Chapter 30
30
H and in hand, Armaan led her down to the patio the next morning for breakfast.
He pulled her close. “You’re finally back here. My home was empty without you.”
“I missed being here. We should restart our training sessions soon.” She stood on her toes and kissed his lips. Armaan caught her waist, clinging to her mouth.
A throat cleared behind them, breaking them apart.
She turned to see Mihir standing behind them, waiting by the pergola where Armaan and she usually had breakfast together. Seeing Armaan’s hand on her waist, his face softened for the tiniest fraction before his usual grumpy expression was back.
“Aren’t you going to thank me, brother?” Mihir asked, taking a seat at the table.
Armaan held a chair out for her before sitting himself.
“Am I supposed to thank you for trying to poison me?” Armaan groused.
“Now you’re being dramatic. I knew exactly what I was doing,” Mihir said. “I’d never hurt you.”
Armaan’s face gleamed. Linking her hand with his, he said, “Thank you. I was being difficult, and you pushed me in the right direction. I’m finally where I am meant to be.”
Mihir tipped his head to Navya. “Well, you have her to thank also.”
“Oh, I thanked her already,” Armaan intoned naughtily. “Several times.”
Navya felt her cheeks burn. Oh God.
Mihir looked heavenward. “I did not need to know that.”
“You brought it up,” Armaan replied.
“And you ought to know when to shut up.”
“Please, you like me just the way I am.”
“Not right now, I don’t,” Mihir responded.
Navya watched as they ribbed one another. This was the first time she was seeing the brothers interact like this. Underneath all their quips and jibes was so much love and affection.
A slew of their staff came forth, placing breakfast platters on the table. Dmitri, Armaan’s butler, watched the staff serve them. Those days when Armaan had been in the ICU, the older man had been in the waiting room alongside her. They hadn’t spoken much, but his presence was a source of comfort in those difficult days. He’d ensured that the Oshnovs’ security team was in place in the hospital in order to keep Armaan protected. Dmitri had left only when Mihir had showed up.
She gave him a happy wave, which he returned with a warm smile before he left with the staff.
“Oh my! You’ve actually managed to charm that cranky old bugger and,” Armaan paused to point at Mihir, “and also this crankier bugger.”
“Grow up, will you?” Mihir muttered.
Navya chuckled. “Oh, come on, Mihir. I know you like me. You can admit to it, you know.”
Mihir bit into his toast, refusing to answer.
She laughed. Armaan’s elder brother was a grump, but he had helped her. After she’d convinced him that she truly loved Armaan, he’d tried for a long time to get Armaan to talk to her. When she’d come up with her plan to kidnap Armaan to make him listen to her, she thought Mihir would never agree to something so wild. In fact, she’d asked Rajiv to convince him to help her. To her surprise, Mihir had agreed immediately, and had even told her that she could have come to him herself. She was, indeed, so grateful to him for helping her.
A light breeze blew through her hair. Navya looked around. She loved eating breakfast here amidst the sun, the sea, the wind—it was all perfect. In the distance, she noted a couple of bodyguards walking the perimeter of the property. A ray of sunlight fell over them. Navya dropped her fork on her plate.
“Shit, I just remembered something from the night of the attack,” she said.
“Wait,” Mihir said. “Not here. Let’s go take a walk on the beach.”
She shared a confused look with Armaan. They followed Mihir down to the water’s edge.
“What did you remember?” Armaan asked.
“I actually remembered two things,” Navya said.
“That night, just before that man hit you on the back of your head, you were looking behind me at someone or something.”
“What?” Armaan frowned. “Fuck, I don’t remember that at all.”
“Could it be that you saw someone?” Mihir asked.
“I don’t fucking remember, Mihir.” Armaan looked extremely agitated.
Navya gripped his arm. “Relax, I didn’t tell you this to beat yourself over it. It’s not your fault that you’ve forgotten it.”
He exhaled. “What was the other thing you remembered?”
“Rehana was there at Club Poseidon that night,” Navya began.
“Who’s Rehana?” Mihir asked. Then he looked at Armaan. “Is it that hot model who had a thing for you?”
“Yes.” Navya made a face. “The same one. Armaan got her to work with me. I’ve been her stylist for weeks now. She assumed that Armaan and I were dating, and I never corrected her.”
Armaan grinned. “Of course, you didn’t.”
“Can you be serious for one freaking second?” Mihir growled. “She’s trying to say something. It could be important.”
“Exactly!” Navya glared at Armaan. “She’d been talking about this new man in her life for a while before that night. Rehana insisted I get an entry for her, her boyfriend, and a few other friends for that particular night at Club Poseidon. She had, in fact, asked me to bring you along as well so we could double date with her and her new beau. I passed her details to the manager at the club, and then I completely forgot about it.”
Armaan’s face tightened. “So, she was expecting me to be there.”
“Yes. In fact, I met her that night before you showed up and she categorically asked me where you were.”
Armaan shared a look with Mihir before addressing her, “Go on. What else?”
“Well, I think her boyfriend is one of your bodyguards.”
“What?” Armaan shook his head. “Why would you assume that?”
“Just now I saw a beam of white light falling on that group of bodyguards, and I remembered that she’d been dancing with a guy. He turned and seemed familiar. It was dark that night, but I’m pretty sure it’s one of your guards.”
“Why are you not able to pinpoint on one of the guards in particular?” Armaan asked.
