Page 102 of Addiction

Armaan led her to the stairs. Arlo was waiting at the bottom. He stepped forward and spoke in rapid Russian to Armaan and Mihir. The three men spoke for a few seconds, and then Arlo left, his face set in a hard line. She studied his profile; he was tall, blonde, and huge. Could it have been him with Rehana?

“What did he want?” Navya asked, her heart running away. “Does he suspect anything?”

“No,” Armaan said. “He said he wanted to talk to us about something important, but we told him that we’d talk to him later. He definitely wasn’t happy about that.”

Fear rose inside her. They climbed to the patio where Vasily waited, keeping guard as usual. She gave him a warm smile. He was a big man, and knowing he was on their side gave her an immense sense of relief. If her guess was right and it was indeed Arlo she’d seen that night, then too much was at stake, and there was very little time to get to the bottom of it.

31

Never in his wildest dreams had Armaan ever imagined trusting a man other than his two brothers. Yet here they were, seated across Rajiv Mehra’s desk in his office, Mihir telling him everything, and Navya adding her inputs. Mihir also told him about Ivan and how they suspected him of being the mastermind behind the attacks.

Rajiv’s hard gaze kept returning to Armaan, his contempt clearly evident. The last time Armaan had met him, they had been beating each other up in a ring, and now he was sitting here, in love with the man’s sister, asking him to help them. Fuck, time had changed so much. However, at some point, he needed to talk to Rajiv and clear everything. Armaan was never letting Navya go, which meant that Rajiv would have to accept his presence in her life.

“To be safe and not raise any flags,” Navya began, “I’ve asked Lavina, my assistant, to help. She called Rehana’s assistant and told them Noir was doing an article on the love life of the top models in the Middle East and that if Rehana was interested, then I could get Ananya to feature her with her boyfriend. Rehana was so excited that she literally grabbed the phone fromher assistant and promised to send the pictures across to Lavina. We are waiting on those now.”

“Also,” Mihir said, “in the meanwhile we need to check the security footage from Club Poseidon as well, to identify if Arlo was present at the club that night.”

“I have that with me, we can definitely look into that,” Rajiv addressed Mihir. “Have you checked on the others in your security team? Can you vouch for them?”

“I have,” Armaan said. “Most of our men are hired from a security agency. The owner is a friend, and we trust him implicitly. However, there are a few men who we have from our father, Alexander’s time. They’ve been with us for years. Arlo is from that time, as are a few more.” He exhaled. “I’ve been thinking about this. Firstly, I still can’t believe Arlo is involved, and if he is, then he is definitely working alone, because if he had more people from our team working with him, then they needn’t have attacked me outside. They could have done it easily at home. Both Mihir and I have been spending all our evenings and nights at home. The fact that they waited for me to go outside means that he doesn’t have anyone else from our staff working for him.”

“I agree,” Mihir said. “And in Vedant’s case, his bodyguard was sick that night. But he went rushing to where Vedant was, the second he realized Vedant had gone alone. He helped Vedant fight those men, and he took him to the hospital as well.”

Rajiv leaned back in his chair. His office door opened, and he immediately straightened as a woman stormed inside.

“I knew there was something fishy going on,” Sheena Sehgal Mehra said, staring at Armaan and Mihir. She flicked her gaze away from them and looked at her husband. “You were behaving too cagey in the morning.”

“Hello, Princess,” Rajiv drawled. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Sheena straightened. “I don’t like being kept in the dark.”

“Well, this one is for your safety,” Rajiv said. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. Sighing, Rajiv stood up and helped her settle into the chair he’d just vacated.

“Fill me in,” Sheena ordered.

Navya’s sister-in-law belonged to the very famous Sehgal family from India. She came from business royalty and her demeanor screamed her privilege and upbringing.

Navya looked between her brother and his wife. At her brother’s nod, she narrated everything again.

Sheena glared at Armaan before she addressed Navya. “Are you sure he’s worth the trouble?”

Navya chuckled. “Yes, you know that. Stop trying to be difficult in front of him when you’re already on my side.”

Sheena shrugged. “Well, then continue discussing.”

Armaan shared an amused look with Mihir before saying, “I have a theory. If it was Arlo at Club Poseidon that night, it means that he saw Navya and me leave through the private exit and instructed those men to attack us there. That parking lot is used by privileged guests only, and Rehana’s whole group was on the VIP list. As per them, we were to go on a double date, which means that perhaps they expected me also to arrive through that very VIP entrance and were already waiting there, but since Navya didn’t even remember she’d agreed to meet Rehana that night, and I wasn’t even supposed to come, I parked in the regular parking and entered through the public entrance. That is the only thing that makes sense here.”

“I agree,” Mihir added. “Or else why would Arlo even bother to show up that night at the club? You’d have recognized him immediately. He definitely must have expected his people to attack you as soon as you parked in that lot. Perhaps, he was the person you saw before that man hit you on the back of your head.”

Navya explained this part to her brother and his wife.

“And you don’t remember any of it?” Rajiv asked.

“Unfortunately, not,” Armaan replied.

“Where is this guy?” Rajiv asked.

“We brought a few of our security with us as is usual. They are waiting in the cars in the parking below. We brought Vasily too, in case we needed help in apprehending Arlo once Rehana sends us the pictures confirming it was him,” Armaan said. “Once we have proof, we need to isolate Arlo and ensure that he doesn’t suspect we are on to him. Mihir and I spoke on the way here, and we need your help to detain him. And we didn’t want to do it at home. You have your own security. We need them to restrain him and bring him to our warehouse. We will take it from there.”

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