CHAPTER 18
An eerie darkness enveloped them as they drove toward their final destination. It was early in the morning, and their SUV was the only vehicle on the single-lane highway.
“You can run, but you can’t hide from me. I will find you, Neil,” Narmada said looking at Neil’s profile as he kept his eyes on the road.
“Narmada…what are…”
She didn’t let him finish. “I am not asking you for an opinion, I’m just letting you know.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am dead serious. Did you think I would stay with Raj and have his babies?” Her words sent jitters through his being. He couldn’t even think of the picture she was referencing. He couldn’t bear the idea of her with another man, but he knew he couldn’t have her, he couldn’t give her the life she is accustom to.
“Raj can give you the life you deserve.” His voice was cold.
“Who the fuck are you to decide what I want in life? I get to, and I want you. What part of that do you not understand,” she barked.
He tightened his fingers on the steering wheel but did not respond.
“I don’t care for the riches. I will live where you live, I will eat what you eat, and if I can’t handle the spice, you can kiss my burn away.” She sobbed angry tears rolling down her cheek.
“Narmada, that’s enough. Do not do this. Nothing will stop me from fulfilling my duty.”
“What about you? What about the Neil who wanted to come see me?” she whispered.
“Neil does not exist. The only thing I know is to kill, and no matter how much people try to steer my destiny, I end up being the person who was born to kill.
“Why do you…”
He cut her off. “The DIG would have been alive if he hadn’t adopted me. His family would have been happy.”
“You can’t blame yourself for what happened to the DIG.”
“I’m to blame for his death and for every threat his family gets. My duty is to kill every person who even came close to thinking about killing the DIG.”
“Will he come back if you killed everyone?” Her words seared.
When he didn’t respond, she continued, “Is this why he rescued you from the goon? So you can be a killer again? You are defeating the whole purpose of him taking you away from that life.”
“Shut up.” It was a growl that sent shivers down her spine.
“You will not utter another word. I will not take this crap anymore. I know what I am doing and why I am doing this.”
“No, you fool, you don’t. I know you love me. Why is it hard for you to accept it?”
“Last warning, Narmada.”
“What are you going to do, Neil? Shoot me? Just do that, I would happily die with your bullet in my heart. Do it,” she challenged making him steer the car off the highway and down the slope.
The SUV came to a screeching halt, and the next thing she felt was the grip in her hair.
Her face was inches from his. “Do not push your luck, Narmada Senani.”
“What are you going to do, Hunter?” she growled, knowing he would not like it.
His grip on her hair tightened, and she heard his teeth grinding against each other. She looked into his cold eyes, challenging them. There was nothing about him that could scare her. He may be a killer and was capable of killing her in a second, but it didn’t scare her.
She pushed forward clashing her lips to his. The pain from the impact turned into waves of pleasure as she leaned into him as he pulled her onto him.
His lips were rough on hers, there was no tenderness, and she wasn’t expecting any. His teeth sunk into her lower lip making her yelp into his mouth, and she kissed him back with equal aggression. Her hands cupped his face, but her nails dug into the skin behind his ears scraping off the delicate skin.
He growled into her mouth when she bit his upper lip. He pulled away to take his lips to her jawline and buried his face into the crook of her neck. His hands roamed her back occasionally to inflict delectable pain on her flesh.
The moment was too intense, and he had no way to control it. He had no idea what he was doing, but he could not stop. The anger was turning him rock hard, and every time he dented her skin with his fingers, she moaned making him want to shoot off like a teenager.
She let out a growl pulling him closer when he sunk his teeth into the skin on her neck. Her inner muscles clenched causing her to come from the sheer intensity of the shooting pain. She pulled away to pull his lips to hers enjoying the punishing kiss.
She arched her back on the steering wheel opening up her chest for him. The t-shirt and the bra did not stand a chance against his hungry mouth. She felt the warmth around her nipple, but it was not like the first time he took her—he was inflicting pain on every part of her, and she could not get enough.
“I want more,” she yelled letting her head fall back as he sucked her breasts, nipping and licking them. She pulled on the hem of his t-shirt to run her hands on his rock-solid muscles.
