HAZEL ARORA

Of course!

I stopped at my track when I felt a gun point at the back of my skull. But before I could turn, Ayushmann had kicked the gunman, who fell down. We ran for our lives, outside the club. This time we were out of luck. Three of Randall's men had surrounded us.

Both of us were determined to fight back and make it work tonight.

I lunged with my gun towards one of them. Before he could duck down, I had shot him, right on his chest. Uh oh! I didn't mean to, but what choice did he leave me? Ayushmann would have gotten shot tonight, if I hadn't decked another guy with Randall's suitcase. Then we ran away, but it seemed like, we had taken down the wrong guy.

We were at a construction site, running for our lives. Just as we were about to escape, one of the three men hit my hand with an iron rod. I almost cried, but I had to control myself. Ayushmann held me tight, closer to him, I was in pain so I couldn't stop him.

The guys were still running behind us even though I was damn sure that they were running for the money. We entered a dark alley with no other way to return. We hid behind a small but doable carton box which was abandoned as a result of fungus growth. It stank but we didn't have any other choice. We were dangerously close to each other and then I realized-

I didn't have the money suitcase.

Fuck!

Xavier would kill us.

I was panicking. I kept screaming obscenities at Ayushmann who was as flushed as I was at this realization.

I yelled at him, lifting my face up, as he stood taller than me, "Fucking Hell! You should have just kicked that guy off or something!"

"There was no time; he had a rod and a fucking gun. What do you expect?"

"Xavier's gonna kill us, I would rather die in the construction site." I kept screaming like a maniac to him, not caring if the guys heard us. My hands were shaking, but I kept screaming at his face. "Now I am left penniless, with a failed Mission, stuck with y-"

I couldn't finish the sentence. Ayushmann had dominantly placed his lips on mine to shut me up. Ayushmann kissed me so that I would stop screaming on his face. I felt numb, but a jolt of sparks had set up in the deep pit of my stomach at the same time. I felt the world around me stop spinning. I closed my eyes as his lips went deeper colliding with my tongue. I was dumbstruck for a moment as adrenaline coursed through my body. Goosebumps erupted up on the back of my neck. It felt passionate and warm as if my whole body was in fire, except it wasn't burning.

Suddenly we separated. I came back to my senses. My whole body felt a rush of blood and my cheeks were heated up aggressively, even though I wished it would have lasted longer.

For a moment, Ayushmann and I stared at each other. His eyes bore upon me intensely. I tore off the eye contact only to see, his hand was on my uninjured one, the whole time. Something warm lit up my whole body. Seeing me eye his hand, Ayushmann took his hands off instantly, even though I secretly wished he hadn't.

I heard no commotion ahead of us, so we came out of that stinky box.

None of us spoke anything as we kept walking. My mind kept playing the moment over and over again. We came halfway across through the construction site, and then I saw something glistening in a small hole.

Randall's suitcase.

If anything, Ayushmann had been successful in keeping me quiet, because I completely forgot why we were there in the first place.

I practically jumped at the suitcase and closed my mouth which was open in shock. It was closed tightly. No money was taken out of it.

I didn't understand why they would not take any money out of it.

I spoke softly to Ayushmann, in a confused tone, "No money has been taken out of it?"

He replied, "They weren't after the money, they were after us."