Bound To You – (Book Two) – Chapter 9

Link to the previous update : https://www.tellyupdates.com/bound-to-you-book-two-chapter-8/

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Riddhima and Vansh were horrified to see Kabir snatch the only pistol from them and point it to his head.

“I don’t deserve to live. I’m coming to you Ahana!”

“Kabir!” they shouted trying to stop him.

“Don’t come near me. Or else, I wouldn’t hesitate from shooting at you two,” threatened Kabir.

“Kabir, don’t be stupid. This isn’t the time for that,” said Vansh trying his best to distract him.

“Stupid? I am acting stupid? Like seriously? I lost my wife damn it!” Kabir half yelled and half cried. “How’d you feel had it been Riddhima in place of Ahana? Tell me Vansh, how’d you feel?”

Vansh went completely still. The mere thought of something happening to Riddhima was enough to twist his heart, mind, stomach and everything else into painful knots. Just because Kabir was his friend and was upset didn’t mean that he could get away with any rubbish he said.

“How dare you bring Riddhima into all this!” he growled as his anger got the better of him.

Before anyone could say or do anything further,  Riddhima pushed Vansh from the way, got down beside Kabir and snatched the revolver away in a second.

Getting uncontrollable, Kabir tried to get the gun back from her.

“Give it to me! What are you doing?”

“No, I won’t! You need to live, Kabir. You can’t give up so soon,” she said desperately.

“There’s no reason for me to live.”

“You have a very sweet and beautiful reason to live, Kabir. And that is Payal, your two-month old daughter,” she finally broke it to him.

Kabir’s eyes went wide as he tried to take in this information disbelievingly.

“M-my…d-daughter-r?” he stammered.

Riddhima patted his face. “Yes! Ahana had a premature delivery and gave birth to your daughter two months back. You know what, she is the most gorgeous baby I’ve ever seen! She looks just like you.” She tried to smile through moistened eyes.

Tears flowed down Kabir’s cheeks. He didn’t know why he was crying. Was it because of having lost Ahana forever, or was it because of the joyful news about his daughter’s existence?

What an unlucky father he was! His daughter was alive for the past two months, and he had no idea about her. Perhaps, this was exactly how Vansh had felt when he found out about his kids seven years later.

“My daughter….Payal…” Kabir sobbed with a newfound hope brimming in his eyes.

“Yes…your daughter!” she repeated.

Vansh watched the scene from afar, feeling emotional himself. All the anger that he had for his friend just a few moments ago had vanished into thin air. Now he was thinking about Ahana, Payal and Kabir. None of them deserved what happened to them.

Suddenly, Kabir became frantically worried.

“Where is Payal? Is she safe and fine? What if…”

“She is at VR Mansion. Don’t worry, I’ve left her under Mummyji and Sia’s care.”

Crying happily, he hugged Riddhima.

“Payal needs you. You need to be strong for her,” Riddhima comforted him.

Pulling back, he realized the huge blunder he was going to make.
“I’m sorry. I myself don’t know what had happened to me.”

Now it was Vansh’s turn to speak to him.
“I understand your pain. But you are a freaking soldier, Kabir. And a soldier never gives up, no matter what. You’ll get ample of time to mourn for Ahana later, but you won’t get such a chance to take your due revenge from your and Ahana’s perpretators.
Ahana’s sacrifice cannot go in vain. You need to get justice for her!”

Kabir clenched his jaw as a new sense of determination intermixed with rage and vengeance engulfed him. Ahana’s cheerful face flashed before his eyes. He reminisced her goofy and sometimes irritatingly clingy ways, watering his eyes.

“I’ll blo*dy kill them all who did this to her!” he screamed in pain.

Vansh held his hand. “I am there with you in this.”

“So am I.” Riddhima joined her hand with theirs too.

Kabir suddenly grew serious. “Vansh, they are planning bomb blasts…”

Vansh cut him. “Yeah I know. But do you know where and when these blasts are going to be carried out?”

“5th december, 11AM IST. This time they are targeting the 3 metropolitan cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore,” said Kabir.

Vansh’s mouth was left wide open at this. “5th december is the very date when huge election rallies are going to be held in these 3 cities.”

Kabir and Riddhima were equally shocked to know this.

“That means they want to destroy these rallies?”

