MALLIKA

Siddharth, why are you not accompanying me when you are aware that it will be difficult to catch Dr.Lahiri ?" Sumedh groaned in annoyance at his friend for sticking up to their plan and planning to stay at home instead of going with him.I, Siddharth and Avneet - we had made this short plan to stop Siddharth from going anywhere today as he owed me the explanation for putting up the risk of my life when he could easily get me out of here.

"I am feeling sick today. I have a terrible headache and I think I seriously need some rest." Siddharth replied pointing at his head. Sumedh looked at him for a moment before shaking his head.

"It's not about being sick. I am not saying that you shouldn't stay home and take rest. But it's very strange for you to take a random day off out of nowhere when you hardly stay away from any mission." He stated. Siddharth eyed him for a moment and then sighed.

"I know that but I need the day off. I guess I am really weak. Why is it hard to accept that I am not going with you all today?" He mumbled avoiding to meet Sumedh's eyes.

"Why won't it be hard to believe it? You are someone who doesn't miss any mission and you deciding to stay at home for some illnesses rarely happens. You have got sick before but you never missed out any work. Even when you were seriously wounded in that car accident, I told you to take rest. But within 2 days, you came out with your broken leg claiming to work. It's you who persisted on me to work during your tough days always. Then now you are just having a simple head and you are staying here. Isn't it very suspicious and weird ?" Sumedh pointed out. I bite my lip trying to think about any excuse after the valid reasons Sumedh said. It was getting more difficult with times. I looked from the corner of my eyes observing Siddharth who seemed to be as confused as me.

"Sumedh, you have to understand that he is sick and he won't go anywhere with you. And as a wife, I have this right to take care of him and spend times with him specially when we are meeting each other after long time."  Avneet said keeping her eyes firmly fixed on Sumedh as she stepped forward to stand beside Siddharth.

"His main focus is always on work and stuffs. But now he is avoiding it because of you. Considering the fact that he barely does something like that, I am having a hard time to process that he is going softie which is not suitable for gang." He said with a glint of mockery and sarcasm in his tone. I glared at him even though he didn't notice and cutsed him inwardly.

Time was passing, Sumedh and Avneet both were still involved in heated argument accusing each other for their deeds. Siddharth was not every making any move to interrupt them which was making me irritated. Suddenly Siddharth's eyes trailed towards me and I glared at him gesturing him to stop their argument right now. He smiled sheepishly in my direction and pointed his finger at me and then them gesturing me to go and stop their fight. I could feel my blood boil with every passing second. I scoffed in his direction and decided to put on the most girly act I had learnt from those television shows my grandmother watched.

"Ahhhhhh" I loudly screamed snatching all the attention from them. Without further thoughts or anything, I intentionally rushed towards Sumedh throwing my arms around him. I hugged him tightly shoving my face on his chest. I must say that my sudden act startled him and he stiffened in shock.

"Sumedh, cockroach...cockroach.There is a big cockroach." I yelled gripping his collar with my fist pretending to close my eyes. Though it was something girly, I was actually afraid of cockroaches. But i wouldn't hug some guy in fear of cockroach. The next thing I knew that bubbles of laughter broke out in the room as everyone began laughing in the room. I heard him letting out a sigh as he stood there without hugging me back.

"Shut up" He grumbled and everyone stopped laughing immediately.

"Angel, leave me first." His hand came to rest on my shoulder pushing me away.

"No ,no, no, no" I dramatically said and embarced him again snuggling into his neck more. He might have abducted me but I
was aware about the effect I had on him. How much he denied, he was physically attracted to me and so was me. Though my feelings ran deeper, I would get over it probably.

"Then how will I remove the cockroach ?" He asked, his heart beating against his chest which I could feel vibrating against me. I intentionally roamed my hand from his shoulder to his stomach sensually caressing over his skin. He took a sharp intake of air in response. I smirked inwardly.

"I don't know anything. Tell your men to do it soon." I responded.

"But Angel,I think that it has already gone now." He calmly said. I felt tingles and a sudden feeling of satisfaction hearing his name "Angel". 

"Fine." I took my own time to part away from him. I made sure to brush my lips on his chest in this process to distract him from forcing Siddharth to accompany him. I still kept my hands wrapped around his neck and turned behind to lock eyes with Siddharth. I blinked my eyes once indicating him to make him agreed in this situation.Siddharth nodded with a smirk and took the advantage of our closeness. Siddharth was the one who had given me this idea before coming here. We knew that Sumedh could have made chaos and so he told me to be prepared.

