Chapter 51 #4
Inside the car, Safiya sat completely still, staring straight ahead. She didn't look into the rearview mirror. She didn't ask Zaviyar to stop. She didn't even turn towards the window to catch one last glimpse of the house she had grown up in.
Her hands rested tightly in her lap, her fingers clenched until her knuckles had turned white.
Zaviyar noticed, the melancholy wash over her features. He didn't say anything, just slipped hua hand over her, giving her hands a firm squeeze which she appreciated.
He understood. If she looked back, she would cry. If she looked back, she might ask him to stop.
He understood that it wasn't goodbye to her mother, it wasn't goodbye to her father.
It was goodbye to the life she had spent years trying to preserve, the home that had once meant safety but had slowly become a place where she had learned how painful love could be.
For the first time, Safiya didn't turn around. She didn't give herself the chance to go back. She simply let the house disappear behind her and chose to move forward.
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The drive to Azamgarh was unusually silent.
Safiya rested her head against Zaviyar's shoulder, while his arm remained wrapped around her, holding her close.
He didn't flinch when he felt the warmth of a tear fall onto the hand hovering over her clasped ones.
He didn't say anything either. He simply let her cry.
Her heart felt unbearably heavy. She had walked away from her parents, too exhausted to keep trying to hold everything together. She had spent so long trying to manage everyone else's expectations that she had forgotten what it felt like to simply breathe.
What hurt the most was her father refusing to even consider her words. She hadn't turned around when she left. She hadn't looked backnot even once.
They had left in the afternoon, but by the time they reached the outskirts of the city, night had already begun to settle over Azamgarh.
The road ahead disappeared into a stretch of dense forest, the last traces of daylight fading between the trees.
The sky had begun to darken when Safiya's eyelids slowly grew heavier, exhaustion finally taking over.
"Dhyaan se gaadi chalao.", Zaviyar scolded the driver when the car jolted over a speed breaker, making Safiya stir against him.
(Drive carefully.)
" pohoch gaye kya ", she asked lifting her head from his shoulder, making his irritation deepen, 'damn that speedbreaker.'
"Tum so jao. Abhi bhi ek ghanta lagega ghar pahunchne mein." His voice softened as he brushed his fingers over her cheek. Safiya gave a tired nod and was just about to settle her head back against his shoulder when the car suddenly lurched violently.
(You sleep. It'll still take an hour to reach home.)
Her body was thrown against Zaviyar as the vehicle swerved. His expression changed instantly. Through the window, black jeeps emerged from the darkness, surrounding their car from every direction.
"Zaviyar..." Safiya whispered, her voice laced with fear as she looked around.
Zaviyar's hand immediately disappeared beneath the lower compartment of the car. He pulled out a gun just as his phone began to ring. He answered the call without taking his eyes off the vehicles surrounding them, his other arm instinctively moving around Safiya, shielding her with his body.
"Sir, this is an ambush.", Waqas's words came through the phone. Safiya's heart stopped.
Zaviyar turned towards her. For a fleeting second, the chaos outside seemed to disappear from his eyes.
"Don't be scared. I'm here." He held her face between both his hands, forcing her to look at him. "Whatever happens, save yourself."
Then he pressed a kiss against her forehead. Before he pushed a gun into her hands. A gunshot rang through the forest, making her hide in his embrace. The window beside them cracked under the impact of a bullet. Safiya flinched violently and ducked her head.
Outside, the vehicles carrying Zaviyar's men had already begun returning fire. Gunshots tore through the night, echoing between the trees as the convoy descended into chaos. Another bullet struck one of their tyres.
The car swerved dangerously, the driver struggling to regain control. Zaviyar braced himself against the seat and fired through the window at the vehicle beside them, ducking just as a bullet tore through the space where his head had been moments earlier.
Safiya was pressed against the opposite door, her breathing shallow and erratic. She had never been this afraid in her life. Every gunshot made her body jerk, every screech of tyres making her heart slam against her ribs.
Then her eyes fell on the driver. Before she could think twice, she lunged towards him.
"What are you doing?" he barked, struggling to keep control of the vehicle as another bullet struck the car.
Safiya squeezed herself towards the driver's seat, grabbing him by the throat with one hand.
"I'll fucking kill you if you get us killed!", Her fingers tightened around his neck as she pressed its barrel firmly against his temple. The driver barely reacted.
