Page 148 of Obsession

Her heart clenched. If only she’d stayed with Mihir tonight… If only she’d forgiven him earlier… Thankfully, Anton and Lenin backed away and were soon out of sight. She knew they would get help. Mihir would come for her. He would burn the world for her and their children. She only hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

40

Mihir woke up with a start. He looked to the side and found Armaan kneeling next to him, Vedant right behind Armaan, both of them dressed. Chekov stood behind Vedant. Cold dread settled in his bones on seeing their grim faces.

He shot out of his bed. “What happened?”

“You’ve not been answering your calls or texts,” Armaan rose. “It’s Ananya… Ivan’s taken her.”

“What? No. That can’t be possible,” Mihir said, refusing to believe them. “She has three bodyguards following her at all times. Ivan cannot just simply get to her.”

“Anton has been calling you,” Vedant said. “He called Armaan when you didn’t answer. Earlier tonight, Ananya stopped at a boutique. As usual, Adam followed her inside. But when she came out, Ivan was behind her. He had a gun pointed at her back. His men shot Adam in the shoulder and left him in a dark corner of the parking lot. There were too many of them for Anton and Lenin to take on, so they had to let them go. They’re following them as we speak.”

His heart pounded.

“Check your messages,” Armaan said. “Anton’s sent a picture.”

Mihir unlocked his phone and saw several missed calls from Anton. Ignoring them, he went straight to his messaging app. He enlarged the picture Anton had sent him. It was Anna, with Ivan standing behind her. His heart broke. It was true. Ivan had taken her.

He sank into his bed. Fuck. He shouldn’t have let her leave tonight. He should have insisted that she stayed. If he had, then she’d be safe here with him.

“Mihir,” Armaan shook his arm. “Snap out of it.”

“We will get her back, Mihir,” Vedant promised him. “But first, you need to get a hold of yourself.”

Mihir raked his hands through his hair, inhaling and exhaling. Anna needed him; his babies needed him. He thought through everything for a moment. He looked at the picture again, enlarging it.

“This girl with Anna,” Mihir suddenly said. “She’s her friend from her college. Her name is Devina.”

“Anton says she was with them when Ivan put Ananya in the car,” Armaan explained.

“She must have asked Anna to meet her. And Anna must have decided to confront her to get answers about our past. Their friend Zeeshan’s story had too many loopholes for us to understand if Ivan had been involved in my attack. Chekov questioned him, but he claimed not to know Ivan at all. But this picture tells a different story.”

He got to his feet and faced Chekov. “Do we have Anton’s location?”

“Yes, and I’ve already sent ten of our men to follow him,” Chekov replied.

“Good. Tell Andres that I’m ready to meet him, right now.”

Chekov rushed away.

Mihir went to his walk-in wardrobe and pulled out a pair of black cargo pants and a black t-shirt, along with a pair of shoes, and quickly got dressed.

“Why do you want to meet Andres?” Armaan asked the second Mihir stepped outside.

“Because if I suspect correctly, he is working with Ivan,” Mihir said.

“Why would you think that?” Vedant queried.

“Because Chekov’s been tracking Ivan ever since he left Moscow. He recently learned that Ivan went to Tallinn.” Mihir sat on the bed to tie his laces. “We also learned through some sources there that he was meeting Andres. What I wasn’t sure of was whether Andres was working with us to get Ivan or against us.”

“That’s why you kept refusing to meet him and instead asked him for proof when he said he knew where Ivan was,” Armaan surmised.

“But now he’s here in Dubai,” Vedant quickly joined the dots, “as is Ivan.”

“And Ivan has Anna,” Mihir said. “Anton mentioned in his text that there were at least five or six men with Ivan, all of them European. And we know Ivan doesn’t have money. Which means only one thing.”

“That fucker Andres is working against us,” Armaan said.

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