Page 16 of Empowered
I tasted the saltiness of the streams running down my face on my tongue as I opened my mouth to speak. “Shyam.” I sobbed violently, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
The line went silent except for what sounded like heavy breaths desperately trying to steady themselves. Then I heard a final leaden exhale on the other end before he spoke again. “Are you okay?”
No.I wasn’t. I wanted to tell him everything they had done to me. But there would be time for that later.
I took a deep breath to settle my tears. “Shyam, we have to get Salena. Tarun’s keeping her prisoner.” I told him how I had escaped and how Tarun was planning to marry Salena tomorrow at his house. I also told him that he was living undercover at his house.
“I know about the wedding,” he said. “He’s invited my ex-clients and is planning to make a spectacle of it.”
“He’ll know she had something to do with my escape. Please, you have to get her out of there before he kills her!” I pled. They had probably already discovered that Noor and I were missing by now. Once they found her body, Tarun would put it all together and would take his rage out on Salena.
“We will,jaan.In the meantime, I need you to stay with Zayn.”
I looked over to the man keeping a watchful eye over me.
“But—I can help! I know the layout of the palace, and—”
“Amelia. No,” he cut me off before I could even argue my case. His tone told me that he wasn’t up for negotiating on the matter.
I was furious that he thought me incapable of helping. I had been ripped away from all that I knew and treated heinously as a prisoner in another country. I had survived and even escaped, using my own wits. And now he was treating me like a delicate flower, afraid that I would wilt at the slightest change of climate.
“Stop treating me like I’m fragile. I won’t break. I made it this far. I promised Salena I’d go back for her.”
He sighed, exasperated. “I lost you once and now I need you to stay safe,” he said. “Please understand.” His tone was different, not one of control and anger. No. This was the sound of a man who was lacking control. He sounded like he had experienced a reckoning of his own power and realized that there was much that was beyond it.
I heard the desperation in his voice. I understood what it was like to not have control over a situation. I had none of it when I was Tarun’s prisoner. I wouldn’t fight him on this any longer, so I gave in. “Okay.”
“I promise I will see you soon,jaan.” His voice was thankful that I had conceded.
He didn’t hang up immediately. Neither of us wanted to be the first to leave so soon after finally being reunited.
I whispered into the phone, “I need you to stay safe, too.” He was about to face Tarun, and anything could happen to him. I was lucky to have made it away alive, but he might not be so lucky. Tarun wouldn’t let him go without one of them dying in the process.
“I will,” he promised, and I believed him.
The phone went dead on the other end.
Chapter XIII
Shyam
It was difficult to hang up on her, but more difficult to stay on the line—to hear her voice and not be in the same room as her. To listen to her story. To heal her wounds. To console her.
When my phone alerted me that the recognition software had found a match against one of Amelia’s photos, I wanted to drive over to her and get her myself. Even though I was in a hotel in Jaipur, it would have been a good twenty minutes before I reached her. Luckily, Zayn had been staked out in an apartment across the street from Mongoose Inc. He had received the notification as soon as I did and acted quickly. He was able to retrieve her and take her to a safe space to hideout.
He had given her a low dose of chloroform to knock her out so she wouldn’t resist him. She had nearly evaded him, but her physical strength was no match for Zayn’s muscular physique.
He reported a huge gash on her cheek that had been open and wet with coagulated blood. Fortunately, he was able to tend to her wound while she was out cold, before infection set in.
I paced around my hotel room listening to Zayn’s report. I balled my fist tightly against my side when he told me the details of her wound. Tarun had done this to her beautiful face. He marked her—caused her pain. I would make his death slow and painful for laying a finger on Amelia. It was my vow to her.
I had already known about Tarun’s wedding to Salena. One of our ex-clients had been followed by Javed. He was a distributor from England who had traveled to India for vacation. The guys saw him out at a local bar the night we set-up headquarters at the hotel in Jaipur.
The days of planning had been long. The men needed to let off some steam. They hadn’t rested since Amelia had been taken. While I was wasting away in my bed, they had been out working with Jai to locate Tarun and get revenge on my behalf. I felt that they deserved a night off before resuming our work. I let them go out and stayed behind with Jai to refine my plans.
When the guys were out, they overhead one of my former clients, a man named Jameson from England bragging about attending a lavish wedding, referring to it as “the wedding of the year.” He had always been loud and boisterous when he was my client. When I was in England for business, he’d insist on holding meetings at the most extravagant restaurants and clubs, always making a scene and flaunting his money. It was distasteful to witness. I was told that he was no different when my men saw him.
Javed remembered his face and kept eyes and ears on him throughout the evening. He never mentioned that it was Tarun’s wedding but did spill that it was at a palace in Jaipur that no one had ever been inside near Chandni Road. He flaunted that it was a new business partner to anyone who would listen, making no effort to keep his volume low.
