The Revenge Games

by M. V. Kasi

“I know,” he replied.

  “Where do we go from here?” she asked softly..

  “We’ll figure it out,” he said, his arms squeezing her gently, as though in reassurance.

  There is another long stretch of silence between them.

  “I’m still angry with you, Ajay. I can’t believe you would do something like this, and not even warn me,” she said. Her tone calm. “I had everything figured out. I was prepared for... anything.”

  He lifted his face to stare down at her with an intense look. His hands moved until he held her face in a firm grip. “You are mine, Sia,” he stated. “You alone don’t get to decide if you want to sacrifice your life or not. Because when you do, you are destroying me along with you too.”

  His eyes were dark and glittering, openly showing her everything he felt.

  Love.

  Lust.

  Anger.

  Protectiveness.

  It was the last emotion that softened her.

  “Tell me what you planned,” she ordered softly.

  “I can’t,” he said. “I know it’s hard for you, but I need you to trust me on this time. It’s critical that your reactions remain genuine tomorrow when things begin to fall according to my plan,” he said.

  She had a million questions she wanted to bombard him with but he was right. She had never trusted him completely before. Right now, she wanted to. She had to.

  After all, he had just killed a man for her.

  “Alright, I will trust you,” she said.

  That earned her a smile. She couldn’t look away from his lips as they tilted in that smile. All the months of anxiety and loneliness washed away from her. His smile always had that effect on her. It gave her a feeling of a strong connection between them.

  He raised his body away from her and balanced his weight on his elbows. She watched as his biceps flexed.

  “Baby,” his voice came out husky. “I know we have a lot to discuss. I promise that I’ll tell you everything soon. But first, I want us to make up for the lost time,” he said.

  She could see that his smile had disappeared, and in place was a look which she also loved. “How?” she asked huskily.

  He didn’t reply. He preferred to show it in actions.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  Sia woke up feeling groggy and stiff.

  She was on the floor, naked and half-lying on top of an equally naked man.

  It was her husband. Rather her soon-to-be ex-husband. And they had spent the night together.

  Her body felt sore everywhere. Especially the intimate muscles that she hadn’t been using since they had last been together. Last night... or rather until a few hours ago, those muscles got a good workout, multiple times.

  Ajay hadn’t been gentle or slow with her. He had taken her against the wall, on the table, and finally on the sofa again, before they landed on the carpet midway.

  It was rough and hard. Even angry at times, but all through it, Ajay had maintained eye contact with her that reached deep into her heart.

  She looked at his sleeping face and felt a familiar tug in her heart again.

  Ajay didn’t belong to her anymore. In fact, he was engaged to be married to someone else. Then why wasn’t she feeling guilty about last night?

  Was it because of what he had told her last night?

  “No matter what happens, however tough the journey, we will remain together. I promise.”

  God! How she wanted to believe him. She felt a lump form in her throat as her eyes burned with emotion. She wanted him so badly that it hurt to imagine letting him go.

  She didn’t move. She was scared. What if this was another of her dreams where he was with her?

  If that was the case, she didn’t want to wake up from that dream. She simply wanted to get lost in the feel of his body against hers.

  She had missed him like crazy. His touch. His smell.

  And so, she closed her eyes again, to let herself dream a little more.

  A loud knock on the door made her jump. She opened her eyes and saw a lot of shadows outside the window shades.

  “Police. Open the door!” a loud voice stated.

  Her heart began to thump. Rolling away from Ajay, she got up from the carpet and hunted for her clothes. They were long rips everywhere.

  “Open! Or we’ll have to break down the door!” a man’s voice shouted.

  Hurriedly, she slipped on the torn dress over herself.

  “Open!” shouted another voice followed by insistent banging.

  She tried to search for her underwear. Finally, she found it where it was flung faraway.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit,” she muttered.

  “They can’t break that door you know,” said a sleepy deep voice.

  Ajay was awake. He slowly sat up, yawning and watching her with a sleepy look on his face.

  “What?” she asked, trying to pull her underwear up. But it was impossible, as he had torn it into shreds.

  “The metal door you custom ordered. It’s bomb proof, remember,” he said lazily.

  “That’s the police out there, Ajay. They must have found the judge’s body and come here,” she said, trying not to let panic overtake her.

  Ajay shrugged. “I know.”

  “Open the door!” roared a man from outside.

  Throwing the ripped clothes towards Ajay, “Dress up, I’m opening the door,” she said, walking towards the main door. She stopped briefly, turning half way, exposing only her profile to him. “If they think you had anything to do with this, I’m going to tell them I did it,” she said softly.

  The second the words left from her mouth, there was a growl, and she felt him move quickly behind her. “Like hell you will!” he hissed out.

  He looked angry, annoyed and was in a full-blown protective mode. “Don’t talk anything beyond what we discussed last night,” he warned her.

  “But you didn’t tell me anyth—”

  “Well, keep it that way. I will tell you whatever you need to know once a few things get sorted out.”

  His face softened when he saw the uncertain look on her face. “Baby, I promise you we’ll get through this,” he said.

