Page 24 of Obsession

“I’ve spoken to the banks he works with, and I can confirm that as of last month, all his accounts have been frozen,” Vedant said. “Without money, he won’t have the ability to hire people to hurt us.”

“This also means he will soon get desperate,” Armaan added. “And desperate men do desperate things. I just want this to end. I hate that I’m constantly worried about Navya.”

“Same,” Vedant said. “Keeping Reina safe is my top priority. If anything were to happen to her…”

Vedant exhaled a shaky breath.

“Don’t worry, brother,” Mihir pacified. “We will keep the girls safe, always.”

Vedant nodded and looked away from him, his jaw tight. Before Mihir could react to that, Armaan said, “As of now, the girls are not complaining. But we cannot live our lives like this. It’s frustrating not knowing when Ivan will act.”

“Exactly, that’s where the Estonians come in,” Mihir said. “They find Paul for us, and through him, we get to Ivan.”

“Let’s hope for that, then,” Armaan said. “The sooner we get Ivan, the sooner we end this battle.”

“Wewillget him,” Mihir replied. He looked at his brothers. “You both need to know one more thing.”

“What?” Armaan asked.

“Ivan’s put a bounty out on me at five million dollars.”

“What the fuck?” Armaan sat up straight. “Who told you that? Andres?”

“Yes. I informed them that Ivan has no money, but we’d be willing to pay anyone double that amount if they came forward with credible news on Ivan.”

Armaan stared at Mihir. “This is not good. I don’t like that he’s put a target on you.”

“I was always his target, Armaan,” Mihir said. “He’s tried hurting you both and the women you love, only to get to me. By now, he must know how paranoid you both are about their safety. He must have heard how careful you both are as well. He was bound to turn his focus fully on me. Better me than Karina, isn’t it?”

“Neither is good,” Armaan said. “You have to be very careful, Mihir. Promise us you will be safe and not take risks.”

“I promise.”

“Where are we on the hunt for Karina?” Vedant asked.

“Still nowhere,” Mihir sighed. “Our teams are trying to locate her, but so far, her photo hasn’t matched with any of the Karinas found in the various records in Mumbai’s databases.”

Through their old matron from the orphanage, Mrs. Braganza, Mihir had managed to acquire an old photo of Karina. His team had then used an AI tool to come up with an image of how she’d look like in the present day. Also, to their great fortune, a few months back, Mrs. Braganza had seen someone who resembled Karina at a mall in Mumbai. Mihir had sent the AI-generated image to Mrs. Braganza, and she had confirmed it was indeed how Karina looked like now.

“Alright, so we expand the search,” Vedant said. “Perhaps she was only visiting Mumbai on the day Mrs. Braganza saw her in the mall.”

Mihir rubbed his scar. “I’ll ask the team to do that, and to use advanced facial recognition on all the databases in and around Mumbai first. However, our men infiltrating JD’s organization have confirmed that, so far, he hasn’t been searching for Karina. Nor has he returned to Mumbai.”

“That is a relief,” Armaan said. “But we have to find her fast.”

“Our problems keep piling up with no end in sight,” Vedant grumbled.

“We will find Karina,” Mihir said. “We won’t fail her again. We will keep her safe.”

His brothers nodded. Mihir’s phone pinged. He quickly scanned through the email before facing his brothers again. “I have some good news. The UK government has agreed to use O-Corp for their sustainable energy projects. I have a meeting scheduled in London at the end of the month to finalize the deal.”

“That’s great news,” Armaan looked at Vedant. “Isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Vedant concurred. “The board ought to be happy to hear this. Those stuffy buggers have been complaining that we take too many risks. They were skeptical about this project succeeding.”

“The problem is they’re too damn conservative in their views,” Mihir said. “And let’s face it—they don’t like the fact that we three are so young and successful. O-Corp has grown by leaps and bounds under our leadership. They know it, but their ego prevents them from acknowledging it.”

Vedant made a face. “As of now, they have no reason to go against us, and let’s not give them one. I don’t want the extra burden of that on my plate right now.”

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