SALAAR- The devil's promise (Completed)

*23*

"Hmm...." said Pablo hesitantly after listening to the whole story, "Do you...really not see what's wrong here?"

"Of course I do," said Salaar, "I just don't think this is the right time to tell her that she is psychotic and needs therapy."

"No dummy," said Pablo. "I..I mean Salaar bhai," he quickly corrected, "there is a difference in how men and women express love. Men are direct with words, indirect with actions. Women are direct with actions, indirect with words."

"Is understanding you one of Rocky bhai's tests?" Salaar asked genuinely concerned, "cause if it is, I am doing a very poor job."

"No, it's not," said Pablo and Salaar took a sign of relief. "What I meant is, when she asked you about Rocky bhai's flirting skills, she isn't really interested in knowing what he did years ago. She wanted to know what is your idea of flirting and romance."

"Ah I see," acknowledged Salaar but didn't do anything.

"So your next plan of action is..." Pablo initiated.

"Don't push it," warned Salaar and Pablo fell silent.

*** A few feet away ***

"Just look at him," Haseena angrily vented out to Sandeep, "Drinking coke as if nothing happen."

"Come on didi," said Sandeep, "We can't really expect Salaar to not admire Rocky bhai."

"I admire my dad too," said Haseena, "But I also acknowledge that he's done some terrible things."

"Maybe it's because you've seen better people," said Sandeep and Haseena leaned in interested in further hearing the argument.

"Salaar was born into slavery, was tortured all his childhood, and had no hope except for stories of a mysterious saviour," he explained, "and when he finally shows up to save him and even better becomes a father figure to the little lost kid....would he be any less of a god?"

Haseena started thinking.

"And gods don't have flaws didi," Sandeep added as a final touch.

"Hmm....maybe you are right," said Haseena, "Sometimes I tend to forget that Salaar is more than a cruel mafia king who admires a gold smuggler."

"The closer you get, the more you'll see the real Salaar didi," said Sandeep, "and Vikram once said, he is just a little kid who would shower you with all the love in the world in exchange for a little bit of affection."

Haseena smiled. "Maybe I'll compromise this one time," she said and started walking towards Salaar.

*********

"Salaar bhai," Pablo tapped and signalled towards Haseena who was walking towards him. Salaar got up ready to argue but was shocked when he saw that she was calm?

"She's coming to compromise, I think," Pablo whispered. Salaar nodded and walked towards Haseena and caught upto her midway.

"Actually...I think...." Haseena started.

"I am sorry," Salaar said surprising her. 

"No....I think this time I should be the one to apologize..."

"Trust me, it's my fault," interrupted Salaar, "I should've known...women aren't built to talk....they are built to do stuff and....."

Salaar's intentions were different but his wording made him sound super mysoginistic.

"Unbelievable," Haseena angrily interrupted, "The one red flag that I thought you maybe dodged."

"What happened...." Salaar said confused.

"You are a male chauvist and a man who couldn't dodge a single red flag," Haseena said and this triggered Salaar.

"The only red flag that I didn't manage to dodge is you," he said angrily, "How could you possibly think......"

"HEYYY PABLO MY FRIEND!!!!!!!" their argument was interrupted by Pablo's loud friend who just walked in - the guy who works the day shift!

*********************

"Meeramma, I got you your morning coffee," Amira said walking into the room when the door was firmly shut behind her. She leaped back in fear but to her surprise it was Rajkesh.

"Oh it's you," said Amira relaxed. "Can I please talk to my sister," she pleaded, "I promise I will not tell her where I am."

"Really kid?" said Rajkesh angrily, "The fucking audacity!"

"I...I did not do...anything wrong..." said Amira taking a step back in fear.

"The one thing I asked you to do is to stay away from my brother," said Rajkesh.

"That...that wasn't my fault..." Amira fearfully explained, "He...he called me and..."

"SHUT UP," shouted Rajkesh and Amira fell silent, too scared to speak. 

"The next time I see you doing anything stupid," warned Rajkesh, "I will burn you alive!"

The warning sounded way too real. Amira's eyes were filled with tears and her hands started shaking. One more moment and she would've probably fainted out of fear but that's when Meeramma who just came out of shower decided to rescue her.

"Ree please stop," she said placing herself in between Amira and her husband. Rajkesh diverted his attention to his wife and immediately calmed down as if nothing happened.

"Vajra leave," Meeramma gently told Amira and Amira quickly ran outside. Overwhelmed with emotions she randomly walked outside the palace wiping her tears when she came across a wall. It has some random writings with a chalk. Math problems and based on the writing it looked like they were done by Salaar....but then....they were all crossed over....as if someone crossed them in anger.

"Given that jijaaji is so close to Rocky, why didn't anyone protest when his memories were struck off," Amira thought to herself.

************

"Math problems?" Haseena said surprised when she opened the box and gave them to Salaar. Salaar immediately got to work and solved them revealing a single digit with every question solved.

Together it made a 6 digit number '419672'

"That's the pincode of my hometown," said Haseena.