dedicated to his work, he was thoroughly committed to his recovery as well. In fact, he insisted on spending more than the scheduled time on his exercises, pushing himself beyond his limitations. He was going to get better and fitter than before. That was a promise he’d made to himself. He already felt great… and a lot of that had to do with her, Reina.

Their dinners were slowly becoming the highlight of his day. Seeing her, talking to her, being with her—all of it filled his heart with joy. But making love to her was a pleasure beyond his imagination and expectation. She was perfect in every way—sweet, warm, and funny. And she was getting bolder as each day passed. He still couldn’t believe that just a few hours ago, he’d made love to her on this very desk. Even thinking about that made his heart run.

He loved the banter between them, he loved her curiosity and the dozens of questions she peppered him with. He frowned. While she was getting to know him, he realised that he still didn’t know much about her.

Where was she from? Was she from London or some other city in the world? What were her hopes and dreams? The only thing she’d told him was that she was the youngest of four siblings.

Starting tonight, he’d spend time getting to know her. Well, that was after he’d made love to her first. He couldn’t believe that he wasn’t satiated despite their lovemaking earlier. He wanted more and more from her.

Even now, his body hardened, and his heartbeat accelerated, thinking of how her mouth moved under his, how she instantly melted into him, pushing closer, like even the smallest distance between them was too much. Although he respected the fact that she wanted to keep them a secret from her colleagues, he hated that he had to hide her from the world. Once he was better and no longer her patient, nothing and no one would get in the way of him claiming Reina in front of the world.

His heart stuttered.

Claiming Reina in front of the world?

He’d just jumped several steps ahead in their situation. Yes, it was a situation still because neither of them had spoken of the future. When he’d decided to pursue Reina, he’d never thought of it beyond the present, but just a few days into this with her, and he already knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t be able to let her go. There was just something about her… He exhaled. Perhaps, tonight he could talk to her about taking their situation to the next level and really dating her once he was fully recovered.

His cell phone rang. It was Mihir on video call.

“Have you seen the BBC?” Mihir asked, even before Vedant had a chance to say hello.

Vedant picked up the TV remote and clicked a button. The Police were standing outside a residential building, and some reporters were talking in the background.

He frowned. “What exactly am I looking at?”

“Read the caption scrolling on the screen,” Armaan said from beyond Mihir. They both were in their study in their Dubai home. Vedant focused on the news.

Anita Svensson, Chief Financial Analyst, Regal Bank of England, found dead in her apartment.

“What the fuck?” Vedant swore aloud. He immediately turned on the volume to hear the news reporter.

His head spun with all he heard.

Multiple stab wounds…

Head injury…

Blood everywhere…

Initial reports estimate time of death thirty-six hours earlier…

Staff at the building noticed this unidentified man exiting the complex…

The screen split into two and a grainy picture of an East European looking man was displayed on the screen.

“She’s the same woman you dated, da ?” Armaan asked.

“Yeah, but why is that relevant?”

Mihir and Armaan exchanged a look.

Vedant’s heart began to race. “Guys, what the hell is going on?”

“That man on your screen is Karl Leipzig,” Armaan said. “He was the leader of the group who attacked me here in Dubai.”

“What?” Vedant looked at the TV again. “But wait, why would he kill Anita?”

“How many dates did you go with her on?” Mihir asked him.

“I don’t know, three maybe.”

Mihir raked a hand through his hair. “Since you never date the same woman more than once, I suppose Ivan assumed she was important to you and instructed him to kill her. To send you a message… To send us a message...”

A stone fell into Vedant’s stomach. “Fuck, are you trying to say that she was killed because of me ?”

“Vedant, this isn’t on you,” Mihir tried to reassure him.

“Of course, it’s on me,” Vedant shot back. He pushed his glasses up his nose. “She’d been calling me frantically for days. I assumed it must have been something to do with work. Finally, when I did return her call, she didn’t answer. And I left it at that. I didn’t even fucking remember to check on her again.”

“You cannot take the blame for this,” Mihir said. “Just like Armaan cannot take the blame for Navya being kidnapped by Vasily.”

Vedant jolted back. Ice spread in his veins.

Noting Vedant’s stricken expression, Armaan shook his head. “Navya’s safe. She’s sleeping upstairs in my room. I’ve moved her here, at home, with me. But those moments when Vasily had her... Fuck, I wouldn’t have survived if something had happened to her.”

