Chapter 11
Ariya was thankful to be off the houseboat after being on the water for almost four days. The team did a stellar job with that segment of the show and had one more day before they wrapped up the pilot show. The cruise provided the crew lot of time to bond, and Ariya grew fond of Veer every minute she spent with him.
She was glad he respected her wish to keep their relationship professional. She did still catch him looking at her from time to time, and she wasn’t going to deny the tingle it gave her to be under his perusal.
On the bus, the crew was fast asleep on their way back from the boat, and Ariya took the opportunity to take pictures of the tired crew. She took pictures of them curled up in their seats, slouched with a hoodie pulled over their face, and then she stopped at Veer.
He had his cheek to the seat and was fast asleep. She debated if she should take his picture after the episode on the deck on the first day of the cruise and stood staring at him.
“Are you going to take my picture or not?” Veer mumbled without turning or opening his eyes. She smiled and clicked a picture of his chiseled profile. He opened his eyes and turned to look at her when he heard the click of the camera.
“How are you not tired?” he asked moving to the empty seat by the window and patted the seat next to him.
She sat next to him and placed her camera on her lap. “How are you not tired?”
He smiled looking out of the window and turned to look at her. “Someone needs to take a picture of you sleeping.”
She put her hands on her camera. “No, I’m the person behind the camera.”
“Fine.” Veer pulled out his phone and held the camera facing both of them in the frame. “You are still behind the camera and yet in the picture at the same time.”
She smiled into his phone camera. “Text me the picture.”
“Text you? You never gave me your phone number,” he taunted.
“Why do you need my phone number for it? You can send it to me on the private message from your profile.”
“No, I’d rather text it to you, so you have the original image resolution.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes at him and punched in her number on his phone. He sent her the picture.
“I’ll save your number and put it up for auction online.” She laughed.
“Sure, let’s see how much money we can raise.”
“Let’s see, even if it is a dollar per follower, we are over a million dollars.” She winked.
“Thank you!” His voice was almost a whisper.
“Why are you thanking me?” She turned slightly to look at him.
“For everything. You made the network very happy by getting me the million-plus followers, and you made me very happy because it is that many more people I can reach out to, to be interested in preserving the forests and saving animals.”
“You are welcome.”
“Will you work on another assignment with me?”
“I would love to… do you have something in mind?” She was excited.
“I have a few lined up, but I don’t know which one will be accepted. I’ll have Stefan reach out to you.”
“You can reach out to me, too, you know. You have my phone number,” she teased, and he smiled running his fingers through his hair. They both sat in silence listening to a few of the crew members snore in the background.
“I’m going to miss this place,” she said, softly.
“Me, too.”
“My only regret is that I didn’t step outside the lodge. I didn’t get to explore the area around it.”
Veer leaned closer to her. “I snuck out one night into the ranch behind the lodge. It’s awesome.”
“Can we go there… tonight?” she whispered.
“Are you asking me out?” he taunted.
“I don’t care what you call it. Take me out,” she pleaded.
“Okay. It’s a date. Meet me at the spot where I got scratched… at seven tonight.” He winked.
“Fine, it’s a date. I’ll order food for us and have it ready for us to eat there.”
“I’ll bring some wine,” he whispered, his breath warm in her ear making her body quiver.
*****
A few minutes before seven, Ariya picked up the soup and sandwiches from the restaurant in the lodge and headed out to the balcony. She went down the small flight of stairs looking for Veer. She looked out into the darkness and smiled when she saw him. He was waving his lit-up phone screen at her from the picnic tables.
She walked over to where Veer stood in the darkness and said, “I feel like a teenager sneaking out after the parents are asleep.”
“Someone sounds excited.” He laughed.
“I am and look I don’t have my camera. I intend to be a good date.”
“Nice, let’s go. Hold my hand and don’t let go.”
“Okay. How far are we going?”
“Not far. Maybe a ten-minute walk. There is a nice spot in the woods where there is a clearing.”
