Manik's POV:

"Sir, there's no signal on the cell's GPS. We're trying to track the car but at the moment, it's out of the satellite's range."

I listened as my tech expert, Seth Clearwater, told me these things. I was getting frantic now. It had been four hours since the two most important people in my life had disappeared. I never thought I'd ever develop certain...feelings...for Nandu. It caught me completely off-guard, especially since the last time I had any kind of romantic relationship was when I was a teenager. But I didn't delude myself into thinking that my feelings were reciprocated. Why would Nandu care for me anyway? In her eyes I was a cold, heartless killer. She knew that I had killed the Khurana's, and many other people as well.

"Sir, what do you want me to do?" Seth asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Hack into all the security cameras in gas stations going to the French border. My guess is Alia will take her to Paris. It's crowded enough for them to blend in and Alia knows the place well enough to navigate around the city," I told him, and turned to Dhruv. "Send all our men out to wherever he finds them, Dhruv, and make sure they know not to harm them. And find out what Harshad's up to. He's been too quiet for too long. If he finds out that Alia and Nandu are gone, he will most likely take advantage of the situation."

Dhruv nodded and went out of the room. Seth was typing furiously on his laptop, trying to hack into the security mainframe.

I sat on the sofa, leaning my head back and closed my eyes. Nandu's face kept on popping up in my head, as if her image was tattooed onto my eyelids. Not only was she beautiful, but she had enough brains to give a witty answer to each one of my questions and comments. People were usually intimidated by me. I made sure of that, but Nandu didn't even flinch when I tried to stare her down.

I remembered how astounded I was by how she had saved that little boy, putting her own life at risk. I didn't doubt she'd do that again for Alia, and that frightened me. I, Manik Malhotra, the most prominent mafia member in all of the U.S., was scared. That, had to be a first.

I went out of the room, trying to keep myself busy so I would stop worrying. I went to Nandu's room, thinking I might find something there that could help find them.

I walked in, looking around the empty room and feeling Nandu's absence more than ever. I looked around in the room, under the bed and in the drawers. I didn't find anything pertaining to their escape, but I did find a letter there written by Nandu. It said:

Dear Dad and Arya,

If you're reading this, that means I'm dead. Which sucks, but please don't be sad and don't miss me. I've been treated extremely well by my captors. All I wanted you to know is that I love you both. Arya, I'm sorry for breaking your heart, but you've been my best friend and brother everytime I needed you. And dad, I'm sorry for blaming you for mom's death. I realize now that I needed someone to blame at that time and I was wrong to blame you. I love you, dad, and I wish that you and I had spent more time together. I miss you both.

Love,

Nandu.

My hands were clenched in anger. She lied to me. She did know Aryaman Khurana; my one worst enemy besides Harshad Saxena. He had pried into my personal affairs and used the most unconventional and barely legal methods to try and capture me, but fortunately, I was always two steps ahead of him.

I put the letter back in the drawer and went back to my office where Seth had finally found something.

"They're going to France, all right," he said, pointing at a grainy video of Alia and Nandu getting out of the Porsche. Nandu was pumping the gas whileAlia was getting junk food for their little road trip. Seth wrote the location on a piece of paper and gave it to me. "I'll keep you updated on where they go next."

I nodded and all but dragged all my men out to get to Alia and Nandu as soon as possible. I sat with Dhruv in my Vanquish, and we sped off towards the gas station.

"I looked around for Harshad, but there's no sign of him anywhere. Maybe he's not here anymore, boss. He could have gone back to New York."

I shook my head. "After all these years of working for me, Dhruv, your naivete never fails to astound me."

"Yeah, Alia inspires that quality in people. She gave me hope when I had nothing left to hope for."

My hands tightened on the steering wheel. Dhruv never talked like this. Whenever he did speak, it had nothing to do with his personal life. "What are your intentions towards my sister, Dhruv?" I asked, hoping for his sake that he came up with a good enough answer.

"I intend to marry her someday, when I've turned my life around enough to be worthy of her."

"Do you love her?" I asked, shocked by his words.

"Yes, I do. Unfortunately, I failed to express myself in so many words, but I do, and I will give her a normal and happy life."

"How will you support her?"

"I have some money saved up. Enough to start a small house flipping business. I always had a flair for those kind of things."

