Page 43 of Born in Sin (Phoenix #3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

CARA

She leaned against the rickety wooden table in the middle of the hall and stared at the screen on which Majid’s home was projected up. The furniture might be basic but the technology in the room was top notch.

On the screen, Majid was staring at his phone, one hand covering his mouth. She could see a corner of the photograph that Virat had sent him, the one of the girl she had been meant to be.

As she watched, the front door open and the rest of the Dusty Devils trooped in.

Naveen, Ashish and Parash sat down and a heated conversation ensued.

Majid had skimped on his security system and while his CCTV cameras had video there was no audio.

Cheap ass. She watched him glance at her picture again. Fake ass.

The bedroom door opened, and Virat came out, his phone still in his hand. He looked calm but she saw familiar lines carving themselves into his face as his mind whirled. He walked over to where she stood, his gaze like hers on the screen.

“Emergency meeting,” he murmured.

She nodded. “Looks like it.”

Shourya, Virat’s team member, came in and gestured Virat over to where he stood by the door.

Virat leaned a shoulder against the wall, head bent as he listened to what Shourya was saying.

This was the first time she was actually watching Virat in his element.

A fixer operated in the shadows, his very existence a mystery.

And this was Virat…He’d been born a mystery.

“Hey Car.” Kabir approached her, pointing at her face.

Puzzled, Cara patted her face. “What?”

He used his thumb to brush the side of her lip gently, bending his head to murmur, “Nothing darling. Just a little drool. Stop staring at the man like he’s a prime slab of beef steak.”

“I’m vegetarian,” she told him coolly, pinching him under the cover of his shirt.

She turned away with a small smile, only for her gaze to clash with Virat’s burning one.

A blink and the tempest she’d glimpsed in his gaze vanished.

He gave her a cool nod and turned back to Shourya who was still talking at a rapid pace.

Another young girl entered the room, joining their conversation.

Whatever she said had Virat’s entire body going rigid.

Worry slid through Cara as she saw his fingers twitch by his side.

“You’re staring again baby girl.” Kabir’s annoyingly sing song voice had her frowning at him.

“Stop it!” She hissed.

“You stop it!” He hissed back theatrically.

“Excuse me.” Virat interrupted their hissing contest. “We have news.”

Cara and Kabir drew back immediately, turning to him. Kabir walked away, throwing himself back on the couch, sprawling like a typical manspreader. Across the room, the others also stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Virat expectantly.

“The employee at Majid’s office that we had embedded in the sting operation?”

Cara nodded, remembering what Virat had told her about them setting up an employee who would pretend to have a gambling problem. He was going to request the accounts department for a loan to pay it off.

“They bit?” Amay asked, his face stony.

“They did.” Virat confirmed. “He’s been told to prep his wife and wait for their message. Tentatively for Saturday night.”

“Two nights from now. At the Alibaug house?” Mayukhi looked like she was going to throw up, memories of what they’d tried to do to her clearly still fresh in her mind. Cara knew what that felt like. Some memories were brands to the soul. You just had to live with them.

Virat shook his head. “That location is compromised. They won’t use it again.”

“Then one of Varun’s properties?” Dhrithi asked, looking a bit pale herself.

“The cops still have that on lockdown.” Virat was staring at the screen now, his gaze skipping between the Dusty Devils who had now cracked open the alcohol. “They’ve got somewhere new. But where?”

“If it’s Majid’s place, we now have eyes on it,” Cara said, stepping up to stand beside him and look at the man in question. Majid was talking to Naveen, but one thumb still stroked his phone screen, the image of her clearly visible beneath it.

“They won’t use any of their primary residences,” Virat murmured, his gaze fixed on Majid’s thumb as he gently stroked the image of Celina’s cheek. His jaw clenched, a vein bulging prominently in his temple as he stared at that miniscule movement.

Cara moved her hand a fraction, her hand brushing his.

Virat froze, his entire body turning to stone.

He didn’t look at her, his gaze still on Majid’s hand but she knew that every cell in his body was tuned in to her.

Carefully, under cover of her thigh, she hooked her pinky finger around his, allowing the infinitesimal contact to soothe, both him and her.

For no one in that room knew what boiled under Virat’s calm. No one but her.

“So,” Ishaan asked from across the room. “Do we have any leads on location?”

“My team is looking into it,” Virat said calmly.

Only Cara heard the barely there hitch in his breath.

Knowing she’d distracted him from the toxic rabbit hole he’d been falling into watching Majid caress the image of her face, she went to withdraw her hand, only to find that she couldn’t.

Virat’s finger tightened around hers, holding her in place, their hands disappearing into the gap between their tracks, hidden from sight but fomenting violent sensation that made her composure a shaky house of cards.

Kabir’s phone rang, a loud jangling sound that broke the quiet that had descended on their little group.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, silencing it. “Forgot to put it on vibrate.”

A second later, the phone rang again. Kabir frowned. “It’s not like my manager to be this insistent. I better take this.”

Worry slid through Cara again as she watched Kabir step out of the room.

She felt Virat’s gaze on her profile, knew he was watching her watch Kabir.

A second later, his hand withdrew, her finger released with an abrupt suddenness.

The loss of the slight contact left a yawning sense of loss behind.

She curled her hand into a fist and told herself not to react.

Kabir erupted from the bedroom, his phone dangling precariously from his hand. Energy spilled out from him as he practically vibrated where he stood. “That was my manager,” he said unnecessarily.

“Funky new role?” Ishaan asked, wrapping an arm around Mayukhi’s shoulders and pulling her close.

Kabir didn’t bother answering. He came straight to where Cara stood, his eyes glittering with excitement.

“A package was delivered to my house, not long after we left. Pankajji just finished checking it out and decided it wasn’t a bomb or something. Anyway, long story short, I think it’s our guys.”

“Our guys?” Cara looked to the screen where Naveen was cutting out lines of cocaine on the glass center table. Majid had gotten up and walked away from the group. He was typing something out on a phone. A second later, the burner phone in her pocket vibrated. She pulled it out and looked at it.

Meet me, Celi. Please? I’m begging you. One chance to explain. Just one.

On the screen in front of her, Majid brought the phone to his chest, pressed it tight and then turned back to join his friends.

“Car, are you listening?” Kabir’s impatient voice brought her back to the room she was in.

“I’m listening.”

“I asked Pankajji to send us pictures. Look!” Kabir held out his phone.

Cara took it, shifting so Virat could look at the screen. The first picture was of a black box with a golden yellow bow tied around it. The second one was of a long, black, hooded, satin cape. The third picture held a black card with golden letters embossed into it.

Cara enlarged the image and read the words out loud.

“Saturday, 28 th July. 9:00 PM.”

“That’s it?” Ishaan asked.

“That’s all it says.”

Kabir peered at it over her shoulder, his brow furrowed in a frown. “Why the fuck did they send me a bathrobe?”

And Cara did something she never expected to do on a day like today. She burst out laughing.