“Veer… is it safe to be out here in the dark.”
“The animals are as scared of you as you are of them.”
“Snakes?”
“No problem. You won’t see them, and if you do, they should be the one worried about being puked all over.” He laughed.
She slapped his arm. “Not funny.”
Veer led her, their fingers entwined, his phone light focused on the narrow path between the shrubs. She followed him silently, very aware of her hand in his. She felt comfortable with him even though she knew him for only a few weeks.
He stopped in the middle of a clearing. “Do you hear that?”
Before she could ask what he was talking about, she felt movement behind her. Veer pulled her to him and swung the bag slouched over his shoulder, right behind her. She heard the cracking of glass and a man’s voice groan in pain. Ariya was pulled away from Veer by two men, and she watched in horror as two other men attacked him.
Ariya watched in horror as Veer beat up the men. She stepped on one of the men’s foot making him let go of her.
Veer froze when one of the men called out in Spanish. Ariya gasped when she felt the edge of a knife on her throat.
“Let her go. You want me, I’ll go without a fight,” Veer ordered.
“No… she go,” the man growled and looked at his men who were dragging their feet after being beaten up by Veer.
“Veer… go get help,” Ariya called out when she realized there was no one to stop him.
Veer looked at the man who held her. “One scrape, and it will be the end of all of you.”
The man who held her moved and before she could react, she felt a piece of cloth cover her nose and moments later, she was lost in oblivion. Veer’s voice was getting distant by the passing microseconds.
*****
“Ariya… Ariya, wake up.” She heard Veer call out to her, but she didn’t want to wake up. A deep sleep pulled her back in, but the weird taste in her mouth made her want to throw up. She continued to hear Veer calling her name, and she finally opened her eyes.
She smiled when she saw him, and relief swept over his face. “Thank goodness. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I feel crappy.”
“Ariya… Ariya, listen to me. Don’t go back to sleep. Can you sit up?” Veer’s voice was insistent.
“Yes… stop saying my name so many times,” she spat.
“Sweetheart, look at me.” His voice held a command, but she responded to the endearment.
“Veer…”
“Baby, I want you to slowly roll to your side before you sit up. Can you do that?”
“Yeah.” She tried to use her hands for support, but she couldn’t move them.
“Your hands are tied behind your back, be careful.”
“Who did that?”
“The guys who kidnapped us.” His words sent a shockwave through her, and she remembered the last thing that happened.
She sat up and saw she was on a low wooden bench, and Veer was sitting in a chair, his hands tied to the arms of the heavy chair and his legs were bound as well.
“Oh no.” She started to panic.
“Ariya, look at me. I want you to slowly walk to me.”
She stood up and was thankful her legs weren’t tied. She took wobbly steps toward Veer and stopped inches from him.
“Sweetheart, I want you to reach into my pocket and pull out the Swiss knife. We need to get out of here before they get back.”
“Where did they go?”
“One of the guys had his face smashed by a wine bottle. They took him to the hospital,” he growled.
“You wasted good wine.” She was still under the effect of the drug they used to incapacitate her.
“The knife is in the left pocket. Can you reach for it?”
“My hands are tied.”
“I know, baby. You need to sit in my lap and run your fingers into my pocket.”
She snorted but sat on his lap. She reached for the pocket flap and tried to run her fingers in, but she did not feel anything. “Where is it?”
“Ariya, please stop moving so much.” Veer gritted his teeth.
“Are you sure it’s in your left pocket because I feel it on the right side.”
“Trust me, that’s not the army knife.” He groaned into her ear when she ran the back of her hand over the zipper of his shorts.
“Oh… sorry.” She laughed when she realized what she felt.
“Just bad timing for a lap dance.” He smirked.
“I’m not giving you a lap dance. I’m just trying to save you.” She dug her fingers deeper into his pocket and fished out the thick metallic tool.
“Okay, good. Now slowly get up and open one blade at a time. I will tell you when you have the knife out.”
