◇ y u v r a a j ◇
Nineteen years old
I knew I was always meant to conquer.
I was born to rule and fight and survive. The motion had been drilled into me ever since I was a child.
So when I come across a challenge — a mission — I am ready for it.
Same for tonight. I stood before the building with guns and my men. It was odd how I was one of those men just yesterday and today, I was leading them.
And all for what? Just because I was the firstborn son of my father.
I wasn't going to say many people were pleased about it.
"You are not an adult to drink yet," one of my soldiers, Satyam, remarked as he glared at Abhimanyu.
Satyam was one of those many people.
A grin spread through Abhimanyu's face, nothing cheerful and pleasing behind that gesture.
He was leaning against the car with a silver flask in his hand. His gun rested on the windshield of the car like he couldn't care less that we were in the enemy's territory.
"I am legal enough to kill but not legal enough to drink? Nice," he chuckled darkly.
In our world, children learned to fire a gun before they could learn how to hold a pen. It was a truth no one could erase.
Satyam looked at my way and I did not miss the disdain glint in his eyes. "I am sure the Boss would disagree with that." He emphasised the word Boss with sheer mockery.
I was not the Boss yet. Not until my father was alive or unless he gave up on that position for me to take over and even then, he could never retire from the underworld.
But I was definitely old enough to make decisions for the Cartel no one else could. "It doesn't matter unless he isn't drunk enough to get his ass killed."
Abhimanyu gave out a low whistle. Satyam looked displeased with the way his face had turned red but he didn't argue. He probably thought I was favouring Abhimanyu, giving my cousin an upper hand but I was simply stating facts.
I didn't give two flying fucks about Abhimanyu but I still wasn't ready to face the melodrama in my family if something happened to him.
Satyam scrunched his face at Abhimanyu like he had smelled something foul before leaving with a nod; I nodded back in return as he disappeared from our sight.
"I smell jealousy from far away," Abhimanyu said behind me.
I stiffened. I didn't like it when people were behind me. I had witnessed enough shit to know what happened to those who were too trusting. They got killed easily.
"He doesn't like two nineteen and seventeen-year-old boys being his superior," I muttered without turning back to look at Abhimanyu but still kept my guard up.
Satyam had worked with my grandfather before my father and now that I was slowly but surely rising as a snake, he was feeling unappreciated.
And jealousy was a bitch.
"Let's get over this," I said, holding up my gun. Abhimanyu grinned in return.
With a low whistle, a few of the soldiers followed ahead. Satyam who was bragging about being brave, stayed the most behind. Abhimanyu decided to take the backdoor while I was his cover.
This mission was more like a retribution against the Solidarity — a drug ring — for blowing up one of our warehouses in Kolkata.
While the Cartel and Solidarity didn't go neck to neck much whenever they did, barely anyone returned in a single piece.
And we had clearly caught them by surprise when we attacked them because they didn't carry their guns with them.
Honestly, they could have been vigilant. They should have known the Cartel was going to seek revenge.
Gunshots fired from every direction, followed by a few curses and screams and more screams and some more screams.
Men emerged into a blurred vision after a while, only leaving the smell of gunpowder and blood behind while the voices dropped low with pain.
That was when I heard a soft intake of breath. It wasn't any of those Solidarity soldiers we had managed to take down or even my men's groans.
It was shallow, barely audible and…feminine. Slowly, I pushed the door of the room behind me and the sight for once had caught me in shock.
There was a girl. Naked and frozen on the cold floor.
Her dark hair framed her face making it harder for me to see her as I made my way forward. Slash marks covered her bare, pale skin. Blood covered between her legs and even some pieces of glass had pierced her skin.
Her wrists and ankles were tied by chains so she couldn't run. I was surprised she was even alive. Barely but alive.
Fucking sadists!
"What a lucky day!" Satyam exclaimed behind me. I was so caught up looking at the girl that I hadn't noticed him entering the room.
He didn't look the least bit shocked, instead, he sounded delighted. I looked up at him but he was already looking at the young girl in front of us with…hunger.
The girl couldn't have been older than twelve or thirteen but that seemed to excite him even more judging by the strain against his trousers.
A mixture of disgust and anger coerced into my blood at the thought of him hurting her.
Satyam grinned ear to ear as he inched closer to touch her and without thinking, I pulled out my gun and pressed the trigger.
I don't know what had come into me but I couldn't allow him to touch her. Hurt her more than she already was.
"What the fuck have you done?"
A betrayal.
