#EXPOSED

CHAPTER - 32

Boils down to nothing. 

Ranveer

2015

I screwed up.

By the time I rolled out of the bar with the kid, a horde of armed people circled my car. I stepped back and held the kid behind me to conceal his presence. A shiver ran down my spine as I calculated the length of measures in front of me. I eyed them warily and pulled back as one of the men walked towards me.

"Hand us that kid." His tone was rash and gruff. "We know you have him."

I narrowed my eyes on him, deciding against my worst judgment to deal with them with civility. I held my head up and looked at him. "Listen, if you want the money, I can give it to you. Leave him out of this."

I stood with my arms crossed over my chest as I watched them discuss the offer among themselves. "You doing okay?" I asked the kid and felt his tiny hands tug the hem of my shirt. Shit. I had to devise a trick up my sleeve. I was as good as naked in front of these people with revolver guns and knives. "Don't worry, it's gonna be alright," I muttered lowly and looked at them. "Do we have a deal?"

"Under the condition that you take upon his delivery," one of the men shot and I scowled at him. "We did some digging and found out who you are."

"And that's supposed to make it convenient for you to drag me into drug pedaling?" I breathed hard as the kid sided to stand beside me. "How about I pay you double?" I offered evenly instead.

The tick of his revolver was sharp under the drizzle. "Either you agree to our terms or I blow his head off right now." He aimed for the kid beside me and I darted my hand across him.

"Why do you want to kill him when I have so much cash to offer?" I bit out. "I can get you loaded right now."

"Oh you will," another man burst out. "But we need you in the circuit too. You know too much."

"Or we can kill them both and get this over with," another man interrupted and I inhaled an aggravated breath, and shook my head. Fuck. I had gotten myself into a mess I had no clue how to deal with.

A layer of sweat covered my back and I tugged the collar away from my neck. My body went hotter. I wasn't scared for my own sake. I couldn't take these people to shoot a kid in his head right in front of my fucking eyes.

I looked at the innocent kid. He could have had a future—I could have helped him grow. I'd had fucked up. This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

"You won't get a dime if you kill us both," I snapped at them. There was no way I was allowing a kid to die in my presence. What the fuck.

"You are right," one man said lowly and I narrowed my eyes to look at him. "He can die and you can pay us. We settle for the original plan."

I shoved the kid behind me and he whimpered. "No—wait!" Goddamn it.

"Money isn't enough of an incentive," another man said. I was starting to lose count of the number of people in front of me. "You know too much to back away now."

"Nobody has to know about this," I told them evenly. "Let me pay you out and we can go our separate ways pretending like this night never happened."

"That's not an option," he said conclusively and I realized there was no other way out of this. "If you so much as try to involve your father into this then we will make sure none of them survive tonight."

"Come on man." I sighed exasperatedly as I ran my fingers through my sweat-damped hair. "It's a homeless kid we're talking about. The only thing he has is his family."