Page 150 of Illicit Games

“No.”

“All right.” She sounds disappointed.

I don’t care, though. “Please keep me in the loop about any updates on Yukta.”

“Of course.”

We hang up.

The case is solved, yet I’m still far from celebrating. I’m not naïve enough to believe that those orphan women are still alive. But I hold hope for Yukta.

I call Kian again, wondering where he is.

As I’m about to try a third time, there’s a sharp knock at my door. At first, I think it’s him, but then I realize he wouldn’t knock. Dejected, I walk to the front door. Through the peephole, I see it’s my best friends wearing anxious expressions.

I unlock the door.

“Oh, thank god!” cries Bianca.

“We saw the news,” says Rosalie in a sad voice. “Are you all right?”

“I can’t find Kian,” I whisper, scared out of my mind. “I’m afraid he’s gone after Arjun. He was the one who attacked me.”

“Shit,” they curse at the same time.

“Don’t panic.” Bianca takes my arm, pulling me inside the apartment. “I’ll ask Dash to find him. Maybe Kian is at the office.”

“He’s smart, Iris,” Rosalie reminds me. “He wouldn’t do anything impulsive. Let’s call him again. Okay?”

“We’re not leaving until he comes home,” promises Bianca, already dialing her husband’s number.

I mumble a thanks as we settle in the living room.

Please, God, send Kian back to me.

Kian

The impulse I felt to beat Arjun to a pulp months ago, I shouldn’t have dismissed it. The thought that I let him walkaway scot-free enrages me. He must’ve been so smug, thinking he got away with a lesser crime.

I’m not repeating the same mistake this time.

He’s going to pay for daring to harm my woman to me, no one else. His getting to live, even behind bars for the rest of his miserable life, is a mercy that he doesn’t deserve.

He sealed his fate the minute he laid a hand on Iris.

The memory of her wounded, bloodied, frightened haunts me to this day. I could never sleep, knowing the man who hurt her is out there and alive.

I have no limits to how far I’d go to keep her safe.

Men who prey on innocent women don’t deserve to breathe anyway.

DARIAN GROVER: 9pm. Sharp.

I received the text this morning after reaching out to Darian last night once Iris fell asleep. My favors to him are piling up, but I couldn’t care less.

As soon as Iris finished telling me the truth, my mind was made up. Honestly, it was set from the beginning.

As per Zenith’s source at the station, Arjun and his partner Vicky have finished confessing about theSolisgang who had been trafficking women from India to the illegal fertility facility overseas. Either Vicky befriended them or Arjun seduced them to gain their trust before dangling the opportunity to earn more money at a better job. Half of those women went willingly, lured by the promise of a bright future and the prospect of working in another country.