Instead, a mocking smile tugged at his lips.
"I'll die anyway. Why should I save you?", Safiya froze.
For one terrible second, she had no answer. Then Zaviyar's leg struck her from behind.
He had kicked her butt.
Safiya stumbled forward, glaring at him in disbelief until a bullet whizzed past the exact spot where she had been sitting. Her anger vanished.
She stared at the shattered window, then at Zaviyar. He had just kicked her out of the bullet's path, saved her ass from taking a bullet.
( A/N : ?????? jitna bhi serious situation ho, masti nhi rukni chahiye )
The bulletproof glass shuddered again under another impact. It wouldn't hold for much longer.
Safiya shook her head, still trying to process what was happening, before shifting towards the front of the car.
"Front door kholo aur iska seat belt bhi kholo.", Zaviyar didn't question her. He simply nodded and did as she asked.
(Open the front door and his seat belt.)
The driver suddenly bit down on her hand. Safiya winced, but she didn't let go. Her grip only tightened around him as she braced one foot against the seat. What the driver failed to notice was that, in the middle of the struggle,
Safiya had managed to place her other foot against the accelerator..For a moment, everything seemed to happen at once.
Before Zaviyar could react, Safiya pulled the trigger and kicked the driver out of the moving car. She has almost lost her own balance.
His body dangled from the edge for a split second before his head struck the road. Blood streaked across the asphalt behind them, only for the enemy vehicle following close behind to crash into him, crushing his body beneath its tyres.
Safiya stared ahead in stunned silence, as she took the wheel. Zaviyar, meanwhile, had already moved into action. He leaned forward, firing at the vehicles surrounding them, forcing two of the pursuing cars to swerve violently and lose control.
Safiya's eyes widened as another jeep slammed into their vehicle.
"Why am I stuck in GTA 6? Fuckkkk!", Another impact shook the car.
"Did I marry a man or some fucking mafia?" she screamed, her adrenaline surging through every inch of her body. "I'm giving you a fucking divorce! I just committed a crime because of you!", Zaviyar hadn't spoken once throughout the entire ordeal.
" duck your head ", he said, without looking at her.
" Duck your head. ", his voice was more firm. She did as he said, only for a bullet to shoot the rear view mirror.
They were aiming for her head.
Zaviyar's attention remained fixed on the men pursuing them, his gun steady in his hand as he took down one attacker after another.
Yet beneath that terrifying calm, he was almost ridiculously proud of his wife.
"Talk about divorce again," he finally growled, his deep voice cutting through the chaos, "and I'll make sure you forget how to speak.", Safiya frowned at him.
"I can just stop the car and let them take you. They're after you."
"Tumhari himmat badhti ja rahi hai, sweetheart." (You're getting bolder, sweetheart.)
She opened her mouth, ready to scream at him again, but Zaviyar suddenly reached across and grabbed her, pulling her back against him.
Safiya let out a startled yelp as he clicked the switch beside her. Her seat reclined instantly, making her fall flat.
"Zaviyar-!", Her hands slipped from the steering wheel. Zaviyar took control with one hand, gripping the wheel effortlessly while firing at the pursuing vehicle with the other. Safiya stared at him in disbelief.
" Keep your legs steady, ", the command made her frown, but she did what he said.
Then he leaned over her, his body stretching almost horizontally across the front seats as he took complete control of the car.
"Are you fucking insane-", A deafening blast cut her off. Zaviyar had fired a grenade directly at the approaching jeep.
The explosion tore through the darkness. Safiya's mouth fell open. He had already taken down more than eight men, and when another bullet struck the driver of the pursuing vehicle, the jeep lost control. It swerved violently before crashing into the car behind it.
Safiya watched in horror as the impact triggered another explosion.
"Holy shit..."
For the first time since the ambush began, the gunfire started to fade. The car slowed And Zaviyar reached over and pulled Safiya's seat upright. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she struggled to catch her breath, her hands still trembling around the steering wheel.
"Mummy, yeh Dhoom 4 ki shooting chal rahi hai kya?", she cried in her head, her voice shaking as she tried to keep driving.
(Mummy, is the shooting for Dhoom 4 happening here?)
Then she suddenly saw figures standing in the middle of the road. Safiya slammed on the brakes. Her heart jumped into her throat until she recognized them.