The other night I went to meet Maria at a new joint and then I let myself and my story to her. Some more talks and coffee and we got closer than usual. After that I drove her home but suddenly it rained so I had to stay for a while. As I waited, she came to me and tried seducing me but I couldn't resist the temptation and I leaned on to the burning desire, the passion that ignited inside both of us.
Caption: -Suddenly.
Caption: -BEEP….. BEEP. [Pager rings.]
I needed to find a payphone to dial the number and she had a phone in her room.
"Yes? I am on my way Johnny." It was Johnny who paged me.
At Shetty's Adda
"You are late." Vishnu was too keen to follow the protocol which is why he started lecturing me.
"I was somewhere else." I only told the half truth to shrug it off.
"Relax Vishu, Vikrant, sit." Shetty bhai wanted to let me know about his new business proposal.
"I have a new business idea, a liquor store to launch my own whiskey brand. It's legal and I have the paperwork done. But there's a small hiccup, the excise is not allowing the settlement to be set up at our planned location." Shetty told me about the problem.
"So, you want me to shake him off?" I asked.
"No need to threaten him, just try to buy him off." He spoke.
"And if he refuses?" I asked.
"Then I have something which can change his mind, a scandal that only I am aware of." He would rather blackmail the guy to get things done.
"I shall see what I can do." I spoke.
"Here's the address, and a little something…. [Hands over a piece.] Just in case, I hope that your trigger finger ain't rusty kid." Yes, he handed me a gun.
Not like that I hated the idea of having a gun, but since the war and last heist I barely wanted to shoot someone to make my point clear.
"But sir, I…" I froze.
"Having second thoughts?" He asked.
"No sir." I spoke.
"Then do as been told. The gun is only for protection, only use it as the last resort, understood? Now scram." He was loud and clear about it.
At the excise office.
"I told you before, the location is right by the side of a college and I cannot allow that, if you want to change the location it's fine by me and you are free to do business." He was still too stubborn.
"Would a million change your mind?" Johnny made his move.
"You know? Many rats tried to buy me off previously but I cannot be bought." He was still arrogant.
"You son of a…." Johnny almost took out his gun but I stopped him.
"Johnny, let me handle this." I had some other plan.
"Sir, you know, you seem to have a lovely wife and a cute daughter but it's a crying shame that you've been a cheating asshole who fucked his who is it? Your secretary?" And then he was in shock.
"How did you?" He was in shock and awe.
"If this goes out in the paper or zine, you are done for. So, what is it gonna be?" I demanded.
"Fine, I will reconsider, send Shetty my regards." He accepted the offer.
But we weren't aware of the fuck ups that was waiting for us.
Suddenly.
Caption: - Ratatatata….. ratatatatata…..
"Ambush, that son of a bitch called the uniform on us." Baburam Apte called in the local authority it seems.
"But why the fuck the police would fire at us without warning?" I asked the obvious.
"They are not normal cops; it's the fucking narcotics." Vishnu recognized them.
"Go, I will hold them off." He wanted to stay and fight.
"But bhai…." I tried to reason with him.
"Just go. COME ON YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" He gave his all.
"Kill him." The narcotics meant business, that is encounter.
And that was the day I lost a brother figure and next I knew, I was at his funeral.
"Aarav Deshpandey will pay for what he did." The ACP of the narcotics were being mentioned here.
"Shetty Bhai, I promise to bring you, his head." I was determined to do so.
"Make sure he suffers and even his next of kin if he has any. No lose ends." Shetty wanted to send a message that no one messes with him.
And so, I smoked out Deshpande out in the open and challenged him into a firefight. I had the upper hand and then killed him in front of his wife Rashmi and then I pointed my gun to her.
"Do it brother, no lose ends remember?" Johnny pushed me.
"We kill the woman then we are no different than our rivals." I had my own code; I would never kill a woman or a child.
"Then I will do it, [points out the gun.]" Johnny wanted to kill her.
But he stopped and he dropped the gun.
Back at the adda.
"So, you let the woman live? Big mistake, I was loud and clear that no lose ends." Shetty was pissed off.
"She won't be a problem as she cannot speak." Yes, the woman was dumb.
"But she saw it." He spoke.
"Don't worry about it." I gave her a clear warning that if she tries other means to narrate the incidents then she will not live to see another day and I gave her some money and an option to leave town.
"I hope you know what you are doing." He spoke.
"Certainly." I spoke.
Deshpande was dead and the wife was forced to flee town. But the real reason I couldn't kill her because I saw someone in her, a woman who were hit by my bullet during the war, I couldn't save her and since then I pledged not to kill a woman or a child.
My conscience somehow won't allow me to commit such heinous crime and which is why I had to let her go.