Madhu sleepily snuggled closer to her husband and Rk gave room to her to lay her head on his chest and wrapped his hand around her back.
"When did you come?" Madhu asked as she planted a kiss on his chest.
"Hmm?"
"Rishab?" she shook his shoulder.
"Half an hour back" Rk mumbled sleepily.
"What time is it now?"
"6.30 AM"
"Oh... So full night you weren't home?"
"Hmm..."
"At what time you have to go to work?" She asked leaning up and looking at her half sleeping husband
"Sleep, Madhu." He pulled her down.
"You are taking the day off?"
"No. Evening I will go to station. I need some sleep to catch up." He said tiredly.
"Oh. Then I will take half day off & be with you." She said excitedly.
"Hmm..."
"You are not happy?"
"Don't disturb me."
"You want me to go to office? So that I won't disturb you?" she asked incredulously. He didn't reply.
"What you will have for breakfast." She pestered and nuzzled his chest.
"I will wake up only by lunch time so no need to bother cooking breakfast for me." He answered in a dry tone and yawned.
"No. You can't skip breakfast. You eat and sleep." She said stubbornly.
"First let me sleep." He growled at her for constantly poking him.
"You want me to shut my mouth?" she asked with a pout.
"You want me to say it out loud?" He asked back with his eyes closed but his facial expression clearly said he was beyond annoyed.
"Did you find anything about the kidnapper guy? And who is that girl?" she asked suddenly remembering about last night's incident.
"I will tell everything later."
"Please tell me nah? I couldn't sleep last night in this tension. I am just curious to know who that girl is." She said and bit her lower lips with a curious frown.
"I don't think so. When I came home half an hour back you were having a sound sleep?" he mocked her.
"Rishab!"
"Madhu, please. Stop annoying me."
"Now I am an annoying wife to you?" she asked getting upset.
"Not now but always." He said looking at her eyes. "Got it?" he tapped her little head and then he closed his eyes going back to sleep.
"You... You... I hate you." Madhu said and slapped his chest with her hand hardly and winched in pain. Rk quickly sat up on the bed when she cried, gone was all his fatigue but replaced with only worry.
"You okay?" He asked in concern holding her right hand.
"Do I look like okay?" She shouted at him angrily with tears welling up her eyes.
"I am sorry." He gently rubbed her right hand. "There is no need to go all violent, okay? You only will get hurt." Rk said.
"Am I really annoying?" She asked sniffing.
"No, baby" he kissed her forehead making her smile in relief.
"Okay good. Now let's sleep" she chastely kissed him before pushing him back onto the bed and she too lied beside him and hugging each other they went back to sleep.
--0--
A man walked down the staircase and entered into a dark room. He looked around and spotted his boss sitting on his rolling chair and facing away from him. There was only a small lamp with blue bulb sitting on the desk was on and giving light to the dark room.
"Boss" the man called and bowed his head down.
"Any good news, Bujang?" Boss asked.
"No, boss. Once again that Madhubala f**ked our plan. Because of her one of our men is caught in the hands of police."
"Damn you, Madhubala!" The Boss guy stood up from his chair and angrily pushed the lamp on the floor and the bulb broke into pieces bringing complete darkness to the room.
"Ugh! I won't spare you Madhubala. f**k! I won't!" He cursed.
Bujang took out his cigarette lighter from his shirt pocket and lit it bringing some light to the room.
"I want that Madhubala to be dead." Boss ordered.
"It's difficult, boss"
"Why?"
"ACP Rishab kundra." Bujang said as if that was the answer to his Boss' question. "We can't near her with him by her side."
"Then kill them both." Boss said as if it was as easy as eating a piece of cake.
"Yes, Boss" Bujang nodded his head and went out of the darkroom.
--0--
Madhu walked at the lobby carrying two grocery bags. She held the bags in one hand and with other she was texting message.
"Hey" Rk stepped down the last few steps and came jogging towards her. Madhu snapped her head up and frowned.
"Why you are coming by staircase? Don't you know to use the elevator?" she asked. "See, how you are sweating." She said wiping his forehead with her shawl.
"Elevator is out of function" Rk answer scratching his temple and grabbed one bag from her.
"What the?" Madhu cursed. "Darn! Are we going to climb up all the 13 floors?" Madhu asked in dread. Rk nodded his head.
"What happened to the other elevator in the back block?"
"Both are not working"
"That's strange."
"Yeah I thought so too" Rk agreed.
"Where the moronic secretary of this apartment had gone now? For what effing business he collects maintenance charge every month? Can't he even appoint someone to do the lift service? Madhu asked pissed.
"Hey! Calm down. No need to get so hyper." Rk placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently.
"You shut up." Madhu snapped at him. Rk shook his head displeased.
"I will give that secretary a nice tongue lashing when he conducts the next apartment meeting." She said more to herself and huffing she started walking up the stairs. Rk trailed behind her rolling his eyes for the drama she was creating.
"You had good sleep?" Madhu asked.
"Yep"
"Good. You had lunch?" she asked. She had cooked lunch for him and went to get grocery for the next few days.
"No, I was waiting for you. Btw where were you? What took you so long to get these two bags of food stuffs?"
"Oh yeah it's been two hours nah since I left home?" she asked realizing she didn't bother to let him know she will get late to reach home. "Well, I met an old friend of mine in the supermarket. After college we lost touch so today we went to the nearby coffee shop to catch up and I complete forgot to text you. Sorry, Rishab"
"It's okay" Rk smiled
"So you came down in search of me?" She asked.