She felt the burn on her nipples as he relished on them and a matching burn started deep inside her. Her pleasure cavity was throbbing wanting to be filled, and she knew there was no other way to complete the engagement.
She pulled on his belt as he continued to devour her mounds of flesh with his mouth. There was no resistance when she pulled his zipper down and took the throbbing beast into her hands.
She pushed her knees onto his lap and slightly raised herself off him. He growled claiming her mouth with his when she guided the rock-hard shaft to her weeping folds.
He gave a gentle shove as soon as the tip made its way in, and she thought she was going to die with an overdose of pleasure. It felt like she was running on a high dose of a potent drug as he plunged in and out of her, his mouth never leaving hers.
She felt the tip of his shaft touch her womb, and the hilt caressed her clit making her implode. She saw the sparks in the darkness as she came and heard him groan. She rode her orgasm, and when he came, he painted her inner walls with his heat, and she was sure she was going to pass out from the way the blood rushed in her ears.
She called out his name and collapsed onto him unable to move. Her body trembled from the new experience.
“Fuck,” he growled into the crook of her neck making her pull back to look at him.
His eyes were on her neck where her skin burned. A slow smile appeared on her face when she realized what he was looking at. “Did you mark me?”
“Stop it, Narmada.”
“Stop fucking around, Neil. Look at us, we had the most amazing sex when we are angry enough to kill each other, and any couple would kill for a relationship like this.”
He looked at her long and hard before she took her lips to him. “I love you for what you are. Any other man would have slapped or hit me but you… you couldn’t raise your hand, you are not capable of hurting me.
“Are you nuts? Have you seen what I have done to your body?”
“Do you know how much pleasure it gives me?”
“You are fucked up,” he declared pushing her off to the passenger seat.
She adjusted her clothes as she watched him do the same. “I’m fucked up for you.”
“That’s enough. I will have someone come get you from here if you say another word.”
She nodded unable to comprehend giving up the time she had with him that day. She was going to escape no matter what and hunt him down.
Narmada sat next to him without uttering a word for the next few hours as they drove on the endless highway. Her body trembled, and her skin tingled from his invasion that morning. She could tell it had an effect on him, too. She noticed the shift in his behavior as they started approaching a city. She saw the sheer layer of moisture on the steering wheel every time he took his hand off to change gears. He was anxious, and it gave her hope. She kept her hopes up as he drove through the city traffic, his eyes never leaving the road.
He finally pulled off the busy streets and drove onto a winding road. It took her a few minutes to realize it was a private driveway. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. All she could think of was to run, bolt as soon as he stopped the car, even if it meant running away from him for self-preservation. She gripped the door handle as they approached a tall gate that connected a high concrete wall that looked impenetrable.
Neil rolled down the window to look at the guard who approached the SUV. “I am delivering Raj’s package. Tell him I need my package.”
She fumed silently as he drove past the iron gates, down another winding driveway.
“Take care of yourself, Narmada.” His voice was calm.
“Oh shut up, don’t pretend like you care,” she barked.
He did not respond, but she heard his breath hiss and knew it was not easy for him. Her heart cracked when she caught the layer of moisture in his eyes just before he stopped the car.
She looked away fighting the need to hold onto him and cry. She wasn’t going to beg him to stay. She would hunt him down and make him pay for choosing his self-defined duty over her.
“Oh, my sweet flower. You made it.” She heard an annoying voice as the car door opened.
“Back off, you idiot, I will slit your throat if you touch me.” She got out of the car and walked toward the entrance without another glance his way.
“Hunter, my brother. I finally get to see you.” She heard Raj sing praises for bringing her as she walked into the massive living area of an urban mansion.
Neil felt his chest bleed as she walked away from him. Raj’s words fell on deaf ears as he continued to stare at her hoping she would look at him, but she did not.
“Here you go, bro. As promised, the answer to who killed the DIG.” Raj handed him an envelope.
Neil opened the envelope and pulled out a few pictures. They were pictures of the goon who had kidnapped him along with several hundred kids.
“Is this a joke?” he demanded when he saw the pictures of the goon in his prison clothes.
