Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
Advik
Her silent tears are breaking me.
Her pleas tearing a part of my soul every time she utters that helpless word.
“Please.”
I hadn’t realized that the whole spectrum of her emotions she’d blocked was going to hit me this hard. But I still see a reduced fragment of her previous life. A life where she longed to be normal. A life where she didn’t think before letting her feelings escape.
And she is doing that. Right now. And even if it terrifies me—weakens me—I’d never question wanting to witness it.
Her breathing slows down. Her tears halt with an unceremonious silence. She never made a sound loud enough to break through these walls. I wonder if that was by design.
The final sigh happens before a switch flips in her head.
She groans. “You do this... and I will—fuck—I don’t know. I won’t... yeah... I won’t forgive you for taking those pills.”
Her underhanded ultimatum rings false. My eyes roll off their own accord. “Yeah? How about I promise not to actually endanger myself. Mehul would be a truly careless man if he attempts to kill me while I meet a CBI legend.”
My semi-casual offer doesn’t help. She still stares at me with that crystallized glare that she has perfected over the years.
“Maybe he won’t take you out then and there... but the man is capable of killing you,” she reasons. “We can try a different approach. With the logs of his attempt to access your clients, it might be difficult to get him. But not impossible, you know. Or we can wait for the perfect trap.”
I smile at her exasperated expression. “Baby, we’ll get him with the most solid evidence before he fucks with more kids. He can’t get away. He’s the man who slipped up and told me he didn’t trust you. He’s... not very bright.”
“He told you that?” She smirks, adjusting her hands so that they don’t overtly suggest she’s holding on to me. She is though.
“Moments before I got shot... but yes,” I tell her. Hoping it doesn’t get her more frightened than she already is.
She squirms slightly, ensuring that we’re not as tangled as we are. Tough luck, baby.
“Well... he will definitely make sure you’re more of a target if you go through with this,” she mumbles, a hint of fear seeping through.
We sit in the silence for a good minute, before I break it. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
Slowly—and reluctantly—I remove my hold on her and stand. Offering my hand to help her up.
She stares at the gesture for half a second before scoffing and actually taking my hand in hers. My heart gives a silly, tiny thud.
The moment we step out of my room, I freeze. Unable to comprehend the scene before me.
Dev is kneeling next to a... sleeping Viraj—sliding a pillow under his head.
I watch Greesha casually circle around Viraj’s unconscious body and drop onto the couch, one arm resting over the backrest like she owns the place. Dev settles beside her, looking mildly traumatized.
He gives me a polite smile before widening his eyes, subtly jerks his head toward Greesha. Telling me without actually telling me that the reason I have a special agent unconscious on my carpet—is right next to him.
God, I wish I’d seen the takedown.
Fuck. So that’s what all those sounds were about.
“Oh—kay then,” I mutter, stepping over Viraj like he’s a piece of modern art and lowering myself onto the armchair.
“When... uh... will he? Wake up?” Dev asks hesitantly.
I snort. “He’s not dead, Dev. His chest is moving.”
Greesha shrugs, already scrolling through her phone like she isn’t the reason a special agent is lying in my living room—knocked out.
“No—yeah—no, I saw that,” Dev says, still staring at the guy on the floor, a sliver of horror creeping in. “But like... I wasn’t sure how long people stay down from—uh—whatever that was.”
I bite back a grin and turn to Greesha. “What did you do to him, Aadya?”
Another shrug.
“Oh, she... she strangled him,” Dev blurts, his hands flailing into an approximation of the move. “Like... wow. Glorious technique.”
Greesha snorts this time—actual sound—but her eyes stay glued to the phone.
I smirk and lean back in my chair, letting the absurdity of the moment settle in.
Then we wait for Viraj to wake up and take us through his... master plan.