  She nodded, not because she believed they could get away with a murder, but because he needed to believe that she trusted him.

  Which she began to do in real.

  She moved towards the door after a couple more bangs on the door. Then, unlocking the bolts, she opened to see at least a dozen or so uniformed men and women along with sniffer dogs, standing outside the door.

  “Miss. Sia Sampath?”

  Before she could respond, she felt a warm body behind her. “Mrs. Sia Manthena,” Ajay answered.

  “Mr. Ajay. Good morning, sir,” the officer greeted politely.

  “Hello Rajesh. How are you?”

  “Quite good, sir. I’m here for questioning Miss... Mrs. Manthena.”

  “Why?”

  The officer looked uncomfortable. “Sir, according to the information we have, Mrs. Manthena and you are separated. May I know what you are doing here at her place at his time in the morning?”

  “May I know why? It’s our personal matter.”

  “I apologize for intruding, sir. But Judge Sundaram was shot dead last night.”

  The officer watched both Ajay’s and Sia’s face closely. Both of them didn’t betray anything on their faces.

  “Oh? That’s unfortunate. But why is Sia being questioned?” Ajay asked.

  “Mr. Jagadish Naidu’s car was seen driving away from Judge Sundaram’s house. When we went to question Mr. Naidu, he was insisting that Mrs. Manthena must have killed the judge.”

  “As you can see, that’s impossible. She was here with me, the entire night.”

  “Maybe I ask you why?” the officer asked.

  “My soon-to-be ex-wife wanted to reconcile. So I visited her last evening, and as you can see, she managed to convince me successfully that we should get back together.”

  To others, it mig
ht sound like a slightly crude joke made at her cost. But Sia knew Ajay. It was one of the tactics he had used before with other people, including her. Answering a serious question with a joke, so there wouldn’t be any further digging.

  “I see,” the officer smiled awkwardly. “We’ll need to check the house. We... uh... have a search warrant.”

  Ajay shrugged nonchalantly. “Be our guests, but you’ll need to hurry. Because our daughter is waiting for us,” he said.

  The next couple of hours, there was an intense search, even though the interrogation was light. Most of the conversation was dominated by Ajay, and he managed to convince the police that apart from reigniting their passion last night, they weren’t involved in anything nefarious such as murder.

  The search also didn’t turn up with anything suspicious.

  “I’m sorry for the trouble Mr. and Mrs. Manthena. It was a required formality from our end. I hope you understand,” the officer told them at the end.

  “Not a bother at all Rajesh. I understand that you were doing your duty. Do let me know if you need any kind of help from us.”

  “We will, sir,” he said, before thanking them and leaving with his entourage.

  Sia sat on the couch, her legs weak with the narrow temporary escape they had.

  Ajay looked unperturbed. Yawning and stretching elaborately, “I’m starving. Got anything in the fridge for breakfast or lunch?’ he asked.

  Her head whipped up. “How can you be talking about food at this time?” she demanded.

  “Why not? And why do you look so worried?” he asked.

  She was back to being angry with him again. “This is not a laughing matter, Ajay,” she snapped.

  He looked at her visibly upset face and sighed. Moving closer, he pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Baby, I know you are worried. But apart from the possibility of getting caught by the police—which I think is quite low—there is nothing to be worried about.”

  He rubbed her back slowly. “In fact, we should be celebrating our reconciliation again,” he continued huskily.

  Her head jerked up and she stared at him with widened eyes. “Don’t,” she warned even as her voice sounded breathless.

  “Ok. I won’t,” he said, sliding his hands to her sides, and slowly moving them up until he reached the back of her head. He tugged her hair gently until she watched him with glazed eyes. “Only because I know we’ll be interrupted soon,” he said.

  She clutched his shirt, caught in a limbo of not knowing whether to push him away or pull him closer. “This is crazy and foolish,” she scolded half-heartedly.

  He smiled. The smile on his gorgeous face was so easy and carefree—she couldn’t help returning it with her own wobbly one.

  “I know,” he said softly. “It’s always been that way with us.” Leaning forward, he kissed her hard on her lips. Once, twice and then, he stepped back. “Let’s freshen up and grab some food.”

  When she didn’t move from her spot, he squeezed her arm in reassurance. “Trust me, Sia. We’ll be fine.”

  She took a deep calming breath. “Okay. So what’s going to happen next?” she asked him quietly.

  His face sobered up immediately. “Next, we begin the main event of the game you started.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  Sia freshened up before Ajay. Feeling restless with so many questions bouncing around her mind, she headed towards the media room. She needed to watch something. To be reminded that the world still remained normal around her.

  She began to search through her movie collection. She wanted to play something mindless where not much thought would be required.

  There were several new titles. But they didn’t appeal to her. And so, she browsed through the movies marked as favorites by Ajay. He had made her watch them all before, and they seemed pretty apt currently.

  A small smile began to play on her face as she scanned through the titles of the movies that starred Ajay’s favorite movie actor. Just when she was about to hit the play button on one of the titles, something nagged at her.

  Frowning, she went back to the list and began to look at the titles of the movies again.

