Page 85 of The Redemption
Parag barely reacts to my shock.
“There’s been a change in plans,” he says coolly, as though he’s discussing a business meeting instead of my entire life. “Samarjeet isn’t handling this anymore.I am.The preparations are already underway.”
My entire chest tightens painfully. The marriage is happening next week? How is that even possible? It’s suffocating and I hate this feeling. I don’t want to be trapped inside that world permanently. But instead of reacting emotionally, I simply glare at Parag once before walking into my cottage. Because if I stay out here one second longer, I might totally lose it.
RAGHAV
Day 10 @ RK Estate (Next Morning)
The helicopter blades thunder above RK Estate before gradually slowing as we land on the private helipad. Dust swirls violently across the ground as I step out first.
The moment my boots hit the earth, I feel it. It’s too quiet. Every instinct in me screams that something is wrong.
I keep walking, despite the exhaustion settling into my bones. My knuckles are ripped open, layers of skin split apart from repeatedly smashing into flesh and bone all night. Dried blood coats my fingers and my palms, while dark stains of blood mark the sleeves of my shirt. But none of that blood belongs to me.
It belongs to the men I killed last night.
Haider walks behind me, speaking sharply into the phone while coordinating the remaining cleanup with our men near the border. The operation is over. The trucks never crossed the border, and the network was dismantled before sunrise.
The entire operation should have wiped every other thought from my head. But not this time. Even now, my mind is somewhere else. Back to Siya, whose taste still hasn’t left my mouth. Somehow, through all of last night’s bloodshed, the lily garland never left my side.
Last night, after leaving the temple backyard, I went straight to the helicopter without even removing it from around my neck. Somewhere during the flight, I had finally pulled it off and wrapped it around my fist instead. And even now, stepping out of the helicopter at RK Estate late in the morning, I’m still carrying the crushed lilies in my hand. The petals have dried, the faint traces of their fragrance still clinging to them. But the scent doesn’t remind me of lilies anymore.
Now, it reminds me of Siya.
My grip instinctively tightens around the garland as dried blood on my knuckles pulls my thoughts back to last night.
By the time our helicopter reached the ridge of the Nepal border, my men were already waiting there with vehicles ready. By then, the weapons convoy had begun to move.
There were five container trucks with armed escorts, each having military-grade ammunition hidden beneath medical cargo. Once those trucks crossed the border, the shipment was supposed to disappear into black-market networks of Southeast Asia. The Reddys had planned that route, knowing exactly how to disguise the movement across the border.
But they underestimated one thing. Me.
Before the trucks could reach the tunnel route near the border crossing, Haider blocked the rear exit with our men while I intercepted the front line myself. Masked. Under no circumstances could anyone in the underworld know the Dark Prince was alive and working alongside GLEN.
I still remember the first idiot who reached for his gun, but never got the chance to aim properly. I dragged him straight through the truck window before my knife slit opened his throat.
Another b*stard tried putting a rifle against my back near the loading ramp. I caught his wrist before he could pull the trigger and twisted it until I heard the bone crack under mygrip. His scream barely left his mouth before I slammed him shoulder-first into the metal container behind us. The impact had dislocated it instantly. And when he still tried reaching for the gun with his other hand, I grabbed his throat and smashed him against the sharp edge of the truck hard enough to silence him permanently.
My fingers flex at the memory.
At one point during the fight, a rifle slid across the ground near my boots. Instinct almost made me pick it up. Almost. But the second my hand moved towards it, I was reminded of my father. The exact moment, thirty months ago, when I pulled the trigger and put a bullet through Tej Khurana’s head, and ended his life with my own hands.
The last bullet I ever fired. The last gun I ever touched.
My chest hardens at the memory even now. So last night, I fought bare-handed instead. Knife. Fists. Blood.
By the time GLEN’s Shadow Response Unit finally arrived, ninety percent of the operation was already over. Trucks seized. Routes exposed. Men detained. The entire trafficking chain had collapsed before sunrise.
But Parag Reddy? The one who had mediated this deal and was supposed to ensurethe convoy’s safe passage across the border was nowhere to be found. The b*stard got lucky.
“GLEN has taken over the remaining border cleanup,” Haider says beside me, finally lowering his phone. “Ayaan’s people are handling the arrests from here. They’ve already intercepted the buyers’ contact chain tied to the Southeast Asia route. Every man connected to the exchange is being picked up one by one.”
I give a distracted nod and drag a hand down my face before turning towards the estate pathway. A short distance away, I spot Esha hurrying towards us. She stops a few feet away.
“I’ve been looking for both of you since last night.”
A strange unease crawls up my spine, wondering if it’s about Siya.