“Okay, why were you carrying it, and why didn’t you use it?”
“I brought it to open the wine bottle, and it would be ridiculous to wave a Swiss army knife when they had a bigger knife to your throat.”
“Very smart. I’m impressed, Dr. Thakur.”
“Thank you, Ms. Dev. Now open one blade at a time.”
She opened and closed one blade at a time, and finally, she had the knife open. “Can you cut the ropes on my hands without looking?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Can you put the hilt of the knife in my mouth?” he asked.
She thought for a second before switching the blade of the knife to be in her hands and have the hilt point out from her hands. She went to one side of the chair and lay on her stomach over Veer’s lap feeding the hilt to him.
“You are so awesome.” He took the hilt of the knife into his mouth and slowly ran the blade over the thick rope that was wrapped around her wrist. A few minutes of rigorous grinding, and she felt the grip on her hands loosen.
She squeaked when her hands were freed. She stood up and took the knife out of his hand and pressed her lips to his cheek in sheer happiness. “You are my hero.”
“You are so drunk on that medicine. Can you carefully cut the rope on my hand… hold it steadily?”
“I know how to handle a knife.” She scowled taking the knife to the knotted rope on his hand. She cut through the rope and freed his hands. He took the knife from her and quickly cut himself loose.
He threw the rope aside and put the knife back into his pocket before pulling Ariya into his arms. She shuddered when his lips brushed against hers. “That’s how you kiss your hero.”
She pushed him away laughing. “Let’s go.”
“I need to go get my phone. It’s in the other room, and only one guy is in there,” Veer whispered.
“No, let’s go. I’ll buy you a new phone.”
Veer hushed her and slowly pulled on the door. It was locked from the outside. The door looked shabby and pretty thin.
“Can you just break that thing down?” she slurred.
“Wow, I should be recording this. Okay, I want you to pretend like you are crying. Cry out like you are in pain,” Veer whispered.
“Why?”
“Ariyaaa… baby, will you please start crying?” he pleaded.
Ariya smiled and started to wail, wail right into the keyhole. They stepped away from the door when they heard footsteps approaching the door, and she continued to sob. As soon as the doorknob turned, Veer held it and yanked the door open making the person on the other side of the door fall into the room onto the floor.
Veer landed on him and held his hands down. “You stay down if you don’t want to get hurt… comprendo?”
“Si…Si…” The man looked horrified and nodded in response.
“Let’s go,” Veer said getting off the man and waving his Swiss knife at him. On their way out, Veer grabbed his phone and a ring of keys and ran out. They realized when they stepped out that they were in one of the homes in the nearby town.
“You get what you wish for, you wanted to see the town. Now you get to see it.” Veer laughed looking around the house for a matching vehicle for the keys.
Veer took Ariya by her hand to one side of the house and let out a chuckle. “Nice.”
Ariya looked in horror as Veer turned on the ignition of a motorbike and gestured her to sit. Memories of the past accident came flooding, and she started to shiver.
“No.”
“Ariya, we don’t have time. Let’s go.” He walked the motorbike close to her.
“I can’t… I…”
“Come here.” He took her hand and brought her closer to the motorbike. “I want you to sit on the bike, close your eyes, and hold on to me.”
“Veer, you don’t understand…” She lost her words when bright lights from a vehicle shone on them.
“Baby, I got you. We need to go now. I promise I won’t let you get hurt.” He helped her get on the motorbike and rode down the narrow streets. She clung to him, her cheek to his back and her thighs clenching him. She shut her eyes tighter when she started to see the splatter of blood from the childhood accident and saw it vanish when she heard Veer say her name.
She took a deep breath and refused to open her eyes as her heart rumbled like the engine of the motorbike, as they rode through the town. She couldn’t deny the fact that she was still horrified to be on a bike, but she felt like she had a wall protecting her, and the wall was Veer, as he patted her arm around him, to comfort her.