Part 3

An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind.

- GANDHI

"Excuse me." Mahi called out to the first khaki uniformed officer, she saw inside the police station.

"Eve teasing case, madam?" The inspector asked and Mahi reddened in the face.

"No! Nothing like that." She replied. "I just want to talk to Arjun Rao, the man you just bought in from Mushroom villa restaurant."

When the man kept looking at her with a confused blank stare, Mahi rummaged through her purse and handed him, her business card. "I am a reporter from News Lift channel. I just want to talk to him."

"Ah!" Comprehension finally dawned on the officer. " A reporter, I see."

"But I am afraid we can't let you see him now. He is locked up for the night."

Mahi's excitement dwindled a bit but she knew this was too big to be let go like that. She was one step away from publicly taking down that arrogant bastard Kartik, through his brother and she would be damned if she let it go!

He had insulted her on Live Tv and now she would take her revenge fair and square.

"But it was a minor offense and thus, bail able, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yes, currently the restaurant management hadn't pressed any charges, so it's bail able." The officer nodded. "But it would take 20,000 rupees and a few hours and unless you..."

"I will pay for it!" Mahi cut the officer in-between with her credit card. "Please officer I need to talk to him."

The man took her card, swiping it though it's reader, giving her a curious look.

Maki knew what he must be thinking that why was she paying twenty thousand just to talk to a man who had been involved in a brawl at a restaurant.

But what the officer did not understand was that this was far too personal an agenda and not at all related to her profession as a reporter.

There was something about Kartik Rao that Mahi had disliked from the very first moment she had met him, his penetrating gazes and loaded meaningful stares had got under her skin like nothing else ever has and he had proved her haunches right by insulting her like that in front of the whole country.

And now he was going to pay!

Almost an hour later and after signing numerous official papers, the officer finally returned to his desk where Mahi had been sitting all this while.

"Here's your man, Miss Acharya." And she looked up to find a young man standing a few feet away. He was dressed in a dark blue Armani suit with a bruised cheek and rumpled hair.

Unconscious to herself Mahi compared Kartik with this young man who was so very different from his elder brother. He had jet black curls with sharp eyes of the color of hazel with a heart shaped face, so different from his dark handsome elder brother, Kartik and although Mahi had known the man for only half an hour of time during the interview she knew without a doubt that Kartik was not the kind of man who gets involved in a brawl at a public place.

'He's far too dignified for that!' Suddenly, Mahi realized what she was doing. She had just paid that conceited arrogant bastard a complement, even if just in her head.

'Whatever!' She left those train of thoughts at halt to introduce herself to Arjun Rao.

"Hello, I am Mahi Acharya."

Arjun looked at her - his eyes sweeping from her head to toe, twice as if she was some kind of tasty delicacy, stacked on a store shelf for sale.

Mahi cringed internally, 'Well, there was this one similarity between the two brothers. However, different they might look, both of them objectified women.'

"You are my brother's PA?" He asked a second later.

"No!" Mahi shook her head, smiling ruefully. "I don't work for Kartik Rao."

A sudden, predatory smile lit up Arjun's face at her words. "So, you are his latest bed mate?"

"Mind your bloody language!" Mahi colored in expiration and anger at this man. 'Not very different from his brother, was he?' She counted to ten before in her head before answering him, levelly.

'I don't personally know your brother Mr. Rao, if you are wondering."

"But I have seen you somewhere before and if you don't work for my brother what are you doing here?" Arjun asked.

"I am a reporter and - I"

"Yes, Yes, Yes..." Arjun cut her off at that point. "yes, now I remember you. You are that News Lift anchor who fucked my brother up in that interview. Well, I would like to say nice job!" Arjun Rao sniggered.

If it hadn't been clear enough already then it was clear now - that the two brothers doesn't get along. Or most probably doesn't get along at all!

"So, what do you want from me Mahi Acharya?"

"I would like to ask a few questions about your brother, actually." Mahi asked suddenly aware that the playful glint in Arjun Rao's eyes had been lost and the sharp predatory stare was peeking through those hazel depths that made her squirm internally.

"Sure. I will be happy to provide you with all the answers you want about my brother. If you promise to keep my name out of it."

"Of course." Mahi nodded, a bit surprised that how easy the conversation had really gone. If anything she hadn't expected this. In fact most of the time the reporters need to make stupid deals and negotiations to coerce the truth out of people. But it seemed Arjun Rao was a bit too outgoing to sell out his own brother, for literally nothing.

And that was not normal at all, firing up all kinds of danger sirens in her head. But then - She argued with her own self, perhaps it was because the two brothers don't get along very well.

"So, we could sit in the park on the opposite side of the road." Mahi suggested as they made their way out of the police station.

"Or we could go to my apartment." Arjun's tone suggested something else entirely different and Mahi wanted to bang her head on the nearby lamp post, angry at herself for getting involved with such kind of characterless males.

"No, thank you." She replied coolly. "The park would do."

