Vodka on the rocks

Part - 2

1. Ved holds Pallavi at gunpoint. Raghav has his gun trained on them. Pallavi just wants to finish her work. Sigh...

"Ved don't be stupid. Put the gun down. Keep Pallavi out of this. I.."

Ved laughed seeing Raghav's eyes shift rapidly from his hostage's face to his while he pressed his gun harder against Pallavi Deshmukh's temple. Raghav's voice had revealed to Ved, his slowly ascending fear. No one else can say the same though. For the rest, he would look completely at ease. Cool and collected. But Ved Pillai knew Raghav Rao better than he knew himself.

"Funny aint it brother? To be at the other end of the barrel? You, the mighty Raghav Rao finally at my mercy. How does it feel to be the weaker one haan? All I needed was an opening and all that you, my dear friend needed, was a pressure point. A chink in that formidable armour. A weakness. And that's where I had to hit. Thanks for revealing that. She reminds you of her.... doesn't she? Pallavi Deshmukh?"

He snarled digging his forearm around Pallavi's throat harder making her gasp. She was confused. What the hell is this crackhead speaking about? Raghav's eyes changed colors immediately becoming lighter somehow. She saw him turn slightly paler.

"Don't... Ved.. put that gun away. Lets talk... you don't want to do this."

"You have no idea Raghav!!!!"

His sudden scream made both Raghav and Pallavi jump out of their skin.

"You have no idea what I want to do. Let me tell you though. I want to crumble your empire. Crush your kingdom down to it's foundations and rip apart your existence. I want to make you watch it while I do it. And then I want to slowly tear off all your limbs, rip out that smug face, let the vultures have your eyes and then dance around your dead body. That my dear friend is what I want to do."

Pallavi felt her skin roil in the sheer repulsion in that icy voice which sounded normal even while hinting at the underlying insanity of her captor. But that might not have scared her as much but for two things. One, she was his hostage. And two, Raghav looked disturbed at that. She didn't think he would be distressed as much as considering his reputation he might be having an experience of hearing such threats. If he was distressed then there must be an element of validity to his threat.

Meaning he can actually do it then.

Destroy Raghav Rao.

And at the realisation Pallavi felt her dormant fear bubble into a spreading terror. Raghav tried taking a step in front but backed off as Ved screamed at him telling he'll shoot her if he so much as moves.

"Ved. Let her go."

Raghav gritted his teeth and Ved all of sudden threw Pallavi on him shocking both of them. Raghav caught her in an arm and narrowly missed getting shot. Pallavi embarrassedly admitted that she might have screamed like a banshee at that. The next moment she opened her eyes, she saw herself deposited rather unceremoniously on the sofa as the two men had locked in a fist fight. Pallavi wanted to up and run but she sat astounded at the scene.

The way both were fighting gave an impression that they were trained professionally. Every punch, kick, limb movements, hits all were measured and incredibly lethal. She was trained in karate but she couldn't guess what style of martial art this was. Raghav specially had her attention. That man was relentless. Pallavi had no doubt that had his opponent not been Ved, Raghav would've laid him out within seconds. She heard Ved again.

"She killed herself Raghav! You .... ba*tard! You let her kill herself! This happened because of you! You.... sold us out.. you! For... your own profit you sold us out to that ACP!!!"