Page 95 of Addiction

“With Dorab dead, our guy said that Dorab’s boss, JD, has decided to return to India. I’ve asked the team to keep a watch on him.”

“We need to get a hold of this guy when he returns,” Mihir said.

“Yes, he may know something about her,” Armaan said.

“Armaan, I finally got a photo of Karina…” Mihir leaned forward. “Armaan… are you okay?”

Armaan pressed a hand to his head. Everything around him was tilting. What was happening to him? The edges of his vision began to blur. He blinked several times, forcing his vision to clear.

A worried look crossed Mihir’s face.

“I’m feeling woozy in the head,” Armaan said, and then his eyes fell on the shot glass, and fear stabbed him. “Mihir, the vodka… something’s off with it. Get help.”

His throat clogged; no words would come out. Darkness descended upon him. Two thoughts whispered in his brain—one that the enemy had gotten to them, and more importantly, he should have made the call to Navya. What if he never could?

Armaan wokeup with a jerk and a loud gasp. He blinked several times to clear his vision. He looked around. Fuck, he was in his bedroom in his home. He looked down and realized his hands were tied at the back of a chair—his chair. What. The. Fuck?

Memories of before he’d lost consciousness rushed to him. He tried to make sense of everything. He remembered drinking vodka with Mihir in his office, and then he had blacked out. He recalled being lucid for a moment when he was being hefted down a service lift. A service lift?! And who had been with him then? He couldn’t remember. The last thing he recollected was waking up in a moving car. He’d been alone, sprawled on the back seat. After that, everything was a big blank.

Through his curtains, he could make out the darkness outside. The clock on the wall showed that it was about ten, which meant he’d been unconscious for a short time only. Fear thrashed inside his head. Where was Mihir? If Armaan was here in his bedroom, perhaps Mihir, too, was tied up in his bedroom.But how had their enemies bypassed all their security protocol and taken over their house? How was that even possible? Where had they gone wrong? Who had they trusted incorrectly?

He tested his restraints. Strangely, they weren’t too tight. He struggled against them, and they loosened some more. If he could just… The sound of the door knob twisting made him stop. He looked up, and his mouth dropped open as a different kind of panic assaulted him.

29

“Navya, what are you doing here?” Fear underlined Armaan’s words.

Navya stared at him for a long moment, her heart rushing away. It had been days since she’d seen him. He looked slightly pale, but the bruises on his face had faded. Armaan had recovered quite well. Dressed in his typical black suit with a navy-blue shirt and no tie, he looked more than fine. Her anger rushed to the forefront.

“Say something?” he said, and then his eyes widened. “You are fine, isn’t it? Has anyone hurt you?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Really? All of a sudden, you’re back to caring about me?”

Armaan’s brow furrowed. “What is going on here? Where’s Mihir? Is he safe?”

She shook her head. “No one is hurt, and no one is in danger. Stop whatever conspiracy theories are going on in your head.”

“And yet I’m tied to a fucking chair. For all I know, my enemies are using you to get to me.” He stared at her. “Listen to me, don’t do anything they have asked you to do. We will get out of this, whatever this is.”

“You are not getting out of this, you hear me,” she lashed out. “You’re sitting here, tied to a chair because I wanted you like this.”

He blinked. Disbelief was etched on his face. It made her madder.

She tilted her head. “What did you think? That you could ignore me and forget about me, and I’d let you?”

“You did this?” He finally came to the correct conclusion. “How? Where’s my brother?”

She splayed a hand out. “Who do you think helped me organize this?”

Armaan’s mouth opened and closed, and then his expression hardened. “Mihir wouldn’t help you.”

“Wouldn’t he? Hasn’t he been after you for days to speak to me?”

“So you got him to spike my drink?”

“Fitting, isn’t it? Considering that we met again at New Year’s Eve because someone tried to spike my drink.”

“So there is no threat here?” he asked.

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