<<She was drowning but no one saw her struggle.>>

Ragini

We took the dishes out and placed them on the dining table. The brothers started coming and sat on their respective places. Laksh was the last to come out. All of us started eating silently.

"Hmm... It's awesome! Who made this?" asked Ryan as he took a bite of the roti with matar mushroom I made.

"Ragini!" replied Arjun.

As he said that, I felt everyone's gaze on me and I could literally feel him boring holes into my head with his stare. My head was almost into the plate. I didn't look up at any of them.

"It's really very tasty." Yuvraaj appreciated.

I looked up at that and mouthed a thank you to them before turning my eyes to my plate again. I was done eating before the brothers. So, I took my plate and left for the kitchen to put it in the sink.

"She'll be twenty soon." I heard Yuvraaj saying.

What they have to do with my age?

"I know! She'll be twenty on 27 of next month." I heard him saying.

He knows! He knows my age, even my birthday.

'From when this man was stalking me?' I thought as I hurriedly kept the plate in the sink and stood at the door so that I can hear what they were talking.

I'm not eavesdropping okay! They're talking about me. I have the right to know.

"I didn't get one thing. Why did they wait for almost two years?" asked Arjun.

They? Who?

Arjun, can you please take any name my friend?

"I have an idea about what was their plan but I'm not sure!" said Laksh.

They went silent for a while so I decided to move out. I didn't want them to get suspicious that I was listening to them. I directly started moving up to my room. I closed the door before sitting on the bed.

This isn't as simple as it looks like. There is much more than just him kidnapping me and bringing me here. There's something or many things which I don't know and no one can tell them to me besides the brothers or him more specifically. But why would he tell me anything?

I fell back on the bed and closed my eyes to get some sleep to get rid of all the unanswered questions. They're eating me.

***

One more week passed like that. The terror of Laksh is increasing in my heart everyday. His cold voice always makes me shiver due to panic and fear.

Laksh and Yuvraaj has gone somewhere from two days. They didn't come home. Don't know what they're doing or I know what they must be doing. Killing people and enjoying seeing them in pain, what else.

I was brought out of my thoughts because of a knock, not knock actually but a bang on the door. And with that I knew who was there on the opposite side. The beast is back!

I got up immediately and ran to open the door. Making him wait is like inviting trouble. I opened the door only to meet his brown eyes. He was wearing a black shirt with a dark blue rough jeans.

He gave me a look before entering inside. He moved past me and went towards the closet. He moved the glass aside and started moving his hands through the dresses, like trying to choose. He wasn't looking at the dresses but their lengths. Not feeling satisfied with the dresses, he moved to the side where jeans were kept. Finally, he took out a pair of clothes and started moving in my direction.

'He's going to wear girl's clothes?'

Bad joke Ragini.

He stood in front of me and kept the clothes in my hands.

"Get ready fast. I want you downstairs in ten minutes. If you didn't come down in ten minutes then I'll come up and will make you ready myself." he said sternly before keeping the clothes in my hands and leaving the room.

I gulped. With him, his fear is also back! He didn't even tell me why should I get ready! Where are we going?

I ran to the washroom as I realised that I have only ten minutes to get ready. I quickly changed into the clothes he gave me.It was blue jeans with a beige shirt and a beige short jacket.I wore a pair of boots and ran the comb through my hair before running downstairs.

As I reached the hall, I found all five of them seated on the couches. Like they were waiting for me only. They got up as soon as they saw me and started walking towards the main door. I kept standing there confused about whether to follow them or not. I mean no one ordered me to follow them.

I have become a puppet of the Mafia's hands. I am losing myself with every passing day. With him, I do what I'm told. I speak when I'm asked to. All the time, the fear remains inside my heart. I feel terrified around him. My body starts shaking invisibly. I'm scared of him. I'm scared of his world. I'm feeling my own self fading from my mind. All I feel is loneliness and helplessness.

I didn't even see or hear about my brother after that day. Don't know how he might be! He must be scared.

I came out of my thoughts as I felt him holding my hand. I looked up at him as he started pulling me out with him.

Don't he know about being a little gentle? Whenever he holds me, it starts hurting. His grip is always too strong that many times it even leaves bruises.

I fought back the tears and the cry of pain as we moved out of the house. I let out a breath of relief as he left my hand. I rubbed my arm, biting the inside of my cheek. It was paining.

We got inside the cars and left the house. Kabeer, Laksh and I was in one car while the other three were in another car. The drive was completely silent. Kabeer was driving the car while Laksh was sitting at the passenger seat and I was at the back seat. We came out of the mountains but we didn't take the road to the main city which we took that day when we went for shopping. Instead we took some other road. Kabeer stopped the car in front of a house. There wasn't any other building or anything else around it. It has only two floors but it was large.

The three of us got out of the car. The other car also stopped behind ours and the other three brothers also came out. Laksh pulled me to his side as he draped his hand around my waist. I didn't utter anything as all of us started walking inside. I was so confused with what was happening and what we were doing there. As we reached the main door, two men in black greeted the brothers and opened the door for us. Entering inside, the first thing that came into view was the very very large hall filled with around hundreds of men, only men. All of them were young or middle aged. No one was old. Their bodies were well built and their faces as well as their attitudes were screaming that they belongs to the Mafia world.

Suddenly, I started feeling scared more than before. In between so many Mafia men, I was the only girl. I started getting all the wrong thoughts and pictures in my mind. My fear and nervousness increased more as I felt Laksh taking his hand back from my waist.

