Page 151 of Wasted Grace

But I’m not kept waiting long because he addresses me immediately. “Aadya... care to join your friend?”

The moment the words leave his mouth, a grip engulfs me. Dragging my resisting body toward Viraj’s limp, bleeding form.

“Shut her mouth.”

That’s all Mehul says. And within a second a wet bitter cloth enters my mouth, taped equally quickly. I can’t make a sound. Because I know that if I try, the loose fabric will travel its way down my throat.

Advik walks over with shaky legs. Settling on a chair they have almost ready for him. Right opposite Dev, who is now staring at Advik with half-open eyes and a stricken face.

“Get it done. I’m guessing you know we want all evidence of Sitara’s access logs removed from GenVault’s database,” a man next to Mehul speaks up. “Do it.”

I realize in that moment that Advik knew this would happen. And he cameprepared. But it’s also a weak lifeline he’d beforced to hang on to. Because I know the moment hedoeserase everything—we’re all dead.

There are two people watching over his shoulder and I assume they’re technologically capable enough to know whether he’s defying them or not.

“I... I need to access the remote network. You got wifi?” Advik asks—his voice slightly trembling.

All while I have a random man groping every single inch of my body, trying to find my weapons.

He’s found two knives and one handgun so far.

But my eyes never leave Advik’s back. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Is he actually going to erase everything? Does he know that there’s no way out of this alive even if he somehow transmits the data to a secure server?

The grabby asshole finds one more gun in my boot.

We had tried that on our way here. It didn’t work because Dev’s access credentials were needed. And Advik woefully admitted that he wasn’t tech-savvy enough to bypass it. He’d tried.

God!He’d tried.

Another knife is yanked out of my waist belt.

We needed Dev. But we didn’t know we’d encounter a very battered one right where we were headed.

“Roni!” Mehul signals the man next to him, who spoke earlier. “Set it up.”

The next ten minutes pass by tensely as I’m slowly stripped off all my ammunition. Viraj hasn’t moved but I can see his chest moving—barely. His face carrying reddish bruises that I know will turn purple soon.

I haven’t been hit yet. Just grabbed and groped aggressively. But that doesn’t hike up my pulse. It’s the fact that the two goons behind Advik are now grabbing his shoulders, making their presence known.

“I’m—uh—in,” Advik says hoarsely, his gaze locked on Dev’s, who is still unable to lift his head up.

Advik had tried earlier—I’ll give him that. He tried to look behind him, tofind me.But the goon promptly slapped him to look ahead. Where Mehul was standing right behind Dev’s chair.

“Click on that.” One of the goons squeezed Advik’s shoulder enough for him to tremble in pain. I wanted to lunge at him. But my hands and legs were now tied. I watched him helplessly, getting slapped and punched around to get the data erased.

The way he is being monitored, I realize he hasno chanceto transmit the evidence to my Deputy Secretary, Nayan Murthy. And absolutely no way to ask Dev for his credential access to gain the evidence either.

We are all going to fucking die. My lungs working twice as hard to give me enough oxygen to contemplate the dire outcome.

I am in the middle of making peace with it when I hear Dev croak. “D-do it... A-Advik. You... You’ll need m-my access code.”

I watch as Advik’s head snaps up from his laptop. “Yes. I... can’t hard delete without your permission.”

I watch as the goons behind him tense but don’t say anything. I realize the tech jargon must be sound enough.

Is this it?Is there a chance for the evidence to transmit even if we die?

Fuck.