“Wait,” Vedant said. “Start from the beginning. When did this happen? And Vasily was involved in kidnapping Navya? Why? It doesn’t make sense.”

“It happened yesterday,” Mihir explained. “We were going to call you last night, but we both were too damn exhausted by the end of the whole ordeal.”

“Does that mean Vasily was working for Ivan?” Vedant started to join the dots.

“He was loyal to Ivan,” Mihir explained. “And we missed it. We fucking didn’t realise that Vasily had placed bugs in our house and our cars. Ivan had planted him in our team long back. He activated him only once he became our Head of Security last year.”

“Fuck,” Vedant cursed.

“He was listening in on our conversations,” Mihir continued. “The only reason he decided to attack Navya was because Armaan and I had started doing things differently. We started swapping cars with the bodyguard’s vehicles, stopped discussing things at home, and he figured that we were getting suspicious.”

“That also means he knows about Karina,” Vedant surmised.

“Yes,” Mihir replied.

Fear twisted in his heart further. “Armaan, tell me about Navya. Is she hurt?”

“She’s shaken up, but fine,” Armaan said. “She was so damn clever, you know. The second Vasily kidnapped her and took her phone, she made a call to me via her Apple watch.”

“And we had already put security behind her, which no one in our team knew of,” Mihir added. “Also, her brother, Rajiv, did a Goddamned brilliant thing. He had her location sharing on, on his phone. At the end of this call, we all are implementing this immediately.”

That was indeed brilliant. It was the best way to keep track of each other’s whereabouts always.

Armaan continued, “While Vasily forced Navya to drive them to a deserted location on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway, she made him reveal everything he had done. His people had been watching and waiting to attack us. We caught him right on time and rescued Navya. He was the one who had planned those attacks on both you and me on Ivan’s orders.”

“Bloody hell,” Vedant felt his temper rise, “Fucking bastards. What happened with Vasily? You guys detained him? Did he say anything? What are we doing with him?”

“He told us Ivan is in Poland,” Mihir said. “We are setting up a search for him there. The guy who shot you and planned your attack is Paul Samson. Vasily said he was in Poland with Ivan. We took Vasily’s phone, and it had the messages exchanged between Vasily and Ivan, confirming the same about Paul. But Vasily also told us that this Karl Leipzig, the man who attacked Armaan, is in Poland, but that turned out to be false. Anyway, our men are searching for Ivan in Poland now.”

Armaan continued, “We decided to hand Vasily over to the mob. They have a few contacts here who were more than happy to take him off our hands once they learned he turned against us.”

“Good riddance,” Vedant said. “He deserves the pain they will put him through before they kill him. I can’t believe we trusted that fucker.”

The mob took loyalty very seriously. Alexander Oshnov had saved Vasily from the mob, and they’d let him go because of their respect for Alexander. By plotting against Alexander’s sons, he had betrayed Alexander, and betrayal never went unpunished in the mob. It was a valuable lesson they all had learned from their father.

“One more thing,” Armaan said, “Two days back, our guys in India reported that Dorab was found dead in his apartment. His throat was slit, and he’d been tortured as well. Vasily confirmed that it was his men who had gotten this done.”

Oh fuck. Dorab was their link to find Karina. Why would Ivan get him killed unless…

Vedant spoke up, “He killed him because Dorab didn’t know where Karina was, but his boss JD may know, and the only way to get JD to return to India was to eliminate Dorab, correct?”

“Correct,” Mihir said. “As we know, our guys have managed to infiltrate JD’s organisation. They are keeping a watch for JD’s return.”

“Ivan is ruthless. In just about five weeks, he’s managed to attack Armaan and me, get Dorab killed and Navya kidnapped. And he’s killed Anita only because he’d learned that she and I had gone out on a few dates.” Something else clicked in his mind. “He killed her around the same time Vasily kidnapped Navya, da ?”

Armaan nodded. “That’s what Mihir and I figured as well. He’s meticulously planning everything to keep us distracted in two different places at the same time.”

“He’s gone too fucking far this time,” Vedant said. “I’m going to make those bastards pay for this.”

“Vedant,” Mihir gritted out. “Promise me that you won’t do anything rash. That you will wait until you are fully recovered before you step out of the house. I know you’re getting better, but you have to be honest and accept that you cannot fight the same way you fought those men before your attack. You need to look out for yourself first. Promise me this.”

