STAR CROSSED

9. Maaz's POV

'I almost had him' I let out my frustration as I walked back to my car with Miraaj. After looking for that bastard for days, I finally thought I had him, but when we reached the place, he was nowhere to be found.

'Usman can't hide from us for too long, we will get him soon' He told me as he followed me.

'I thought I'd get him today' I hit the steering wheel.

'We are getting close to him Maaz, he knows we are looking for him...I think he will be more careful now' Miraaj pointed out and called one of our men to tell him to keep searching for Usman or his people.

'I think you should go back home, we have been here for almost a week now...Shahid Uncle wants to see you' Miraaj had been playing a middleman between me and Shahid Uncle since I left his home. Shahid Uncle wanted me to return home to handle his business, but I told him I won't return until I had Usman.

'I'll talk to him when I want to' I told Miraaj knowing that he'll pass on the message.

'What about her?' She referred to Eman. The last time I saw her when she was sleeping in my balcony. I told Amma to keep me informed if she did anything intolerable but whenever I spoke to Amma about her she said nothing but nice things about her. Not that I was expecting anything less from the girl that my brother chose for his life partner but it was still surprising for me to hear that she was starting to compromise. Maybe the next time I see her she won't be too difficult to handle.

'She is fine I guess' I informed him.

'So are you going to divorce her after we find Usman?' He asked me with a hint of concern in his voice.

'Let's find him first' I replied instead not knowing exactly how I was going to settle things with her. After debating whether to stay and wait for some more days for newer information about Usman, we decided to head back home.

'What should I tell him?' Miraaj asked me when I stopped the car in front of my Uncle's house.

'Tell him to wait, I'll come to meet him soon' I instructed him and drove away. On my way I kept thinking about everything that happened, was happening or was about to happen. I knew the life that I had chose for myself didn't guarantee a peaceful life. I wonder how Kabeer and my life would have turned out differently if our parents were still alive. My father would have never wanted to see me if he was alive right now. He would have been ashamed of me. I was driving on an empty road when suddenly another car from the side of the alleyway entered the main road following closely behind me. I checked the rear-view mirror and saw two men on the front seats staring right at my car with one of them talking to someone on the phone. I took out my gun from under my seat and kept checking up behind me. I purposefully slowed the car to get closer to them. The car behind me slowed down as well.

I kept driving until I reached an open ground and then stopped my car. I remained still inside my car until one of the men got out of the car and walked towards my car. The way he approached me I knew he was an armature criminal, he still had feared in his eyes when I saw him as he stopped next to my car. He had a gun in his hand which I could tell from the way he was carrying that it had no bullets it was just a prop to force fear. I couldn't help but smile.

'Come out of the car' The guy pulled up the gun toward my forehead. He was practicing what he was thought. His master was still in the car, observing him , taking notes to give him feedback later on if he managed to survive this.

'Okay' I got out of the car with my gun. His eyes moved directly to the gun the back at me. He didn't know what to do next.

'Drop your gun' His ordered with a shaky voice. I listened. I had already locked the gun at that point; I dropped the gun under my car and looked at him again. He turned to face his teacher and nodded at him, that's when the creator of this trained criminal stepped out of the car and walked towards me. He commanded the guy to keep the gun pointed at my head while he approached my car. As soon he turned his back on me, I moved for his back. I went for side of back and his neck as I pulled him back and dropped him to the ground and took a hold of his throat. Waiting to see how far the training was done on the young man who still had his empty gun pointed at me. I started throwing punches at the man on the ground. He was a big man so he managed to pull off some hits himself but they weren't as bad as I was used to receiving from long time running people in our line of work. The guy witnessing the fight must have felt the need to prove his worth when suddenly he jumped forward and suddenly I felt a sharp pain on the side of my stomach. I looked at his face and saw pure face of horror as his hands started to shake carrying a blooded knife.

'Let's go' The guy threw the knife as if it was burning him. It was his first aim for kill. He was terrified. The older man on the ground with bleeding face aimed for my wound to push me back and raced back to the car with his student and drove away and just like that I turned an armature pocket picker into someone who probably wasn't going to think twice to stab someone the next time he goes to steal something. With just one poor decision, he became as bad as we were. As bad as me.

'Oh my god, what happened?' Amma gasped in worry as she answered the door in the middle of the night.

'Let me in' I looked at her and walked past her to go to my room.

'Maaz' Amma called out behind me as I went inside my room and found Eman lying on the sofa. She quickly got up and her eyes went wide as she stared at my bleeding cut. She opened her mouth to say something but couldn't say anything.

'Maaz what happened?' Amma reached the room as I went to take out clean set of clothes and a towel from the closet before going to the washroom.

'It's nothing, you can go back to bed' I took a cold shower and took out a first aid box from under the sink to clean the injury. After doing a bandage on the wound, I went out the washroom. Eman was still standing on the same spot where I last saw her with the same expression. It wasn't too long when Zeenat and Amma both came to my room with their concerned eyes and worrying question.

'Your wound is still bleeding' Amma pointed out moments after I told them what happened.

'It doesn't hurt' I replied catching Eman's eyes. She didn't say anything and went to the washroom instead. Seconds later she returned with the first aid box and told Amma to move from my side.

'I'll fix the bandage, pull up your shirt' She spoke to me in an assertive tone.

'Amma I think he is okay, we should go' Zeenat told Amma and both of them left the room. I watched her as she skillfully took care of my wound. I could have denied her help but the truth was my wound did hurt and I wanted to recover soon.

'Where did you learn to do that?' I asked her as she worked silently.

'Hospital' She replied after taking her time with the response and without meeting my eyes again.

'You seem calmer than usual' I expressed my thoughts to her.

'I am trying to keep my sanity; you should also try it sometime' She quickly said as she got up to leave but I held her arm to stop her.

'Don't speak to me like that' I warned her.

'What are you doing?' She roughly pulled her arm from me and took a step back. I remained quiet, I had no idea why I said that to her. When she didn't get any response from me, she walked out of the room. I laid down on the bed in sideway to prevent rubbing my injury against the bedding. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, it hurt a little but wasn't bad. It was probably going to take a few days to heal. I must admit Eman covered the wound pretty well. Maybe I should have thanked her instead of getting upset with her.

'Maaz...' I heard her voice and I opened my eyes, finding her standing with a glass of water and a pack of painkillers.

'They don't work on me' I answered her. I stopped taking medicines years ago, I wanted to build my immunity so I don't rely on medicine as heavily but I it seemed like I was falling back on the track again.

'Try again' She pushed and kept standing on my head until I took the medicine.

'Do you need anything else?' She took the empty glass from my hand. I couldn't figure her out.

I laid back down on my bed and closed my eyes,feeling her presence shifting away from me. After some time passed, I opened myeyes and saw her sleeping her on the sofa right across from me. Her face wasfacing me, and her eyes were closed. The tensed lines that I clearly rememberedon her forehead were now gone. She was sleeping serenely but still seemedexhausted. She was in the middle of making a compromise for herself. She knewwhat she was in for; she was just trying to find her balance in this ship thatwas caught up in a storm with no guarantee for a safe sail or a chaotic drop. 

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