Arjun's POV:

We proceeded to the interrogation room. The two bastards were handcuffed and sitting on chairs. Rover's leg was injured as a result of the shot he received while attempting to run yesterday. I smiled as I looked at his pained expression.

Except for the convicted, Mehra and I, there were two more people in the interrogation room. They were present to ensure that we did not cause any harm to the accused.

Bullshit.

"Is everything all right, sir?" Mehra asked the minister with an innocent expression. I fought the urge to laugh.

"You're going to pay for this, bitch. Remember: I'm still powerful," he roared proudly.

"That is why you are sitting here. And in these." She pointed to his handcuffs. He was enraged at this point. I admired how brave Mehra was and how she never hesitated to do her duty.

"We don't have the entire day, so let's get started," I said, attempting to put an end to their staring contest. We sat down, facing them.

"I will only say this once- be cooperative and give us honest answers. Otherwise, you'll face our wrath," I growled. "And trust me when I say that I'm ready to sit in here with you for the next seventeen hours. It's your choice. You can get this over with quickly if you give us answers."

The minister burst out laughing, "As if you idiots can do anything to us."

I looked at the two officers in the interrogation room. They nodded knowingly and exited the room.

"Hey, where are you going?" the minister began yelling. "Stop! This isn't right!"

I gave him a sinister grin.

"So, let's get started," Mehra said, pulling out some papers.

"Rover, how did you get into this? You are not an Indian, and it will be difficult for you to come here and start this dirty business without assistance," I started.

"It was him who helped me with everything," he said, motioning to the Minister, who was glaring at him.

"How dare you, bastard? I will..." the minister fumbled, fuming.

"You'd better stop talking. Don't you want your ugly face to be fine when your picture appears on the front page of the newspaper?" Mehra smirked. The minister immediately shut his mouth. She was sexy while delivering these lines. I frowned at my thoughts.

'You need to get a grip on yourself,' my conscience admonished me.

"What did you get out of this?" I inquired of the minister, trying to take my mind off of her.

"Money, the most powerful thing in the world," he replied proudly. My cool demeanor had vanished as I landed a hard punch in his face. With a bloody nose, he looked much better.

"Aaaahhh..." he groaned in pain.

"That was a token of love from me," I smiled.

"What about those children? Were they kidnapped?" she asked, not a tremble in her voice of steel. I looked at Mehra, who was looking dangerously angry.

"No. If we kidnapped them, their parents would've filed missing person reports. So we used to take orphan children in exchange for payment to the orphanage," the minister said in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.

Mehra slapped him across the face. His lips were now bleeding.

"What the fuck?! Aaaaahh," I felt an overwhelming sensation when I heard his groaning again.

Mehra hissed, "Fucking bastards!"

"We can file a complaint about this abuse," the minister warned desperately.

"Do it," I taunted. "We'll publish your dirty little secret with that model in magazines the next day," I replied. He appeared terrified. It was extremely satisfying.

Several hours later, we had skimmed through most of the questions. They hadn't given us all the answers but we had gotten what we needed. Except for one teeny thing...

"Rover, who is AK?" Mehra fired it with a look that screamed you-better-answer-it.

"I-I don't know him," Rover lied in that thick accent of his.

"Once again, who is AK? What is your link to him?" Mehra asked in a deathly silent tone.

"I have no idea," he said and then screamed in agony. Mehra, on the other hand, was deafeningly silent. She sat motionlessly. So, what was the point of his yelling? What in the world was causing him pain? When I looked down, I noticed she was crushing his bullet wound with a stick.

Pride swelled up in my chest.

'That's my girl,' I thought proudly to myself. 'Wait. What the heck? She isn't your fucking girl. What is wrong with you?'

"Please! I don't know where he is! I just know his name as you," he replied, panting heavily, his face red from the pain. Mehra returned the stick to its original position on the table.

"How did you become acquainted with him?" I inquired, pleased that we were finally getting somewhere with this.