“Yes. People usually flock in thousands during these rallies. This will cause a very huge havoc and nationwide panic,” said Vansh with a grim expression.

“These blo*dy rascals! How many more innocent lives will they put at stake for their twisted mindset and agenda? Their fight is against the government, then why are they pulling the civilians into all this?” Riddhima said angrily.

“You don’t know about them enough, Riddhima. They can stoop to any level in order to exert their power and fear all over the country,” Kabir gritted his teeth. “But it’s high time that we show them who they are messing with!”

“Yes, that’s right. But we are only four people. And there are more than fifty of them. It’s impossible for us to take on them all by ourselves.”

Kabir got furious. “So should we just leave them to do whatever they want to?”

Vansh explained, “No. We surely need to teach them a lesson. But we need more forces to completely defeat them. The ideal solution would be to escape from this place to the neighbouring village. Once we get there, I’ll contact the other officers on board to send more troops to help us. And then, we’ll show them who has the upper hand.”

Kabir however did not seem very pleased with the idea. His soul was screaming for the blood of those who had pushed his dearest wife to her death.

As if reading his mind, Vansh said, “I know how you feel Kabir. But this isn’t the time to act impulsively under the influence of emotions. This is the time to think logically and practically.”

Half-heartedly, Kabir nodded his head as he understood his point. There was no way they could win a 4 v/s 50+ fight. This wasn’t a filmy world where a hero can single handedly bring down an enormous group of enemies. This was the real world. Ten times wilder, more unpredictable and more dangerous.

Riddhima enquired, “But how’d we escape out of this wretched place without Surya and his clan getting to know about us?”

Vansh opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden, bone chilling howl that echoed throughout the dense forest. This was followed by another sets of equally scary and shrill whistles.

Riddhima paid close attention to these sounds. These didn’t seem to come from any animal, rather these sounded very human!

Confused, she turned to Vansh and Kabir for answers, whose faces had turned white with fright.

“This is the special jungle call that the Maoist rebels use to communicate with each other,” Vansh explained on seeing her questioning face.

“Did you understand what they were trying to say?” she asked further.

“Yes. We both trained ourselves to get acquainted with their jungle calls.” Vansh shut his eyes and gulped. “Apparently, they all know about our truth. And they have even taken Angre hostage.”

Riddhima was shell shocked to know this. Angre was caught by Surya and his men? Now what would they do? And how did they manage to know all this?

She suddenly recollected how Bindu was loitering close to them. Perhaps, she had heard and seen everything that had occurred – their confrontation with Saanvi, Vansh/Vishnu coming to their help and killing off Saanvi.

“It must be that stupid Bindu’s doing! She went and told everything to her so-called Surya Saahib!” she muttered angrily.

“Forget about that. Now our foremost concern is to save Angre. We can’t let anything to happen to him,” said Kabir. “Let us walk in the direction from where these jungle calls are coming from. Come on!”

Saying this, Kabir led the way into the deeper part of the jungle while Vansh and Riddhima followed behind.

Quivering, Riddhima grasped Vansh’s palm tightly. It looked as if she was afraid of losing him. Once again.

As they kept on walking deeper and deeper, the howls got louder and clearer.

The enormously tall man that he was, Vansh kept scanning the tree tops for any unwanted rebels hiding in there who could pounce upon them.

Vansh’s ears pricked up when he heard weak whimpers from a distance. A feeling of intense dread came over him. Was Angre okay even?

That is when the trio came to a complete stand still. A horrifying sight lay before them.

A bleeding Angre was hung upside down from the tree with a huge rope keeping him in place. He was moaning in pain.

Riddhima reflexly tried to step forward to help him, but Vansh roughly pulled her behind a large tree.

“What are you doing? We need to help him!” she said.

“It is a trap.”

“What do you mean? I can’t see anyone around Angre.”

Vansh took a deep breath. “That’s what I said, it is a trap. Surya’s men are hiding around the place. Only thing is that we can’t spot them for they have cleverly camouflaged themselves with the surroundings.”

Kabir added in, “And we don’t know how many men are there in  hiding. If we go up to Angre without any proper planning, then we all will end up dying.”

“So what do we do now? We can’t leave Angre to keep on suffering endlessly…” She miserably eyed Angre. He was in severe pain and needed immediate dressing up. Or else, he could even die. She looked away not able to watch the scene any longer.

