Page 7 of Empowered
Ignoring me, he walked over to my side of the desk and plopped his computer right on top of my papers without any regard for my work.
I sat back in my chair and let out an exasperated sigh. When Jai was this focused on something it was impossible to get him to snap out of it. I blamed it on the computer engineer in him—insanely focused.
I didn’t have the energy to kick him out of my office because work was taking every ounce I had left in me. I still couldn’t get much sleep without waking up from nightmares of Amelia being taken.
I stared the monitor. “Why am I looking at our sales accounts?” I asked. Our business had slowed down considerably, so the listings were thinner than usual.
“Look at the shipping addresses,” he said, jabbing a finger at the screen in frustration.
I examined each of our upcoming scheduled shipments. Listings where product should be shipped to locations like Greece or the Dominican Republic all had shipping addresses in Jaipur. This could only mean that Tarun had successfully infiltrated our sales software. Up until now, he had sabotaged our business mostly by destroying our shipments or intercepting them before they were delivered. But now, he was redirecting entire shipments before they even left our docks.
I furrowed my brow, trying to figure out the point of such a move. “Why would he want all of that product in Jaipur?”
“I have no clue. I get that he might want us to see that he has full control over our accounts now, but I don’t know what he plans to do with all our product. He has his own to distribute, and a lot of it.”
“All the addresses are for different locations in Jaipur, too,” I mentioned.
“Why go through all that trouble collecting product at different sites? That just seems like extra work for him.”
I looked closer at the addresses to see if I recognized any of them. They seemed to belong to various businesses in the city but none of them looked familiar. The companies were all unique, except for Mongoose Inc. It was listed several times, which I found odd.
I took over Jai’s laptop and looked up the company. It belonged to a small fabric factory.
Jai studied what I was doing. “Why is Mongoose Inc. listed so frequently?”
I sat back in my chair, deep in thought. Why would he choose Mongoose Inc. in particular?
My thoughts played like a video. I remembered a children’s book my mother used to read to me about a mongoose. I recalled a conversation I had with Amelia before she was kidnapped. She had asked if any animal could defeat the cobra, which was on my family crest. I had told her about the mongoose. I had even called her “my little mongoose,” because she would be the death of me.
And here, a company called Mongoose Inc. was listed more than once in a string of unique addresses. It could all just be a random coincidence. There were lots of companies in India with “Mongoose” in the name. Yet, why this one in particular, and in Jaipur of all places—the city where Tarun’s last photo was taken?
My heart was racing. I knew in my gut what this meant.
I pushed my chair back and stood up. I had to start preparing. “Tell Saran to get the plane ready. We’re leaving for India, now.”
“Why?” Jai asked, utterly confused, as he shut his laptop.
“Amelia is alive.”
Chapter VII
Amelia
“You! Fucking cunt!”
I sat up on my mattress, startled by Tarun’s aggressive screams. Salena yelped in her cell like a frightened puppy.
The guard accompanying him opened my cell, allowing Tarun to bolt toward me so fast that I couldn’t get away in time. His hands were on my neck, pinning me to the mattress. He squeezed hard, closing off my trachea. I clawed at his hands in a desperate attempt to loosen his grip. I kicked my bare feet frantically, hoping to get him off me. I couldn’t breathe.
“You didn’t think I’d find out? After everything I’ve done for you as your host. Andthisis how you repay me?” His hold on me tightened and black spots began to dance in front of my eyes. “You changed all of the shipping addresses, sneaky bitch.”
I felt my consciousness slipping as my eyelids drooped.
He loosened his hands on my throat but straddled me to keep me from getting away. Immediately, I gasped for air. My throat burned as air rushed into my lungs, causing me to fall into a fit of coughing.
He pulled out a knife from his pocket and pressed the point into the flesh of my cheek. I felt a sharp pinch as the blade pierced my skin. Tears streamed down to my hair as I looked at the maniac on top of me. I was scared to talk, for fear of him sinking his knife even further into my face.
“When I give an order, I expect my employees to listen.” His crazed eyes were full of malice. He sliced the knife along my cheek and searing pain heated the side of my face when I felt the warm trickle of blood slide down to my ear. I screamed in agony.
