CHAPTER 14
“Stay with me, sweetheart, you don’t want to get lost.” The woman looked at the child fondly.
“Okay, Mum.”
“Isn’t this a beautiful temple, Rana?”
“It’s big, and do all these people live here?”
She smiled at the innocent child. “They are here to see God.”
“I want to see God now.”
“You need to wait for Daddy to finish talking to his friends.”
The child looked around for his father and saw him seated with a few other men, deep in discussion.
“I want to go get Daddy.” The child turned but stopped when he saw his mom collapse to the concrete floor.
“Mum!” The child watched in horror as a masked man drove his knife into the woman’s stomach.
“Run, Rana!” the woman screamed, but the child watched in shock as his mother fought the masked man.
At one point, she pulled on the man’s mask, and the dark eyes looked threateningly at the child. The scary scar around the eye of the man sent chills through the child.
The child stood frozen to his spot, and then a loud noise and a fire engulfed the woman.
“Rana!” the voice was way too familiar.
Neil’s eyes shot open and looked into large worried eyes. Narmada was hovered over him running her hands on his face. “I’m right here, are you okay?”
Without another word, he took her into his arms. She felt his heart pound against her cheek, and he was in a cold sweat.
“Talk to me,” she pleaded and felt the shudder pass through him.
She slowly lifted herself up to look at him. He looked lost as he steadied his breathing. She had crashed in his arms after a turbulent night and woke up to him shaking violently in his sleep.
She ran her fingers through his slightly damp hair with slow, continuous strokes. She knew she couldn’t rush him and was confident he would tell her.
“Narmada… I don’t know why but from the first time I saw you, I started getting these dreams… nightmares.”
“What do you see?” She tried hard to keep her voice calm.
“I… I see a woman with her child.” His voice wavered.
“Who is the woman? Do you recognize her?”
“It’s the same woman, and she ends up injured every time I see her.”
“Is that your mother?” she asked after a long pause.
“I don’t know, I’ve never seen my mother.”
“Neil… what’s your first memory?”
He shook his head like he couldn’t remember anything. “The church, but I also remember these women dressed like Hindus taking care of me, but I can’t place them.”
“What is it about me that reminds you of the mother and the child?”
“I don’t know… I don’t even know if it’s because of you…” His voice trailed off as he sat up. He pulled on the sheets to expose her feet clad in the gold anklets.
He reached out gently and ran his fingertips over the metal jewelry. “Did you always wear these?”
“Yes, I’ve had them a long time. It’s a family heirloom.” She took in the confused look on his face and knew something was wrong.
“What else did you see?”
“I saw a man hurt the woman. He was wearing mask… no, he had a cloth covering his face, and he had a scar on his face.”
“Do you recognize any of the people? The child… how old is the child?”
“I don’t know, little boy,” he whispered.
“Can he talk?”
He nodded slowly.
“What’s common between each of these visions you have?” She ran her hand on his bare back as he lay on the bed, her anklets close to his lips.
“The mother and the child, and the mother is hurt in every single one of them,” he growled hugging her foot.
“Let’s go back to sleep, we can talk in the morning,” she pleaded watching him, his head by her feet.
He looked up at her like something flashed in his mind. “You know there is one person who reminds me of something, but I don’t know what, and that man is being protected by the Singhams.”
“Singhams? Is that why you asked me about Dev Singham last night?” She sat up on the bed and pulled the sheet around her nakedness.
“Yes.”
“Who is this man? How did you meet him?” She rested her back on the headboard.
“He was my hit, and I recognized his tattoo just as I was about to shoot him. I shot him in such a way that it wouldn’t kill him and was hoping to have Joe take him but… someone got to him before Joe could, I found out today the man is with the Singhams.”
“Who is Joe?”
“DIG’s son.”
“He is your brother,” she corrected.
“No… he lost his father because of me.”
“You are the only one who thinks that way… Oh, what does the tattoo look like?”
He closed his eyes like he was recollecting the pattern. “It’s a tattoo that runs from behind the ear down to the neck. It looks like a bow surrounded by some abstract pattern.”
“No way.” Her voice was shaky.
“What?” He picked up on the shift in her manner.
She got off the bed stumbling in the sheets and grabbed a pen and paper off the desk. She placed the sheet of paper in front of him. “Draw it, a rough picture, something.”
He slowly took the pen from her and slowly started sketching the bow. He put one stroke outward from the bow and heard her gasp. She took the pen from his hand and finished the pattern.
“Is this the one?”
He looked at her in shock. “Yes, this is the one.”
“Neil, how do you know this pattern? This is a centuries old Senani loyalty marking.” Her voice wavered.