My head snapped towards Abhimanyu who stood at the doorway, his gun in his hands and blood on his clothes. For the first time in my life, I saw the surprise on his face as he stared at Satyam's body on the floor, choking on his own blood.
I killed one of the soldiers of the Cartel, one of my own men. Even as an asshole, I had no right to kill him because he was loyal to us but still I had.
That was considered a betrayal.
And the punishment for betrayal in our world was death.
"He wanted her." I motioned at the girl with my gun. "I couldn't allow it."
Abhimanyu moved closer. The surprise on his face was now replaced with a blank stare as he showed no reaction to the girl in front of us.
"H-help me…" Satyam stuttered, reaching out a hand at Abhimanyu.
"I'll pretend I never heard you." Then he shot Satyam right between his eyes.
There was a sadistic glint in Abhimanyu's mismatched eyes; something I was witnessing for the first time in him as he turned to face me. "I didn't like the way he wore his tie," he grinned.
Now, Abhimanyu has caught me by surprise.
Most people would have considered this as an opportunity to seize me. To stake me for my betrayal to take my position.
I for one knew Abhimanyu's father — my uncle — could have done it if my father was at my place to take what wasn't rightfully his but what he still greeded after.
Not just him but many of the soldiers of the Cartel but Abhimanyu? Abhimanyu here was hiding my betrayal. That was also a betrayal in the underworld.
"Don't worry," he said, glancing at Satyam. "Brothers need to have secrets between them."
Well, that made the two of us then.
I shifted my attention from him to the girl, crouching down to her height. Her shoulders trembled from the coldness. Goosebumps on her scarred flesh.
"There must be a key somewhere here," I said, holding the chain. Abhimanyu must have got the queue because he had immediately started looking in between the drawers.
After a while, he returned shaking his head. "One of those Solidarity bastards must have been carrying it with them." We couldn't go looking out for the key then.
Abhimanyu retrieved his knife from his holster. "I am not as good as Shivansh with the knife but I can pitch the lock."
No one was good with knives like Shivansh was. Not even my six brothers. I pulled out my knife too to pitch the lock of the chain tying her ankles when two doe-like brown eyes snapped towards me.
There was no innocence in them. It was blank and empty but filled with an emotion I was all too familiar with. Fear.
"N-no, please…" she stuttered, her voice shaky and barely audible.
I froze and so did Abhimanyu. His eyes turned to me but I was only looking at the girl.
I recognized her from the orphanage Maa owned and worked day and night for. Once I had attended a charity event with my mother and must have seen her then.
"She is part of the Cartel," I say without looking away from the girl.
"How do you know?" Abhimanyu asked.
"She belongs to the Saints Orphanage Maa owns." And every company, every NGO, school and hospital we owned was automatically part of the Cartel.
Slowly, I reached out a hand to push the strands of messy curls behind. She jerked back. I didn't miss the way she trembled at my gesture.
"No one is going to hurt you anymore," I say, my voice surprisingly soft.
I was going to make sure of that. No one was allowed to hurt her till I was alive. And I never backed down from my words.
"You're safe. Safe with me." My words must have worked as a distraction for her because Abhimanyu was able to pitch the lock.
"T-they…"
"Shhh. You don't have to say anything." Though I was going to find out how the Solidarity fuckers had managed to put a hand on her.
"What's your name?" Abhimanyu asked with raised eyebrows. Unlike me, his voice was neutral. Blank.
"Isha."
I could see Abhimanyu wanted to question her more but as I had said earlier she didn't have to say anything, he didn't.
I took off my shirt and slipped it against her naked body. It nearly covered her knees for how big it was for her as I picked her up in my arms.
She felt fragile and vulnerable in my arms. Her limp arms clutched my shoulders. Isha's eyes searched around the hall when I walked out of the room but she pressed her head against my chest.
I didn't want her to witness the gruesome image before her. The slaughter the Cartel had done for some fucking drugs only.
I didn't want to be the monster in her eyes.
She was young, too young for this. For everything they had done. And I was going to make them pay.
I caught the questions in my men's faces as they looked at the girl in my arms when I had walked but didn't let them dwell on it. Answering them was currently the last thing I wanted to do.
"Satyam's dead. Inform his family that he was a brave soldier."
A lie.
It was the first lie I had told the Cartel and I hoped it was going to be the last.
Just it wasn't.
It wasn't going to be the first betrayal I was going to commit for Isha.
• • • •
Okay, for one, I changed Esha's name to Isha because didn't really fit her character.
Second, I think I am ready to bring Yuvraaj to life, girlies.