"Bro, whether you want or not I am staying because I want to spend times with her. She has come back and I need to be with her after so many days. I swear that I won't neglect my work from next time." Siddharth pleaded.

"OK, do whatever fuck you want." He grunted , anger and frustration lacing with his tone. He turned behind to face the  bodyguards.

"Peter, keep eyes on Mallika and make sure to keep her safe. Don't let anything harm her." He commanded with full authority. I rolled my eyes at his chosen words when he was the one who was reason for my potential insecurity.

"Sir, Siddharth Sir is here also. He can also take care of her. I think, I should go with you." The guy named Peter came forward. I took in his appearance and he seemed to be probably the youngest guy in the group. Infact he might be some teenager.

"I trust Sid but I don't trust him when Avneet is with him." Sumedh commented earning a glare and groan in return from Avneet.

"But Sir..." He was again interrupted in the middle.

"I repeat what I said. I want you to take care of her and keep your ass away from us today. Just do what I am saying for fuck sake." He yelled at him which instantly made me feel sorry for the poor kid.

"Sir...
He again tried to say something but stopped when Sumedh scoffed at him and went to stand infront of him.

"Have you ever experienced the pain of getting stabed by a sharp knife ?" He asked in a cold and dangerous voice gritting his teeth and dug his right arm in his pocket and took out a knife. My eyes widened at him as I stood there rooted on the ground.

Was he seriously going to murder him infront of me?

Silence prevailed the room. Peter's face had lost its colour as he stood there, his head bowed down. The fear for his death and him was prominent in his facial expression.He was going to point the knife at him when I took some courage and rushed in the spot grabbing his arm quickly. He stopped in his track instinctively and followed his eyes to land on my arm which was grabbing his arm. I shook my head negatively gesturing him not to do anything. To be honest, I myself was not sure if he would listen to me and would do whatever I was saying. I was kind of afraid of him as it was new to me seeing him with weapons. To my luck, he seemed to calm down as his expression softened and he turned to face Peter again.

"Whenever I say something, you do it because you owe it to me. I am your boss and you will do what I will say only. I believe you with her safety and security. Don't think it as less than your job. Just focus on whatever responsibilities I have given you to prve yourself as the best." He said in his usual emotionless tone.

"And about Sid, I guess we should allow him to spend times with his wife neglecting his duties." I suddenly felt like laughing at his note of sarcasm. He had got that quality from me probably, I concluded in my mind.

I snapped into the reality when I felt lingering warmness engulfing my hand. I looked at the source to fing my hand still holding onto his arm. I trailed my eyes to find him looking at me as well. Our eyes locked for a second before I hurriedly jerked away my hand from him and turned to face the opposite side ignoring his piercing gaze.

****
I was impatient as I kept waiting for Siddharth and Avneet to show up. They had promised that they would come in my room to meet me after lunch. But it was getting difficult due to Peter who had been keeping his eyes on my every move. I just hoped that they didn't get caught while sneaking out to meet me. Time was running out and Sumedh would come at any time.

While I was emerged in my own thoughts, the door slammed open to reveal Avneet and Siddharth who came walking inside the room after locking the door.

"I hope, you guys have come here without anyone noticing it." I remarked as I stood up from the bed.

"Yes, none has seen us. We have fortunately come here without anyone noticing us." Avneet exclaimed coming forward to stand infront of me. I crossed my hands against my chest and sighed.

"So, explain." I lifted my eyebrows eyeing them both.

"Mallika, I know that you haven't still believed on Siddharth totally and I agree that anyone in your place would have reacted the way you did. Your misjudgement and disbelief is completely justified. But I hope that you will understand everything after we explained everything."

I nodded in response.

"Then, firstly say about your source of income. As far as I have seem, it seems that you guys are definitely doing crimes and I feel that you guys get paid for all of those things. Am I right?" I titled my head to my side looking at Siddharth.

"No, you are not right. But let me clarify everything. I am going to say you every details from the beginning. Just give me some times. Then you can judge or say whatever you want." Siddharth stated earning a nod of approval from me.

"Well, I was friends with Sumedh from childhood. After my parent's death, his father adopted me and from then we have been inseparable. Later he formed this "S.M.Bully" as in his gang after years."

"His parents approved him to involve in those activities?" I asked interrupting him.

"No, there is another background story behind it which is not my place to reveal." He mumbled.

"Anyways, the workers and the bodyguards you are seeing right now were once infamous and heinous criminals. Not all of them but yes, among them most of their names are registered in the cop's diary. They all had been involved with a lot of criminal records and activities. They had once done a lot of wrong things in the past. But now, they are doing what they need to do for their lives."