Vansh put his hands in the pockets of his kurta. All he could manage to fish out was a pocket knife. As for his gun, he had used up all the bullets at the time of saving Kabir.

He checked Riddhima’s revolver. Only two bullets were left.

“Is that all we have?” asked Kabir.

“Unfortunately yes,” he sighed.

It was then that Kabir’s eyes fell upon the ground. He picked up a twig, a stone and few leaves, and made a slingshot out of it.

“Sometimes, this seemingly stone-age weapon can work much at par to a gun if used properly. Only thing is that unlike how you aim a gun at the enemy’s chest, here you are supposed to aim it at the enemy’s face. Or even better, his eye so that he ends up getting blind.”

“That’s a great idea!” Vansh looked pleased. “You and Riddhima attack them with slingshots, while I go and rescue Angre.”

“Be careful Vansh. It can get dangerous,” Kabir warned him.

Vansh smirked, “Those who belong to the Army and Intelligence, are no longer afraid of facing any dangers.”

Just as he was about to leave, Riddhima caught his arm. A strong woman per say, but today, an unknown fear gripped her.

He caressed her face making her even more emotional. “Nothing will happen to me. And that’s a promise.”

Since the jungle was covered with tall grass everywhere, Vansh found it easy to crouch low and lurk between the green blades. He moved so stealthily that the grass didn’t even move an inch when he slithered past it. He was sure that not only the rebels, but even Riddhima and Kabir could also not spot him in the hiding.

After what seemed like ages, Vansh finally neared Angre. Still hiding between the grass, he raised his welled up eyes at him. His confidante for so many years, he had such a bond with him that he himself couldn’t explain.

Waiting for the right opportunity to strike, Vansh did a countdown in his mind. “One, two and three!”

He flung his knife at the ropes that cut it into half, bringing Angre down from the tree. Vansh carried him in his broad arms and started running back to where Riddhima and Kabir were waiting for him.

The rebels who were hiding until now came out in the open and were about to shoot at him. But Kabir and Riddhima were too quick for them. They began attacking them continuously with their slingshots, not even giving them any chance to use their gun. And the worst part, they didn’t know from which direction these stones were being pelted at them.

The few bullets they managed to shoot at Vansh, he successfully dodged them away. Carrying an injured Angre in his arms, he managed to reach out of the range of the rebels, much to Riddhima and Kabir’s relief.

“They know we are hiding here. We must leave immediately before they get us!” Vansh remarked.

They began running for their dear lives as fast as they could, not even once looking behind at the rebels who were trying hard to catch up with them.

But it is said that even God helps the honest and brave. And that’s what happened.

A large herd of uncontrollable elephants came in the way of the rebels further separating them from the quad who thanking their luck, soon evaded from their sight.
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With luck on their side, the quad found an abandoned cave to take shelter in. Angre needed his wounds to be dressed up and moreover Vansh was tired of continuously carrying Angre up.

“We need some spare cloth to cover his wounds up,” said Kabir.

Even though Angre was conscious, he kept shifting and wincing due to the pain.

Riddhima tore a small piece from her sari. “Here, this will help.”

Vansh taunted her. “Seriously Riddhima? Do you think that tiny piece of cloth would be enough for these many wounds? It would be better if you take off your entire sari off!”

Riddhima gasped in mortification. How could he just say something so shameless as that, even if he was her husband?

Kabir coughed and awkwardly looked away not wanting to get entangled in a husband-wife’s argument. But even as he did that, he remembered his own wife and the relation that he had shared with her. Only if time could be winded back…

“You can’t be serious, Vansh.” Riddhima gave him a death stare. “At least think before spewing such nonsense!”

He raised his hands up in air to defend his point. “But what wrong did I say? Angre’s life is at stake. Can’t you do even this much for him?”

She neared him and spoke in a hushed tone in order to prevent Kabir from hearing anything. “So you are okay with me roaming around in a naked state?”

“Naked? But how? You are wearing a blouse inside right?” said Vansh digging his grave further.

She smacked him hard on his arm.

“Ouch! What was that for?” he groaned.

“For being my husband and still deeming it fine for me to roam around in a mere blouse and lehenga with no pallu over it,” she huffed tossing her head away.

“Fine. I’ll take off my kurta so that you can wear it over your blouse once the sari comes off,” he suggested.

