Bint of Gilgit ~ Pakistani Love Story ~ ONGOING ~

Troublesome

Imad had seldom been entrusted with a job as cumbersome as this one. Most of his jobs involved gathering intelligence or on the odd occasion - much to his dislike, he would be ordered to carry out blackmail and hits. Asadullah respected Imad's personal preferences of sticking to pacifistic duties and so would often assign his eager brother, Fahad for these jobs. 

Unfortunately, while Fahad enjoyed that area of the field in their line of work, he was not very good at it. Emotions were always difficult for his brother to manage - since they had been little, Fahad had taken the brunt of abuse that came with their drunkard father's presence. Hence, he had become just like him - emotional, erratic, and with a touch of insanity.  Imad - despite being younger than a few minutes had learned early on that carrying emotions were like carrying unnecessary baggage and so had remained levelheaded despite facing horrific abuse himself. 

"Stop struggling." He muttered for the umpteenth time. "Do you not speak English? Larna band karo. (Stop struggling.)" He knew she did understand English for she had displayed some understanding before, but he had asked it again anyway. Her silence continued to disturb him and so he was trying to coax a word out of her. What a strange woman. 

"Your name - Nazli?" Again, he knew the answer to his question. She did not even nod, her eyes wild with vigilance as if planning an escape again. "Give it up. You run - I run faster. You scream - my gun will scream louder." 

A tremor passed through her stiff body at his words. This time when he pulled her, she was suddenly more compliant. Imad pointedly avoided looking into her expressive emerald eyes - he always hated the fear he would see in them. Fahad enjoyed that fear, Asadullah was somewhat indifferent to it, but Imad despised it.  It reminded him everyday that he was slowly becoming a monster - just like his father. 

"A little further now." He reassured, climbing over a rock with his long legs. It appeared to give him a good vantage point, but when he looked down - he watched her struggle to even scale the smallest side of it. Moreover, she was red in the face - as if she was not used to trekking through the mountains which in itself was a strange thing. Unless, it was because of him - he had a habit of walking too fast - even Fahad, who had the same physique as him complained about it. The only person who walked even faster than him was Asadullah. 

With a twinge of guilt, he jumped down again beside her. But he masked the feeling under a mask of indifference and cold command. "I am going to lift you up to that rock. Do not try anything. I'll catch you and then you won't like what I will do." It was only a few seconds of a glance towards her, but the enlarging of her eyes made him feel like the worst man in the country. By Allah, he hated exerting his strength even on his enemies. This here was a woman. 

When he moved behind her, she scuttled away with a different kind of agitation. For a few moments, Imad watched her with a raised eyebrow trying to figure out what her problem was now. She stared back at him with distrust - as if he was intending on . . . exploiting her. 

"You can't be serious." His brown eyes were exasperated with her silly prudish behaviour. She honestly thought he was willing to do that. But of course she did, he suddenly realised. Khalid's sick display of power and lust was imprinted on her mind. Even when Asadullah had leaned in too close, she had been frightened. And here he was thinking this was going to be easy. 

"I have no desire to touch you." Green eyes only flittered away with growing panic. "Wallahi."

The emphasis on the promise did not go unnoticed by her. Her facial features relaxed considerably before tentatively stepping closer to the rock. Something fluttered in his heart at the way she stiffly stood facing her back to him. That there was the first time she had trusted him and only Allah knew how much he did not deserve it. Still, it definitely caused some sort of positivity to grow within him.