Chapter-7

a month ago

aakanksha4

@aakanksha4

Arjun crawled up to Riya and placed her head in his lap. His head was spinning and he hesitated before checking her pulse. An audible sigh of relief escaped his mouth realizing she was fine. He quickly picked her up and placed her on the bed. Riya kept her eyes closed. He laid her straight and his eyes fell on her bleeding wound. 

This time, before pity could make a comeback in his heart, anger took over. He took out his phone and dialed Rathore’s number.

Before Rathore could even say a word, Arjun barked.

“I don’t know anything, but I'm not leaving her side till either I kill that b*st*rd with my own bare hands or I face my own death. They will not get to touch her or even come close to her.”

Rathore tried to calm him down.

“What happened Raute? Calm down.”

“Don’t you ask me to calm down Rathore. I am going to burn this world down if anything happens to her.”, his voice was full of madness and Rathore recognized it. Arjun had always been extreme with his emotions- love, hatred, revenge. But what was it this time? Was it mere remorse and guilt or something else, he had to find out.

Arjun threw his phone in anger. Riya had expected a reaction out of Arjun but this madness was rather unexpected. Arjun turned to Riya and her wound made his heart bleed. He made a call to the doc and then moved to the table to grab the first aid box. 

He sat next to her, hesitated a bit and then, lifted Riya’s T-shirt near her abdomen to closely examine her wound. Riya tightly shut her eyes, digging her nails into the bedsheets. 

He removed the bandages. Riya tried hard not to cry in pain but the unbearable pain caused her to wince.

 Arjun kept murmuring sweet nothings into her ear while continuing with the first aid. 

It was a test of Riya’s patience. She had goosebumps all over her body, but she had to control herself and not open her eyes. She felt dizzy, her head spun, senses numbed with pain and an unknown emotion. 

As soon as the torture ended and Arjun got up to keep the first aid box back in its place, Riya let out a deep sigh.

“May be now he will move out of my room and I will be able to breathe in peace.”, she thought to herself.

Much to her surprise, Arjun got into the bed next to her. Riya was shocked to the bones. “What has gotten into him now?", she cursed inwardly.

In few minutes, the doctor arrived and began checking her vitals. He administered her antibiotics through IV.

“She still has a high temperature,  this is due to the wound infection. I have given some antibiotics, she'll be fine. Call me if there is an active bleeding or the wound doesn’t show any improvement.”

Saying so, he walked out of the room. By now, Riya had already started feeling dizzy and tired. She fell asleep in no time.

Next day when Riya woke up, she was greeted by a smiling face. She blinked her heavy eyes to get a clear view of the person in front of her.

“You…again?”, Riya blurted as soon as she realized it was Arjun.

He smiled at her remark.

“Were you expecting someone else?”, he teased her, while helping her to sit.

“Of course, a face prettier than yours!”, she spoke sarcastically.

Arjun was hurt at that remark, she could read his eyes. He stuffed her mouth with a spoonful of oats before she spoke another word. And that’s how, the following days were.

Arjun would stick to her all day, not leaving her side even for a second. They would argue all day over every possible thing, and yet he would stick to her. 

Riya cursed herself for the moment when she decided to perform the stunt of hers, that led to her being in continuous vigilance of the police officers. Also, the ETF members had become frequent visitors to the duo.

In no time, both of them had got their feelings involved. Though the two of them might never, never accept it, yet anyone who would see them together, would know it.

Arjun’s care for Riya wasn’t something that could be just termed as ‘guilt’ and ‘redemption’, as he liked to call it. He had become excessively possessive and the ETF trio could see it. Chotu and Shree would often suppress their smiles looking at Arjun when he would be lost in Riya. 

But, Rathore, he wasn’t too happy about the situation. He knew Arjun was getting too involved with Riya. Though they weren’t lovey- dovey or something, but “The eyes, Chico, they never lie". 

Arjun’s eyes were a window to his heart and his budding emotions. Reading these emotions wasn’t a hard job for his childhood and only friend. But Riya's eyes, were mysterious. She avoided eye contact with all of them at all possible times. She was indeed lively, yet chose to speak less around them. With Arjun, she was more herself.

Well today was going to be a hard day. ETF had officially been assigned the murder case of Mrs. Roshni Raute. Much to everyone’s surprise, Arjun Raute wasn’t present in the ETF Office. Rathore paced all along the Conference room waiting for him, but for the first time in his life, he was late to work and that too, on such an important day.

Unable to control it anymore, Rathore picked his phone and dialled the number on his speed dial.

“Where are y…?”

“Coming Sir.”, came a reply and the line went dead.

Rathore froze at his voice. Did he hear something unusual or was it his delusion. He panicked, an unknown fear took over him, his instincts clearly telling him something wasn’t right. 

He called Shree in urgency.

Shree: “Good morn..”

Rathore barked, “Where the hell is Raute?”

Shree was scared of his foul mood.

“I don’t know… Sir. He asked me to… take care of Riya until he comes.. back. Chotu is going to join  me.. He…”

Before Shree could even finish, Rathore  had already disconnected.

An hour later, Shree ran inside the ETF Office as fast as he could, almost crying. Stumbling over the stairs, he opened the door of the conference room to find the two seniors chatting. Both of them looked at him and he blurted not knowing what was about to follow.

“ Sir… I'm sorry…They…They took her!”

What followed next was something he wasn’t expecting.

Rathore took a deep breath and looked at Arjun , while Arjun, he just smiled shaking his head, as this was exactly what he was expecting.