CHAPTER 7
“I’m ready to go,” Narmada announced stepping out of the bedroom into the living area later that day. Neil refused to take her out before sunset. She had managed to spend the day indoors, and he kept to himself. She heard him inside another room and wondered what he was doing there until he walked out of the room hot and sweaty, making her hot. He had been working out, and she couldn’t help but gawk at his ripped structure.
When she saw the sun go down, she went into her room for a shower and changed into a pair of leggings and a tunic that were in the closet. Her hair was combed back into a high pony, and she looked ready to hit the streets of whatever was the closest.
Neil was at the dining table loading his gun. He had changed also, and his hair was no longer unruly. “You need to eat first.”
“Eat what?” Her stomach grumbled at the thought of food.
“This,” he pointed to a bag of food on the table.
“That… no way. I ate that food twice already. I want to eat out. I’m starving,” she urged.
He looked at her without stopping to load his gun.
“Looks like you know how to handle a gun,” she teased remembering the time the previous night he stuck the barrel of it in her mouth.
He stood up and tucked the gun into his boot at the ankle. “I know a little.”
“Good, let’s go.”
“Not yet.” He walked toward her with a strip of black fabric in his hand.
She couldn’t help giggling when she realized it was a blindfold. “I didn’t realize you were into kinky stuff.”
“Stop,” he warned turning her around by her shoulder.
“Easy,” she crooned as he placed the piece of cloth over her eyes. “I know how to get to the hallway and the car. What the heck are you trying to do?”
“Shut up.” His breath was warm in her ear, and the heat made her want to pull him to her.
“Fine, I can’t see a thing. How am I going to walk?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt her body being lifted off the ground making her shriek in surprise.
“Hold on.” He had toted her over his shoulder, and it made her sense of space all the more confusing.
“Don’t let me go,” she pleaded.
“I won’t. Stop talking.”
Narmada was surrounded by darkness as he carried her around what seemed like a flight of stairs, then she heard water, then something rough and heavy moving, and a moment later, she smelled the fresh air. The night air was filled with fragrances from the plants surrounding the building.
“That smell is so nice.” She took in a deep breath of the fresh air as he carried her onto a flat surface. He set her feet on the ground a few minutes later and pulled off the blindfold.
It was pitch dark, and she had no idea what time it was. “Where are we going?”
“You said out, this is it.” His voice was soft but steady.
“Dude, I can’t see your face so clearly, and I can’t tell if you are kidding or serious.”
“I don’t joke around.”
“Fine, call Raj. I need to talk to him,” she challenged.
He cursed under his breath. “Move.”
“What do you mean move, I can’t see a thing.”
“Fine, follow me.”
“What the heck, give me your hand, so I don’t fall and hurt my pretty delicate flower face,” she grumbled, and the next moment, she heard the laughter, the laughter she was familiar with. It was how the Neil she knew laughed.
“Oh my God, I found my long-lost friend in this darkness,” she teased.
“Come here,” he said taking her hand with a smile only he knew was playing on his lips.
She took his hand gratefully and gingerly followed him. “No street lights?”
“This is a forest.”
“Does the forest have a name?”
“Does it matter?” he retorted.
“Fine, don’t tell me. Where are we going?”
“Out.”
“Stop being a dick!”
A few minutes into the walk, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she was surprised she could see the dusty path they were walking on and the darkness from the huge trees surrounding them. The hut or the fake hut was built right in the middle of the forest, and she could barely see it until they came close to it.
“Are we going to walk all the way to wherever we are headed?”
“Maybe.”
“What is wrong with you? How did you turn into an asshole?”
“I was always one. Never claimed not to be one.”
“Whatever… so do you live here while you are not doing what you do?”
“What do you think I do for a living?” He couldn’t believe he was having a conversation with her. It had been years since he had exchanged so many words with one person. From the time he left what he had thought was going to be his home forever, he had not exchanged more than a few words with anyone. Something about her made him want to talk, making the pressure ease a bit from his chest.
She pulled her hand away from his and folded her arms in front of her chest and kept walking. “I don’t need to have a conversation like this.”
She kept walking in silence, and a few more minutes into the walk, he stopped and waited for her to realize he had stopped walking. As expected, she walked a few meters after he had stopped and turned to look at him. Her silhouette was that of an angry but confident woman.
“Now what?” she asked, her voice piercing through the quiet night.
“Hang on.”
She watched as his silhouette disappeared into the shrubbery, and after a lot of ruffling noises, there was a loud growl of an engine that boomed in her ears, and a bright light flashed in front of her almost blinding her. She looked in the direction of the light with squinted eyes.
She watched in amazement as Neil drove a massive motorbike from behind the bushes and slowly rode toward her.
“Not taking out your fancy car?”
“Want to be caught and taken back home?” he taunted making her want to slap him, but she refrained. She was itching to touch him again and have him touch her like he did earlier that day. It’s what her body wanted, but is that what her mind, and ultimately her heart, wanted?
She stood by the motorbike, her hand on his shoulder lost in thought.
“Hey,” his soft voice interrupted her thoughts, and when she looked into his eyes, something in her chest flipped. Her heart was trying to say something, but she knew it was lying to her. Her heart betrayed her once—the one time she let someone close to her—that person disappeared from her life. Even when she was a young woman, her heart told her he had something for her, but she knew he didn’t, and it only made her feel like a fool. A heartsick fool, and she couldn’t put herself through it again. Her mind was her weapon, and she fought her body’s impulse and heart’s longing as she climbed onto the bike.
