I reached at the said place,after almost twenty minutes,taking my sweet time.

I was angry at him for disappearing for almost two days without even informing.

"You are late by fifteen minutes",he stated disapprovingly.

The nerve of this guy to treat me like one of his employee.

"Well,your feets have not developed the roots yet,even after standing for twenty long minutes",I replied with a straight face trying not to show the bitterness in my tone.

He was taken aback by my tone,clearly not expecting this,after being delayed.

Serves him right for not contacting me for almost 48 long hours,I thought.

"If you are done insulting me in that pretty head of yours,can we start discussing matters of concern"?,he huffed out.

Even now,he is not making efforts to explain himself.

My mind turned sour,all the incidents from the morning seeping into my head
causing a headache.

"What's there to discuss?",I asked him pinching my nosebridge.

"You went to the oldman's house again"
he asked clearly throwing daggers at my direction.

"Oh!so you left a stalker behind me,
huh?"I asked him fumingly,"So your stalker must be knowing who stole that book from there,right?"

His face turned to confused one,not knowing what I am talking about.But it vanished within seconds,anger taking over his features.

"It's none of my concern,who took it",he stated ,"I'm asking,why were you there even after I clearly denied you?",he asked his patience wearing out.

"Oh,for God's sake!",I snapped at him for being dramatic."will you please stop
interfering in my business more than you are asked for?",I scoffed.

"Your business?",he let out a devilish
laugh eying me intensely,which sent
chilling shivers down my body.

"Visiting a place,where most probably murder has been committed,is your
business?",he asked fumingly.

"Yes,so what?It doesn't concern you",I said non-chalantly.

"It is definitely my concern woman!,
everything about you is of my concern",
he said looking at me indecorously,eyes snapping with fire.

God,why does he have such intense eyes?

I was not going to get affected by him.I
turned back to leave angrily,only to be
stopped by a rough hand on my wrist.

"You are not going to turn your back on me,while I'm still speaking",he said with a edge in his tone,ready to explode
any minute.

"Well,guess what?,I'm doing the same thing now",saying that I tried hard to free my hand from his steel grip,only to be tightened more.

"Leave my hands,you moron",I started
twisting my hands in his iron grip.
"Or else I'm more than happy to show one or more of my karate skills to you
free-of-cost",I said turning towards the said devil.

He took hold of my shoulders swiftly, and pulled me closer towards him, such that our faces were only inches away from each other.His golden-brown eyes piercing my soul.

I gasped loudly,my eyes widening, not expecting his dominant side.

My heart began racing under his gaze,
my eyes traveled south from his eyes to his succulent lips which were nearing
me now,almost forgetting my anger.

What is he doing now?

"Still mad",he bent forward and whispered in my ears,his breath tickling my neck.

His lips twitched with a knowing smile,
eyes dancing with mischief,clearly knowing the effect of his nearness on me.

"Where were you from the past two days?"I whispered getting affected by
his slight stubble grazing my cheeks.

Oh,I slipped my tongue!!

He pulled his head backwards,until
he could see my eyes clearly,with a smirk growing on his lips.

"Don't tell me,you were missing me already?",he asked gazing straight into my eyes with mischief.

I shrugged away from his hold giving him a big fake smile,"Of course not",I
huffed out.

"There was an emergency which needed my attention urgently,so I was out of the country",he said grinning at me as if he was not mad just few minutes ago.

"Oh?",I said,my anger finally calming down.

"Oh?,that's all you have to say?",he asked shaking his head disapprovingly in my direction.

Did he think that ,I will perform a happy dance in middle of the sea?

"Hmm",I started walking on the white sand,bare-footed with a private smile on my lips.

"Ok,I'm sorry for not informing you
beforehand",he sighed out joining me.

I turned towards him with a bright smile on my face."Not accepted".

"Why?Now,Don't tell me to hold my ears and apologize to you",he said in his pissed-off voice,"I'm not going to do
that shit".

I laughed at his childish thoughts,"No,
you don't have to do that",I said.

"But, you are going to help me find the murderer of the oldman as soon as possible",I said staring at him seriously.

He let out a heavy breath at my words.
"You are not going to leave that,are you?",he asked giving up.

"No,not when people's lives are in stake",I said in a serious tone.

"What do you mean by that?",he asked genuinely confused.

I told him regarding my earlier conversation with Guruji.

"So,the book is missing?"he asked out loud.

"Yes and we have to find a way to search that ruined place",I said.

"My oldman has lots of ancient books
stored up in his library,may be we can search there",he suggested thinking for some time.

"Really?",I asked him excitedly as if my soul got a new ray of hope.

"Yes,come-on we can go now as the vile-man is out",he dragged me towards his mansion.

I laughed at his referral of his grandpa.

"Why,call him that?he is the sweetest soul I have seen",I said almost sympathizing for his grandpa.

He mumbled something under his breath and continued walking.

"Regarding the murder of the oldman,
there was nothing to doubt",he started,
"there were no weapon marks on his body or there were no signs,which can
be proved that he was murdered",he
said rubbing his nape clearly not
understanding the situation.

"There is no need to kill manually with weapons these days,we can use other ways also",I said.

"Who could have benefit of that book"?,
he thought out loudly,"but whoever
the people involved in these cannot be
good and they are very dangerous",he said.

"Hmm",I said.

"By the way,did they conduct an autopsy on him?",I asked referring to the oldman.

"Yes",he said reluctantly.

This caught my attention.If so why didn't he inform me?

"And?",I pressed,for him to speak.

"There were no specific reasons for the death;so atlast they declared it was due to old age",he said turning towards me.

No specific reasons....

"Why didn't you inform me earlier"?,
I asked him irritated.

"I was not willing to risk your life in this,knowing your daringness",he sighed at the end.

"There is no need to worry about me",I
said.

"This is such a mess we are in Ira,we
can expect anything from those people,
if we are still going behind in search of that damned-place",he said raking his hands in his dark strands,distressed.

I didn't reply anything to him,as I clearly knew he was speaking of the truth.

I tried to change the topic.

"So,I remember you speaking of your little sister",I asked.

"Nice try to dodge the subject",he gazed at me disapprovingly.

"No,I wasn't".

As we took steps towards his home,
my mind was pre-occupied by matters
I clearly neglected to see these past days.

No specific reasons for death......

Only then the situation can be resolved without anymore deaths and bloodsheds.

These words kept repeating in my head
refusing to let go of me.I blinked and stood rooted at my place.

"What happened,Ira?",Adi's concerned voice reached to me,which didn't help me to come out of my predicament.

The vivid images of dad lying on the floor,when I went to surprise him in his farm and the same way in which the oldman was lying on the floor,suddenly crossed my thoughts.

Guruji referred as deaths and bloodsheds.

Did he know that my dad was murdered by the same cruel people?then why did he hide it from me and my family?

Was that the reason why we were forced to leave the village?

Mainly,did dad know about this place,
if he was murdered?

These thoughts started to jumble in my
head.My blood ran cold by the realization that my dad was killed.No
words left my mouth as Adi started to shake me out of my thoughts.

My eyes brimmed with unshed tears and I finally managed to choke out the
harsh words.

M.y.....My ...dad was killed.
☆☆☆☆♡☆☆☆☆
Hey dear readers,
Pls read ,vote and comment if u liked chapter.

Ira is now going to seriosly start her adventure in finding her reality,as she realized her dad was connected to all these.