Page 2 of Fixation

London

Dr. Reina Singh looked around the interior of the dark, windowless van, her heart quaking with fear. Three of her team members sat in a semi-circle beside her in the fast-moving vehicle, their expressions as fearful as hers surely must be. In front of them, two armed men held machine guns pointed at them. She wiped her sweaty brow, the action causing one of her captors to point that scary gun directly at her. Panic washed over her, making her hands tremble.

How had her life come down to this moment of being kidnapped and led to an unknown location? Murder, torture, extortion, slavery, and several awful words had already crossed her mind. Her stomach churned even considering these scenarios—each one worse than the previous. Could she have prevented this situation? No matter which way she thought, the answer to this was a loud NO. She and her team had been trapped, hopelessly ensnared.

Like her, neither of them had thought twice when a nurse had told them that their senior doctor, Dr. Williams, wished to meet all of them in the basement conference room. Once there, they had all been further informed that Dr. Williams was waiting for them outside at the back of the hospital. Although slightly taken aback at the bizarre request, they all had done as told, only to be accosted by four armed men. The men had taken away their cell phones and huddled them into this waiting van. Now, they were being driven to God only knew where.

She observed the two men seated in front of her, their cohorts having taken the front seats of the van.

“Where are you taking us?” she asked aloud. Her voice sounded calm to her ears, even though she was trembling inside.

“You’ll know soon enough,” one of the men replied. “Until then, stay quiet.”

Her friend, Su Min, who was also a nurse in Reina’s department, tugged Reina’s hand and shook her head.

Nearly twenty minutes later, the van began to slow down, and then it stopped completely. The back door opened, and the men ushered them all outside. Bright sunlight hit her eyes. She blinked as she stared at her surroundings.

It took her a second to understand exactly where she was and why she and her team had been brought here. Before she could dwell on that further, the same four men surrounded them all.

One of the men, presumably the leader of this lot, stepped forward and spoke in a heavily accented voice. “Which one of you operated on Mr. Oshnov?”

Mr. Oshnov—he meant Vedant Oshnov.

Less than twenty-four hours ago, she’d managed to save his life. She hadn’t known his name then. She’d learned it much later. Even then, she’d been a tad bit worried because history had proved that the Oshnovs meant nothing but trouble… always. Well, this right now was further proof of the same.

She lifted her hand up.

“Come with me,” the same man said. He addressed his men. “Keep the others outside.”

She followed the man into the house and into an opulent foyer. She barely had a chance to study her lavish surroundings when she was ushered into a room—a care room, specially created for her patient.

Vedant Oshnov.

“Doctor, please check on him,” the man said.

When she walked further inside, the man turned and left, shutting the door behind him.

Reina observed the battered and bruised man who was asleep on the care bed in front of her.

The youngest of the Oshnov brothers had been brought into the emergency room late last night with several injuries, which included a broken rib and two gunshot wounds. If she hadn’t taken the call to operate on him when she had, then he would have died. But she had saved him, and in doing so, had unleashed danger upon herself and her team.

The Oshnovs were known to be the wealthiest and most dangerous men in the world. Her family’s past experience with them had proved that to her already. Her elder sisters, Ananya and Navya, had warned her never to come into the radar of these men, and yet fate had brought her right into their house. Not that she’d had any say in it.

While now she knew where she was, who her captors were, and most likely why they all were brought here, she still wasn’t entirely sure what the future held. And that made her blood boil. No wonder her sisters didn’t like the Oshnovs. These men clearly thought that being as rich as they were gave them the license to do as they pleased. Thus, Vedant had been moved to his own home, and she and her team had been brought here, clearly to look after him, without their consent.

Her fists clenched. Already, her career was going to take a major hit because she’d defied the orders of her senior surgeon and stepped into an operation theatre despite being banned by him. She had enough problems on her plate, and she knew in her gut that this situation was going to be a bigger problem than anything else.

She looked around the vast chamber, now converted to resemble a hospital room. If she was being honest, it was better equipped than any hospital room she had seen.

Alone in the room, she removed the thick glasses from her face and got to work doing exactly as she’d been instructed. She checked Vedant’s vitals on the various monitors attached to him. He was stable.

She exhaled. Here she was, checking on the man who would end up becoming her captor, all because she always put her profession over and above anything else. She was a doctor first and foremost and saving lives was her job. And this man here was her patient.

She wound the stethoscope around her neck. A warm hand caught her wrist, halting her. She turned and stared into the wide, open eyes of the man because of whom she was being held hostage.

He spoke in rapid, angry Russian.

“English, please,” she countered.

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