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“What! Why?”
I knew I sounded panicky, but the situation warranted panic. A lot of it.
I needed to get Diya out of this mess before she was dragged even deeper. I wanted her out of the country if possible, out of reach of these murderous Goels. It wasn’t going to be easy to negotiate a truce with them after we killed their matriarch. We’d just brought a war on ourselves, and I wanted her away from all of it because none of this was her fault.
This might be my lot in life. But I didn’t want it to be Diya’s.
“Because you saved my life again,” she said shakily, turning around to face me. “Every time I try to leave you, you do something that makes it very difficult to walk away from you, Dheer. If you can risk your life to save me, how can I leave you when you’re preparing for war with the Goels?”
CHAPTER 27
DIYA
Dheer stalked towards me and I stood my ground, resisting the urge to back away at the look in his face. He grabbed me by the shoulders and glared at me. Hard. But I still met his eyes defiantly.
“Do you know what Ayush’s men called me the day I rescued you in the desert?” he growled.
He waited for me to reply, but when I stayed stubbornly silent, he gave me another little shake.
“They called me the beast of Trikhera. And today you saw why. I was a fool to think I could ever deserve someone like you. Someone so lovely, so kind, so… pure.”
His hand moved up my neck to stroke the side of my face.
“You were right! Nine years ago, I didn’t have the balls to tell you to your face that I didn’t want to marry you. Do you know why?”
I stood absolutely still, feeling the tears running down my face, but unable to move because of the stark desperation on his face. He wiped my tears away gently, but more took their place.
“How could I look you in the eye and tell you that I didn’t love you when I loved you more than life itself? How could I look you in the eye and lie to your face?” he murmured.
I gripped his hand and pulled it away from my face.
“Do you have the balls to tell me the truth now?” I demanded angrily. “I deserve to know why you destroyed my life on a whim.”
He exhaled slowly.
“Rani Sa, I don’t do anything on a whim. You should know that. If I tell you the truth, you will walk out that door and never come back,” he said in a gravelly voice that I didn’t recognise.
“Try it anyway,” I suggested sarcastically.
“Do you know why I became the beast of Trikhera? It was because of my father. My dear father had the blood of a thousand royals, but he had the soul of a baniya. He used to call himself an entrepreneur first, and then a royal. Like our friends, the Goels, my father had his fingers in many pies. He just managed to hide it better from the world. The suave, dignified MP for Trikhera constituency was a gun-runner.”
I stared at him in confusion. I had to clear my throat before I could speak.
“I’m sorry. He was a… what?”
“Baba was a gun-runner. He was an arms dealer, and the bulk of his massive income came from smuggling illegal arms across the border to Pakistan. He was arming Pakistani mercenaries to fight with the Indian army.”
“Not. A. Fucking. Chance,” I said softly.
He nodded his head in appreciation.
“Oh, yeah. Baba was a piece of work alright.”
“And did you know this? Before, I mean… when we were dating.”
Dheer shook his head.
“He hid it from Isha and me. Ma and Dadi Sa knew about it, of course. He used to abuse Ma to keep her from confiding in us. Another key fact they hid from us,” he said bitterly.