"I-I met him through a mutual friend," Rover replied. It was clear that he was having trouble breathing at this point.

"You're not telling the truth," I snarled.

"I mean it. He used to call me to ask about the upcoming auction. He stated that he had a proposal. I've never actually met him," Rover wailed. "But from what I've heard, he's powerful."

I stole a glimpse at Mehra, who was staring at Rover. She stood up with a sigh. For the time being, I too decided to leave.

"He's telling the truth, Arjun," she said, looking out, standing at the open hallway clutching the railings. Outside, it was pouring.

"How did you find out?"

"He's going to jail for a few things anyway. He has nothing to protect anymore," Mehra said, deep in thought.

"Wow, I had no idea you knew psychology," I exclaimed without hesitation. I froze when I realized that it had come across as mockery.

'Shut up before she walks away,' my conscience advised. She narrowed her eyes but said nothing in response. We stood in comfortable silence, watching the raindrops dance in rhythm.

My thoughts returned to yesterday's party. She looked stunning in that red gown, which perfectly accentuated her curves. At the same time, she appeared daring and feisty. She never failed to amuse me. When I'd seen another man talking to her, it had disturbed me. I wasn't exactly sure why. I had strange feelings for her that were brewing inside of me. I had to keep them under wraps or else our relationship could get a whole lot more unprofessional than it already was.

When she smiled, my heart soared. When she was sad, I hated it.

'It's you making her sad most of the time,' my conscience countered.

'I know,' I thought desperately.

I had lied to her the day before. She had been talking out loud. I had heard everything from compliments on my appearance to disappointment because of what I said.

I wasn't sure why I had kissed her. Why did I? Was it because I was envious? But it felt right and I was surprised when I found out she liked it. She'd had a slight pink contour on her cheeks which looked cuter than anything I'd seen. A small part of me was happy too. Okay, a huge part of me was happy. I wanted to tease her, but I noticed she was becoming uncomfortable, so I had lied to stop her from facing any humiliation. I wanted to keep everything between us strictly platonic too.

Liar.

I swear I wasn't expecting her to tell me that she was adopting the little girl this morning. It heightened my respect for her. But why the hell did I care so much about her? Argh! It was extremely vexing. I had put a stop to this. She was both a colleague and a competitor for me.

'But aren't you two friends?' my conscience asked.

'Yeah, I think we are friends?' I pondered.

"Arjun?" a melodic voice screamed close to my ear.

"Mehra, why are you yelling?" I said, sounding annoyed.

"I've been calling your name for the last two minutes," she snapped, showing that she was clearly more annoyed than I was. "Where were you lost?"

"Nothing," I grunted. "What happened?"

"We should get the doctors to take care of their injuries," Mehra said, concerned. "The wounds should be healed by the day we present them before the judge."

"Yes, I will take care of it. Don't worry," I replied. "But who exactly is this AK?"

"Arjun, lower your voice. There are people here, and we can't trust anyone," she said, looking around to make sure no one was listening.

"You're right," I said, regretfully. I was a moron.

"Anyway, I'm leaving. I should get to Nila," she said as she looked at her watch. It was getting close to evening. Did we really spend so much time there today?

"Who is Nila?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, that's the name of the little girl," Mehra explained. "She didn't have one before so I gave her the name Nila."

"What? She didn't have a name?" I couldn't help but sound shocked.

"I was taken aback too. She didn't seem too willing to talk about her past so I didn't push her either," she explained sadly. In response, I simply hummed. She said her goodbyes and proceeded towards her office. Even I decided to leave so I went to my office to get my keys.

What surprised me was the note, kept under my keys on my table. I took the note, went outside, and looked around, hoping to spot the person who had left the note but none of them appeared to be suspicious. I entered the office once more and opened the note. To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

'I know who AK is. Meet me at Harry's Coffee tomorrow morning. Only you and Priya Mehra.'
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