“Hunter, look at what he has in his hands. I am told that was the proof that was collected when the job was executed.” Raj pointed to the gold chain with a very familiar pendant hanging below his fist.
Neil could not believe his eyes. The goon proudly held the chain that the DIG had worn and had gone missing. He still remembered the way the DIG pulled out the pendant from under his collar when he prayed before leaving for work.
When he saw his savior’s body at the hospital, it was the first thing he noticed—the missing chain. He didn’t say anything to the DIG’s family when they didn’t notice anything, but it was a burning question in the back of his mind.
He put the pictures back into the envelope and got into the SUV.
“Thanks again, Hunter,” Raj called out as he drove away.
The anger and the revenge burned him as the truth hit him. The truth that he was the reason for the DIG’s death. The harsh truth that he had spared the life of the real killer only because he assumed he wouldn’t have done it while he was in jail. He took a deep breath fighting the anger, but something else topped the emotion—a sadness—a sadness that threatened to consume him.
“Joe,” he barked as soon as his adopted brother answered the phone.
“Are you okay?”
“It was because of me, Joe. It was because of me that our father died.” His voice wavered.
“Neil, stop if you are driving. I am not talking to you if you are driving,” Joe declared roughly.
“Joe, he would have been alive if he hadn’t rescued me.” He floored the pedal making the engine growl.
“Neil, calm down.”
“If only I knew, I would have slit his throat years ago.” Neil slammed his palms on the steering wheel.
“A police officer chooses the life, the life of giving up their own life in the line of duty. My father knew who he was dealing with, and you have seen the list of every person who had put up a bounty on his head.” Joe stayed calm.
“Doesn’t matter, the kill was because of me,” Neil barked.
“So, what? It so happened the man you helped get arrested got to him before the rest of the goons.” Joe remained calm.
“Joe, this is your father we are talking about.”
“I know, Neil, the father who found me a brother who is more dedicated than I am to avenge his death.” Joe’s words rang in Neil’s ears.
“He should have never saved me.”
“It was inevitable, Neil, his death. Because of the people he dealt with, it would have happened no matter what.”
“Joe… I am not going to spare that pig’s life. I am going to the prison right now.”
“Neil… do you realize what you are saying? You are not thinking straight. There is no way you can get to him in that jail. We both know that from the numerous attempts of enabling his escape. What happened to you?”
Joe’s words shook Neil to the core. The words ‘You are not thinking straight’ rang in his ears. He wasn’t thinking straight, and he knew why. He could still feel the pain from watching her walk away from him. It was like no other pain he had ever experienced. The pain from the bullet shot or from the knife that stabbed into his core was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his chest.
“Neil… Is it because of Narmada?” Joe hit the nail on the head.
When Neil did not respond, Joe knew what was wrong. “Don’t do this to yourself. This is not what Dad wanted for you. He didn’t bring you home for you to go back to what you were doing when he found you.”
“No…”
“Listen to me, you are defeating the purpose of him bringing you home if you don’t stop this. I should have never let you go after all those people, but I was thinking just like you back then… but now… I want you to have your own life, family… that’s what Dad wanted for you. He would have never wanted you to become ‘The Hunter’.” Joe’s words rang in Neil’s ears.
“But, that pig…” Neil growled.
“He is not coming back, Neil, and he is MY father, so stop thinking about him and for once think of your life,” Joe’s voice blared through the car speakers.
“No… I need to get to him now. He doesn’t get to take another breath of air.”
“Neil, come home. That’s enough. He is in jail and in my jurisdiction. Let me handle him,” Joe ordered.
“I cannot…”
“You haven’t been home in six years. I am sick of lying to Mom every time she asks about your whereabouts.”
“Joe, I cannot face her now… knowing I was the reason for…”
“Neil, come home, and we can discuss what to do next. That’s an order,” Joe commanded.
Neil took a deep breath clutching the steering wheel. “Okay.”
He ended the call and reached over to the other side to open the glove box to put the envelope with the pictures in it.
The familiar jingling sound tore through him, and his heart gripped in pain when he saw her anklets fall to the floor of the car.