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“The Rani Ma of Mirpur was right, Diya. You have no choice but to marry me.”
CHAPTER 10
DHEER
Pasha stuck his face between us over Diya’s shoulder, and I pushed him out of the way. He nipped my fingers in response, but I didn’t care.
“Of course, I have a choice,” said Diya, rolling her eyes.
I was silent for a beat until she looked at me.
“You don’t,” I said gently, holding her gaze.
“Hey, not five minutes ago, you were as keen to marry me as I was to marry you. What the hell changed?” she demanded.
“I got a phone call,” I said, recalling my conversation with Kirori Ji with a sigh.
“They aren’t backing down, Hukum. It’s not about what she saw anymore. It’s about their ego. You beat them twice, and they are pissed. They want to call a panchayat of all the bosses in the area,” he announced mournfully.
I snorted in disgust.
“What bosses? There are no bosses left,” I pointed out.
“You’d be surprised, Hukum,” murmured Kirori Ji.
“What do you mean?” I asked sharply. “Are they starting up with that shit all over again?”
“The sons and daughters of the old bosses need a rallying point to come together and set up a new regime, Hukum, and you’ve just handed it to them. The Goels say that you’ve violated the terms of the truce by interfering in their business.”
“Kirori Ji, please remind them that the terms of the truce were very clear. They could not go after anything that belonged to me - land or people.”
“But that’s the whole point, Hukum. If there were talks of a marriage between the princess and the Goel heir, then she does not belong to you,” said Kirori Ji gently.
“I don’t care. If they hurt a single hair on her head, the truce is off. And this time, I will show no mercy,” I warned softly. “I will burn them all.”
“And how do you plan to keep her safe forever?”
“What do you mean?”
“As long as the princess is under your roof, she’s under your protection. But she can’t stay there forever. At some point, she will return home, and once she steps out of Trikhera Palace, she’s free game for the Goels. Sooner or later, they will find a way to get to her. They will do it in such a way that even you won’t realise she’s been killed. It’ll look like an accident or an illness. A snake bite… a scorpion sting. Anything can happen in the desert.”
My gut clenched in fear at his words. I knew what the Goels were capable of doing. How the hell was I going to keep Diya safe for the rest of her life?
“She might be moving out of the country,” I said slowly.
“And that will make it easier on the Goels. I’ve heard hit-and-runs are very common abroad. Also, the princess is young. She might get married at some point. You can’t claim she’s under your protection then.”
“Why not?” I demanded. “The Trikheras and Jadhwals have been allies for centuries, Kirori Ji.”
“Used to be allies. Not anymore,” he corrected. “Everyone knows your families fell out when you did not marry the princess as planned. You can’t have it both ways, Hukum.”
There was a question in his voice, and I knew what he was asking. But I hung up without replying to it because I had no answers for him. Not yet.
I needed the Goels to recognise that Diya was under my protection even if she lived in another country. But there was no way they would accept it if she married someone else. That wasn’t how our world worked. The only way she’d still be under my protection then was if she was my mistress. And I would never disrespect Diya by implying such a thing.
The only way to keep her safe was to make my protection official. And the only way to do that was to marry her. Once she was mine, she was off limits, because to hurt her would be to hurt me, and the Goels knew what I did to people who tried to hurt me.
Mine. All mine.
