Page 4 of Addiction

Dorab’s face further twisted in rage.

“So, I’m going to ask again,” Mihir took over. “Where is Karina and what did you do to her?”

“I don… don’t know,” Dorab stammered. “I swear I don’t know where she is.”

Vedant stepped away, and Armaan tilted his head towards one of his men. “Break his hands, one by one, and do it slowly.”

One of his men untied Dorab’s hands and the other came forward with a hammer. Genuine terror now flickered on Dorab’s face. All his smugness was gone with the threat of real danger. “I… I swear I don’t know where she is.”

The sound of bones shattering was followed by loud screams.

When his man raised the hammer to Dorab’s other hand, he yelled, “Stop, I’ll tell you. Please.”

Armaan lifted his chin. “Speak. Why did Karina agree to go with you?”

“S… she thought we were going to Delhi for a trip. She’d never been anywhere, and I told her that we’d return in a day.”

“And that note?” Mihir asked.

“She left a note informing you that she’d be back in a day or so. I exchanged it with the one you saw finally.”

Anger coursed through Armaan at that deception and their naïveté in falling for it.

“Then?” Vedant asked.

“I… I took Karina to Delhi, and then I sold her to someone there. But…”

Before Armaan could even process what he’d heard, Vedant smashed his fist against Dorab’s face, once and then again and again.

“Fucking bastard!” Vedant roared, his eyes wild with uncharacteristic rage. Vedant was the least violent of the three of them. But Armaan didn’t blame him for his utter lack of control now. They all had failed their sister. They had believed a damn note when they should have believed that she’d never disappear on them.

“Fuck,” Armaan swore. Fear spread through his veins. Karina… Oh God. She was… she was… God, was she even alive? Fury, unlike any other, blinded him. He was going to kill this evil bastard for what he had done to their sister. However, through all the rage, pain, and chaos swirling in his brain, Armaan noticed that Dorab was trying to say something.

“Wait, brother…” Armaan pulled Vedant back. “I want to hear what else this bastard has to say.”

“I should cut his tongue off after what he said,” Vedant, stormed. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Vedant, wait,” Mihir commanded. He turned to Dorab, whose face now looked like it had gone through a grinder.

“Talk.” Armaan took a menacing step forward, his fists aching to have a go at this vile human.

“She ran away,” Dorab said quickly. “She ran away.”

Armaan paused and shared a confused look with his brothers.

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Armaan asked.

“She stabbed me with a… a knife,” Dorab said, panting, his eyes moving to his arm with the broken hand, where there was, indeed, a large, jagged scar running from his elbow to his wrist.

“It was a small k… knife, serrated and sharp,” Dorab hurried on. “I didn’t even know she had it on her. The man I’d sold her to was my boss. He didn’t know either. I’d only recently started working for him. She attacked him first, punching him in the face and stomach, and then stabbing his shoulder. When I tried to stop her, she stabbed me too. After that, I don’t know where she went. I swear it… please.”

“Why should we believe you?” Armaan repeated.

“I’m not lying, please…”

“Who was your boss?”

“He’ll kill me if I tell you his name.”

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