She raised her eyebrows. “So that means you’ll be roaming bare chested?”

“Uggh! Why do you have so many problems? Just do as I say!” he demanded irritatedly.

Resignedly, Riddhima went to the far end of the cave, away from Kabir and Angre’s sight.

“What are you doing, woman? We don’t have all day!” uttered Vansh.

Riddhima mentally berated this man. He was her husband alright, but it was nine months since they had been away from each other. Undressing like that in front of him after so many days felt like new for her.

Realizing the urgency of the matter, she slowly began taking off her pallu little by little. Her hands shivered during the process, as his gaze was stuck upon her. The look of desire in his eyes on seeing her form like that didn’t go unnoticed by her.

Riddhima swallowed. She very well knew how Vansh’s patience worked. She was afraid that it might break and he might end up using this opportunity to get closer to her…

But as opposed to her thoughts, Vansh acted with utmost professionalism. Without saying a word, he removed his saffron coloured kurta. She saw that she needn’t have worried because he had worn a sleeveless vest underneath.

She took his kurta and quickly slipped it over her blouse. As soon as she did that, she felt Vansh’s musk invading her senses.

Opening her eyes, she still found Vansh staring hard at her.

“What?”

“You are beautiful, Riddhima.”

“I know…”

“But do you know how tough it is for me to stay away from you?” He took few steps towards her till his face was barely a few centimeters away from hers.

“How much tough, Vansh?” she teased him.

“I can’t wait to get back home and…” he said huskily.

“And…?”

“And take you to my bedroom….”

Her breath stopped for a second. But she wanted to hear the next part too. “And…?”

“Are you guys done or what?” Kabir’s irritated voice caught them off guard.

“Yeah coming,” said Vansh dryly taking Riddhima’s sari with him.

“One of the biggest hassle that has been in my love life since day one is this Kabir,” he thought to himself annoyedly.

Vansh and Kabir finally used the sari to tend to Angre’s injuries.

Riddhima looked at the tiny amount of cloth that was left behind. Vansh was right after all. It did take her entire sari to do the dressing.

“How are you feeling now, Angre?” Vansh enquired.

“Better, but it still hurts,” he muttered weakly.

“Just take some rest and you will feel much better.”

Riddhima sat down beside the men. “Vansh, weren’t you going to tell us about your plan of escape?”

“What separates Chiria from the neighbouring village is a huge lake. So obviously, we need to cross that.”

“Wait…isn’t that lake filled with man-eating crocodiles?” said Kabir getting a little anxious. “So obviously, it is out of question to swim through it. The other option is a boat, but we don’t have one.”

“Don’t worry. There are many stranded boats present near the lake. I’m sure we’ll be able to find one and row away to safety,” said Vansh. “Let Angre and all of us relax a little bit and after that, we’ll head out towards the lake.”
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Vansh carefully peeped out of the cave and scanned the surrounding area. There was no one in the vicinity. Not that he could see properly in the dark night that surrounded him. But still.

The quad quietly trodded along the forest, making sure to not create any noise that could attract any animals or worst, the Maoist rebels.

Riddhima could hear the faint sound of the waves. Perhaps they were quite near to the lake.

“There it is,” Vansh pointed towards the left. The pitch black water of the lake appeared very eerie right now.

They saw a few deserted boats lying near the lake. They were about to hop into one when a menacing laughter came from behind them.

“What a bunch of utter stupids!”

They shuddered when they saw the one and only, Surya emerge in front of them. He had a huge gang of armed men accompanying him.

“Did you think of me as so dumb that I’d not guard the only possible means of your escape?” snarled Surya. He diverted his attention towards Vansh.
“But you definitely got me fooled, young man. You lived with us as the head priest, and no one doubted you a bit. Deceiving Surya is no joke. Under normal circumstances, I’d have been extremely impressed. But you did a grave mistake by killing our very own leader, Gurumaata to death! Our clan will never forgive you for that!”

“Who needs your freaking forgiveness you dumbass?”

Before the rebels could know it, Vansh and Kabir pushed a boat onto few of them, causing them to become heavily injured. Seizing the opportunity, they both grabbed the guns from the injured rebels, and began shooting mercilessly at the others.

“Angre and Riddhima, take a boat and start rowing away!” Vansh shouted after them. “I’ll give you cover until then.”

