Page 5 of Addiction

Mihir laughed. “What makes you thinkwewill leave you alive?”

“I’ve seen what he does to traitors. I’d prefer to die at your hands than at his…” Dorab said. “You can kill me, but I won’t reveal his name to you. Ever.”

“I want to know why you did it,” Armaan hissed. “She liked you. She was kind to you when you didn’t even deserve it. Why do that to her?”

“Because I overheard the three of you talking of leaving with that rich man, and that you’d take her with you.” Dorab spat out some blood. “You all would get everything, and I hated it. I wanted you all to suffer, so I took away the one person who meant everything to you three.”

His cruel words made Armaan lose whatever control he’d been holding on to till now. He swung his fist out and slammed it against Dorab’s jaw. Blood spurted out of his mouth, his eyes rolled back, and his head drooped as he lost consciousness.

Fucking asshole.

Leaving him behind, Armaan followed his brothers as they made their way to their study upstairs. This room was their den, their own personal retreat, and they had recreated such a room in their homes in Dubai and Moscow as well. With dark hardwood floors, dark walls lit only by lamps at night, a burgundy leather desk, and Chesterfield sofas in that same shade with a lit fireplace on the side, this room was warm and inviting as always.

Armaan went straight to the wood and leather bar and poured a shot of Vodka into three tumblers, handing one to each of his brothers. They settled in the armchairs around the fireplace, all of them silent.

The quiet of the study was broken only by the muted sounds of the party going on in the lawns outside. The somber ambience of the room was at odds with the flashing lights crisscrossing inside through the windows.

The Oshnovs were known for the parties they hosted, and tonight’s party was an annual celebration that they always did for their birthday. It was planned way before they had gotten the news that Dorab had taken the bait and was headed to London. Not that they could change the date of the party, even if they wanted to. It was New Year’s Eve, after all, and the eve of their birthday.

This year was the fourth year that Armaan and his brothers were celebrating without their adopted father. Alexander had passed away five years ago, and they all missed him sorely. They had promised each other to uphold this tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve in a grand way as a tribute to the great man who had taken them in and had become a father to them.

On any other night, Armaan would be outside, partying the night away, allowing himself to get swayed by a beautiful woman’s charms. But tonight, he wasn’t in the mood to even attend his own birthday celebration. None of them were. In front of him, both his brothers held their glasses, neither of them talking. All of them were quiet, reflecting on what they had just learned about their lost sister.

Armaan stared into the transparent liquid. “Do you think Dorab is telling the truth?”

“I think he was.” Mihir leaned back in his armchair. “That knife she had on her—I’d given it to her a few days before. I’d been teaching her self-defence and how to use the knife if she was ever in danger. She was capable of protecting herself, and if there were only two men, then maybe she did get away.”

Mihir looked at both of them, his expression sad. “This is all on me. If I had told her the plan?—”

“Stop, please…” Armaan interrupted him. “It wasn’t your fault. You were a kid, and you wanted the best for all of us. And after listening to him today, nothing you could have done would have changed the outcome. He had planned to destroy us, and he did it.”

“I agree with him.” Vedant downed his shot. “Let’s look forward. There is no reason to dwell on the past.”

When Mihir still remained quiet, Armaan said, “You need to stop feeling guilty, brother. We need to find her. That is what we need to focus on.”

“What if Dorab is lying?” Vedant pocketed his glasses, deliberately changing the subject. “With the story he’s spinning, we have no way to even begin searching for Karina. Fuck, I just want to return downstairs and kill that bastard.”

“We need the name of the man he was working for before you do that,” Mihir said, his expression filled with vengeance.

“I think we should let him go,” Armaan said, looking at his brothers.

“What?” Vedant gasped. “Are you mad? He’s the only lead we have to find Karina.”

Mihir quietly stared at Armaan, waiting for him to continue.

“Keeping him with us and forcing him to talk could take time. I saw his eyes when he spoke of his old boss. He is genuinely afraid of him, more than he is of us. If we let him go, then he’ll find some way to run back to India. He can be resourceful when he wants to be. We only need to put a tail on him to track his movements. If he’s still working for the same man, then he will go to him and report on what he went through with us, possibly to remain in his good graces. If, by a long shot, and I hope to God that is not the case, Karina is still with them, or they know where she is, they will either go to her or bring her to them. Our men can lay in wait to help her if she’s in trouble and bring her to us. If she’s not with them and she actually ran away, then we can close that door and start searching elsewhere.”

“What if it’s a dead end?” Vedant asked quietly. “What if she’s dead?”

“Nyet. No,” Mihir rejected the thought at once. “If she ran away, then she would have survived. We taught her enough to be self-reliant. She would have thrived.” Mihir looked at Armaan. “She’s alive. I can feel it in my bones that she ran away, and that she’s safe.”

“Then why hasn’t she tried to reach out to us?” Vedant asked.

“Because she doesn’t know that we went to Russia with Alexander and that he adopted us. We didn’t tell her that plan,” Armaan replied. “Or maybe she’s in hiding and doesn’t want to approach the orphanage for fear of getting caught.”

“Only Karina can give us the answers we seek, and for that, we need to find her.” Mihir drank his shot. “Let’s go ahead with your plan, Armaan.”

Armaan nodded. He lifted his phone and spoke into it, giving instructions to his two men in the basement.

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