"Attention everybody!" said Arjun in a high pitched and authority filled voice.

Everyone stopped talking as they turned their eyes in our direction. All of the eyes then landed on me and my body started shaking inwardly. They were staring me, moving their eyes from my head to toe. I was feeling like the centre of focus and I didn't like it a bit. I just wanted to get away from there.

"That's my girl!" growled Laksh besides me and all of the heads immediately turned away from me.

Though I felt a little relieved at that but also, I felt goosebumps arising on my body because of his words and their seriousness.

The fear was clearly visible on everyone's faces. The fear of their boss and his powers.

I slowly turned my eyes to look at Laksh who was glaring all the men in front of him. His jaw was clenched.

"We're here for work. So focus on that and just keep one thing in your heads that she belongs to me. So, be respectful and all eyes down with her." he said in his strong voice.

Everyone nodded their heads instantly, besides one. He was standing almost at the end and Laksh couldn't see him from where he was standing. He was young, maybe in his late twenties but not more than that. While no one was daring to look at me after Laksh's warning, his eyes were glued on me. Laksh started speaking something but I didn't pay any attention to what he was saying. I was looking at that man only. I didn't like him at the very instant. I didn't like his stare. It was making me feel uncomfortable. He was worse than others.

I turned my eyes away from him and shifted closer to Laksh.

Why? I don't know!

Laksh stopped speaking as he looked at me.

"What's wrong?" he asked lifting his eyebrow up.

"I don't like it here." I mumbled lowly.

He looked at me for a while and then looked at Kabeer.

"Take her upstairs." he said to Kabeer.

Kabeer nodded as he signed me to come with him. I started following him. We moved away from everyone and then made our way upstairs. He opened the door of a room for me.

"You stay here. We'll call you when we'll be leaving." he said.

"Why did you bring me here? I mean, I don't have anything to do here." I asked him.

"Yeah, we know but it was necessary for us to come here for the meeting and we couldn't leave you alone at the house so we brought you with us." he told me.

I just nodded my head and he left after closing the door. I locked the door and looked around the room. It had a bed in the middle and a couch in front of the bed, nothing else. There were dark blue curtains hanging on the walls and the walls were painted in light blue.

It seems so odd to be in a different colored room after staying in a black, white and grey colored house all the time.

I think this is their meeting place. Whenever they have any meeting, they all gather up here. It's just my guess.

I sighed as I moved to the bed and sat on it. There wasn't even any clock in the room. I pulled my legs up on the bed and rested my head on the headboard. Don't know when I fell asleep in that position.

I opened my eyes when someone knocked on the door. I got up from the bed and moved towards the door to open it. I looked on shocked as I found the same man standing at the door.

"Ye... Yes?" I asked trying to keep my voice strong.

He smirked as he took a step in my direction while I stepped back into the room.

"What... What do you want?" I asked as the fear started taking over me.

"Relax Ms! I just came to ask you if you need anything." he said with that smirk still on his face.

"I don't want anything." I said.

"What are you doing here?" I heard Yuvraaj's angry voice from his back.

I took a breath of relief at that. The man turned to look at Yuvraaj. He was about to say something but Yuvraaj didn't let him.

"Everyone left already. Why didn't you leave yet?" asked Yuvraaj.

"I was just leaving sir." said the man.

"Just go." said Yuvraaj.

The man nodded and left immediately. Yuvraaj then looked at me.

"Let's go." he said.

I nodded as I followed him downstairs. No one was there besides the brothers who were seated on the sofas.

"Then I guess, we have to wait till they deliver it." I heard Arjun saying.

Laksh just nodded his head as he looked in my direction.

"You all go back to the house. I'll come later. I have some important work to finish." he said turning his eyes from me to his brothers.

The brothers nodded as they got up.

"Ragini?" asked Ryan.

"Take her with you." he said as he got up and started walking towards the main door.

We heard the sound of the car's engine which meant that he left. All four of us also got out of the house. We got inside the car and left the place.

Arjun was driving while Yuvraaj was sitting besides him. Me, Ryan and Kabeer were sitting at the backseat. I was sitting near the window and Kabeer was besides me.

"All of them were your men?" I asked.

"They were not even ten percent." said Ryan chuckling.

I looked on with wide eyes.

"They were only the heads of different groups of our men in the different areas of the country, along with Kolkata." said Arjun from the driving seat.

Damn! They're spread in the whole country!

Nothing surprising!

"You're very quiet these days. What happened?" I asked to Kabeer, trying to divert my mind.

I will not lie but I like the company of these four. They're friendly to me and don't let me feel alone whenever they're around. Also, their talks helps me a lot in keeping my mind off Laksh and his fear.

"Bechare ka girlfriend se jhagda ho gaya. (He had a fight with his girlfriend.)" said Yuvraaj chuckling.

"You have a girlfriend?" I asked shocked.

"All of us have." said Ryan casually.

I widened my eyes at that.

'Do they also treat their girlfriends like their brother treats me?' is the very first question that came in my mind.

I didn't ask anything further. I got too engrossed in my own thoughts and possibilities of them treating their girlfriends same like their eldest brother. After all they're his brothers and Mafias. They may also like to be dominating. They behave nice to me that doesn't mean they will be nice to their girlfriends as well or maybe I'm wrong. Only they knows!

***************

Thank you for reading.