Page 85 of Addiction

Her heart cracked. What if Armaan didn’t call her? What if he never believed her? What if he never remembered what he’d forgotten? She felt so helpless right now.

Her chest heavy, she finally relented and allowed her brother to lead her away. She didn’t seem to have any other choice. She’d give Armaan a few days to recover. But not too long. If he didn’t make contact once he was discharged from the hospital, then nothing and no one was going to stop her from seeing him.

She wouldn’t be persuaded, prevented, or stopped from getting to him.

25

Armaan stood in the warehouse studying the three men suspended from the ceiling. Arlo and Vasily had been working on them for a while now. However, even with broken noses and ribs, they still hadn’t given any answers.

Armaan sighed, flexing his hands. It had been four days since he had been released from the hospital, but Mihir hadn’t allowed him to step out of the house. Today, he’d put his foot down. Mihir had given in on the condition that Mihir would go with him. Armaan needed answers, and these men before him were the only ones who could give them to him.

Arlo smashed one of the men’s faces in front of him. “How did you know where to find our boss?”

“I told you. We only followed what we were t… told,” the second man replied.

“Who gave you the order to hurt my brother?” Mihir asked.

“We d… don’t know,” the same man said. “K… Karl got the instructions. We simply followed them.”

“What’s this Karl’s full name?” Mihir asked.

“They don’t know anything, boss,” Vasily said. “We’ve been at it for hours. Looks like their leader was the one in charge of everything.”

These men had targeted Navya and him. They had tried to hurt her. Rage refilled in Armaan’s veins.

Pulling out his gun, he pointed it to the first man. “Tell us your boss’s full name.”

“I don’t know,” the man on the other end said.

Armaan fired. The man screamed as the bullet hit his shoulder.

“Shall we try this again?” Armaan looked at the second man, whose eyes were filled with fear. “I don’t have time for this. Tell me your boss’s full name.”

“Karl Leipzig,” the man finally said.

“Where can I find him?” Armaan asked.

Fear was painted on the man’s face, yet he stayed quiet. Armaan smiled, pulled the trigger, and shot the man in the knee. He squealed in pain.

Armaan approached the third man. “I was generous with those two. You, I will shoot between the eyes. Either tell me what I want or die.”

“Wait… wait…” the man said. “I will tell you everything.”

“Speak,” Armaan ordered icily.

“Karl got a call last week from someone informing us that you were the target. The job was to kill you. The date and location were informed at the last minute. We got a call that you would be at Club Poseidon the evening of the attack. The payment was credited to Karl’s bank account as well. The plan was to launch an attack when you arrived in the private parking. But you never came. Tired of waiting, we were going to abort when Karl got a call that you were already in the private parking. Sure enough, we stepped out of our car and found you arguing with the girl.”

Armaan shared a look with Mihir. For sure, he, too, was thinking what Armaan was. Whoever had targeted Armaan had been there in the nightclub that night. That was how they had known to look for Armaan in the private parking at that particular moment.

“What about the girl with me?” Armaan asked. “Was she also a target?”

“Our instructions were only to kill you. But if she came in the way, then we were to eliminate her as well.”

Fuck. Which meant Navya wasn’t safe. Fear poked him in the chest, but he calmed himself to pay attention to the scene in front of him.

“Where can we find this Karl?” Mihir asked.

He blurted out the addresses of every possible location of their leader.

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