CHAPTER 15
Abhay heard his phone ringing when it was still dark. He frantically reached for it and saw Dev was calling. “Dev, is everything okay?”
“Yes, I’m sorry to wake you up this early. We just got a recent hit on the imaging.” Dev was excited.
“Did we find him?”
“Abhay, the computer says it’s him. I sent you the video clipping.”
Abhay got out of bed and scrambled for his computer. He blinked his eyes multiple times while he waited for the video to download. He took a deep breath and clicked play. He watched a tall man in his twenties open the car door for a woman before getting into the driver’s seat.
“Dev, when was this and what location?” Abhay asked playing the video on repeat.
“Less than a week ago and not far from where you are.”
“Hold it,” Abhay blurted.
“What?”
“The woman… the woman in the video is Narmada Senani,” Abhay declared.
“What?”
“Dev, how did you miss that?”
“Abhay, I barely looked at her. You know what I was doing then. I didn’t know that was her. What is she doing with… Rana?” Dev zoomed in on the young man’s picture.
“Dev, it’s him, it’s got to be him.” Abhay could not contain his happiness.
“Finally, something…” Dev laughed.
“Dev, let’s not get carried away. Track that blue sports car on the footage,” Abhay declared.
“Abhay, I still cannot believe it.”
“Let’s keep going till we find him, Dev. Send me all the footage with the car in it,” Abhay instructed.
“Good call. I’ll have the team pull up the footage from all the highways in the area.”
“The hotel where Rana was seen is not far from here. I am going to head there in the next two hours. I want to follow his trail, Dev.”
“Yes, and you might need to talk to the Home Minister in person about the police officer.”
“Why is it hard to get the police officer’s information?” Abhay was surprised.
“The police officer pulled off the biggest bust on the largest network ever, and his family is under special protection.”
“The biggest bust in the history, and it’s because of a twelve-year-old Singham,” Abhay said his voice booming with pride, and Dev felt the pride in his brother’s voice.
“I’m just glad he made it out alive from that massacre.” Dev’s words were weighed down by sadness.
“I wonder if he remembers anything,” Abhay thought out loud.
“I was thinking the same. He was five and…” Dev lost his words like it was too hard to talk about what he had seen that day.
“Dev, send me the details. If we cannot get the police officer’s information, this is the only way to get to him.
“I will send you a route within the hour.”
“I will call the Home Minister on my way to the hotel,” Abhay declared and ended the call.
*****
“Neil… your phone,” Narmada shifted against his warm body.
He groaned squinting his eyes and reached for his phone and saw Joe was calling. It was probably midafternoon, but they were still asleep as they barely got any sleep the previous night or morning.
“You are calling from your regular phone?” Neil was surprised it wasn’t an encrypted call as usual.
“Fuck! I was so tensed, I forgot. Hang on, I need to secure it.” Joe sounded frazzled.
“Joe, what is going on?”
“Are you in a safe location?”
“Yes, what is it, Joe?”
Joe’s breathing was strained. “It’s the Singhams, they are after you. I don’t know how they got the lead.”
“Joe, calm down.”
“They found the bunker, and they made it into the bunker.” Joe’s voice blared over the phone, and a shiver ran through Neil—the bunker he was at just a few days ago with Narmada.
“Impossible!”
“One of the Singham brothers made it to the cottage, left their business card in front of the hidden camera.” Joe’s voice wavered.
“What do they want?” Neil growled.
“No idea, but from what I can guess, they know you shot their man, or they are after Narmada. She was supposed to get married to Dev Singham.”
Something twisted in his chest when he heard Joe’s words. He couldn’t figure out if he were concerned about her or if it was because someone would hurt her.
“I need to move her. I was going to be here another few days, but I think we will leave tomorrow.” Neil turned to look at the sleeping woman and could only think about wanting her for himself forever.
“It’s probably safe where you are but…”
“I am going to move her. I will send you a message. Pass that to Komal and ask her to come by tomorrow morning.”
Neil ended the phone call and walked around the apartment to secure it. He looked out of the window at the bustling street below for any signs. He texted Joe a few instructions and went back into the bedroom.
“What was all that chaos about?” She sat up on the bed rubbing her eyes.
“Nothing to be worried about, but we need to change locations.” He watched her roll out of bed and walk toward him, her body wrapped in the sheets.
She walked to him and stuck her lips out. “Are you forgetting something?”
He smiled pulling her to him. She went up on her toes and brushed her lips on his. “I don’t want these days to end.”
“This is Komal’s house, and she will be here tomorrow morning to kick us out.”
“Who is Komal?” She felt a sliver of jealousy pass through her from the way Neil said her name. His words held affection.
“My friend from the… orphanage.”
She reached for his t-shirt and pulled it over her head.
“Are you going to wear anything other than my t-shirts?”
“No… Oh, I’ve been thinking about the reasons as to why you know the tattoo.”
“And?” He put on a t-shirt smiling at her.
“For the past few decades, the province where my ancestors are from has been under a lot of turmoil. A lot of the Senanis left the region for a better life. Is it possible you knew someone from the goon’s group who had the tattoo?”
“No, I remember every single moment from when I was taken to the warehouse.”
“Well, the only other explanation is that the person with the tattoo was a relative,” she declared.
“I don’t have any relatives.”
“Relatives you know of… what is your last name?”
