Page 109 of Entangled Vows

She flinched, and her eyes shut as the courage slipped through her fingers like sand. If the glass shattered… if they got to her, she wouldn’t stand a chance. She would have to fight. There was no other option.

How the fuck had this day turned into the darkest nightmare?

She clenched the umbrella tighter, wishing it were a gun. If only she had something real to fight with.

For a heartbeat, she simply waited, every nerve on edge, bracing for whatever came next.

35

Ten hours.

That’s how long it had taken Vikram to fly from London to Dehradun on his private jet. And that didn’t include the refuelling stop in Dubai. He had barely slept throughout the travel. He exhaled heavily as restlessness clung to him like a second skin. But now, he was finally home.

The jet door opened, and he stepped out, descending the narrow stairs with his sleeves rolled up, hair tousled, and laptop bag slung over one shoulder. The cool and crisp mountain air hit his face, but it did nothing to calm the fire burning inside him… the fire of missing her.

As he stepped onto the tarmac, his phone buzzed in his pocket with multiple notifications.

‘Emergency SOS from Mahika. GPS location shared.’

‘Stuck on an isolated road. GPS enabled. Need help.’

Vikram froze as he read the notification. The blood in his veins turned to ice.What the fuck?

He dialled her number, but the call went straight to an automated message that the number was out of network coverage. His jaw tightened.

Swearing under his breath, he opened the tracking app he had for all her devices. The car’s location showed that it hadn’t moved and was stuck in the same spot for far too long.The app had even sent him alerts twice, but he hadn’t checked his phone.

“Shit!” He didn’t pause to think. He spun towards his driver, who had just pulled up beside the jet in a sleek black BMW M8.

“I’m taking the car,” Vikram snapped, already yanking open the driver’s side door. “You take the luggage home.”

The driver blinked. “Sir, is everything—”

Vikram was already inside, slamming the door shut. “Take the luggage home,” Vikram barked through the glass.

He started the engine. The tires screeched as the BMW peeled out of the private airstrip like a cannonball. He didn’t care that it was nearly midnight. He didn’t care about winding roads and the jet lag. All he could think about were the notifications he had just read. That was Mahika’s car, and she was in danger.

He called Max. The call connected on the third ring.

“Sir—”

“Where the hell are you?” Vikram cut in, not giving him a second.

“I’m on leave, sir. I told Mahika ma’am, and she—”

“I told you to be there for her. Always. Especially when I’m not around! And you went on a fucking leave? She drove the car alone, and now she’s stuck somewhere, Max!”

“Sir, what… what happened?” Max stammered, panic creeping into his voice.

“What happened is that you screwed up. Big time.”

Vikram ended the call and slammed his foot on the accelerator like he was flying a damn plane.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Mahika stranded somewhere, alone in a car, in a situation bad enough to makeher send an SOS alert from her phone. He knew that his Mahika was no fragile damsel. For her to send a message like that, it had to be something catastrophic. And that scared the shit out of him. His entire body felt strung tight, every nerve buzzing with anxiety.

He kept glancing at the navigation screen, his eyes locked on the blinking blue dot that marked her car’s last location. It hadn’t moved.

What if she was hurt? What if she—