Chapter Seventy Two.
Samar laughed, it was completely devoid of any sanity.
"You honestly thought I didn't see you coming?!" he sneered, his fingers digging brutally into a thrashing Ira to keep her with him. "You truly believed I would just stand aside and allow you to have your way this time?!"
He hauled her closer, his gaze locked onto his Devraj with a toxic victorious gleam.
"This is exactly what weakness means, Devraj..." he yelled out..
Samar tilted Ira's head back. He pressed his face into the curve of her neck, inhaling sharply to sniff her skin, disgust washed over Ira, her entire body flinching away from his touch, while, Devraj's sanity cracked.
His knuckles turned a pale as his grip tightened around his gun, the steel literally groaning under the pressure of his rage.
"The untouchable Corporate king..." Samar mocked. "Look at you now! You can't attack me, can you? You wouldn't dare risk it. And as for my men? One wrong move from you, Devraj, and their bullets will paint these rocks with your sophisticated brain!"
Devraj stood completely frozen, his entire body trembling with fury.
The billionaire tycoon was entirely gone. In his place stood an apex predator pushed past the edge of madness, his dilated pupils fixed entirely on the Samar holding his entire world, Ira.
"I am going to kill you, Samar.." Devraj calmly said, his chest heaving.
"Really? With what army? You're the one whose hands are tied here, Devraj." Samar smirked, "And don't get any heroic ideas. The second a bullet touches me, my men have orders to kill Ira, too. If she and I can't be together in this life, I will happily drag her down to hell with me!"
Devraj was trapped. The strategic genius who could dismantle international markets with a single contract was completely paralyzed.
He couldn't take action, not with Ira pinned against Samar's bleeding chest, and certainly not with four assault rifles aimed directly on his heart.
Samar snapped his gaze toward the men.
"Hold him right there. If he so much as twitches a single muscle, blow his fucking head off." Without waiting for a response, he began dragging Ira backward..
"No! No! Let go of me! Devraj!" Ira screamed at the top of her lungs, as she thrashed against his grip.
But Samar was relentless, using his strength to pull her further and further away into the deep shadows of the mountain towards an entrance that seem like a cave, leaving Devraj cornered at the water's edge.
Devraj shifted his weight to move forward, but the click of four safety levers releasing halted him.
He froze, his gaze darting from the gun barrels back to the dark arched entrance where Ira was being dragged away.
His jaw clenched with enough force to splinter bone, his knuckles turning pale as he squeezed the grip of his weapon.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
In a split second, all four guards surrounding Devraj jerked as bullets ripped through their chests, sending them crashing lifelessly to the ground.
Devraj whipped his head around to find Varun stepping over a ridge, a smoking machine gun braced against his hip.
"What the fuck are you still standing here for?!" Varun yelled, his eyes already tracking the remaining Samar's Men on the cliffs.
"Go get your fucking woman!" Without waiting for a response, Varun went back toward the main shoreline, unleashed another spray of bullets, and threw himself back into the heat of the battle.
Devraj without any thought, sprint towards the way Samar took Ira, tracking the echo of Ira's screams.
~?~
"I hate you! I despise you so much!" Ira screamed, her voice cracking as she thrashed against Samar's hold.
"My love for you is more than enough for both of us!" Samar growled back. He hauled her toward a hidden elevator, that led straight back up to his private villa above.
"I would rather kill myself than spend another second in your presence!" Ira yelled.
Blinded by desperation, she threw her entire body weight forward, jerking her upper body and driving her elbow backward with everything she had left.
By luck, her elbow struck his bandaged shoulder with pinpoint, crushing force.
The impact directly on his knife wound sent a sickening jolt of agony straight through Samar's nervous system.
He let out a strangled, breathless cry, his legs trembling as the world spun.
For a second, his unbreakable grip completely loosened, and Ira seized the moment.
She ripped herself out of his embrace and stumbled away, breaking entirely free.
Samar instantly dropped to one knee on the cold stone, his hand flying to his re-opened shoulder wound as fresh crimson blood began to gush through his fingers.
Ira backed away slowly, her chest heaving in hitches as she stared down at her captor.
Her hair was damp and wild, her skin slick with sweat and sea salt, but her eyes were entirely unyielding.