“No, I won’t go anywhere….” Before Riddhima could complete her sentence, she felt a bullet pierce right through her hand.

She let out a loud shriek. This was the first time she had experienced being shot and she never knew it would be so excruciating. She almost felt that she could die from it.

“Angre, take her away!” Vansh yelled in concern. If he had his way, he’d have instantly rushed to her help. But right now, he was embroiled in a furious fight with the enemies.

Angre himself was limping owing to his injuries. But he understood the need of obeying his Boss. With a lot of difficulty, he pushed a struggling Riddhima into another boat and began rowing away.

“Kabir, you also leave! You are injured yourself too and not in a position to fight these men!” Vansh screamed once again.

Kabir screamed back while shooting at another two of them. “They killed my Ahana! Even if I’m able to kill one of these rascals, I’d feel that I’ve really done something for her. Also, we started on this mission together and we’ll end it together.”

Vansh had also killed three of them and was about to plunge his knife into another one, when he started begging forgiveness.

“Please leave me….I’ve a family to look after…I did it all for money…”

Vansh’s heart stirred a little bit. The said rebel in front of him was a young lad of about sixteen or seventeen, almost half of his own age. Killing him felt so wrong on so many levels, considering that he was probably manipulated into joining the Maoist gang.

With a jerk, Vansh let him go and turned his back to him expecting him to leave. Feeling a sudden movement of air behind him, he turned around to find that the same young rebel whom he had shown mercy upon was planning to attack him again.

This time, Vansh stabbed the weapon through his stomach. And this time, he didn’t even feel any emotion for him. He deserved it, even if he was a minor.

And then Surya came before him all of a sudden. He tried shooting him, but Vansh threw his gun away. Similarly, Vansh also tried to attack him with the knife in his hands, but Surya dodged and ducked every single time.

They were so engrossed in the fight, that they unknowingly kept inching closer and closer to the bank of the lake.

Suddenly, a ferocious looking crocodile snapped out of the water and grabbed Vansh’s leg in it’s mouth.

The moment Vansh felt the beast’s teeth pierce into his leg, he let out a blood curdling roar.

Surya immediately backed away not wanting to become the feast for another crocodile.

Vansh on the other hand, kept struggling to free himself from the crocodile’s clutches. But it was too strong and powerful for him. The crocodile dragged him with all it’s might taking him into the lake.

A human is no match for a hardcore beast like this. All of Vansh’s efforts were proving to be futile. He was not only losing lot of blood but also losing his strength. And soon, Vansh disappeared under the water along with the creature.

Kabir shouted Vansh’s name but got no reply back. He could not go over to save him because he was busy fighting off the other goons.

“Haha! The one who supposedly used to call himself as the king of Mafia, died such a worst form of death!” Surya laughed evilly, caressing his round belly.

Most of Surya’s minions were either dead, injured and some of them had even run away. Now only Surya was remaining.

Kabir emptied bullets after bullets into that monstrous man’s body. He had killed Ahana. And because of him, even Vansh had…

“Vansh!” he screamed again as if waiting for some miracle. He called his name at least ten times, all the time gazing at the dark water for any specific signal that could say that Vansh was alive.

But when nothing happened, he realized that it was all over, everything was over.

He went down on his knees and wailed as loudly as he could. He had lost his wife, and now he had lost his bestfriend, too. His thoughts ran to Riddhima. How would she react to this? What would become of her now?
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Angre and Riddhima were in the boat, quite a distance away from the bank of lake, when they heard Vansh’s shriek that sent chills down their spine.

Riddhima started panicking. “That was Vansh! What’s happening?”

And that’s when they saw the scene. A large crocodile was pulling Vansh into the water. And he was rendered so helpless that he could do nothing about it.

“Vansh nooo!” Riddhima shouted at the top of her voice.

In her frenzied state, she tried to step out of the boat into the water, but Angre held her back.

“No, let me go and save him. Angre, I said leave me! I need to save him!”

“He cannot be saved, Riddhima. He cannot….it’s all over,” he cried his voice trembling with pain.

“No…this cannot happen! This cannot happen!” Her eyes began rolling back and forth wildly. The world around her began to spin and she fell limp. Her weak eyes got shut that transported her into a world of complete blackness.

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Hello everyone! That is it for today guys. Do vote and comment.

Peace out!