“Because they are all tall, blonde, and huge. I wouldn’t be able to identify who I saw that night even if you lined them up in front of me. But my gut says it was someone from your crew. Also, Rehana had specifically insisted that I get her and her group VIP clearance, which means…”
“…that those men could have entered as a part of her group,” Armaan completed for her.
“Yes, exactly,” Navya said.
When both Armaan and Mihir were silent for longer than a minute, she asked, “What are you two thinking?”
“Let’s not jump ahead,” Mihir began to pace, “The simplest assumption could be that Rehana is dating a Russian or European man with no connection to us, and everything is one huge coincidence.”
“Or, and I am being the devil’s advocate here, and this is the link we’ve been missing,” Armaan said. “How else would someone know where to attack Vedant and me on the same night unless they knew we were going to be there? Apart from our security, no one knows our schedules. Perhaps, they knew I’d step out that night because they had orchestrated it. Rehana was expecting me that night, and in the end, to their luck, I did show up.”
Mihir’s eyes took on a dangerous look.
“Fucking hell,” he swore. He began to speak in rapid Russian to Armaan.
Navya’s pulse began to skip. “Guys, English, please. What is going on? Can someone fill me in?”
“Alexander has a nephew, Ivan Oshnov,” Armaan began. “He’s always thought that we cheated him out of his inheritance, and hence, he holds a grudge against us. A couple of months ago, Vedant got a tip that Ivan was planning something against us, and that’s why we all stopped going out at night, and we tried to take our security with us everywhere. That night was the only night Vedant and I didn’t have our security with us.”
Everything suddenly made sense to her—the training sessions at home, Armaan insisting on meeting her either here or at the yacht—both places he felt were secure for both of them, but never at night. He’d been protecting her as well.
Armaan addressed Mihir, “We need to check which of our bodyguards were at home that night of the attack and if anyone was on leave.”
Mihir pulled out his phone and began to tap into it. “All the security staff is accounted for except for Arlo and Vasily. They both had planned to take the evening off, but Vasily was there with me when I got the news about Vedant. He travelled to London with me as well. He must have cancelled his leave.”
“Bloody hell,” Armaan said. “I can’t believe Arlo would do this. I trusted him.”
“Right now, we can’t trust anyone,” Mihir said.
“Alright, let’s get to the bottom of this,” Armaan said. “Navya, call Rehana and ask her to send you some pictures from that night. Make up any excuse and see if she sends you pictures of her boyfriend.”
Fear flared in her stomach. “Oh God, what if more of your men are involved?”
Armaan shook his head. “I don’t think that’s likely because they would have had ample opportunity to hurt us at home. The fact that they haven’t means that if your guess is right and it is one of our men, then he is probably acting alone. However, we need to run checks on all our security personnel everywhere.”
“I’ll get on to that,” Mihir said.
“Guys, speak to my brother,” she said. “You can trust Rajiv. If nothing else, you can come home and discuss more on this. It will be safer for you both there.”
“That may be a good suggestion, indeed,” Armaan accepted. “Our security has access to our cars, our homes, and our offices. They’d know how and where to place bugs. Which means we cannot talk safely anywhere they have access. Not until we get to the bottom of everything.”
“I’m not going to her house,” Mihir told Armaan, his tone tight.
Fuck. She’d forgotten about Ananya. Of course, Mihir wouldn’t come to her house.
“Then ask Rajiv for the use of his office,” Navya said. “We need a place to talk safely. We cannot keep meeting here out on the beach. It looks suspicious.”
“Alright, I’ll talk to Rajiv,” Armaan said. “Mihir, you start looking into the staff, and Navya, talk to Rehana. Until then, let’s all behave like all is normal.”
“Armaan,” Navya said. “I think it’s better if Mihir talks to Rajiv.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“My brother doesn’t like you very much.”
His eyes narrowed. “Since when does he like Mihir?”
“Since I wasn’t stupid enough to brawl with the man to gain attention from his sister,” Mihir said. “Even then, I told you that was dumb. Do you ever listen?”
“Excuse me,” Armaan scowled at him. “Your history with Rajiv’s other sister is even worse. So, why am I the bad guy here?”
Mihir’s jaw hardened. “Unlike you, I don’t want anything to do with the man’s sister, and he knows that.”
“This is rubbish,” Armaan grumbled. “I’m the most likeable Oshnov brother.”
Navya patted his cheek, smiling. “That you are. But you also cut me out for days when I was trying to reach you. Rajiv is very pissed about that. But he loves me, so all you need to do is talk to him and convince him that your intentions are good.”
Armaan’s eyes sparkled. “My intentions toward you are never good, moya tigritsa .”
“Oh God, not again,” Mihir complained. “Can you get your mind out of the gutter for even a minute?”
Armaan winked at him.
Mihir sighed. “Armaan, you run a thorough check on all the security staff, and I will talk to Rajiv.”
Armaan led her to the stairs. Arlo was waiting at the bottom. He stepped forward and spoke in rapid Russian to Armaan and Mihir. The three men spoke for a few seconds, and then Arlo left, his face set in a hard line. She studied his profile; he was tall, blonde, and huge. Could it have been him with Rehana?
“What did he want?” Navya asked, her heart running away. “Does he suspect anything?”
“No,” Armaan said. “He said he wanted to talk to us about something important, but we told him that we’d talk to him later. He definitely wasn’t happy about that.”
Fear rose inside her. They climbed to the patio where Vasily waited, keeping guard as usual. She gave him a warm smile. He was a big man, and knowing he was on their side gave her an immense sense of relief. If her guess was right and it was indeed Arlo she’d seen that night, then too much was at stake, and there was very little time to get to the bottom of it.