"So, what do you want to know about Kartik?" Mahi picked out her notepad and pen, ready to jot things down. "Well, you know a year before when he took the president's post, there were many kinds of stories going around - That many board directors of the bank including you and your mother Mrs. Rao was in opposition to that decision. Is it true?"

"Absolutely. He doesn't deserve to be on that post." Arjun spat, red spots appearing on his face as he tried to control himself but failed. "It was rightfully mine! Mine! But he- he"

Behind them, Mahi heard some rustling sounds in the dark and suddenly Arjun froze in his spot, the predatory glint in his eyes returned with a vengeance but he had stopped talking, his body going rigid within seconds.

"What?" Mahi asked and suddenly a hand appeared and snatched her notepad out from her hand.

Shocked beyond belief, she saw the tall, lean silhouette of a stranger she had come to know as Kartik Rao, standing right behind her.

"Yo...You! You!" She sniped. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"came to bail my brother out of jail." Furious dark eyes clashed with hazel ones opposite to him that shone with bitter resentment and Mahi fidgeted awkwardly standing between two estranged brother as they dug each other's graves with eyes, if that was even possible.

And then suddenly, those furious dark eyes shifted their focus and attacked straight at Mahi. "And then I am told a reporter already bailed him out!"

His gaze slid from her face and swept throughout her lithe body, lingering at strategic position of her curves before returning to her face. " I should Have know, it was you!"

Mahi had to bite her lip to keep herself from blurting all the vile things, she wanted to throw in his face and instead stood in her stop with her head held high like a tigress, if he so much as threaten her territory she would tear him to pieces.

And in the next moment, his furious eyes somewhat cooled with a slight amusement taking its place and that made Mahi even more furious.

'Arjun!" He addressed his brother next. "My driver is waiting outside with the car. Go Home!" There was something very dark, mad and - frightening that not only Mahi but even Arjun said nothing in opposement to that and strode away, leaving the two of them alone in a semi - dark, empty park in the middle of the night.

Mahi gulped and unconsciously took a step back. She knew Arjun was crazy and most probably deranged, judging from the way he had behaved in that restaurant and while Kartik Rao, this tall handsome man standing in front of her had done no such thing but there was still not an ounce of doubt in her head that he was far more dangerous than any number of Arjun's put together.

'It was his eyes!' Those haunting dark eyes - that make murders look innocent in front of him. Telling, tales about horrors that she has no idea about!

And something told her that it would be better to let those secrets left undisturbed, the same part of her brain that had been shouting 'mortal danger!' ever since, Kartik Rao had entered this park.

So, she decided to make her move while there was still time, clutching the sash of her purse, she strode towards the entrance of the path when a pair of strong warm hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her back, connecting her petite curves to a warm pulsating body.

"Not, so soon sweetheart!" She wasn't sure why or even how his hoarse commanding voice had turned drastically into that deep sensual, liquid seduction.

But however he had done it, the bigger concern for Mahi was to stop those lucrative sensual images of them together - that were suddenly emerging in her mind.

His warm breath was fanning the nape of her neck, making breath hitch in her throat.

"I-I...Will sh-shout!" She hated herself for sounding so vulnerable and weak in front of him but she couldn't help it. He was doing something to her, waking some deep dark desire that spread like a lightening awareness throughout her body, making her gasp.

"Go on, shout if you want to." His sweet sensuous voice caressed her skin like honey, his gaze drawing a slow sedate route from her slender neck to the smooth skin of her shoulders, his lips just an inch away but he did not touch.

"Le-leave me alone!" Mahi murmured, although her arms remained limp at her sides with no sign of struggle.

"Fine, I'll leave you alone, if you tell me exactly what Arjun told you about our family." Mahi went rigid in his arms. So, this was why, he was doing this to her? To seduce the truth out of her? What kind of woman, did he think she was?

"He told me nothing!" She spat at him, suddenly furious at herself and at him. "Now, let me go!"

"You are lying!" His voice was cool but it was clear from his tone that he didn't believe one word that comes out of her mouth. "Arjun had told you about the whole scandal, hadn't he? And now you are going to sell that little news to the highest bidder." He seethed near her ear and she tried pushing him back to get away but it was futile. His strong body did not budge.

"No, he told me nothing! You interrupted him before he could tell me anything!" She cried, trying to free herself from his arms.

"You are lying! I know how you reporters work - selling scandals in dozens, ruining people's lives without a care." He spat.

"Look, I will pay you as much as you want if you don't sell that news!"

And suddenly Mahi was beyond furious, red spots appearing in her eyes. "I SAID LEAVE ME!"

"I don't know any of your damned secret scandal! LET ME GO! Damn you!"

Finally his arms slackened and he took a step back letting a wisp of wind come between them. His dark cool eyes gauging her every small action, calculating her every possible step.

"I told you, I'll pay you handsomely if you promise not to leak that news." He spoke again.

"I don't want your damn money!" Mahi seethed. "And for the hundredth time I don't know any news about your family!"

His jaw clenched, his eyes hardened as he looked at her.

"You are not playing fair Miss Acharya, you are deliberately lying to me, but I promise you that if I start playing foul you will start regretting the fact that you were ever born."