The Draped Assassin

Chapter 6

It's been almost four months since that incident. Diwali is tomorrow, and we are going to celebrate it. The preparation has already begun.

After deciding who I want to be, I went straight to Gopal, and let him know about it. We didn't shared any intimate moment though, I felt like Gopal has spent the end time thinking about it. I don't mind. Since then I've been training hard. Gopal taught me how to shoot, how to use a dagger, even how to kill someone with bare hands. My body has changed a lot due to the extreme training. Gopal makes me run 10 miles every morning, then I'd go for shower. Sometimes I'd use Gopal's bathtub, mainly on Sundays, when I don't have much to do. I'd spend an hour relaxing in the cold water. Like I'm doing right now. Surprisingly Gopal let me off today, probably because of the Diwali.

Turns out Gopal is a genius, I mean he has got a music system in the bathroom. Something I always wanted from my parents. Right now it played an old Bengali music. Nothing can be better than this.

"Hey!" Gopal's voice made me look at the door. "Hey!" I replied, and looked at him and then at his hand, which was holding a plate of mithai. "Thought you'd love some. Sarala, our cook, made these." Raghu placed it beside the tub. Without saying anything I wiped my hands with the towel and took one laddu from the place and ate it at once. They are so delicious. "It's amazing, I think they are the best laddu I ever had" I said honestly. To which Gopal just smiled, and I smiled back. We stayed like that for a few minutes until I smelled ghee. I looked at Gopal's kurta and saw a wet patch on the abdominal area. "Were you trying to cook?" I asked pointing to the mess on his kurta. "No, Sarala asked me to carry the jar of ghee to the kitchen, and it leaked, on my kurta. I'm here to take a shower, so I picked up some of the mithai for you on the way."

"Aww, thank you so much. You care so much for me. " I cooed him. "Okay you don't deserve the barfi anymore." Gopal picked up the barfi and put ate it at once.
"Hey, that was mine!" I playfully smacked his arm. He planted a kiss on my forehead and went to the shower stripping on the way, thank God it had those translucent glass walls. It was actually a good show for me, I could see his blurred body through the glass panels while he's showering and I'm sitting in the tub and having mithai. Not to mention the jazz music.

After a while he stopped moving and it was easy to understand that he was looking at me. But this time I didn't looked away. There's nothing to resist. Gopal continue cleaning himself, after a few minutes he came out of the shower , totally naked, and it didn't bothered him a bit. He walked to the shelf and took out a dry towel to hang it around his waist. "You know, you could have just joined me." Gopal says drying hair with another towel.
"Well I could have, but I was too comfortable to get up and miss the show. " I winked at him popping the last piece of mithai in my mouth.

Gopal just shakes his head at my reply. I continue to scrub myself with the brush when Gopal said, "Wait don't scrub with that. Use a cinnamon scrub." I looked at him bluntly, "As you can see I don't have any, so I'll use what I'm getting." I said and continued. Gopal then takes out two bottles, one looked like some kind of oil, and another was a dust kind of thing. A body scrub. Gopal takes the stool and sits behind, placing the bottles down. Before I could say anything, he takes the hair tie and ties up my hair into a top knot. "What the..." I couldn't finish because Gopal cuts me off saying, "Will you stay quiet for a moment and stop questioning? Just close your eyes and enjoy. It's not that hard." Gopal takes the scrub and pours some of it on his hands. "Sit straight." And I followed.
Soon Gopal's large started massaging from the back of my neck to my shoulder and further below. Honestly, I don't know how much the scrub worked, but the massage was enough to make me feel relaxed.

"Wow, it's so good" I moaned out. I heard Gopal chuckle softly. Gopal then takes the hand shower and rinses the scrub away. "Thank you so much, I feel I can sleep right now." I looked at him with a smile. He smiled back me, "Lie back." Raghu applies pressure on my shoulder motioning to do so. I did as he said. "Now close your eyes, again." I did. And I smelled lavender. Gopal starts rubbing the oil on the side of my head. Honestly I always liked being pampered, and Gopal was pampering me today. "What's up with this pampering session?" I asked looking at him, leaning my head back enough to see him. "My mother taught me to pamper the girls I find myself interested too." He said cockily
"So you are telling me you find me interesting for you?" I asked raising my eyebrows. "Is it wrong?" He asked. "No, I like it. You like it. Why resist?" I said. He just looked at my face, and kissed me. And this time I kissed him back, grabbing the back of his head. He pushed his tongue into my mouth, making sure he's the dominant here. And I didn't even put a fight. His hands were wrapped around my neck, but he wasn't choking me, he's thumbs drew pattern near my ear. "Get dressed, and come to the room." He said and walked out of the bathroom.

