CHAPTER 47 #2
The entire aircraft erupts into a massive fireball. Within seconds, Samarjeet’s escape route is reduced to nothing more than burning wreckage.
I whistle softly. “Remind me never to make you angry.”
“Too late.”
I laugh again. The operation is complete. No aircraft. No escape. No backup plan. Samarjeet is officially trapped inside Shivtara Valley, exactly where we want him.
A few minutes later, Trisha starts walking back towards the surveillance van. I’m still watching the burning wreckage when my secure phone suddenly rings.
It’s Ayaan.
“Object neutralised,” I report automatically. “Airstrip secured.”
Ayaan’s voice comes through urgently. “Get back to RK Estate, Krish. Siya’s been shot, and her mother has been taken by Samarjeet.”
“What?” I shoot to my feet. “We… we’re coming.”
And the call disconnects.
RAGHAV
RK Estate (Two hours later)
It’s been two damn hours since Siya was rushed to the hospital, but somehow it feels longer.
I end the call with Haider and force myself to breathe.
The bullet hit her shoulder, and she needs surgery to have it removed.
Although she’s out of danger, she’s still weak and in pain.
Haider is at the hospital with her, and so is Esha.
Half a dozen of my best men are stationed around the entire hospital.
If Samarjeet is stupid enough to go near Siya again, he’ll be signing his own death warrant.
But right now, another question haunts all of us. How the f*ck did Rukmini Vardhaan disappear from the most heavily guarded estate without anyone noticing? How did she cross the security perimeter without triggering a single alarm?
My eyes automatically shift towards the far side of the room, where Krish hasn’t moved from his laptop for nearly an hour. Half of the estate’s digital infrastructure is open across the screens in front of him. The man looks like he’s preparing to hack a government.
“Raghav,” Krish calls me out, his tone instantly telling me he’s found something. Ayaan is already moving beside me as I walk towards Krish. Trisha follows close behind.
Krish points at one of the surveillance screens. “Who is this woman?”
He freezes the footage, and my blood runs cold.
Kriti?
There she is on the screen, helping Siya’s mother into a vehicle. I stare at the footage, unable to believe what I’m seeing. Out of everyone at RK Estate, Kriti is the last person I would have expected to betray us.
“Play it again,” I order.
The footage starts rolling from the beginning. Kriti was one of the few people at the estate who knew where Siya’s mother was kept, which explains how she reached her without raising suspicion. But why the hell did she go there in the first place?
I watch Rukmini Vardhaan walk out with her willingly. No struggle. No resistance. She simply follows Kriti towards the waiting vehicle, believing she is there to help her.
My hands curl into fists. What the hell?
Ayaan’s face darkens immediately. “Isn’t that Kriti, our sommelier?” he asks. “I always felt something was off about her.”
My mind is already racing, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. Why would Kriti do this?
And then, suddenly, everything begins to click into place.
I remember Siya telling me that Kriti liked me, and I’d dismissed it without much thought.
At the Shivtara Mata event that night, Kriti was ready to put a lily garland around my neck and propose to me, but I ended up marrying Siya instead.
Now, as I stare at her face on the screen, every strange glance, every unnecessary concern, and every attempt she made to insert herself into my life comes rushing back.
“But why would she do this?” Trisha asks.
“Maybe Samarjeet blackmailed her,” Ayaan guesses. “Maybe she didn’t have a choice and—”
“She helped him willingly,” I cut him off.
They all stare at me. “She didn’t do this under pressure or because Samarjeet forced her.
” I don’t take my eyes off the footage. “She wanted Siya gone. She wanted to take Siya’s place in my life.
She wanted me.” The realisation makes my blood boil.
“Helping Samarjeet was her best bet to hurt Siya. She wanted to destroy my marriage, and break my family.”
Ayaan exhales in disbelief. “You’re saying she betrayed us because she’s obsessed with you?”
Yes. I give him a grim nod, and somehow, admitting it only pisses me off more.
Because I trusted her. Not as a family, but as someone I could rely on when it came to this estate.
I was so wrong. I should have seen this coming.
Siya had warned me. I should have taken her words seriously instead of brushing them aside.
“Wait.” Krish suddenly interrupts, his fingers already flying across the keyboard.
Ayaan frowns. I turn to Krish to know what he’s got. Krish opens a folder and turns the laptop towards us. There are photographs, around three years old, of Kriti in France with Samarjeet Vardhaan, holidaying at some exotic location, looking very much in love.