“Don’t have one.”
“Correction, you don’t know.”
“Fine, I don’t.” He shook his head unable to believe where the conversation was going.
“This is in no way a judgment or a statement of discrimination, but the historian in me says you are high-born, like the royals.”
“Are you listening to what you are saying?”
“I know, I know it sounds weird, but you had to be from a family with a strong bloodline… is it possible you were kidnapped from where you are from?”
“That’s it, I’m not discussing this any further. You are getting into ridiculous land.” He gently pushed her aside to walk out of the bedroom.
“Neil… don’t leave me and go.” She stretched her arms out.
“Don’t make this more difficult for yourself. You do realize this is temporary.”
“Yes, I know, and I want to live every moment of it to its fullest extent.” She walked to where he stood and wrapped her hands around him.
He did not object when she started planting butterfly kisses on his warm skin along his neck. He ran his hands under the t-shirt she had on to cup her breasts. He squeezed both breasts making her moan.
“I will lose it if you make that sound one more time.” His growl made her pool between her legs, and all she could think of was to feel him deep inside her.
“I want to know what you will do if you lose it.”
He groaned when she sank her teeth into the side of his neck.
“Don’t fight it, Neil. Take me, I told you I want to be yours.”
She gasped when he pinched her nipples before running his hands to her back and pulling her off the ground. She wound her legs around his waist as his lips found hers in a cajoling kiss—a kiss so soft yet so endearing. She expected a lot of roughness based on the bulge between his legs.
His hands cupped her face, his thumb gently stroking her cheekbones. “You are the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted.”
She smiled against his lips feeling the butterflies take off from the pit of her stomach. “I love you, too.”
“I never said those words,” he hummed, sucking in her lower lip between his teeth.
“You don’t have to… I know.”
He kissed her hard before letting go of her lips. “I want you to go take a bath and eat a proper meal. You haven’t eaten properly for the past couple of days.”
She smiled looking away from him. They have spent most of their time in bed with their bodies entwined, and she didn’t need any food—all she needed was him to quench her thirst and satiate the hunger.
“Okay.”
“And can you wear something that’s not mine?” he teased leaving her smiling like a fool staring at herself in the mirror.
*****
Neil was in the middle of fixing dinner for both of them when his phone started to ring again.
“Hunter,” he spoke his standard greeting into the phone.
“Hey, it’s me,” Joe’s voice was a whisper.
“Joe, what happened?” Neil stopped what he was doing.
“Abhay Singham called me just a few minutes ago.”
“What? Why did he call you? How did he find you?” Neil was taken aback.
“They are hot on your trail. Move as quickly as you can.” Joe’s breathing was strained.
“Joe, don’t worry about me. How did they get to you?”
“These people are very influential. They run an entire province by themselves and have been doing so for decades. They are unlawful and brutal… there is no police power in that region.”
“Joe… calm down.”
“Okay.”
“What did Abhay Singham ask you?”
“They know your real name, they asked me where you were…”
“What did you tell them?”
“I… I told them what I tell everyone, that you ran away from home when you were seventeen and never returned.”
“Good, what did he say?”
“He asked me to contact him if I got in touch with you.”
Neil took a deep breath to clear his head. “How did they get your number and how do they know the link?”
“What did I tell you about them being influential? They got the approval from the Home Minister to call me from the police control room.”
“Joe, it’s fine. Just don’t talk to anyone about this, and let’s stay off the phone calls until I reach my next checkpoint.”
*****
“Dev, we have a dead end with the police officer,” Abhay growled.
“What happened?”
“I spoke to the DIG’s son… Rana ran away from their house after the DIG was killed.”
“I don’t get it. How did he end up with the Senani girl?” Dev raked his fingers through his hair.
“We need to follow his trail. Our only chance is to get past that cottage I found,” Abhay declared.
“Send me the pictures you took of the cottage. I’ll have my team send you a link to an app. You just need to run the app, and it will sniff all the wireless connections,” Dev instructed.
“I’m pretty sure there is a satellite connection. and it will be easy to pick it up.”
“Do you think there is something under the hut?”
“Most likely a full structure or a tunnel to a structure. I saw the car tracks of the car we saw around the hut.” Abhay looked at the pictures of the tracks he took.
“It’s amazing you found this place.” Dev sounded excited.
“One of the villagers told me,” Abhay said softly.
“What? How?”
“I stopped a villager on the road and asked the old man if he had seen the car in the picture. He looked at me and asked me if I was Hunter’s brother?”
“Hunter?” Dev scrunched his nose.
“I assume some code name. I showed him the digitally progressed image, and the stall keeper confirmed that was him.” Abhay let out a sigh.
“Why would they call him Hunter?”
“We will find out soon, Dev, we will find him.”
“Do you think he remembers us?”
“I don’t know, Dev. He would have looked for us if he did but…”
“How much of the massacre do you think he remembers?” Dev’s body shivered at his childhood memory of the bloodshed.
“Finding Rana is the most important thing for now. We will deal with what happened that day at a later time,” Abhay insisted.
“Do you want to come back home to Anika?”
“No, Dev. She is fine. She wants me to stay here and stay on Rana’s trail.”
“She is right,” Dev agreed even though he felt guilty about his brother being away from his full-term, pregnant wife.
“We will find him, Dev, very soon.” Abhay was confident he was only a few steps behind his little brother.