"Yeah, I tried calling you but you didn't answer my call so I thought I will go and check myself."
"Aww... sweet." Madhu pulled his cheek and kissed it making him roll his eyes. He hates PDA! (Public display of affection)
"My phone was in silent so I didn't hear the ring. Just now I saw your message while walking in the lobby and was about to reply you that I am almost there but before that you found me." She said. Rk nodded.
"Oh God! I'm tired. I can't walk anymore."
"Hey hello, we are in the 3rd floor, 10 more floors to go to reach our apartment." He reminded her.
"Oh no! I'm dead. Who asked you to buy an apartment in the 13th floor?" she dropped the grocery bag down on the floor and leaned her back on the wall.
"C'mon Madhu." Rk took her hand and dragged her but she snatched it away.
"I'm telling you I can't walk. My legs are killing me and that too in this bitching heels" she shouted and showed her 4 inch heels to him.
"Take it off and walk" he snapped.
"No!" She shook her head stubbornly.
"What's wrong with you? Got on the wrong side of the bed? You are so grumpy and all shouting today? You were never like this?" Rk asked.
"I don't know why I am snapping at you. I am sorry, Rishab." She said looking down in shame. She always takes her anger at him but he never complained.
"You should do your exercises regularly to keep yourself fit, Madhu. See, you are cribbing just climbing 3 floors."
"Seriously, Rishab, I am not lying. I really can't move my foot one inch ahead. It's paining really bad. Oh God! I feel like fainting."
Rk quickly held her with both the hands after keeping down the bag he was holding.
"Did you hurt you legs last night?"
"I guess so. When I fell off the Scooty I sprained my ankle a bit."
"Why you didn't tell me, dammit? Rk asked. "At least you could have told the doctor right?"
"At that time it wasn't much painful but now... after shopping and walking with my friend to the coffee shop and now climbing three floors... Shit!" her leg gave away and she knelt down on the floor.
"Madhu..." Rk tried to hold her but sank down tiredly.
"Shall I carry you?" Rk asked.
"Up all the 10 floors?" Madhu looked up at him and smirked.
"Yeah... I guess I can... well, I don't have any other choice." He shrugged.
"You do have a choice." Madhu said.
"What?"
"You can leave me and go. I will sit here for a while and slowly I will walk up taking break at every floor."
"I'm not leaving you alone. Ever" he promised.
"Wish we were in our house." She said with a naughty gleam in her eyes.
"Why?"
"So that I can kiss you senselessly."
"Just try and walk up with my help then we can kiss and do lot more in our room, baby" Rk winked at her. Oh well, that gave boost for her to stand up and holding his arm tightly she took baby steps. He carried both the bags in one hand and held her waist in other hand.
On the fourth floor, she decided to try her luck and pressed the elevator button to check whether it was working.
"Rishab, its working" Madhu squealed in excitement. Rk smiled at her childish glee.
They waited for the elevator cab to come up from the ground floor to the fourth floor where they were standing at the moment.
"Get in" Rk let her get into the elevator first and followed her then and pressed No.13 on the control panel.
Rk crossed his hands over his chest as he leaned his back on the metal wall and looked up at the serial LED calling board to know the moving status of the elevator cab.
Madhu stood beside him adjusting her appearance looking at the mirrored elevator. She was habitual of doing her last minute make up in the elevator which irritates her husband to the core.
She brushed her hair with her fingers and swept her hair from the back and let it cascade down her right side shoulder.
"Right now you are just going home and there you will put your hair in a messy bun then why you need to comb your hair?" Rk asked her warily.
"What bothers you?" she asked rudely narrowing her eyes.
"Rude much?" he retorted. She sighed. She wondered why she was so snappish since morning.
"I love mirrored elevators. I don't feel claustrophobic. I just distract myself from the ride by looking at the mirror and making some touch ups" she said politely.
"You have claustrophobia?" Rk asked. She nodded her head. She often gets extreme irrational fear of confined space. When she was alone in a confined space like now in elevators or in small rooms or in darkness she gets suffocated and to avoid that she either used to check her phone or make calls and talk to someone or simply check her appearance in the mirror which way she distracts herself from the fear.
"But then I am here right? You don't have to fear, Madhu." Rk wrapped his arm around her shoulder and drew her closer to him.
"Yeah, right but I am habitual of doing this distraction tricks."
"Oh okay. I am sorry." He pressed a kiss on her forehead.
Suddenly the elevator grounded to a halt mid-floors with a jerk.
"What's wrong?" Madhu asked looking at her husband who just shrugged his shoulders. He moved to the control panel and pressed the button to his floor again but it didn't work. He pressed the button to the ground floor but it didn't work as well. The lights inside the elevator cab started blinking and it went off.
"Rishab, I am scared" she clung to her husband as she started trembling.
"Hey, relax. We will use the cell service."
"What?"
"The emergency dial button is not working. There is no signal in my phone too. The network is totally jammed." Rk said frustrated. He tried to open the elevator doors but it was tightly stuck.
"Shit! We are stuck in here. We are going to die in here..." Madhu cried.
They stood in stunned silence for a minute or two before they heard some beeping sound. Rk looked up at the elevator shaft ventilation from where the sound was coming.
"Oh f**k! Lie down flat" Rk yelled and pushed Madhu down to lie on the floor and he covered her body by topping over her so that he can protect her from what was coming up next to them. they covered their face and head to guard themselves against debris in case they hit the ground. A moment later a bomb detonated and a cloud of flame gushed into the elevator cab.
... To be continued!!!!
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