Samar clenching his shoulder tightly, his breath rattling in his throat as he raised his head to look up at her.
The madness in his eyes was laced with a desperation.
"You see what you constantly do to me, Ira? You stab me, you mutilate me... and yet I still fucking want you!" he choked out, his voice cracked and raw with an unstable obsession. "Why can't you just submit? Why can't you just come to me?!"
Ira merely shook her head, a disgust washing over her as she took another step backward..
"Because you are a monster, Samar.." she whispered, then the sound of boots began to reverberate through the stone corridor behind them. "And i don't love you! I never will!..Please let me go back to Devraj!"
Samar's eye was wide, a terrifying chuckle rattling in his throat as he pressed his hand harder against his shoulder.
"I'll forgive you, Ira." he rasped desperately, the whisper made the skin on her arms crawl. "The knife... the elbow... I'll forget all of it. Just come back to me. Let me love you. We can leave this island together, and I will never mention his name again."
Ira stared at him, she gulped..
"You are completely out of your mind." she whispered, shaking her head as she took another step back. "I would rather die in here."
The rejection snapped his final thread of sanity. Samar's face twisted, and he braced himself to force his trembling body up from the stone floor.
BANG!
A gunshot exploded through the passage, Samar jolted backward, a breathless gasp ripped from his lungs.
He froze, his hand instinctively dropping from his shoulder down to his left flank. When he pulled his fingers away, they were coated in blood, His blood.
Slowly, he raised hia head toward the entrance of the cavern.
Standing in the shadows, his weapon still raised and smoking, was Devraj, his eyes dark, bottomless pits of vengeance.
"That's for touching her..I told you." Devraj spoke, "I am going to kill you, Samar."
Ira turned to see Devraj.
"Devraj!" She cried out in relief. She didn't hesitate, she sprinted towards him and threw herself straight into Devraj's embrace.
Devraj instantly wrapped his free arm around her waist, his fingers digging into her damp hair as he kept his weapon trained directly on Samar.
"I've got you." Devraj murmured against her ear, his eyes never breaking contact with the bleeding man across from them.
Samar collapsed fully onto both knees, the strength rapidly draining from his lower limbs. His breath came in shallow as he stared at the two of them locked together.
Slowly, painfully, he raised a trembling, blood-slicked hand toward Ira, a faint, devastatingly sad smile pulling at his lips.
"You look so beautiful in my arms instead, Ira..." Samar whispered.
Devraj's jaw set so hard a vein throbbed against his temple, his grip on his firearm tightened.
"Shut your pathetic mouth, Samar. Your delusions end here."
Samar let out a weak, coughing laugh, blood staining his teeth as he looked up at Devraj.
"Ten years, Devraj... Ten years I spent trying to build an empire that would make you look at me as an equal.
In college, you had the legacy, the money, the effortless brilliance.
I was just the shadow in your peripheral vision.
I wanted to see what it felt like to take something you cherished.
I wanted to see the great Devraj Singh Rathore lose his composure. "
"You didn't take a thing.." Devraj countered, "You survived ten years ago because I allowed you to live under the radar.
You mistook my civility for weakness, Samar, I knew you planned with Alia to get me killed, it didn't work..
and I didn't come for you. But you entered my sanctuary when you touched Ira. "
Samar's gaze shifted back to Ira, the sad, unstable smile lingering on his pale face.
"My only regret..." he breathed out, his chest rattling painfully, "is that you didn't see me first, Ira. If I had found you before his shadow found you... you would have loved me, right?"
"Don't you dare mention her name again.." Devraj yelled.
"Why? Does the truth sting Devraj?" Samar choked out, "you just imagine how it will hurt that she won't be yours right? How it will drive you crazy that she won't be yours!"
"Shut up.." Devraj gritted
"Even if you bury me under these rocks... you will spend the rest of your life wondering if she's looking at you, or if she's just looking for a man who isn't a monster like me. You'll always wonder if I broke a piece of her you can never fix."
"You will rot in hell alone."
"Alone?!" Samar chuckled darkly, getting weaker "I want Ira with me.. I don't want to go alone.. give her to me Devraj.."
The taunt pushed Devraj past the limit of his restraint.
BANG!
Devraj pulled the trigger. The bullet went cleanly through Samar's uninjured shoulder. The impact spun Samar's upper frame.
