He places the weapon on his knee, glances at Arun. “Don’t worry. I’ll give it back when I’m done.”
Arun just nods, shaken.
An elevator dings, and I see Pappa and Mamma sweeping toward us, surrounded by a large group of security men. Pappa wears a very fine Western suit, his black hair slicked back, a cold, angry expression on his face. Mamma wears, as always, a saree. A deep blue one, trimmed with gold, with matching shoes. Her eyes go to me, to Kane, widening, and then her expression goes worried before she closes it down.
Pappa comes to a halt a few feet away, his hard dark eyes flicking over the situation—Arun, seated, still visibly shaken, the other two men far away from Kane and me; Kane with the gun on his knee, large hand casually resting on the weapon; me, seated as close to Kane as I can get, Kane’s arm around my shoulders, my hand on his thigh, so there is no mistaking our relationship to each other.
“What is the meaning of this nonsense?” Pappa snaps to me in Hindi. “You will come away from this man right now, Anjalee Sharma.”
I lean closer. “I will do no such thing. I am through with blindly obeying you.” I say this in English, to prove a point of some kind, I am not sure exactly what.
“You are through with nothing. I have exercised enough patience. It is done, now. Jiwan is—”
“IDO NOT CARE ABOUT JIWAN!” I shout, as loud as I can. “I told you and I told you, I would not marry that man. You did not listen to me. You have never listened to me—no, that is not true. You would have had to allow me to speak at all in order to not listen to me. You do not treat me like a person, Pappa. You treat me like a possession. I am not your thing to own, I am not your slave which you will order around and control. Not anymore. I am my own person.”
“You are my daughter, and you will do as you are told.” His voice is frigid, hard as steel. “I shall not repeat myself. Mr. Sutherland will leave, and you will be married to Jiwan as I have instructed you.”
I lift my chin. “I shall do no such thing.”
He glances at the security man to his right. “Bring her. Now.”
Kane lifts the pistol. “Not so fast, Rohit.”
“You do not factor into this. Be silent.” Pappa says this with a sneering curl of his lips. He snaps his fingers. “Now.”
The man moves toward me, and Kane surges to his feet. Tucking the pistol into the waistband of his jeans at his back, he steps in front of me. “Warning number one. You get two, and then I start hurting people. No one touches her except me, never again.” He points at the man approaching. “Boy, you like your shit intact, you stay your ass there. You take one step closer, you’ll leave on a stretcher and breathe through a tube.” To Pappa, then. “Doesn’t have to be like this, man. You could step down off your high horse and act like a fuckin’father, instead of an arrogant, controlling piece of shit.” He gestures at me. “That’s yourdaughter, man. You treat her worse than a dog. And yet, somehow, despite you and the shit you’ve piled on her her whole life, she’s an amazing person. Kind, loving, smart, thoughtful, beautiful, curious, adventurous. And that’s no thanks to you. This could be a good thing, her and me. I’d be willing to compromise. Bring her to see you, whenever she wanted. I’m already learning your language. I’ll go to your church or whatever. Shit, I’ll wear your clothes. I’ll convert. I’ll go to India. Whatever it takes, to make her happy. Give her the life she deserves. You could give her that. Let her live her life, let her make her own choices, and just accept it, accept her, and you’ll have your daughter in your life. Won’t be your way, on your terms. But you’ll have her. You just gotta take a step back and quit tryin’ to control everything she thinks, says, and does. She don’t belong to you, man. People don’t belong to other people, except in the sense that a person can choose to belong to someone. I choose to belong to her. I’m hers. She chooses to belong to me, that makes her mine. But not like you think. I’ll never control her. I’ll never dictate a single thing to her.”
Pappa listens, and I can tell nothing Kane is saying is penetrating. If anything, it is only angering him worse.
Kane isn’t done. “You got this one shot, Rohit. You gonna choose your ego, and lose your daughter, or you gonna choose yourself and lose her?” He holds out his hands, palms up, then drops them to his sides. “And don’t think your boys here can do dick to force the issue. I’ll wipe the fuckin’ floor with everyone you got, and I’ll do it unarmed, and I won’t kill anyone.”
I stand up and move next to Kane. “Pappa, please. If you cannot accept that I am going to choose myself and my life, then at least do not do anything foolish.”
Pappa blinks a few times, slowly. Stares hard at Kane. “You are making an enemy of me.”
Kane just laughs. “Dude, you are the most obtuse person I’ve ever met. This is your second warning. Let us go.” He takes my hand, not looking at me even as he addresses me. “Think you’ve got your answer, honey. Let’s go.’
I thread my fingers into his. “Goodbye, Rohit Sharma. You will not see me again. Not ever.”
“Anja,” Mamma breathes. “No.”
I look at her. “I am sorry, Mamma. I know you will not speak against him, even if you do not agree with him. You take his side. You let him control my life, always. And yours. No more, Mamma. Not for me.”
Pappa snaps his fingers. “Take her.”
Kane pulls his hand from mine and uses his body to knock me to the couch.
The next few moments are a blur of motion—Kane moving, faster than I have ever seen any human being move. I cannot follow his actions, only seeing the results. There is a smack of flesh, a cry, blood. A body in a suit crumples, moaning. Something cracks, like a branch breaking. There is another cry of pain. A body flies through the air, impacts another of the security men, and they both go down. I see Kane’s boot slashing through the air, crashing into a chest, and then his fists move, his elbows, his knees, his forehead. He does not need a weapon, because heisone.
Within the time it takes me to blink perhaps four times, all of Pappa’s men are on the floor, moaning. Kane is not even breathing hard. Moving with deliberate slowness, he pulls the gun from his waistband, moves into Pappa’s personal space, and touches the barrel under Pappa’s chin.
His voice is a razor blade. “Told you, Rohit. You’re not my enemy. The only enemies I’ve ever had are all dead and rotting in the sand a few thousand miles away. You don’t factor, as you put it. You’re not enough of a threat to be an enemy. I protect what’s mine. She’s mine. And Rohit, I’ll make you this promise—I’ll give her everything she’s ever wanted…freedom. I can’t give her fancy shit like you can, and guess what? She won’t care. What she wants is to justlive. Now. I know a vengeful, arrogant prick like you—and probably that Jiwan fucker you tried to sell your own daughter to…you’re gonna have thoughts of sending more pathetic wannabe fucks like those—” he jerks his head in the direction of the bodies on the floor, “to press the issue. That would not be smart. We won’t kill ‘em, I can promise you that, but if you send anyone after us, afterher, they’ll never be the same. They may live, but they won’t fuckin’ like it. We clear, Rohit?”
“You do not know what you are doing,” Pappa says, eyes as cold and angry as ever.
Kane jams the gun up harder. “Yougetme?”
Pappa lifts his chin, lip curling. “Take her then, if you wish. You have already sullied her, I am sure.”
