Preeta followed Kritika's shocked gaze and gasped when she, herself recognised the intruder. She hadn't expected if she would ever see this young man nor she ever wanted to. But this time, she was helplessly thankful to him for even standing out for Kritika.

"Leave the girl," said Pawan Malhotra calmly while controlling​ his anger by clenching his jaws and fisting his hands aside.

He humorlessly smirked at the men, noticing that they were underestimating him and his courage. His blood boiled when one of the men started laughing at him.

"Little boy, this is not a play for you. Turn around and play cricket over there in that ground. This girl is our case and no one needs to teach us about handling her," replied the man while glaring at Pawan who only shook his head in response.

Preeta gulped and stared at Shrey in shock. She was so keen on observing the scene until Prithvi muttered,"What the hell he is doing here?" She saw him moving to get up and immediately held his arm.

"Where are you going?"

Prithvi let out a humorless chuckle and looked at her in disbelief. "He is my brother, Preeta. He fights and beats his juniors. But those heavy-bulky men there, are out of his league. I need to handle this scene now," saying this he removed Preeta's hand from his arm and gave her a blank look before getting up.

Till this time, Kritika was staring at Pawan in disbelief and had almost lost her sanity. It was so unbelievable to see him standing here for her when more than a month had been passed since their break up.

"C'mon, pretty girl. We have a deal, now. To the club we want, and we will leave you then," the same man spoke while gesturing for her to come closer.

She only shook her head in response. "No, please. I beg you," she obliged but the man only laughed.

"To the club and you will beg us for more," the man laughed with two of his friends. But their laugh was immediately silenced when Pawan tapped his cricket bat on the road while anger clearly redenning on his face.

The man shook his head while glancing back at his friends. "Boy, I told you to play your game there. Turn around and run while swinging your bat. Alright? Now, fuck off," he yelled at Pawan who only shrugged his shoulders.

"Of course, that's what you need to note. I am warning you old-timers to run away from here or I'll swing this bat right at your wrinkled asses. Good deal, erh?"

Prithvi's eyebrows raised and didn't came out from behind the wall. He had planned to startle the men and bring advantage of his presence to escape Kritika and his younger brother. He was actually frustrated for this boy to suddenly appear in this street fight. This was a serious case of bulky men kidnapping a girl.

Pawan didn't need to interrupt if he was alone here. Prithvi clenched his jaws in anger. He couldn't imagine how alone and helpless Pawan was, if he wouldn't have been here. Now, he needed to just wait for the right time to make his presence known.

The three men started digging glares at Pawan and ignoring his rant, two of them stepped ahead towards Kritika. They didn't wait and grabbed her arms when she made a run for escape. The third men stood there, waiting for his move.

Pawan's gaze shifted at Kritika and something in his heart twitched at seeing her tear-stained face. She was shaking her head, wriggling and even crying because of her bruised shoulder. The man weren't caring about her arm and were painfully manhandling her.

Without wasting anymore time, he gripped his cricket bat tightly and stomped towards the men. With a growl, he hit the man who was ready to defend himself as he crossed his hand and doged his attack. But taking this as an advantage, Pawan suddenly and immediately kicked him between his legs making the men stagger back in pain and suddenness.

Kritika cried in pain, when one of the man twisted her arm making her cry loudly. Pawan's eyes widened seeing big purple bruise on her forearm around a big scratch that was spread till her shoulder under the sleeve of her top.

Kritika needed to be treated or it could worsen her situation. With this thought in mind, he moved ahead to attack one of the two men holding her. He pretended to hit one in head but immediately pushed the bat straight in the man's stomach making him cry out loudly.

"You motherfucker," the man yelled in pain while clutching his stomach.

Kritika's hand further twisted when the last man started dragging her with himself but Pawan immediately hit him on the head.

"Leave her," he growled out and was about to attack him when someone from behind grabbed his bat all of a sudden and threw it away.

"Enough use with that magic stick, now. Let's have some real fight here," said the man whom he had kicked in the crotch.

Pawan grunted while sending a hard kick on the speaking man's face making him stagger to the left. But before he could move more, the third man with a bruised forehead had caught his torso.

Crushing him in his bulky arms, he actioned for the his first friend to hit the boy.

"Rip off his balls. He hit me back to my spine," groaned the second man while still clutching his stomach in pain.

Kritika screamed when the man immediately kicked Pawan between his legs making his vision blurry. For a moment, he was close to black out because of immense pain in the most sensitive part of his body.

"You bastard," growled Prithvi while punching hard on the man's cheek from the right.

Seeing that the second man was still in pain and unable to move, Preeta immediately ran towards Kritika but failed to get unnoticed by three of the men. Ignoring their gazes, she hugged a traumatised Kritika and immediately started checking her wounds, not forgetting to stand far away from the hold of the men.

"Bha-bha..." Preeta shook her head and hugged Kritika tightly.

"Don't worry. You aren't alone," she spoke while moving her hair away from her face and checking her wounds.

Pawan gasped and jerked his head back enthusiastically, injuring the man's nose. Immediately, the man left him and started clutching his bleeding nose in pain. That was the moment of encouragement as he finally observed his cousin brother fighting with the man.

Getting back his senses, he stepped ahead and started beating the man with the bleeding nose.

Preeta was watching the whole scenario while being totally horrified. She had never seen such a real fight. It was not just about her sister-in-law in danger now, it was also about these two men helping them by taking the risk of getting injured.