Vedant sighed. His brother read him clearly and correctly, as always. He was itching to end the call and go out and personally hunt for this man Karl. But Mihir was right. He wouldn’t be able to defend himself as he had in the past, and for that, he needed to restart his training. He needed to lift weights, train against a punching bag, and spar with his brothers. They were the best people to train with, and he would… soon.

“Alright, I promise not to leave the house until I’m fully recovered.” Vedant rubbed his forehead. “Meanwhile, I’m going to ask my men here to speak to Anita’s friends and family and learn what she was thinking of in her final days. Did she know Karl? Was it a random attack she didn’t see coming? Had she told anyone why she was trying to call me? Let me get on to that and call you again.”

“And Vedant,” Armaan said, “Please come home. We need to be together. Mihir and I will sleep easier knowing we are all under one roof.”

“One last thing,” Mihir began, “Your nurse, Su Min—we just found out that she was dating Vasily.”

“What?” Vedant sputtered. “How the hell did we miss that?”

“I had looked into the background of every person sent to care for you,” Mihir said. “There was no mention of him and no social media pictures of her with him anywhere. But his phone had another sim card that he used to speak to only her. Guess they were keeping quiet about their relationship. The coincidence that you reached that very hospital she worked in, and she was on the very team that operated on you is quite boggling.”

“Tyrion took me to that hospital because it was the closest to where I was attacked,” Vedant said. “But yes, it needs to be verified that it indeed was a coincidence or not, or was it a part of a bigger plan?”

“What if Ivan sent her to hurt you?” Armaan breathed out. “You need to get rid of her immediately.”

“Wait, she’s left already. Reina, I mean Dr. Singh, told me that Su Min had requested it. Su Min came to meet me a little while back to say goodbye, and I authorised the main gate to allow her exit.”

“She wanted to leave around the same time we captured Vasily?” Armaan shook his head. “This feels suspicious. Has she left? Check.”

He made a call to Tyrion, who confirmed that Su Min had indeed left their premises.

“She’s left,” Vedant said. “Although, if her intention was to hurt me, then she could have done it quite easily. She has been alone with me several times over the last month, many of those times watching over me while I slept.”

“Maybe her intention was to study you, to learn who and what was important to you and report everything back to Vasily,” Mihir speculated.

“Fuck that’s worse.” Vedant exhaled. “I’ll ask Tyrion to find her and set up a tail on her.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Shit. This whole thing is getting murkier. They fucking killed Anita on the assumption that she was important to me.”

“Imagine if she really was important to you,” Armaan looked stricken. “Fuck, I have to keep Navya safe at all times. I have to go check on her.”

Once he left, Mihir said, “He’s become paranoid about her now.”

“Do you blame him?”

Mihir shook his head. “Falling in love can be so easy and so fucking hard as well.”

His eldest brother looked sad and lost.

“Hey, are you okay?” Vedant asked.

Mihir’s face cleared. “Of course.”

“We have to find Karina soon before Ivan does.”

“Mrs. Braganza found an old picture of her in her records. The AI team I hired has sent me a few options of what she may look like now. I can send them to you.”

Thinking about Karina was too damn hard right now. She was yet another woman he’d failed.

“I need some time to see those pictures, Mihir. Right now, I can’t. You go ahead and start your search for her. I just… I’m too overwhelmed right now with everything.”

“Armaan said the exact same thing,” Mihir breathed out. “Just remember that losing Karina is on all of us. It is not only on you. We will find her, Vedant.”

“I know we will. We cannot fail her a second time.”

“We won’t…” Mihir sighed. “I have to go too. Take care and come home as soon as you can.”

After Mihir hung up, Vedant processed everything he had heard. Good God, Anita. He was so upset about her. Suddenly, Armaan’s words hit him with a force.

“Imagine if she really was important to you.”

His heart fell. Reina. Reina really meant something to him. He couldn’t let anything happen to Reina. What if Su Min had guessed that Reina was involved with him? What if she’d seen him kiss her? Fear coiled beneath his skin.

No. Reina couldn’t be made a target just because she was with him. He wouldn’t fail her. He wouldn’t fail yet another woman, especially not one who had become so Goddamn important to him.

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