Redemption of Royals (Royal #1: Book 3) | ✔

50

Murder is a crime.

Murder is a crime.

Murder is a crime.

Rudra doesn't answer her call. Her confidence deflates and she tries again. He doesn't answer again.

"I'll call him," I tell her, embarrassed on her behalf. She drops her arm, hand clutched around the slender phone in a deathgrip, and the moment Rudra answers my phone on the first ring, I notice her knuckles turn white.

"Yes, my girl, what is it?"

Niharika clenches her jaw.

"The call is on speaker. Niharika is with me."

I hear some shuffling on the other side before Rudra's voice becomes clearer. "Where are you?"

"I'll send you the address. Be there soon." I hang up and share my gps location with him on WhatsApp. Niharika is frowning as I close the phone and push it back inside my pocket.

I can't wait for him to come and cajole this woman. I've to put out the fire myself.

"I know it's hard to believe, given the circumstances," I wave my hand around the deserted road, "but I'm not cheating on Shourya. You'll have to find something else to throw me out of his life."

"Then what are you doing here? Why do you keep lying?" Her fury settles, replaced with confusion, swimming with a thousand different questions.

"I'm working on a story." I reply.

Niharika scoffs.

"I'm not lying," walking to my car, I grab my backpack from the backseat and reach her side again, standing across from her against my trunk. "Over the last few years, there has been a rise of illegal drug trade in the state. Some of our trusted sources tipped us that the outskirts, mainly of the Jaigarh have detected movements in the lower side of jungles, especially by the river. I wanted to check myself."

"Alone?" She frowns, taking the files I give her.

The story is a hundred percent true, but the bullshit I'm riding on top of it is not. I'm a journalist. Not a spy. I solely brought the files for work purpose, to dig through news material online and connect with the local reporters in order to get a lead on the story, not to go to the site by myself like some Bollywood cheap rip off of a James Bond movie.

I shrug. "I'm a crime reporter. But lately, my growth has been stilted, they're focusing more on my status and name than my degree. This was the only way I thought I could prove myself." Jesus Christ, I should write scripts. I'm making up shit as I go by.

She glows deep red in humiliation. "So you lied to Shourya because you didn't want to worry him?"

I nod.

"Fuck," she swears under her breath, returning the files to me. I shove them in the backpack and toss it inside the backseat windows. "But- But why were you smiling at your phone screen? Every dinner, sometimes even breakfast, you were always chatting with someone on your phone."

"I've six brothers, Niharika. One of them is unemployed, one is a brooding artist, two of them are my age, one is a golden retriever, and the eldest one is like a stricter, scarier version of Narayan Shankar from Mohabbatein. I've a wholesale amount of entertainment in my family."