Page 106 of Addiction

“What do you mean?” Navya asked.

“On New Year’s Eve, I had a plan in place. The Oshnovs let their staff invite a limited number of guests, so I allowed three of them inside. You, your sister, and that man who tried to spike your drink.”

“What?” Armaan gasped at the same time as Navya.

“Yes, Su Min had been bugging me to invite Reina and you to thank you for the concert tickets you gave us. And it workedout perfectly. After my man entered, I wiped his entry from the logs. He was to spike some girl’s drink, someone who was with a friend. He only had to create a big ruckus, ensuring he was seen, and instigate a fight. As the head of security, it would have been my job to see to it, and in all the melee, I would have sneaked in more of my men inside the party, who would have staged an attack on the brothers. The Oshnovs were all there at one place that night. Even if we hadn’t succeeded in killing them, it would have shaken them up to know someone managed to infiltrate their event. It was a good plan,” Vasily said. “But thenyousaw my man putting the plan into action. Before I could get there and handle the situation, he got into a tiff with you, the idiot, and then the bartender called Arlo, who obviously called Armaan and told him what had happened. Armaan saw the footage and came for you himself. My man was caught, and the plan failed.”

“He’s crazy,” Armaan said. “I can’t believe we put so much trust in him.”

Vasily continued talking, “Once the brothers returned from Russia, I heard Vedant inform Armaan and Mihir that Ivan was after them, and Mihir put a stop to all their night time activities, thereby delaying our plans. But I waited for the right moment. Soon, I learned that Armaan was going to Burj Al Arab that afternoon for the Tiffany & Co. brunch. Despite Arlo’s protests, I drove Armaan myself. The plan was simple. After the event, I’d tell him the car had a flat tyre and to come to the basement parking lot, where I had set up everything. But then he saw you there, and he once again changed the plan.”

“So, all your attacks were planned in parking lots?” Navya queried.

“Yes, this is Dubai. We cannot do things in the open,” he replied.

Armaan banged his hand on the steering. “And parking lots are probably the only places which, many times, aren’t covered by cameras.”

“All this means that you’re the boyfriend Rehana was talking about, isn’t it?” Navya said. “That day, she also told me she was expecting her boyfriend to come to the event, and later, I heard how disappointed she was that her boyfriend never showed up at Tiffany’s event.”

“All thanks to you,” Vasily said. “But it wasn’t a big deal. I could placate her easily. Fancy jewellery and expensive watches go a long way in appeasing a model.”

“Earlier, you said that you heard Vedant talking to his brothers,” Navya recalled. “How?”

“Why are you so curious?” Vasily roared. The hair on Armaan’s arms rose.

“Calm down, will you?” Navya said.

“Aren’t you scared of me?”

“Of course, I am scared of you,” Navya said. “You have a gun pointed to my head, and you’re taking me to some Godforsaken place on the way to Abu Dhabi.” Her tone kept rising. “I have no idea what is going to happen to me there. I’m barely holding it together, and I’m expected to drive sanely. If you want me to keep calm and not panic, then talk to me, or else we will meet with an accident.”

Silence went down the line.

“Fuck, she’s too good,” Rajiv said proudly, looking into his phone. “I always have her location on my phone, and it shows only her watch is moving, which means Vasily has taken her phone, and she’s smartly connected to you from her watch.”

“And now she’s making him talk, so we know how he’s planned everything,” Mihir added. “And that fucker is on a high after kidnapping her, so he is also talking easily. She’s too damn clever.”

“She’s bloody brilliant,” Armaan said. He looked sideways at Rajiv. “Wait, why do you have her location connected to your phone?”

“It’s something I learned from Sheena’s brother Kabier Sehgal,” Rajiv replied. “In my family, we all have location sharing enabled on our phones. This way, we always know where each one is. It’s an added layer of protection.”

He suddenly remembered that when Ananya had found him and Navya making out in Navya’s office, she had also used location sharing to find Navya.

“Once this is over, we are incorporating that immediately,” Armaan told his brother.

Vasily’s voice came down the phone line. “I always liked you, Navya. Su Min was so happy when you gave us your tickets. You made a dream come true for her, and at no cost. That was generous of you. You shouldn’t have gotten involved with Armaan. I warned you that he was dangerous and to stay away from him, but you didn’t listen. Had you taken my advice, then we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“He’d warned her!” Mihir exclaimed. “Armaan, did you know?”

“No. She mustn’t have thought it important to tell me, and why would she? Vasily was the head of our security. I’m sure she passed it off as mere concern on his part.”

“You sound like you care for Su Min,” Navya said. “But aren’t you with Rehana now?”

“I love Su Min. Rehana was just a pawn,” Vasily said. “I heard Armaan speaking to her on the phone and encouraging her to work with you. Once I realized that you were becoming important to Armaan, I ran into Rehana a few times. I pretended to be a rich Russian oligarch, and thus, she was easy to trap and fell for me quickly. She loves expensive gifts and needs a lot of attention. Ivan ensured that I had enough money to give her allthat and more, and just when I knew she wanted to be with me, I gave her a cold shoulder. It was fun seeing her try to seduce me.”

“She likes you, you know,” Navya said. “She’s falling in love with you.”

“She’s unimportant, just a means to an end. Take the left turn ahead.”

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