Indian Mafia Romance SAMPLE only

CHAPTER 5

"I want her."

The soft buzz of conversation in the room fell silent at the declaration. Anirudh was inside the club's private office room on the third floor, along with his two friends who co-owned the chain of clubs in the city with him.

Cigar smoke hung in the air, ice clinked in a crystal glass, and the music from the club played lightly in the background. His two friends were seated on the leather couches. Shiv was smoking a cigar, and Vijay was nursing a scotch. Their loaded guns lay on the center glass table. With the lives the three of them led, they couldn't step out of the house without either their guns or their armed guards.

Their lives hadn't always been that way. Anirudh had met Shiv and Vijay back in the States where they had gone to college together. Despite being from similar backgrounds with families who were rivals back home, the three of them struck an unlikely friendship and formed a close bond. Shiv and Vijay were his only friends, and he could trust them with his life.

And the bond became stronger over the years. When Anirudh's parents had died, his two friends had been his rock. They supported his decision to return right away. And a couple of years later, after graduating college, they returned as well.

By then, he had changed and taken over the Shaurya family businesses. And although he had gone after all the Shauryas' rivals, he hadn't touched the businesses owned by Shiv and Vijay's families. They abided by a strict code not to come in between and poach their respective territories or businesses.

For the first time, Anirudh was bending those rules.

Shiv got up from the couch and stood next to him with a frown on his face. "What are you talking about?"

One wall of the office room overlooked the club's dance floor with a one-way mirror. They could see people dancing, but for the people on the dance floor, the wall would appear like a huge mirror. The other wall had screens with camera feeds of different areas of the club. The third wall was a small bar area, and the fourth faced the hallway.

Anirudh was facing watching the camera feed showing the couple seated at the club's VIP section. His eyes were trained on the woman who was smiling at the man next to her.

"Somraj's daughter. I want her."

A look of shock passed on Shiv's face. They were two baits sent to the club that night. Shiv was watching the younger bait on the dance floor with her friends. But he slowly looked at the camera facing the VIP section.

"What do you mean by you want her?"

"Exactly how it sounded."

Anirudh's other friend, Vijay, got up and went to the bar section to pour more scotch. On his way, he spoke calmly having assessed the situation. "You do realize that you spent the last ten years systematically destroying and bringing down Somraj's business. Somraj sent her as bait for Shiv to try and save his neck from you."

Anirudh knew that. But he didn't care at that point. "Nothing is going to change the course of what I began ten years ago. The only change is I'll be bringing in a new player into my game, and I want to switch baits."

Shiv continued to frown, and Vijay fell silent.

Anirudh knew he wasn't going to go back on his decision. The things he did over the last ten years and the things he still needed to do would definitely send him to hell. But he decided he was going to drag his enemy's daughter with him.