Chapter Forty
Iris
It’s around noon when I wake up the next day, alone between the rumpled sheets.
A headache pounds my skull from going to bed so late yesterday. It’s a miracle I fell asleep at all. Last night was awful. A nightmare, where I thought I lost Kian for good.
I should’ve known he’d find out the truth.
Secrets have a way of coming out at an unfortunate time. A lesson I learned when Nathan outed my stalker tendencies to Kian.
I’ve been given a second chance. I’ll never repeat my mistake. I feel it in my bones that nothing could push Kian away as long as I’m honest with him. I’ll kill myself before I hurt him like that again. Telling him everything was the right thing to do.
Throwing off the covers, I climb out of the bed and exit the room. I search downstairs for Kian with no luck. A trickle of sweat runs down my back in apprehension as I hurry upstairs to check for him in his office.
My gut bottoms out when it’s empty.
Where did he go? Surely, he wouldn’t go after Arjun himself. He promised he’d let the CBI do their job and stay out of danger and the limelight.
God knows there will be a ruckus once the news blows up the entire country, taking his company’s name through the mud.
I might be able to control Sahara Times , but not what the rest of the media circus says.
Instead of focusing on the victims, they’ll use Kian and his company’s name as clickbait.
As if we didn’t suffer enough through public scrutiny after announcing our relationship.
Running back to the living room, where I put my phone, I grab and unlock it. My stomach churns as I notice several missed calls from Bianca and Rosalie, one from Harshita, but none from Kian.
I dial his number first. It rings, causing panic to bubble up in my chest, before going straight to voicemail. Dread makes itself home, but I take a deep breath and go online.
Something tells me my suspicions are going to be proven correct.
Notifications blast my phone, making my pulse jump. I read the headline of an article from one of the news reporting channels I follow.
Dead body found at the home of a former executive assistant of Kinetic Securities.
Sources confirm homicide is part of a dangerous racketeering chain being run by a deadly organization.
My palm becomes slippery as I open the article. A cry of relief and sadness bursts from my lips as the body is identified as Rhea’s, not Yukta's. As I continue to read, bile rises in my throat at the details of how Rhea was brutally tortured and killed.
I would’ve had the same fate if I hadn’t managed to escape the man in the alley.
Each headline is worse. Everyone is talking about it.
Arjun Patel, a former executive of Kian Singhania, taken into custody for the murder of another employee at Kinetic Securities.
A potential trafficking racket being run inside Kinetic Securities.
Eight victims viciously torn from society.
Slumping onto the couch, I call Harshita to learn the actual truth.
“Iris,” she says.
I ask a string of questions. “Did they find Yukta? Was Vicky involved?”
“They’re still looking for the remaining girls, including Yukta,” she answers remotely. “Yes, Vicky and Arjun were working together in befriending and kidnapping the girls. It seems Vicky spilled all the beans. They’re both being interrogated.”
“Oh my god! Why would they do this?”
“Money. Both had offshore accounts with the receipt of wire transfers every time a girl was delivered.”
Sometimes women are women’s worst enemy.
“We wouldn’t have caught them if it weren’t for you, Iris,” Harshita praises. “I think I can get you the job offer…”
“No,” I cut her off. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“Does this mean you don’t want your name in the article that I will publish?”
“No.”
“All right.” She sounds disappointed.
I don’t care, though. “Please keep me in the loop about any updates on Yukta.”
“Of course.”
We hang up.
The case is solved, yet I’m still far from celebrating. I’m not na?ve enough to believe that those orphan women are still alive. But I hold hope for Yukta.
I call Kian again, wondering where he is.
As I’m about to try a third time, there’s a sharp knock at my door. At first, I think it’s him, but then I realize he wouldn’t knock. Dejected, I walk to the front door. Through the peephole, I see it’s my best friends wearing anxious expressions.
I unlock the door.
“Oh, thank god!” cries Bianca.
“We saw the news,” says Rosalie in a sad voice. “Are you all right?”
“I can’t find Kian,” I whisper, scared out of my mind. “I’m afraid he’s gone after Arjun. He was the one who attacked me.”
“Shit,” they curse at the same time.
“Don’t panic.” Bianca takes my arm, pulling me inside the apartment. “I’ll ask Dash to find him. Maybe Kian is at the office.”
“He’s smart, Iris,” Rosalie reminds me. “He wouldn’t do anything impulsive. Let’s call him again. Okay?”
“We’re not leaving until he comes home,” promises Bianca, already dialing her husband’s number.
I mumble a thanks as we settle in the living room.
Please, God, send Kian back to me .
Kian
The impulse I felt to beat Arjun to a pulp months ago, I shouldn’t have dismissed it. The thought that I let him walk away scot-free enrages me. He must’ve been so smug, thinking he got away with a lesser crime.
I’m not repeating the same mistake this time.
He’s going to pay for daring to harm my woman to me, no one else. His getting to live, even behind bars for the rest of his miserable life, is a mercy that he doesn’t deserve.
