Chapter 6
6
M ihir stormed inside O-Corp’s Dubai office, angry with himself for getting carried away like he had. He’d been a second away from making a huge mistake.
Entering the elevator, he jabbed the lone button that would take him straight to the top executive floor. He studied his reflection in the mirrored walls. On the surface, he looked like a successful businessman—unshakeable, calm, and composed. The reality, however, was far from it. Only he knew how he was still trying to pull himself together on the inside after the impact of having her back in his arms. Years had passed, but her power over him remained unchanged. She was the only woman capable of stirring his body to the point of burning desire and painful, desperate need. He threw his head back against the elevator wall, frustrated and angry with himself.
Dammit, it was all his fault. He was an idiot to have been moved by her tears. He should have let her go when she had asked him to. He never should have touched her lips. Then he wouldn’t have been so aroused when Anna had wrapped her mouth around his finger. His mind would have never recalled that time when her pretty lips were wrapped around another part of his anatomy—the part that had become raging hard when she had started to suck on his finger. Everything had gone downhill from there.
For the first time in years, his mind had blanked out, and the urge to claim her had reigned supreme. In that moment, he had completely forgotten that she had betrayed him and he had become who he was thanks to her deceit. He had forgotten all that mattered and was about to kiss her.
It was a good thing that she’d pushed him away. He exhaled a rough breath. Even now, simply thinking about her made his body ache.
The elevator pinged on his floor. He got out and headed to his office. He opened the door and found both his brothers seated inside, chatting.
“Since when has my office become a common conference room for you two?” he barked in Russian.
Armaan grinned. “Somebody’s in a mood.”
“When is he not in a mood?” Vedant added.
Ignoring them, Mihir headed to the tall table beside his desk, where his laptop was already set up. He usually liked to work standing. It gave him the freedom to easily pace about whenever he got into a call, and he got into several calls in a day.
“You do remember that you called us here,” Vedant said stiffly.
Mihir looked up from his laptop. His youngest brother looked pissed, and Vedant was hardly ever pissed.
“Mihir, what’s up?” Armaan asked. “You messaged us last night to meet here. We’ve been waiting for ten minutes. Imagine our surprise when we learned from your assistant that you were out for a coffee meeting in the middle of a workday. Very unlike you, brother. Care to explain?”
Mihir ignored the question and went to where his brothers were seated. He sat on the sofa facing them.
“Last night, I had a meeting with the Estonians. With Andres Samson,” Mihir began. “He is the cousin of Paul Samson, the guy who shot Vedant.”
Armaan knotted his hands together. “What was the meeting for?”
“To gain their concurrence in helping us. As of now, they don’t know where Paul is, but they are going to help us find him. And once we find Paul, we will be one step closer to Ivan. It’s been six months since Ivan last acted against us. His silence has been bothering me no end.”
“I’ve spoken to the banks he works with, and I can confirm that as of last month, all his accounts have been frozen,” Vedant said. “Without money, he won’t have the ability to hire people to hurt us.”
“This also means he will soon get desperate,” Armaan added. “And desperate men do desperate things. I just want this to end. I hate that I’m constantly worried about Navya.”
“Same,” Vedant said. “Keeping Reina safe is my top priority. If anything were to happen to her…”
Vedant exhaled a shaky breath.
“Don’t worry, brother,” Mihir pacified. “We will keep the girls safe, always.”
Vedant nodded and looked away from him, his jaw tight. Before Mihir could react to that, Armaan said, “As of now, the girls are not complaining. But we cannot live our lives like this. It’s frustrating not knowing when Ivan will act.”
“Exactly, that’s where the Estonians come in,” Mihir said. “They find Paul for us, and through him, we get to Ivan.”
“Let’s hope for that, then,” Armaan said. “The sooner we get Ivan, the sooner we end this battle.”
“We will get him,” Mihir replied. He looked at his brothers. “You both need to know one more thing.”
“What?” Armaan asked.
“Ivan’s put a bounty out on me at five million dollars.”
“What the fuck?” Armaan sat up straight. “Who told you that? Andres?”
“Yes. I informed them that Ivan has no money, but we’d be willing to pay anyone double that amount if they came forward with credible news on Ivan.”
Armaan stared at Mihir. “This is not good. I don’t like that he’s put a target on you.”
“I was always his target, Armaan,” Mihir said. “He’s tried hurting you both and the women you love, only to get to me. By now, he must know how paranoid you both are about their safety. He must have heard how careful you both are as well. He was bound to turn his focus fully on me. Better me than Karina, isn’t it?”
“Neither is good,” Armaan said. “You have to be very careful, Mihir. Promise us you will be safe and not take risks.”
“I promise.”
“Where are we on the hunt for Karina?” Vedant asked.
“Still nowhere,” Mihir sighed. “Our teams are trying to locate her, but so far, her photo hasn’t matched with any of the Karinas found in the various records in Mumbai’s databases.”
