Page 3 of Fixation

“Who are you?” he asked, his voice gruff. She tried to tug out of his hold, but he held firm. He began to get up, but fell back on the bed, groaning. His face was contorted in pain.

“You need to rest,” she said curtly.

His brown gaze snapped on her, noting her tone.

She felt a twinge of guilt. The man was unwell and injured, and that was no way to talk to a patient. But she couldn’t bring herself to speak kindly to him. He was the reason she was a captive in his house.

“I asked you a bloody question,da?” he gritted out, his hand still holding hers caged. “Who the fuck are you?”

Now,histone and attitude annoyed her.

“Release my hand,” she snapped, the events of the last few hours finally catching up to her.

“And if I don’t?”

She ran a slow gaze down him. “Considering your rather delicate condition, there’s nothing you can do to me. But I can assure you that as the doctor who saved your life last night, I can undo what I did and kill you as easily as I saved you. So, I’m going to ask you again. Leave my fucking hand.”

His brown eyes flared in understanding before they filled with pain. And yet, he refused to leave her hand. He was so weak that she could easily pry his fingers open from her wrist. He gave her a thunderous look. She ignored it and captured his wrist instead, checking his pulse.

“Where am I?” He looked around, his eyes flicking to the window. “I’m at home,da?”

“Yes,” she replied. “How is your pain?”

“Bad. It’s hard to breathe. My chest hurts, my shoulder is on fire, and my leg is fucking throbbing.”

She quickly entered the details in his chart. It annoyed her to note that it was the same one she had been using at the hospital. Fetching the pain injections from the tray, she got to work administering those to him. He watched her in silence as she replaced the cannula in his hand with an IV drip. His eyes soon drifted close, and he was fast asleep once again.

She rubbed her forehead and pocketed her glasses. What an asshole. Fuck. What had she gotten herself into? Before she could ponder any more, the door opened, and her colleagues filed in.

The three of them came to stand near her. Su Min, her friend and head nurse of Reina’s department, was followed by Dr. LailaJones, the junior doctor, and Stefan Miller, the intern. Varying levels of fear shone upon all their faces, and looking at them, she, too, was afraid. They had no clue what was going to happen to them. They didn’t have their phones, so they had no way of contacting anyone. All they could do was wait for someone to come and tell them what the hell was going on, and what the fuck was expected from them. One of Vedant’s brothers would come to talk to them, she was certain of that. The Oshnovs were a pack; where one went, the other two followed.

She hadn’t even finished the thought when the door opened yet again, and a tall man dressed in a dark suit walked in. The long scar running down one side of his face gave him away. Mihir Oshnov—the eldest of the Oshnov trio. He was considered to be a dark, powerful king in the jungle of international business. Unfortunately, he was also the man her eldest sister, Ananya, pined over till date. Reina quickly wore her glasses again. She didn’t want him to get an inkling of her real identity.

Mihir Oshnov went to his brother, staring at him for a long time before he finally faced all of them in the room. He splayed a hand to the side, and all of them followed him to the corner by the window. The same security guard who had brought her to this room stood behind Mihir, speaking to him in what she assumed was Russian.

Her team stood silently next to her, all of them at the mercy of this dangerous man. The Oshnov brothers—adopted sons of the late Russian oligarch Alexander Oshnov—owned the richest business empire in the world. Diamonds, energy, oil wells—their businesses were vast and spread across the globe. A couple of years back, Mihir had moved their headquarters from Moscow to Dubai, which was also Reina’s home base. And this house in London was one of their homes too. And what a property it was—luxurious and splendid.

Reina looked out of the window. Although this room was on the ground floor, the house itself sat upon a hill. She could make out the sprawling lawns, meadows and the forest in the distance. She had recognised the lawns the second she’d stepped out of the van she’d been brought in.

A few months ago, her middle sister, Navya, and she had attended the Oshnovs’ New Year’s Eve party here on the lawns of this very house, not knowing that Vedant Oshnov and his brothers were the hosts. They had been invited by Su Min and her boyfriend, Vasily, who was the Oshnovs’ Head of Security.

Su Min had told her in the past that the Oshnovs weren’t bad people except when it to their enemies. That’s why Su Min was probably the only one among them all who looked less frightened. But Reina knew more about the Oshnovs than anyone else in this room.

Four years back, Vedant and his brothers had held Navya and their elder brother, Rajiv’s then girlfriend and now wife, Sheena Sehgal, hostage. To be honest that had been because of the utter stupidity of Ananya and Navya. They had foolishly decided to gate-crash the Oshnovs’ yacht party in Dubai, and Sheena had been caught in that nonsense thanks to them. While Ananya had managed to escape, Rajiv had to negotiate with the Oshnovs for Navya and Sheena’s release.

What was worse was that during that time, the second Oshnov brother, Armaan, had become obsessed with Navya. Thanks to Rajiv’s timely intervention, Armaan had backed off from her. But now, after finding Navya at his New Year’s Eve party, Armaan’s obsession with Navya had only grown. Thank God, Navya had decided to stay away from him. Ironically, though, now Reina was stuck here in their house.

“Good afternoon, all of you,” Mihir finally addressed them in accented English. “I’m sure you’re all frightened and confused. Rest assured, I’m here to answer all your queries.”

Bloody hell, he was speaking so casually, as if it was an everyday occurrence for her and the others to be held hostage by armed men and brought to an unknown location at gunpoint. Fucking asshole.

Her anger made her brave, so she stepped forward. “Why are we here?”

Mihir read her name tag. “Dr. Singh? I believe you’re the one who saved my brother’s life,da?”

“I did.”

“Spasibo. I mean, thank you,” he said. “I’ve read your notes. You mentioned that Vedant will need a lot of care in the days to come, and he will need intensive physiotherapy to gain full use of his chest, shoulder, and leg. Is that right?”

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