If You Could Stay

10. Kartik

Go. To. Hell.

Naira's words echoed in my ears and pounded against the walls of my head as I watched her retreating form walk away from me.

She grabbed two glasses of champagne off a tray before she disappeared in the midst of the crowd. My hand went up to my tie. It was suddenly getting too hard to breathe. I loosened the knot and walked off the dance floor. Then I took two puffs from my inhaler.

The inhaler wasn't any help as beads of sweat pooled on my forehead. I needed air. My eyes locked onto a hidden door with an exit sign on top of it. I pushed past the doors and onto a dark street and finally took in a deep breath of air.

I fixed my tie and straightened my cuffs, ready to walk back inside when the glint of a metal object and a flutter of a turquoise saree caught my eye at the end of the street.

Down the street, a man bent on his knees, his hands in the air, looking at me with pleading eyes, asking me to save him from...Naira?

What in the...

Naira stood behind the kneeling man, with a knife to his throat and her cell phone to her ear.

I must be dreaming. Or hallucinating. Or dead from lack of oxygen. Because the scene in front of me was so absurd, it had no explanation.

Naira angled herself to look at me, all while keeping the knife fixed on the man.

"He tried to rob me," she said casually.

It was only when she spoke that I noticed the small red cut on the side of her neck.

"Sir. Sir, please save me."

My eyes drifted to the man on the floor. I crossed my arms and leaned against the side of the building. A small smile of amusement adorned my face.

"Sorry buddy. You've found yourself in the hands of a lioness. I'm not risking my life. This woman is dangerous."

I lowered my voice. "Do you know, she once beat up a guy for stealing her Pink Drink? Poor guy has PTSD around drinks now."

Naira frowned, unamused at my storytelling. The man's eyes widened and I bit back a smile. I never joked. But then again, these days, I was doing a lot of things I never did with this knife-wielding woman. Dancing for example.

Police sirens sounded in the distance. The man twitched, but Naira stood her ground, increasing the pressure of the knife against his throat.

"Don't even think about it," she warned.

Twenty minutes and many questions later, the thief was being driven away in the back of a police car. Naira and I were left alone in the alley.

"Why am I not surprised about this entire ordeal?" I broke the silence between us.

Naira's eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Where ever you go, trouble seems to follow you," I explained.

Naira's face turned to stone and a somber emotion dulled her usually fiery, amber eyes. She looked...hurt.

Before I could think much about it, her expression turned blank once again.

"No one told you to follow me out. I had the situation under control."

"Under control? What part of a jewelry heiress holding a knife to a man's throat seems under control to you?" I let out a breath of frustration.

"You could have seriously gotten hurt. What if you couldn't fight him? What if he had another weapon?"

"You don't need to show your fake sympathy to me, Mr. Goenka," Naira retorted.

"You could have died!"

Naira flinched and only then did I notice how raised my voice was. This woman was cracking away my carefully constructed facade with each passing moment.

Our chests heaved with silent emotion as we glared at each other. I didn't like her, but that didn't mean I wanted her dead.

I closed my eyes and forced myself to calm down. When I opened them again, the situation in front of me finally came into clear.

No matter how much courage Naira showed, she still had just gone through a terrifying experience. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she must be in shock. The shiver of her body and the tremble of her bottom lip proved me right.

I took a step closer to her. "Are you okay?"

She didn't answer me, but she wrapped her arms around herself in a protective cocoon. Goosebumps lined her bare arms. There was a small cut on her delicate throat and a bruise on her temple.

"Did you hit your head, Miss Singhania?"

After a beat of hesitation, she nodded ever so slightly. "My foot twisted and I hit the wall when I tried to take the knife from him."

I glanced down at her feet and was greeted with a red, swollen, and angry left ankle. I winced. That must be hurting, especially since she was still wearing her heels. She needed a doctor.

"That-" My sentence was cut off when I noticed Naira's glazed eyes, flushed cheeks, and the sway of her body. With the adrenaline gone, the effects of the champagne seemed to have kicked in. I caught her by her shoulders when she swayed once again.

Shit. Her arms were cold. She was freezing. I took my suit jacket off and draped it around her shoulders.

Maybe it was the result of the champagne, but she didn't protest. Instead, she tugged my jacket tighter around her.

"Come on, let's get you to a doctor."

"No!" She froze. "I don't like hospitals."

"You need to get checked out by a doctor. You're injured."

"No," she huffed. "I'm fine. I'll just take a Paracetamol."

I pinched the bridge of my nose in agitation. I didn't want to go to a hospital either. That's the last place I wanted to be in for reasons I wasn't willing to share. But Naira was hurt. She needed medical attention. Since I wasn't a doctor, the only other option was...

No. I couldn't possibly do that.

Naira whimpered in pain when she took a step and I made my decision in an instant. I took out my phone and dialed the top number on my speed dial.

"Hello, Avi? I need you to come to my apartment in 20 minutes. No, I'm fine. It's for someone else. Yes. Okay, see you there."

I put my phone back in my pocket and Naira gave me a puzzled look.

"Don't tell me we're going to your apartment," she grumbled.

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I won't."

Naira gasped when I bent to pick her up in my arms. Her arms encircled my neck instinctively.

"Mr. Goenka, put me down!" She squirmed in my arms but I didn't budge. I wasn't allowed to lift heavy objects but she barely weighed anything.

"You can't walk. Stop moving so I can take you to a doctor."

"I am not going to your apartment," she protested.

"You didn't want to go to a hospital and my doctor does home visits." I started walking towards my car.

"You are not carrying me all the way to your house. I'm not your bride!"

I stopped walking. "I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you out that way."

Naira's eyes widened.

"Is that what you want, Miss Singhania?"

A faint blush appeared on Naira's cheeks. My lips tugged up in a small smile when she muttered "Lucifer" under her breath.

I continued walking.

Naira glared at me. "This is kidnapping, Mr. Goenka. You are kidnapping the CEO of Singhania Diamonds. I can get you arrested."

I looked down at her.

"I'd like to see you try."