Page 18 of Born in Sin
“We need to go to the infirmary.” Celina stepped into the room, her face pale and set. “That’s infected. The ointment won’t help now.”
“Thank you, Dr. Fernandez,” Ishaan retorted sarcastically. “But we’ve got this.”
“She’s right,” Amay muttered. “It looks really bad.”
“We don’t need her help,” Ishaan replied, glaring at her. “Go away and play with your friends now. Leave us alone.”
But Celina wasn’t looking at Ishaan. She was looking only at Virat, her gaze locking with his, worry and fear etched into it.
“If you guys won’t fix this,” she said, her voice low and fierce. “I will. I’ll get help.”
Without another word, she turned around and ran from the room. Virat tried to stop her. He tried to tell her that it wasthe worst possible idea to go to her mother, as he knew she planned to do, but he couldn’t.
As Celina left the room, his vision went from gray to black and he slid to the floor, for once in his life, not feeling the pain.
Chapter Seven
VIRAT
My place please.
That was all Virat had texted his friends so when he heard the code being input at the front door, he hurried over to open it before they strode in like they normally did.
If ever there was a moment that was surreal, this was it. He opened the door to Ishaan and Amay, Celi sitting on his couch, a glass of sparkling water in her hand.
“Do you know you have an angry giant standing outside and glaring at your front door?” Ishaan asked the minute he walked in.
Virat didn’t bother with an answer. He saw his friends glance over his shoulder at her and then back at him. Amay’s eyebrows shot up and Ishaan’s comical double take would have been funny if the situation hadn’t been so crazy.
“Wow,” Ishaan murmured. “I just asked you to call her. You overachiever, you!”
“Shut up, Ish.” Amay gave him a shove from behind and stepped into the room. They walked back towards where she sat, staring down at her phone.
“Celina!” Ishaan threw his arms open wide. “So good to see you!”
Her chilly stare froze his boisterous greeting in a second and he dropped his hands, realizing the hug was never coming. Virat stifled a smile at his stunned expression. Amay stepped smoothly into the breach.
“Hi Celina. Hope you’re well?”
She nodded. “As well as I can be given the circumstances.”
“Ahh yes, the circumstances,” Ishaan added awkwardly. For once in his life, he didn’t seem to have anything cheeky to add to the conversation.
“Sit.” Virat shoved him into a chair, and he collapsed into it without another word. Amay sat down on the couch facing Celina. “Celina has an idea for handling the Dusty Devils. I’m going to let her walk us through it.”
She sat forward, her glorious hair falling in unruly waves around that perfect face, her thin cream coloured, cashmere sweater falling in loose folds over her tight jeans. She looked like every man’s dream.
And she was, but she’d beenhisdream long before their world had turned into a nightmare. He wanted that time with her back with an intensity that crawled through his gut and into his very soul itself. And it was never going to happen.
“I’m going to use a burner phone to send them, specifically Majid, messages, little tidbits of things that happened thatnight. It will have them on edge and push them off the cliff of reason. Hopefully it pushes them to make mistakes.”
“Mistakes?”
“Those guys are loose cannons just waiting to go off,” she said softly. “We all know that. We just need to light the taper. It will drive them insane to have a victim from their past step out of the dark and come for them. Their victims are meant to cower under their beds, not extend their middle fingers in their direction.”
“They’ll just assume that the messages are coming from one of us.” Amay frowned, his brain puzzling away at it.
“They won’t.” She leaned back, inhaled deeply. “There are things about that night that no one but I would know.”
