Vodka on the rocks

The Choice [Still Contd.]

Pallavi looked at an overtly disconsolate Vijay and helplessness started to stir inside her. 

"But Baba, I just talked to him this morning itself. How could he get so unwell within a few hours itself. He sounded very upbeat in the morning. Didn't you people take him to the market?"

She asked, feeling confusion starting to add to the mix too. Raghav had his eyes narrowed, gauging every minute change of expression on his father in law's face. His observations seemed to proclaim that Vijay was truly disturbed which further cemented his belief that Mandar was a master manipulator. Because for some reason his instincts seemed to scream that something was seriously off about this entire situation. 

He mentally catalogued to set his hounds on a hunt after this entire drama blows over. 

"I don't know Pallavi, what happened.. but please, right now, the important thing is that he needs you to be present there."

Having said thus, Vijay in a show of desperation grabbed Pallavi's hand and attempted to drag her along with him as the latter was shocked into a hasty stumbling motion. Raghav was having none of it. He was fine to stand by and let her do the talking when her crazy family calls but he will not have anyone manhandle his wife....be it the man she considers her father. 

Vijay found his hand being twisted away in a surprisingly swift motion as Raghav moved too fast for a man who was still suffering from fever. 

"How dare you!"

Vijay thundered as Raghav stood towering over his shorter frame, completely blocking Pallavi from his sight, looking suitably menacing even in his current weakness. His face was set in stone and he could sense Farhad somewhere behind him, just beside Pallavi, adding a layer of protection to his sister in law. Jaya and Keerti had also come up to them by then. 

The guards who had followed the Deshmukh patriarch seemed to almost leap behind Vijay, ready to forcefully drag him out if ordered as Rehman came to strategically step in front of Jaya and Keerti, acting as a human shield. 

People seemed to forget that he was the unanimously agreed upon Kingpin of the city. And his men were a battalion ready to rip anyone apart to shreds on his command. They were drilled into perfection and knew exactly how to position themselves when required. They stood around him, respectfully a distance apart knowing when to jump to his need and always in front and the back of his family, shielding them from all sides. 

It was a quintessential military formation. 

Well, Raghav should ideally blame his wife for not informing the Deshmukhs that forced entry in his mansion or hostile behaviour in front him or his family including her would result in a messy and painful death but knowing how she had always barged inside, in the past, without a fig about her safety or a thought about how she manages to evade his security, he knows that Pallavi has no idea that the only reason she could do it was because he had given her a free pass on sight. 

His men knew not to stop her, even when in the past she was used to looking murderous while storming inside his Mansion with a single minded agenda of ending him.. probably in an equally painfully messy way. 

Anyways, point was this mentally retarded fifty year old was starting to get on his nerves. And the abnormal rise in his body temperature was not helping in the matters at all. 

Still he kept his cool with much difficulty, knowing that he has to handle it with extra care. 

"Dekhiye Marathi father in law. Pallavi aapka beti hain isliye aap jab chahe usse milke baat kar sakta hain, aur maine apne security ko bolke rakha hain to allow you entry. But don't you dare take it as an open invite to do whatever you want. Please remember from next time that I have given shoot on sight orders for anyone who dares to touch her without her explicit permission. Make sure your son knows that too."