Page 87 of The Redemption
He thought wrong.
Another man,the informant assigned to track Parag Reddy’s movements along the Nepal border route, was supposed to alert Haider the second Parag moved towards Shivtara Valley. Instead, he thought it harmless to switch off his burner phone for a few hours. By the time he finally reported back, Parag had already entered RK Estate and taken Siya away.
I slammed him onto the glass table and broke his jaw for delaying to update us on Parag’s movements.
And then this morning,one of the brokerssecretly feeding us information from inside the Vardhaan circle made the mistake of confidently telling me that Siya’s wedding preparations in Cape Town had already begun. I nearly crushed his throat for that.
This version of me is not new. It is the same version that once made the entire underworld fearthe Dark Prince. The monster I’d buried has now unleashed. Only because something that belongs to me has been taken away from my reach.
Siya.
And I won’t sit quietly.
I haven’t slept since she left. For two straight nights, the memory of that f*cking kiss has haunted me like an addiction I cannot shake off, no matter how much violence I drown myself in.
I have f*cked plenty of women in my life, but I’ve never kissed any of them. Because kisses felt too intimate, too personal. A mouth remembers things that the body eventually forgets. Men like me can’t afford to have memories like that. For me, kissing someone meant giving that woman access to the parts of you that were supposed to remain dead. That’s why I never kissed anyone. Ever.
Until Siya… She was my first kiss.
I had to kiss her. I still don’t understand why. But seeing her standing there… looking at me with those furious, jealous eyes after placing that garland around my neck… something inside me snapped before my brain could even catch up.
I lost control and broke my own rule.For her.And I don’t regret a second of it. The memory is still carved into my head with terrifying clarity. I know if Siya was standing in front of me right now, I would kiss her again without thinking twice.Slower this time. Harder.
My fingers curl into a tight fist.Focus Raghav.I f*cking hate this feeling. This loss of control. This state where my mind refuses to obey me no matter how hard I try to force it .
Ever since Siya left RK Estate, I haven’t been able to think straight anymore. Work irritates me. Meetings feel pointless.Everything somehow circles back to her. And now she is getting married in less than a week.
Cape Town feels too f*cking far away right now.
But distance has never stopped me from getting what I want. The second Siya boarded that flight with Parag, I activated half my old network into motion again. I wanted updates every second once she landed.
Despite leaving the underworld years ago, I still have enough loyal men across countries to start a war if needed. Silent networks. Old loyalties. Favours owed.
Men who still answer my calls without question because, once upon a time, they belonged to the Dark Prince. Those connections are already moving within Cape Town now. Watching. Listening. Quietly infiltrating the Vardhaan Syndicate.
For her.
Money, threats, pressure, blackmail… I genuinely didn’t care what methods my men used to infiltrate the Vardhaan Syndicate. If someone refused to cooperate, I allowed my men to dig into their hidden accounts, illegal side dealings, secret affairs, addictions, frauds… anything that could break their loyalty and force them into obedience.
Because right now, the only thing that matters to me is getting information about Siya. Whether she is safe. Whether Parag is touching her. Whether she is breaking down somewhere inside that fortress, pretending to stay strong. I want every update related to her fed directly to me.
Because until I get Siya and her mother out of that hell myself, I need eyes on her every second. That was the whole reason she came to me in the first place. And I would give her that.
She wanted out. A clean life. Freedom from the mafia world. And now that I know what kind of cage she is trapped inside, there is no f*cking way I’m leaving her there.
I don’t even know what to call this feeling that I have for her. I was raised in the mafia. Men like me don’t fall gently. We obsess. We claim. We protect what becomes ours, even if it requires bloodshed.
Siya has been on my mind since our first meeting ten months ago. But ever since she put that garland around my neck in front of the entire valley and kissed me back like she belonged in my arms, something inside me has already accepted her asmine.
Whether she realises it yet or not, whether she wants to fight it or not, she is mine now. And I will bring her back. No matter what it costs me. No matter who stands in my way.
I drag a rough hand down my face and reach for my other phone to contact Trisha, the only GLEN agent I trust enough for this mission. She is Krish’s wife and one of the very few people capable of infiltrating the Vardhaans without getting caught. But before I can dial her number, my iPad screen lights up with an incoming video call.
Ayaan.
I stare at his name flashing across the screen, having no patience to deal with him right now. For the past two days, he has been breathing down my neck over every move I make, ever since I withheld information about the weapons movement near the Nepal route until the final hours before the operation.
But this time, I don’t ignore his call. The moment the video call connects, Ayaan appears first on the screen. Krish is seated beside him, while Trisha stands behind them with her arms folded. I’m surprised to see them all together in one frame. That alone tells me this is not going to be a conversation but a full-blown argument.