"That.." Devraj gritted out through his teeth, "was for Advik. For every single hands, your men laid on my Best friend."
Samar let out one final breathless groan, his body giving out entirely as he fell forward, crashing face flat onto the cold stone floor of the cavern.
Ira was shivering, her hands tightly clutching Devraj's soaked shirt as her eyes stared wide at the fallen man.
Slowly, Devraj let the weapon slip from his fingers. It clattered loudly against the stone. Turning his full attention to the woman in his arms, he wrapped both arms around her, lifting her slightly off her feet as he squeezed her against his heart with a crushing, protective desperation.
"It's over, Ira," he breathed into her hair, his own chest heaving as he held her like he would never let her go again.
"You're safe. I promise you, it's finally over."
"Is... is he dead?" Ira stuttered..
Devraj gently eased her back from the embrace, his hands holding her by the shoulders as he felt the tremors wracking her frame
The moment his gaze dropped to her face, his eyes darkened to irritation.
Even now, with Samar's body on the ground, her terrified eyes kept looking back toward him.
It burned a nerve in his chest that Samar still held a single second of her attention.
"Hey. Hey... look at me.." Devraj commanded softly, he wanted her focus on him..
Ira's gaze snapped back to his, her eyes locking onto his. A possessive satisfaction washed over him the moment her attention returned entirely to him where it belonged.
"Good. Just look at me, okay?" he murmured, his thumb brushing a stray damp haor away from her face.
"It's over now. We are leaving this godforsaken island. I swear to you on my life, Ira... I will never allow anyone to take you away from me again."
Ira swallowed hard, then smile a bit and nodded.
He pulled her back into his chest, burying his face in the crown of her head as he pressed a kiss against her forehead.
"Can we please leave...?" Ira whispered, glancing around the grim of the cavern. "I don't want to be in here anymore. It feels like... like his walls are closing in."
Slipping one arm beneath her knees and the other around her upper back, Devraj effortlessly swept her up into a bridal carry, adjusting her weight against his chest before walking toward the exit.
"No! I... I can walk.." she protested weekly, her hands instinctively clutching his shoulders for balance. "You don't have to carry me."
"No, Meri Jaan.." Devraj said, as he tightened his hold, keeping her flush against his racing heart..
"I am not letting your feet touch this ground again. Your delicate feet has been bruised and cut entirely too much on these rocks. I am carrying you until we are safely back in the city. Do you understand me?"
A warm flush of pink crept up Ira's pale cheeks despite the all horror, and she nodded, resting her head against his shoulder.
As they stepped out of the dark passageway and back into the fading sunlight of the shoreline, Ira cast one last glance over his shoulder into the mouth of the cave.
A relief washed over her soul. The nightmare was finally dead. She was leaving his psychotic delusion behind and back into the light.
Arjun and Varun were coming down the beach toward them.
Both men were drenched in sweat, their gear covered in dust and the dark residue of spent gunpowder, but their expressions were steady.
"Where is he?" Arjun asked.
"The angels are measuring his deeds, right about now." Devraj responded grimly.
He didn't check his stride for even a bit, walking right past them to ensure Ira was shielded.
Varun stopped, tracking Devraj's rigid silhouette as the billionaire carried Ira toward the awaiting boat, before turning toward Arjun.
"Is he going to be alright?"
"His immediate threat is gone, and that's all that matters right now." Arjun replied. "But we need to evacuate this coordinate immediately. I'll contact Karan the moment we hit secure frequencies to get this entire sector under total lockdown and surveillance."
Varun adjusted the strap of his rifle, his eyes narrowing...
The fight was over though...
"Is the news of Samar's downfall going to breach the syndicates that quickly?"
Arjun nodded grimly.
"The underworld doesn't sleep, Varun. The second his digital network goes dark, every vulture from the mainland will be circling.
Aside from that, a fortified stronghold embedded inside a sea cliff is an invaluable piece of real estate, there will be factions attempting to seize or liquidate this asset immediately. I cannot allow that to happen."
Without another word, Arjun turned and followed Devraj.
Varun's gaze drifting up to Samar's private villa above, then down into the yawning, silent mouth of the cavern entrance.
His brow furrowed slightly, an intuitive thought passing behind his eyes, before he finally spun on and followed Arjun.