"Excuse me. What do you mean by "were, was, once..all those words ? Aren't they doing the same thing now? And also what do you mean by doing what they need in their lives?" I asked as a bitter chuckle left out of my mouth.

"Just hear me out, OK" He said in a serious tone which made me shut up quickly.

"Listen carefully then decide I am saying the truth or not. Yeah, their names are already enlisted in the cops records as the marked criminals. But do you know why they had stepped on the wrong path?" I stayed silent at his question.

"They all have chosen this wrong path to do the right things to their families. They have chosen the wrong way to give justice to their own closed ones. They had to take upon dishonest ways for keeping their families well and safe. And Sumedh is someone who has braught them together and made them to choose the right way to do right things to their families." He expressed.

"It might sound so illogical and pointless right now but this is the truth about him. Sumedh has used around 7 percent of his property to bribe the police and set all of them free. He taught them about how he was going to lead them as a gang and make them righteous person but in a different way. His way is different. He does the right thing but in a wrong way. That's his speciality. He does the right things without pretending to be fake and wearing masks of loyalty and honesty infront of the world.

"Now we have uncountable numbers of members whom the cops are also afraid to go after. Besides.he had a big villa on his name in Goa which was his forefathers' properly. He was the sole heir of the huge property as all of their family members have passed away. He quite disheartenedly sold the house with a big amount of cash. He got more than 80 crores for selling the house. Later, he had settled this small yet cozy home for us and took all the responsibilities for our gang's family members. He had made sure to arrange every facilities available for their family member. Besides ,we have certified  and efficient hackers in our group. They hack the accounts and personal information of the bankers and many others who are indirectly or directly involved in hiding cahses and cheating on those investments, payments, taxes everything. They use those money their own purposes keeling the common people under darkness." I was too shocked to react. I could say that I hadn't expected something like that. This was a big information. I needed a lot more time to process everything.

"And you will be surprised to know that so many reputated ministers ,MLA, many famous personalities from their respective profession are all part of  those activities and they have fraud bankers and clerks here and there who are making sure to keep their hidden dirt secret. On the other hand, we don't use these money for our purposes. All of those money are given back to those who actually deserve after all those hard work and dedication. Sumedh doea charity and donates money to orphanage,old age homes,honourable associations and institutions. You know what, many doctors are not also exceptional in case of it. You will shudder if you come to know about Dr. Lahiri whom Sumedh has gone to bring today. I won't say anything now about him. Just wait and watch."

I was speechless at the end. Now I felt bad for how openly I had been judging them without knowing all the details. I cursed myself inwardly for not recognizing their honesty. I should have trusted them instead of lashing out on them like that. I shouldn't have been so judgemental soon. After all whether I admitted or not, Sumedh had not done any harm to me which he could have easily done before. He seriously wanted my safety.

"We pay them with those left out money we got by solding the property and also from those black money stored under preservation like some wealth. Besides, we know so many police inspectors who take bribe from many higher class people who are also periphrastically involved with crime world. We mange to to take money from them by threatening and blackmailing them and use them to complete the payments of our members. Even in our underground world, there are actual criminals who don't like us as we are doing good works in a bad way. From buisness men to many government officers are indirectly included in this crime world. And we kill those assholes who actually deserve to rot in hell."

"Sumedh despises them. No actually he loathes them most because they actually manipulate the criminals to do crimes or should I say that they use to turn the innocent and poor men into criminals to fulfil their purposes? It's the reality, Mallika. That's why we don't believe in our so-called society where those bloody bustards are being almost worshipped like the God and innocent ones are being always punished and suspected the criminals." By the time he finished his speech, I was in remorse and guilt. I shouldn't have judged Sumedh so soon.

I was not completely unaware of the reali. I knew what was actually happening around us. Darkness and lies were surrounding the society claiming them as the brightness. It was the absolute reality of the present time. However, I had not expected that the person whom I thought as the evil and cruel monster came out to be the angel. He was here to actually help the society whereas I had suspected him to be a criminal. It was kind of ironical how the criminal was trying to help the commoners and the so-called famous persons were ruining the society with fake promises and speeches. After hearing this, my respect and love towards him had increased more than before. My heart swelled with the warm feeling of pride and love as I got to know the real side of Sumedh.

I am sorry that I could't reveal the truth of Sidneet still now. I just unfolded about their works and their sources of earnings. I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter.

I will come back with a new chapter soon.