She sat on the bike, her palms flattened on her thighs, back straight, and her body away from him.
“Hold onto something or be prepared to fall,” he warned.
She slowly moved her hands to rest them on his shoulder. Her body wanted more, but she knew she had to stop.
The rumble of the engine resonated with the drumming of her heart as memories of their time came crashing back—the endless time they had spent talking, studying, working on projects—what was the best time of her entire life.
Neil was the one person who showed her what it meant to have a friend, a friend who you could share everything with. But more than the happiness he gave her, he gave her ten times more pain, and that was the moment she decided to wipe him out of her life and to never think about him again.
She looked up at the dark sky fighting tears when she realized he was the reason she had not been able to get close to anyone. At almost twenty-four, she refused to get married because she didn’t trust anyone with her heart. He had managed to break her heart and rip it out of her chest, but the stupid thing was still beating for him.
“Stop,” she cried unable to handle the pain.
Neil pulled off the thin, mud lane and kicked open the side stand. He turned off the engine to look at her as she got off the bike. “Now what?”
She ran her fingers through her hair, her face turned away from him.
“Narmada, what is it? Talk to me.”
The last three words hit the nail on the head for her. “Really? I need to talk to you? Why don’t you start talking to me for a change?”
Neil took a deep breath and got off the bike. He turned off the lights and took a few steps toward her. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Why did you leave?” She didn’t have to give him any context. He knew what she was talking about.
“I had no choice.”
“You couldn’t come say goodbye before you left?” she challenged.
“Narmada, why does all of that matter now? It happened six years ago, we were too young for it to mean anything. We were just friends.”
“Liar,” she snarled.
“As I said, we were young, and if we felt more than just the friendship… it was just… infatuation.” He shrugged like it was nothing.
She felt something clench in her heart turning into a burn. Unable to bear the burn, she reached out to slap him, but he was too fast for her. He caught her by her wrist and held her at a distance.
“You need to stop these dramas,” he growled effortlessly pinning her hands together.
“This is not drama. I need to know… I need to know why you broke my heart.” Her words sliced through him like a Ninja knife.
Neil cursed under his breath not knowing what to say and realized there was no hiding anything from her. She was the one person he could talk to—maybe he should talk.
“I left because I was finished with my task.”
“What task? Being my fake friend or bodyguard,” she retorted.
“Narmada, I was hired as your bodyguard because you refused to go to college with your usual security. I faked not to be a bodyguard, but I did not fake friendship,” his voice wavered.
She had shut him out of her life when he disappeared with no final word. He was the first friend she had after moving back from New York, a friend who turned out to be a hired bodyguard. It angered her when she found out but soon realized his friendship was genuine.
“So why did you leave? I was willing to be your friend after I found out you were my bodyguard,” she challenged.
“That was not the real reason why I was there.”
“Was your task to kill Mr. Reddy?” Her words rang in his ears. He didn’t realize she knew he was the one who killed the man.
“How did …?”
She could tell he was taken aback. “I saw you right after you did it… you had the same look you did when you killed that guy who attacked me, Neil.”
He could not believe his ears. His first kill for revenge, hatred, and duty bore no witnesses or at least he thought so until now.
“You knew, and you didn’t say anything, and you still wanted to be friends?” It was his turn to ask questions.
“You need to answer my question first. Why did you suddenly leave when you stuck around even after finishing your task?” She wasn’t going to let go.
“I stayed longer so I wasn’t a suspect.”
“Just long enough so you could kiss me?” she blurted.
“Fuck!”
“Oh yeah, you think it’s frustrating to be asked questions? It’s the one I’ve asked myself a million times.” She sobbed.
“I’m sorry… I…”
“Unacceptable, Neil, a measly sorry doesn’t cut it. Why did you disappear.”
The pressure on his chest was too much to handle. “Because I had a long list of people to kill,” he growled.
“What? Why?”
“You won’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“I was out there to kill the bastard who took the life of the man who rescued me, made me part of his home, and just when I thought I had everything…” He couldn’t continue, his throat was closing in like it was too painful to talk about it.
She took a step toward him to close the gap and wrapped her arms around him. “What happened?”
“I can’t talk about it…”
“You need to, you can tell me.” She was right, if there were anyone he could open up to, it would be her—not even the people he grew up with—only her, and it was beyond his understanding as to why he felt that way.
“Let’s walk.” Her voice was soft. She took his hand in hers and led him down the dark, narrow mud road. “Who is this man?”
“The man who rescued me from this goon who was training me to be an assassin.”
“What?”
“I was five when I took the first shot with a pistol. I was told I was born to kill and… it turns out I still couldn’t escape it.”
“Escape what?” She entwined her fingers with his.
“Being a killer.”
“Why do you have to be a killer?” Her question was innocent.
“I have no choice, I have to finish what I started,” he declared roughly.
“What is…”
He didn’t let her finish. “I need you to eat first, and then we can talk.”
“Neil…”
“Not now.”
“Fine, let’s go get your bike now. I don’t want to walk if you are not going to talk.” She grumbled and started walking back toward the bike.