What the f*ck are they doing together?
“I found these while cross-referencing Samarjeet’s known contacts,” Krish tells us.
Ayaan’s eyes narrow. “Don’t tell me—”
“Yes, they dated.” Krish confirms. “They were together for almost two years.”
I stare at the photographs again. Everything makes sense now. Samarjeet couldn’t infiltrate RK estate, couldn’t get past my security, my network, or my people. So he found someone who already had access. Someone nobody would suspect.
Ayaan mutters a curse under his breath.
Trisha shakes her head. “Obsessed women really are more dangerous than trained killers.”
Yes, and I’m going to make sure she regrets this. Ayaan notices the rage building inside me and quickly redirects the conversation. He points at the map of the valley displayed on another screen.
“Our priority right now is Samarjeet,” he says. “Our teams are already searching the entire valley. Every road, every exit, every village.”
I nod, knowing Samarjeet cannot leave Shivtara Valley anymore.
With his jet gone, his escape route has been erased.
Every border checkpoint has been alerted, and my men are hunting him.
This means he is still here somewhere, hiding and buying time.
He must be plotting another escape plan.
And that gives us a window. A small one.
We need to find him before he disappears again, taking Rukmini Vardhaan with him.
How the hell do we find one man hiding somewhere inside an entire valley in such a short amount of time?
I begin pacing again, trying to think, my fingers automatically reaching for the pendant around my neck. My thumb brushes over it absently until my gaze suddenly falls on the bracelet around my wrist. Shamsher Vardhaan’s bracelet. The one Siya’s mother gave me on the day I remarried Siya.
I remember Siya telling me later that her dad had bought two pieces for their first anniversary, this bracelet for himself and a solitaire ring for his wife.
A matching set that they’d worn for years.
I still as a thought takes shape in my head.
I immediately pull the bracelet from my wrist, turn to Krish, and place it on the table in front of him.
“Tell me this is trackable.”
Krish blinks. “What?”
I point at the bracelet. “This belonged to Shamsher Vardhaan. Siya told me it was one half of a matching set. Her mother still wears the other half… a matching ring. If Shamsher Vardhaan was even half as shrewd and protective of his family as people claim he was, then there’s a damn good chance he would’ve found a way to keep track of his wife if anything ever happened to her. ”
Krish immediately picks up the bracelet and examines it before turning back towards his laptop.
“If you’re right, and both pieces were modified as part of the same tracking system,” he mutters, his fingers already moving across the keyboard, “there should be something connecting them. A registration code, an identification signature, an encrypted frequency... something.”
I cross my arms, hopeful. “Then find it.”
He doesn’t even look up. Minutes pass. Then more. The room grows increasingly tense. Krish keeps digging through old records, encrypted databases, and private security archives. Then, suddenly, he freezes.
A map appears on the screen, showing a weak, blinking signal.
My pulse immediately spikes as Krish zooms in.
“Raghav, you are a genius,” Krish grins. “Your quick thinking helped us. Congratulations.” His grin widens as he points towards the blinking signal. “We just found Siya’s mother.”
The room springs into action. I move beside Krish as he zooms in on the blinking signal.
It’s coming from somewhere inside Shivtara Valley, from a small abandoned house tucked away on a remote hillside, half-hidden among the rocky terrain.
It’s exactly the kind of place Samarjeet would choose as a temporary hideout.
The signal weakens for a second before blinking back to life.
I stare at that tiny dot. That’s it. We know where to hunt now.
My fingers curl into fists as I look at Ayaan, who’s already loading his weapon.
Trisha is on the comms, ordering the teams to get ready.
Krish pulls up the approach routes and satellite overlays around the location.
I pick up my gun and slide a fresh magazine into place. I look at the blinking dot one last time and walk out to bring Siya’s mom home.
KRITI
Hideout – Shivtara Valley
I pace the room restlessly, unable to stay still.
This old house feels suffocating, and the longer I wait here without knowing what’s happening at RK Estate, the worse it gets.
I’ve tied Rukmini Aunty to a chair in the corner, her wrists bound tightly behind her back.
I even gagged her to keep her quiet. But none of it stops her from glaring at me.
She knows exactly who helped bring her here, and I can see the accusation in her eyes every time I look at her.