CHAPTER 52! KABIR? #3
Across the table, Kabir cleared his throat softly. "My mother gave me a whole list of things I was supposed to talk to you."
Kashvi set the menu down properly this time. "Seriously?"
"Very seriously," Kabir said, leaning back. "Salary, work, five-year plans... even how often I go to the temple."
Kashvi's shoulders dropped half an inch. "Did you bring it?"
"I left it in the car," Kabir laughed.
"So no pressure today. We can just eat and leave." He paused, looking at her with genuine curiosity. "Your mother mentioned you do design work?"
"Fashion design," Kashvi said.
"That's impressive."
"Why?"
"Because I can barely decide which tie I should wear," Kabir said cleanly.
Rajiv didn't look up from his phone. "That's because you ask your sister to decide everything."
"Exactly. She has better taste." Kabir turned back to Kashvi with an easy grin. "At least I'm honest."
"I can respect that," Kashvi smiled.
When the food arrived, Kabir confidently picked up his jalape?o slider which was looking extra spicy and took a healthy bite.
Aadhira watched him. "You sure about that?"
"Absolutely," Kabir said smoothly.
Three seconds passed.
Kabir's eyes widened. His face turned red, and he reached blindly for his water glass, coughing behind his fist.
"Nahi... nahi khana chahiye tha..."
Rajiv slid his own untouched water glass across the table without looking up.
"I explicitly told you in the car."
"You did not," Kabir wheezed, drinking the water in two large gulps.
Aadhira bit back a laugh, and beside her, a genuine laugh escaped Kashvi's lips.
For a brief minute, Kashvi forgot the ache in her chest.
She listened as Kabir launched into an animated story about a cousin's wedding where he had made the exact same mistake with raw green chilies.
Then, during a lull in the conversation, Kashvi's eyes drifted toward the empty space past Kabir's shoulder.
Her laughter faded. She looked away, her fingers tightening around her napkin.
Rajiv noticed. His dry humor quieted, his eyes shifting from Kashvi's hand to her face.
A waiter stepped up to the table, placing a tall glass of iced peach tea right beside Aadhira's hand.
Aadhira looked up. "I didn't order this."
"Sir instructed," the waiter said, gesturing toward Rajiv.
"You were looking at the drink menu earlier," Rajiv said softly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Thought you might want it."
"Thank you," Aadhira said gently.
She turned her gaze back toward the glass front of the restaurant.
Through the clear pane, she saw two black SUVs pull up along the curb outside-Aryav's advance perimeter detail, assigned to shadow her the moment she had left the house.
Two men in dark suits stepped through the main entrance. They didn't sit. One stayed near the door, while the second moved casually along the side, his eyes landing directly on their table before he reached for his earpiece.
Aadhira set her glass down.
Five miles away, the afternoon heat shimmered off the highway.
Inside the trailing command SUV, Aryav sat in the rear seat with a tablet on his lap, having already dispatched his advance team to secure Lakeview the moment Aadhira's car arrived.
Beside him, the comm unit on the console chimed once as the lead guard at the restaurant patched through.
"Speak," Aryav said.
"Sir," the guard's voice came through the speaker. "Madam Aadhira and Miss Kashvi are seated at Lakeview. Advance detail is inside. Two men are seated across from them."
In the front passenger seat, Vivaan's hands rested on his knees. He didn't move, but his eyes cut slightly toward the center console speaker.
"Kabir Malhotra and Rajiv Sharma," Aryav said quietly, reading the file sent through by the team.
Silence filled the car.
"He seems like a pleasant boy," Aryav said softly, glancing at the live camera feed updating on his tablet.
"Kashvi looks comfortable."
In the front seat, Vivaan's jaw tightened once. That was all.
Vivaan reached forward and pressed the console radio button.
"Route change," Vivaan said, his voice flat and cold to the lead driver. "Lakeview."
Aryav looked at him in the rearview mirror. He didn't object. A faint smile touched his mouth.
"Of course. Take me to my wife," Aryav said quietly.