She won't be able to forgive herself if they would get brutally injured while fighting for her and Kritika. She needed to end this. She looked down at her empty hands and noticed, her phone wasn't with her anymore. She looked around and caught it lying near the wall where she was hiding before.

There was no way, she could get there without getting accidental punches on her face by these men.

"What should I do..." She muttered in blankness but suddenly Kritika screamed in horror.

Preeta followed her gaze and noticed the knife in one of the men's hand. Her eyes widened and gasped when she saw a large cut on Prithvi's arm.

"Prithvi," she screamed and this was the time when three men turned and looked at her with full interest.

That's when, she noticed that the game had changed. Pawan was on the road while clutching his stomach. Blood was coming out of his lip, his forehead and his elbows.

One of the hooligans was standing beside him while holding the same bat in his hand. The other two had surrounded Prithvi who was already gritting his teeth in extreme pain because of the big cut. His lip was bleeding while his cheek was bruised. He was hardly keeping up with his other leg as she could see his narrowed-fitted trouser had torn over his right knee and blood was oozing out from there.

She shook her head in horror and gulped when her eyes met with one of the hooligans.

"Look man! We were fighting for this little girl and what we got in bonus. Another angelic beauty. More curvy, more scared. I am sure, she would taste sweeter," laughed the man with bat in his hand.

Preeta cringed and stepped back feeling nauseated. She saw Prithvi punching the man and gasped when he was attacked back more brutally. He almost cried out in pain but made another effort to show his anger. But she could see all his attacks were failing.

Both the brothers were injured and not able to defend anymore.

She needed to do something. With this thought, she gulped and stared at the men. "Lo-look, I have these golden bangles, this golden locket. There's a diamond ring too," she said while unlocking her locket and removing her ring with tears in her eyes.

"We have a laptop here too. Yes, my earrings," she started removing them shakily and saw them exchanging the glances. She felt hopeful at their interested gaze on her hand full of golden jewellery. "These are too of gold. We have four mobiles here. Take all the things you want, but please stop this. I beg you. We won't tell anyone."

She saw Prithvi's jaw twitching but noticed his silence as a move to continue putting her efforts. She nodded at the men,"Please. We have already been injured. We will give you the money. Go and get yourself treated. But please leave us. We won't tell anyone."

Silence hung in the street for more than a minute and Preeta kept on waiting for their response. She wished that they would agree and this all would end.

"Did you hear those sweet words, Kumar?" One of them said in amusement.

Preeta gulped and observed them with hopeful eyes.

"No. I was lost in that melodic voice. She would be a great fuck. Moaning and groaning in that sweet voice," exclaimed Kumar making the hair of Preeta's back raise in disgust.

She was stunned and felt her stomach churning in horror. The man named 'Kumar' was now roaming his eyes all over her body, as if raping her with his eyes. Her lips curled in uneasiness and felt her hands weakening enough to let the jewelry fall but she maintained her one percent of courage and stood there observing their moves.

She had observed each and every men. Pawan and Prithvi won't be able to fight anymore. Kritika herself was the target of their lust.

She started recalling all the tricks in her mind. She would use her nails, hair pin to attack them. She won't hesitate to kick her attacker in crotch. Till then, maybe Prithvi would get the bat and help them again.

But it all felt helpful in her mind. She knew on the spot, she might get frozen in horror or what if the men would use knives? She bit her tongue at her fate.

She didn't want to lose hope but right now, she could see this had turned too much horrific. Even after so much shouting and cursing, no other man had arrived. This street was so abandoned. There would be no help and these men were sharp and stronger.

She felt her eyes getting filled with emotions. This night could turn out as the turning point of our life. So much bad could happen and she could almost see it happening. She may get ruined by them. She may get killed. Not her only, these three person whom she knew in her life, would also end up ruined like her.

"Please. We won't tell anyone," she sobbed helplessly in a tired voice while noticing that Pawan was close to pass out on the street.

She looked back at Prithvi and saw him nodding as if he was telling her to continue. She immediately got the idea and kept on talking.

"Please, about what happened here; we won't complain. We have enough money and jewellery here. We had already called the police. They must be arriving any minute and before they could come and get you, I am suggesting you leave us and run away with all jewellery and money."

The men laughed and looked at her. "This street is abandoned. Cops would take much time to remember that there's even a place like this in the city. So, you lying whore, put that jewellery in that bag and come here," yelled one of them.

Preeta widened her eyes and shook her head. She put the jewellery in Kritika's bag and immediately heard a cry.

She looked back at the man and noticed Prithvi  had pushed one of them hard enough to fell on the ground. The other two were now glaring at him and Kritika had threw a stone at one of the man to distract.

Just as they looked back at Kritika, Prithvi threw another punch at one of the man.

This brought out worst of anger in the men and Preeta could see the fury in their eyes. It looked like they won't leave Prithvi now. Pawan was nowhere in the condition to continue the fight and then, Prithvi was alone against those three.

Her jaw dropped at the realisation that Prithvi could seriously get hurt and even get killed. Her hand shook in terror and looked around for something to help but her mind was frozen. She couldn't think of anything and all she could see was the men surrounding Prithvi who too looked helpless now.

"The game's over, boy. It's midnight and we have wasted enough time. Any last wish," the man muttered while gripping his jaws while other two grabbed his arms.

_________

What do you think about Malhotra brothers?