The Royal Nightmare

Free?

I swiftly turned right into the basement as he shouts his next order. "Park somewhere." He says as I was shell shocked.

"Excuse me?"

"There." He shouts pointing to a pillar, almost not hearing me when the cars on our tail were inching closer by each passing second. We had already informed the royal security and the dispatched units were on their way to us. I do as told considering we were in the middle of an assassination attempt but I couldn't control my urge to raise a very important concern.

"So there's no tunnel?" I asked and look back at him looking around and surveying the area. "A bunker room or hidden passageway?" I say as he looks around assessing the change in situation as one black fortuner enters the basement from the inclined pathway behind us. "And so, the basement of a night club with a common entry and exit, divided by a rope is your masterplan? Because you sounded very confident when you..."

"Divjyot my queen." He said his hand on my shoulder as I was too shocked at the politeness to react. It had been a while since he had been fake nice and that was the only 'nice' I thought he could be. He read me in an instant, straightening himself. "Okay, look. I'll take your tantrum if I make it out alive. In the meantime lock the car. It's bulletproof." He says as he takes his gun out of his holster and checks for bullets. "I'll keep them a safe distance away from the car but remember bullets fired from a distance closer than 20 mts might breakthrough. So, put your head down and keep yourself safe."

"But..." I say reaching for my glock in the purse. I wish I had my service revolver in this moment but considering I'm off duty I seldom carry it. This little one is what I usually keep for my own safety, not a personal attack on me.

"No. It's not a match for what they have. I'm not risking your life. Stay in. Please. Let me be a good husband for once." He says as our eyes met exchanging more than words could say. It was a split second that elapsed but somewhere in his eyes I found the compensation of all I had faced since my hand was given in his in a Gurudwara tying the knot that bound us to each other and so, I nodded. He takes a deep breath as another car enters. "and a good father too."

Before I could utter another word the car door was shut and he was rolling down on the floor from under the cars around us. "DOWN." I heard him say before he was out of my vision, as I lock the doors and hide below in a crawled position on the deck of this car.

A year ago I would never had guessed what a whirlwind life would be. I had expectations from my life when my mom had started running behind me with images of prospective grooms but never had I thought I would be crawled down in a state of advanced pregnancy in the most expensive car in this province, while the father of my kids was out there fighting for our lives. I heard the first gunshot and almost wept but it wasn't the last. I continued to hear the sound of blaring guns as I shut my eyes.

I wasn't a stranger to guns and gunshots and that wasn't helpful. I had seen the devastating damages weapons do. I had seen people and families destroyed by the mere pull of a trigger. Today, it was my own family on the line and these shots made my heart thump louder and louder by each passing second.

It had been a while I prayed. My father was a religious man but the way he was taken from us, leaving me and my mother to fend for ourselves was brutal in the least. My mom went to the gurudwara whenever she could afford to, in our difficult days but since the day I joined as IPS and she didn't have the burden of earning, she went there every morning and evening.

I went there sometimes to appease her soul but right now my heart yearned for the calmness and tranquility I found in the religious place as a child. I would go there sitting on my father's shoulders thinking that the world was beautiful from that throne.