He sealed his fate the minute he laid a hand on Iris.
The memory of her wounded, bloodied, frightened haunts me to this day. I could never sleep, knowing the man who hurt her is out there and alive.
I have no limits to how far I’d go to keep her safe.
Men who prey on innocent women don’t deserve to breathe anyway.
DARIAN GROVER: 9pm. Sharp .
I received the text this morning after reaching out to Darian last night once Iris fell asleep. My favors to him are piling up, but I couldn’t care less.
As soon as Iris finished telling me the truth, my mind was made up. Honestly, it was set from the beginning.
As per Zenith’s source at the station, Arjun and his partner Vicky have finished confessing about the Solis gang who had been trafficking women from India to the illegal fertility facility overseas.
Either Vicky befriended them or Arjun seduced them to gain their trust before dangling the opportunity to earn more money at a better job.
Half of those women went willingly, lured by the promise of a bright future and the prospect of working in another country.
Arjun apparently got cocky and went after Rhea, who was the opposite of the profile given to them in picking the victims. He thought that because he was fired, he wouldn’t get caught.
He somehow convinced Vicky to do the same.
Hence, she targeted Yukta. The police are actively searching for her, but she’s likely been shipped off.
“Where is he?” I ask the jail warden. He frowns, doing a double take. The action makes my hackles rise. Didn’t he know I was showing up? Darian wouldn’t do a shitty job. I quirk a brow at him, annoyed.
“You’re Mr. Singhania?” he utters, after finding his voice.
“Were you expecting anyone else?”
“But then who was it earlier?”
“Someone else is here?” His face pales. “What the fuck did you do? Mr. Grover’s instructions were pretty simple.”
“I thought you came in early.”
Motherfucking hell. Who the fuck would impersonate me? “Show me the room!”
He calls one of his lackeys and orders him to take me to the back. I follow the guard down the seedy and empty hallways. We step out of the building into an open ground. Across from it is a shed.
“In there,” he says.
Keeping my head low, I briskly march toward it.
As I get nearer, faint grunts and scraping noises float out into the chilly night air.
Intrigued and my gut churning, I shove open the slightly ajar door.
Stepping inside, the room illuminated by a yellow bulb hanging low from the ceiling, my feet screech to a halt.
A bloody and beaten Arjun is strapped to an iron chair with one eye swollen shut. The tall figure towering over him in all black, with his back to me, whips around.
I come face to face with my brother.
Slamming the door shut behind me, I look between the two of them, demanding low, “What do you think you’re doing, Nathan?”
“What you came here to finish.”
I study the contours of his face set in stone in the dim light, noticing the palpable violence and wrath simmering in his eyes. It’s nowhere close to matching what’s thrumming in my veins, waiting to be unleashed, but it’s strong enough to convey the unbinding truth. We’re both here for one reason.
Retribution for Iris.
His presence also reveals that she means something to him, even if his actions in the past imply otherwise. Just how deep his feelings for her run remains to be seen.
My gaze travels to his hands. His knuckles are bloodied, suggesting he’s been at this for hours. Sliding my attention to the tied-up man, I lift the lid on suppressing my emotions. Clothes torn and deep purple bruises forming on every inch of his skin, he looks like he woke up at the gates of hell.
Sliding off my jacket, I roll up my sleeves. “Wake him up.”
Nathan walks to the bucket of water in the corner, fills up a mug, and returns in front of Arjun. He splashes the man’s face, making him sputter awake, which soon turns into ugly wails.
Closing the gap, I wrench his head back with a fist in his hair. His swollen eyes connect with mine, widening in horror. I smile, baring my teeth. “Long time no see, Arjun.”
Then I swing my fist and punch him square in the jaw.
An ear-splitting scream spills from his mouth, two of his teeth and blood flying out from the blow.
“That’s one,” I growl in a lethal voice. “You’re going to pay for every bruise, every broken rib, every kick, and the pain my woman felt.”
“Sso-orrryy.” His words are a garbled mess, but I hear the plea clearly.
“I haven’t given you a reason to be sorry yet, you cunt.” Holding out my palm, I bark at Nathan, “Grab me the pliers and the gag.”
The table laid out with torture devices has everything under the sun. A dream for men who get off on violence. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from Darian.
Arjun thrashes as I spread open his mouth wide using the gag. Curling my fingers around the handle of the pliers, I push it inside his mouth and take his tongue between the cutters. “You wanted to shut Iris up? Let’s see how you like it after I shut you up.”
I snap his tongue in half with a twist of my wrist.
Like the weak pathetic scum he is, he passes the fuck out. Without a word, Nathan comes and jolts him awake with another cold blast of water.
The second his eyelids open, I do what I threatened.
A punch for every hit he delivered on Iris.
His cries and howls feed the violent monster inside me.
When he’s on his last breath, I take out the gun and finish him off with a bullet to his forehead.
The echo of it soothes my soul.