Chapter 6: chapter 6

MADHAVThe car drive to Sruthi and Vikram’s mansion is filled with silence. The only sound is that of the raindrops as it falls on the roof of the car. Sruthi is fast asleep when I park in front of the mansion. I take a moment to admire her unguarded face before taking out my phone to give my friend a call. But there is no need for it because the front door bursts open and Vikram rushes out. He is in his casuals. Like his sister, he too has brown skin and his black hair  touches his shoulder. His eyes are sharp and alert as he approaches the car.I get out of the car to greet him but he ignores me and runs straight to the backseat of the car where his sister is sleeping peacefully. He gently shakes her awake and pulls her into his arms. I watch with longing as they both make sure the other is okay. I sometimes envy the relationship they have where the other is worried about the another. I wish I had someone who would worry about me when I come home late. I wish I had someone who would wait up for me in my home till I return.But instead,  all I have in my house waiting for me is the expensive furniture. With a shake of my head, I follow them inside. Sruthi throws me and her brother a questioning look to which Vikram replies, “We have business to deal with.”With a glare in my direction, she disappears into her room. I wait for her door to close and lock before turning a questioning gaze on my friend.“Her car tires were punctured. All the four. She lied to you about the car not starting,” I report. I first spotted her car and the damage done to it before seeing the scumbag who tried to put his hands on her.Vikram draws a sharp breath and for the first time since I have known him, there is stark fear on his face. He is known to have made rash and bold decisions that have saved our country from our enemies. But never once have I seen fear in his face. “Why should she lie to me?” he asks himself with a frown. But I give him the answer, “Because, she knows how paranoid you will be if she told you the truth.”“Oh! Now you know my sister better than me?” he asks with a raised brow.I keep my face neutral as I reply, “I know you are very protective of Sruthi. But for the past few days or so, your protectiveness has gone to a maximum level. Seriously? What is with the doubling of security in your house and setting a tracker on her car? The cherry on top of this is you sent me—a professional assassin—to escort her from the hotel? You don’t send me on trivial jobs.”He scoffs, “Sruthi’s safety is not trivial.”“Hell! Do you think that I don’t know that? I know how important she is to you and I would gladly give my life to save her from danger but the question is, you have never before sent me to escort her. But why now? What are you hiding from me?” I ask putting my hands on his shoulders and shaking him.He glances at Sruthi’s room door. It is firmly closed. He grabs his hoodie that is lying on the couch and takes his phone out of his pocket.“Why don’t we have this conversation in The Enclave?” he asks walking out of the house.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥The Enclave is the term we use for the house where we use to plan the assassins and strategies. We don’t use that place unless we have to discuss something top secret. I stay silent till we reach the Enclave. A thousand possibilities run through my mind. The security guard to the house lets us inside after confirming our identities which includes scanning my iris and fingerprint. Vikram gets out of the car and heads to the house without a word as I park the car. This is something big and I starting to not like it. I walk into the house and subconsciously look around the house for any threats. This house has the top tech gadgets installed to keep it secure. It is also sometimes served as a safehouse or interrogation place for criminals that don’t come under official records. “What the hell is happening?” I ask plopping down on the couch as Vikram heads to the kitchen. He takes a bottle of beer out. Vikram drinks a glass or two only when he is under too much stress. But him chugging down a whole bottle could only mean that he is in big trouble. Though, he knows, he offers me the bottle out of courtesy and I shake my head no.“A week ago, I received an anonymous mail,” he states glumly.“Anonymous?”He nods his head.“Not even our techie can find who sent it?” I ask thinking about the tech guy who performs magic with computers.“No, he can’t.”“What was the mail about?”“It was a warning mail. It warned me that danger awaits my loved ones. I don’t have a girlfriend, lover or wife. To me, Sruthi is everything after our parents were killed. I tried to ignore the mail like all those other messages I receive but something about it kept lurking in the back of my mind. But things kept going wrong with Sruthi,” he says with a sigh.“Like what?” I ask in a hard voice.“Sruthi went to wedding shopping with her in-laws and she narrowly missed getting hit by a rash driver. Two days ago, a parcel came for her when I was home and she wasn’t. Something about it seemed weird, so, I opened it to find a piece of cloth covered in blood and a note saying, ‘I am coming for you.’”“Did you show it to her?” He shakes his head, “She is already stressed out about this wedding. She would freak out if she knew this. Hell! I was glad that she wasn’t the one who opened the parcel. I hid it away and got the forensics to examine it for any clues. Guess what? They couldn’t find a single thing on it. There were only my fingerprints. I called up the parcel agency to inquire about the sender. They gave me the sender’s details. When I enquired, I found out it was all fake."I thought it was all coincidence but see what happened today? How could you all the four tires of your car get punctured in a single night that too when it is in a parking lot unless someone did it intentionally.""Did you check the cameras in the parking lot?""I called the hotel as soon Sruthi's call disconnected all of a sudden. They told me that their CCTV in the parking lots stopped working all of sudden after seven in the evening.""Seven in the evening?""Yes, the same exact time, Sruthi parked her car in the parking lot. It all seems like a too much of coincidence to be true."“In a nutshell, someone wants to harm Sruthi,” my voice is venomous and I grit my teeth. Vikram nods his head solemnly. He is silent for a beat contemplating something seriously in his mind.He suddenly takes my hand in his. His eyes have a pleading look, “Just yesterday, you were whining about not having an assignment. I have a new assignment for you. But, unlike others, you can’t fail this. Because the failure of this would cost the life of my sister. I want you to keep an eye on her and guard her from a distance. Find the one who is trying to harm her and bring them to me.”I smile at him. He has no idea how much I want to find that bastard trying to harm Sruthi and unload a barrel of bullets into his body. He doesn’t have to give me this assignment. Because, even if he didn’t tell me to, I would keep an eye on Sruthi and watch out for any dangers. “Assignment taken,” I answer him.❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