  Ajay’s favorite actor acted in a lot of movies, but there was a common theme amongst most of the titles.

  Mafia.

  “No. That’s impossible,” she whispered out loud.

  Why not?

  It made perfect sense.

  The things he knew about her...

  The way he knew exactly when to turn up last night...

  But... but... how?

  She had thought that Ajay was simply tracking her using his technology. Never in her wildest dreams did she realize that she was the one feeding him most of the information!

  Not wasting any time, she marched towards one of the spare bedrooms purposefully.

  Ajay was shaving. When he saw her, a smile broke on his face.

  Hardening her resolve, “Are you the MafiaBoy?” she demanded.

  His smile slipped. And there was silence.

  Oh my god!

  “Sia... baby listen—”

  “Answer me! Are you the hacker I hired to help me track my uncle?” She thought back to when she contacted the hacker. “Two years ago!”

  There was a stretch of silence before he answered. “Yes,” he said.

  She was stunned. “B-but how? I distinctly remember that the person was a teenager living in America.” She also remembered how that ‘kid’ had used a synthesized voice to speak with her when he did for the first time. At that time, she hadn’t cared. She had needed the information about her uncle and the Naidu Estate immediately.

  “Sia, I have a lot of explaining to do. And I’m going to do it soon, alright? But Harsha is on his way with information we need,” he said.

  As if on cue, the door bell rang. “Please answer it. I’ll join you guys in a few minutes,” he said.

  She shook her head in frustration, but left him to answer the door.

  “Hello Sia,” Harsha greeted her politely at the door.

  “Harsha,” she greeted back equally politely as she led him into the family room that offered them more privacy. Technically every room in the house had privacy, but the family room seemed more apt for someone like Harsha.

  She had not interacted much with him. But Ajay spoke enough about Harsha to know that they grew up close, and they were family. She was also quite sure Harsha must have known about the MafiaBoy episode as well.

  “While we are waiting for Ajay, can I ask you something?” she said.

  A look of surprise passed on Harsha’s face, but he nodded.

  “I know Ajay trusts you with his life. Enough to help him cover up a... murder. So I’m sure you must have also known that Ajay contacted me as a hacker named MafiaBoy,” she stated.

  Harsha’s expression turned wary. However, he answered truthfully. “Yes,” he admitted.

  “But how? He was right next to me when I received messages from the hacker.” She frowned as she still tried to wrap her mind around the revelation. “Did you also contact me as MafiaBoy?” she asked.

  “No. It was always only Ajay. When he was around you, he simply scheduled them to be sent to you. I did offer to help, but he wanted to be the only one dealing with you. He didn’t want me to be involved.” As though an afterthought, he added, “At least not in the way it really mattered,” he added.

  Sia was quiet. Her mind was still processing the news and trying to put together every little interaction she had with MafiaBoy over the last two years.

  “Sia,” Harsha interrupted her gently. “Ajay might have started it as a way to get back at you. But as soon as he married you, he was always on your side.”

  “But he even demanded money from me. Around a few million,” she stated.

  “Only because he didn’t want to raise your suspicion. He used to donate all the money you had sent him. And lately, some of it had gone to bribe a few influential officials.”

  “
I see,” she said, her mind confused, warring between trust and suspicion.

  With over fifteen years of conditioning, trust did not come easy. But she was determined to trust Ajay. She had nothing to lose at this point. Ajay did. If he got caught, the consequences would be devastating.

  “Thanks Harsha. For trusting me with your friend’s secret,” she said.

  Harsha smiled. “Believe it or not, I had huge doubts about you initially. I even begged Ajay to not pursue you. But when I realized that you were the only one he wanted to spend his life with, you became my family too,” he said.

  Sia felt her chest tighten in guilt. Ajay had asked her several times to join him during his visits to the Colonel or even meet Harsha and Jo. She had always turned him down as she wasn’t willing to make any kind of attachments.

  And now, the very people she didn’t want to risk bonding with—were the ones willing to put their life and freedom in line to save her.

  A few minutes later, Ajay joined them.

  Harsha gave them a detailed update on the things that had transpired since the time Judge Sundaram’s body was found.

  “I think the fact that they found the incriminating tapes of Jagadish Naidu in Judge Sundaram’s house is enough to convict him for the conspiracy of murder. And the DNA and fingerprints results will also come out in a few days, making it the final nail in his coffin.”

  “What about the security tapes?” Ajay asked.

  “I checked. Apart from the car with visible nameplates, the tinted windows didn’t allow for anyone to see who was inside. It was way too dark.”

  “Call logs?”

  “I verified it again this morning. The code you put into the Mobile company’s encrypted server changed the call logs over the past ten days.”

  “Bank account transaction still reflecting the same as yesterday?”

  “Yes. A large amount of money has also been transferred directly from Jagadish Naidu’s account to Judge Sundaram’s, making it seem like blackmail money.”

  Ajay nodded in satisfaction.

  “And Commissioner Tarun Sharma?”

  “He’s prepared. There won’t be any swaying of law this time. The political leaders are also antsy now. No immediate statements of automatically supporting their favorite leader.”