Through their old matron from the orphanage, Mrs. Braganza, Mihir had managed to acquire an old photo of Karina. His team had then used an AI tool to come up with an image of how she’d look like in the present day. Also, to their great fortune, a few months back, Mrs. Braganza had seen someone who resembled Karina at a mall in Mumbai. Mihir had sent the AI-generated image to Mrs. Braganza, and she had confirmed it was indeed how Karina looked like now.
“Alright, so we expand the search,” Vedant said. “Perhaps she was only visiting Mumbai on the day Mrs. Braganza saw her in the mall.”
Mihir rubbed his scar. “I’ll ask the team to do that, and to use advanced facial recognition on all the databases in and around Mumbai first. However, our men infiltrating JD’s organization have confirmed that, so far, he hasn’t been searching for Karina. Nor has he returned to Mumbai.”
“That is a relief,” Armaan said. “But we have to find her fast.”
“Our problems keep piling up with no end in sight,” Vedant grumbled.
“We will find Karina,” Mihir said. “We won’t fail her again. We will keep her safe.”
His brothers nodded. Mihir’s phone pinged. He quickly scanned through the email before facing his brothers again. “I have some good news. The UK government has agreed to use O-Corp for their sustainable energy projects. I have a meeting scheduled in London at the end of the month to finalize the deal.”
“That’s great news,” Armaan looked at Vedant. “Isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Vedant concurred. “The board ought to be happy to hear this. Those stuffy buggers have been complaining that we take too many risks. They were skeptical about this project succeeding.”
“The problem is they’re too damn conservative in their views,” Mihir said. “And let’s face it—they don’t like the fact that we three are so young and successful. O-Corp has grown by leaps and bounds under our leadership. They know it, but their ego prevents them from acknowledging it.”
Vedant made a face. “As of now, they have no reason to go against us, and let’s not give them one. I don’t want the extra burden of that on my plate right now.”
“Agreed,” Mihir said.
“Okay, enough serious talk,” Armaan smirked. “So, your coffee meeting; let’s circle back to that. Who did you meet?”
The seductive image of Anna sucking his finger rushed to Mihir’s mind. Fuck. His body hardened.
Armaan snapped his fingers in front of Mihir’s face. “See, that expression is exactly why I know you met with a woman.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. There was no expression.”
“Don’t forget that we know you, brother,” Armaan said. “Better than you know yourself, and it’s been a rather long time since you had that dreamy, besotted look on your face.”
Dreamy and besotted?! Absolutely not. He absolutely did not feel that way about her . He didn’t want to feel anything about her. It was for the best that he stayed away from Anna.
Armaan wriggled his eyebrows. “So, who is she?”
“Unimportant and irrelevant to you,” Mihir snapped, annoyed with himself.
Armaan chuckled. “Which means it was a woman. Was it that model, Julia? Or that Russian heiress, Natalia? Or wait, was it Liliana again? Did you finally agree to meet her? Do us all a favor and go out with her. She’s been after you for years now. One night with her could do you some good.”
“She’s sleeping with any rich man who will have her!” Mihir made a face. “I’m not interested in her, or any of the others. No, thank you.”
Armaan’s eyes widened. “So, it’s some other woman who has you in a twist? Who is she, and why you haven’t told us? Have you slept with her?”
“Good God, Armaan, can you get your head out of the gutter for one goddamn minute?” Mihir scowled. “Why does every conversation I have with you always end up around my sex life? Why are you so consumed by that?”
Vedant pushed his spectacles up his nose. “Perhaps you’d be less of a grump if you did have sex. It will probably improve your constant sour disposition, and you’d be kinder to the people who care about you.”
Mihir’s eyebrows shot up at his brother’s caustic words. “What do you mean by that?”
Vedant stayed quiet. Mihir studied him. Vedant looked angry again. “Are you mad at me, brother?”
“Like it matters to you,” Vedant retorted. “You’ll still do what you want always.”
Pin-drop silence fell upon them. Mihir blinked. His youngest brother was the quietest and the calmest one in their trio. For him to be mad at Mihir meant something. He watched his brothers exchange a glance. Vedant sat back, crossing his arms over his chest, his eyes now ablaze with fury.
“What is going on?” Mihir asked. He turned to Vedant. “Talk to me, brother. What have I done to hurt you?”
“You went to meet the dangerous Estonians without us,” Vedant said. “You decided for us that we shouldn’t be there, simply because you felt that your life is less important than ours. Tell me that isn’t true.”
“He has a point there, Mihir,” Armaan said.
Mihir swallowed. “You both are in steady relationships. You needn’t take risks.”
“Sure, so we should simply sit back and twiddle our thumbs while you take all the risks.” Vedant shook his hand angrily. “We both are used to you having your way, but your behavior is now hurting the women we love. You upset Reina when you didn’t show up for her birthday party that night. She begged you so many times to come. Yet, you chose your problem with her sister over her… over us. You?—”
“—Vedant, enough,” Armaan cut in.