"Oh, the kind in which you renovate old houses? I've heard that's a very lucrative business."

He nodded. "Do I have your blessing, Manik?"

I thought about it for a moment. He loved her, and apparently, she loved him back, so who was I to stand in between them? I told Alia that I wouldn't want her to marry a criminal, hoping for a better life for her, but after Dhruv's sincere words, I knew he was planning on changing his profession. He deserved to have a happy life with the person he loved.

"You do. But remember this Dhruv, if I as much as I find you smoking pot once you've married her, I'm going to blow your head off."

He smiled. "I wouldn't expect any less Manik. Thank you."

I nodded simply and kept on driving. We were about five minutes from the gas station. When we reached there, I didn't see Alia's easily recognizable car there, so I kept on driving, going at 200kmph. I finally spotted the bright yellow vehicle surrounded by black cars on all four sides. There was a crest on the back of all the cars that I would recognize anywhere.  My throat closed up in fear. If they swerved and hit the car...

Nandini's POV:

We were having Cheetos, diet coke and M&M's.

"Manik loves cheetos," Alia said, smiling at a memory.

"Really? I never picked him for a junk food kind of guy," I said, surprised. "I always thought he'd be the wheatgrass juice drinking kind."I asked. "No way. He hasn't had bean sprouts or broccoli since mom made us eat them when we were kids."

"Aww! How was Manik as a kid?" I was curious about what he was like before he became New York's infamous drug king.

"He was...is the most amazing big brother a girl could ask for. My dad trained him at the office to handle the business once he retired, and Manik loved it. It was all he wanted to do once he got his business degree, but dad made some bad investments and had to get help financially. He went to his friend Harshad Saxena in the mafia, and asked for his help. He gave my dad two options; one, my dad could pay him in installments over a year or he could pay him afterwards in one installments. The string attached with the first option however, was that Manik would have to join the mafia as soon as he was 18. My dad didn't want that future for Manik so he didn't have anyway out. Harshad killed him, and threatened Manik that he would kill me and mom if he didn't join them. Manik had no choice, so he accepted, but by the time he made the decision, Harshad thought that he should remind Manik what was at stake and killed our mom. Both of us were heartbroken, so Manik, to protect me, joined the mafia. He rose in the ranks faster than anyone in the history of the mafia. He's kept our dad's business running successfully as well."

I was shocked by what Alia had told me. "Why did Harshad Saxena ask for Manik specifically? And how come you guys don't work for him anymore?"

Alia shrugged. "Maybe he saw some hidden potential in Manik. Who knows. And as for why Manik doesn't work for him anymore, Harshad got jealous of Manik's success and tried to have him killed. But Manik found out and got away in time. He decided to take revenge for our parents death so he got back in the game, killing a lot of Harshad's men. All those people he said he'd killed, they were all Harshad's men. He hasn't killed a single person on his own watch."

I frowned. "And the Khurana's?"

Alia sighed. "Mr Khurana wasn't what he seemed like Nandu. He was a bad man. He had several off shore accounts that were filled with drug money from Saxena's gang. His wife was just collateral damage. Manik never planned on killing the kid. You just assumed he did from what you saw."

I nodded woodenly. From what Alia was saying, it seemed like Manik was drafted into this thing without his consent, and at such a young age too. I felt a rush of sympathy for the man, and also his sister.

"What was it like, for you?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Manik kept me away from the worst parts. He got me into a good private school and sent me to university to do my bachelors degree in fashion design. I'm in my final year now, but I'm doing my courses long-distance because of the threats that Harshad gave Manik. Both of us miss our parents, but we've learned to come to terms with our fate. Manik doesn't believe this is what he was meant to do."

"I agree with him on that. He can do so much better," I said absentmindedly as I processed all the things Alia had told me. So Manik Malhotra was a good person...who would've thought?

I thought about the scene at the Khurana's . Manik's gun was pointing at the dead couple, not Abeer. I tried to make sense of my emotions. Why was I so relieved? I knew it wasn't for fear of my own life. Was it because I wanted to believe that everyone had some good in them? Or was it because I had certain feelings for Manik that I wanted to justify? As all these questions rushed through my head, little did I know that the object of my affection was just a few meters away from me, and so were the people who unintentionally wanted to crush our romance before it even began.

To be continued........