After a few minutes I got out and saw Gopal combing through his thick brown hair. "You can just use a hair tie you know."
Gopal looks at me and totally ignores my comment. "There's a bag in the closet. It's for you." I went into the closet to grab the bag and came out. "What's inside this?" I asked as I started taking out the the boxes.
I opened the boxes just to see a beautiful peach lahenga and a beautiful tea green
lace saree. "They are so beautiful, thank you so much. But why?" I couldn't help but ask. "It's Diwali tomorrow, everyone wears new clothes tomorrow. Raghu is quite religious, plus he likes these celebration. That's why he makes sure everyone atleast have a new piece of clothing. " He said.
"He made you buy two outfits for me?" I asked. "No, I actually want you to wear the saree tomorrow, since it's a gift from me." He said placing a hand on my face. I looked at his eyes, I couldn't read his emotions today. Which reminds me..."How old are you?" I asked. Gopal was taken aback buy the sudden question, "I'm thirty six why?" His confusion was evident on his face. "What are you kidding me?!" I said. "Am I too old for you?" He cocked his brows. "No, no... I mean I thought you were forty or something. You are not even old." I confessed. "Raghu is almost 9 years older than then, how come you guys are best friends?" Gopal laughed hard at the question. "I didn't knew he looked that old. He's 42. He looks like that because he started this mafia at the age of 16, and got married at 18. Though his son was born two years later. But I get it why are you so confused....that was really funny " Gopal wiped away the year from his eyes.

"Whatever." I said and walked out of the room.

*******

It's almost 7 pm, the celebration would start anytime. As much as I wanted to stay with Gopal, I couldn't, because he'd be meeting some allies today, along with Raghu, Kushal , the one who looks after the finances, even older than Raghu himself; Anthony, he is the main hacker and also trains eligible trainees to hack; and lastly, Raunak, he and his team are amazing at clearing up a crime scene, and alter the evidence. Probably the reason why I'm still not on the news, even after almost five months. They were the Pancha Ratna of the gang. They are the reason why everyone fears this gang, The Pancha chulli (The Five Peaks).

I'm currently sitting far away from the crowd, wearing the saree that Gopal gave me, with a tray full of mithai and namkeen and a glass of sharbat. Gopal was very serious when he asked me to stay in the shadows, and only talk to the people I knew. Jokes on him, I only know him and Raghu well enough to start up a conversation. The crowd is increasing, and the more it increase, the more I feel uncanny. I don't know why, I'm having a really bad feeling from the very beginning.
I even asked Gopal about the security, he said me the doors will only open to the people who are invited. But that didn't helped a bit. So, I decided to observe everyone from here. And also I decided not to touch alcohol tonight. I also have my dagger in my thigh hostler.

The festival has started, everyone was burning fire crackers, it was beautiful. I could see the men dancing, some were sitting on the ground playing cards and drinking. Many women from the brothel were serving the men. My eyes found Raghu and Gopal at the patio, with two other men, whom I didn't recognise, probably the ally. And from what I have realised Gopal was pretty drunk. I was still on the same spot, but this time I had nothing to eat. That's when I saw an waiter passing by. "What do you have in there?" I asked him. He seems to be in a hurry. "Some soan papdi and a glass of lassi, ma'am." I nodded and took the lassi and asked, "Where were you going in such a hurry?". He shuttered, "To the kitchen, for the refills." Liar. "Okay, bring me some chaat on your way back." I said, I can't let him know that I have caught his lies. "Okay, ma'am." With that he left. And went to the roof top, the kitchen wasn't in this side of the building. What is going on? I don't know if I should tell Gopal about this, without inspecting it first. I looked at Gopal's direction one more time, and saw now they were sitting with only one of the two men. Something bad is going on.

After deciding to go and inspect it alone, I took out my dagger from the hostler and follow him keeping a safe distance.

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I know it's a bit long chapter.
The next chapter will be the continuation of this chapter.

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