Vedant glared at Armaan. “No. Someone needs to call out the elephant in the room, and I’m not afraid to do it. His problem with Ananya is affecting all of us. The way I see it, she’s not the problem here. He is.”
Mihir’s pulse stumbled.
“Vedant!” Armaan gasped. “We don’t know the details of his history with Ananya.”
“And whose fault is that?” Vedant snapped. “Mihir has chosen to keep us out of that part of his life too. Why? Because in his head, it’s better we don’t know.”
Vedant looked at Armaan. “Have you forgotten that awful night when we thought he was going to die?”
“As if I could ever forget,” Armaan replied, his jaw tightly clenched. “I was right there with you. I lived it.”
“Exactly my point,” Vedant continued. He looked at Mihir. “Do you know that both of us still have nightmares about that night? We wake up dreaming that we couldn’t get to you in time, and that you died.”
Mihir exhaled a rough breath. He hadn’t known that. He opened his mouth, but Vedant cut him off with a shake of his head.
“Thank God, Armaan and I were in London that night,” Vedant continued. “I thank God every night that Armaan badgered you to tell us where you were going that evening. Even today, we don’t know who you were going to meet, why you were at that house, how that house caught fire, and how you managed to escape. We tried for so long to get in touch with you, and we couldn’t. Then we saw the news and heard about the fire in the same area. We drove like madmen on an instinct that you may be hurt, because you never switch your phone off. We searched every inch of the empty field near that doomed house until we found you—bruised, battered, and dying. You could have died, Mihir, and all because, as usual, you chose to tell us only what you want. Till date, we have no idea who hurt you.”
“I don’t know who it was that tried to hurt me then either. Alexander tried for years to find the people responsible for the attack on me, but he got nothing,” Mihir said softly.
“But you did know that Ananya was involved in some way,” Vedant shot back. “Why the fuck have you not asked her? Why the fuck did you never tell us that she was the woman from that café all those years ago, the one Armaan was thinking of flirting with? Only recently, Armaan and I put two and two together.”
“Hey, Vedant,” Armaan said softly. “It’s over. All of that is in the past, you know. We are fine. We are all fine.”
Vedant stood. “That’s just it. The three of us never speak of that night. Of how Mihir changed because of that. He’s become this cold, ruthless person who never shows any emotions, except when it comes to you and me. We only know that Ananya was somehow involved. We accepted everything he chose to tell us and never questioned what he kept from us. But what Mihir needs to remember is that it’s not just the three of us anymore. What he does or doesn’t do now affects everyone in the family.”
Mihir stood too. “And that is why I went alone to meet those fucking Estonians. You have women who love you. Thanks to them, you have an extended family that cares about you. Your lives are important.”
Vedant threw his hands in the air. “And so is yours, Mihir. And with Ivan’s threat on your life, us losing you could be a real possibility with you taking such risks. When will you understand that Armaan and I won’t be able to survive if something happens to you? What will happen to the women we love then? Your ill-thought-of actions are affecting us all. We are a family, all of us. Which means you have to act like you are also a part of this family. You going off alone all by yourself to face our enemies is not acceptable. You not being there for the events we are at is no longer acceptable to us. Ananya is Reina’s and Navya’s sister. So either you tell all of us what your problem with her is, or you learn to coexist with her.”
Silence flared between them after Vedant’s outburst. But Mihir didn’t know what to say to make it better. How could he tell them his sordid history with Anna? How could he tell them that he had married her, and that she had destroyed him? That she had chosen her sisters, the same women they were in love with, over him? Especially now, when he could see how much his brothers liked Anna.
At Mihir’s silence, Vedant said, “Are you not going to say anything?”
“I’m thinking,” he blurted out, unable to say what he really wanted to, which was that he would fix this for them.
Vedant glared at him before storming out of his office.
“Now you have really poked the bear. He’s never like this, and you know it.” Armaan stood. “Much as I am always taking your side, Mihir, I’m afraid Vedant’s right. We see how you’re alienating yourself from us all because you’re too damn stubborn to be in the same room with Ananya. This friction between you two is hurting all of us. Also, you going to fight the bad guys by yourself is unacceptable to me too. Vedant, you, and I—we are a trio. It’s not Ivan who is causing a rift between us. You are.”
Mihir looked at Armaan in horror.
At Mihir’s silence, Armaan touched his shoulder. “Think about it, Mihir. You know we only mean well. And you know how to make it right. Choose us, brother.”
Choose us.
Armaan’s words echoed in his ears long after he had left. Mihir’s heart was heavy as he stood in front of his laptop. Armaan was right; they were a trio. Standing together was their biggest strength, and he couldn’t lose sight of that fact.
Mihir would always choose Armaan and Vedant in every single lifetime. Perhaps, it was time to show it now.