Heeriye

Sixteen.

Sidharth

A new contender for "bane of my existence" has taken the lead.

Temps.

I've had two already and both were complete failures. The first burst into tears when I asked her to redo my schedule for the fourth time and the second asked if she could have Thursdays and Fridays off because she reached maximum efficiency on a three-day work week.

Suffice it to say, each had lasted only a handful of hours. I'm currently on my third attempt and I'm already imagining all the different ways I could murder her and make it look like an accident.

"Mr. Sidharth?" she chirps, careening into my office for what feels like the dozenth time in the last hour. "Do you need anything? I'm just heading into the lunchroom to grab some donut."

I glare at her but somehow, she doesn't get the message. Lack of brain cells will do that.

"No."

"Are you sure? The donuts here is amazing. So many flavors, too! The chocolate peanut butter is my fav—"

"Madhavi," I growl, "you need to stop talking. Now."

"Are you in a meeting?"

My laptop is closed. My phone is sitting a foot away from me and there's no one else in the room. How can she possibly think I'm in a meeting now?

"Stop talking and walk away."

She just smiles serenely. "In my experience, men are always extra crabby on an empty stomach. I'll bring you back some donuts. It'll help that mood of yours."

Now, she's talking to me like I'm a child.

I really did have it good with Shehnaaz. Problem is, I wanted to fuck her, too. If only I could turn back time and—

No. No, I'd still want to fuck her.

The door isn't shut ten seconds before my witless new assistant bursts in again. "Oh, and your friend is here to see you. He said his name was Aarush Something-or-other. I'll just send him right in."

"What? No. Madhavi!"

Too late. She holds open the door—and Aarush fucking Mishra waltzes in with a bottle of scotch wrapped in a red velvet ribbon.

"Why thank you, darling," he croons to her.

"Of course!" She bats her eyelashes at Aarush and sashays off to eat her weight in donuts. I regret hiring her. I'd rather have the Donut for an assistant.

"New help?" Aarush asks as he places the scotch on my table and makes himself comfortable.

"Not for long."

He wrinkles up his nose. "Don't tell me she's a temp? What happened to your pretty little assistant? What was her name again... ah that's right, Shehnaaz!"

Yeah, like he fucking forgot.

"She was quite the looker. Perky little ass. And her tits weren't bad, either."

My hand clenches into a fist but I force it under the table. I'm almost positive Aarush is behind all the shady shit that's gone down recently but without proof, I can't pin it on him. I need to play the long game until I get enough information to make my move.

The fact that he's come up clean so far is grating on my nerves. It only reinforces my theory that there's someone on the inside helping him.

Shehnaaz...?

No. Impossible. She wouldn't—

Then again, she had betrayed me to Ranjhit. And who can forget that intimate dance she had shared with Aarush the night of the gala? There's no way. She doesn't have enough information herself to be able to pass anything actionable along to Aarush.

Focus.

"What do you want, Aarush?"

He smiles, the very picture of pleasantry. "Just wanted to express my sympathies in person and give you a little'I'm sorry it didn't work out'gift."

I suppress the urge to grab his bottle of scotch and fling it at his head. "As usual, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, come on. When will you stop acting coy and just admit that you're behind Venera?"

"I'm not."

Aarush rolls his eyes. "Okay, okay. Wink-wink. Nudge-nudge. Am I right?"

"Fucking hell. You and Madhavi will get along great."

He crosses one leg over the other and laughs. "I can't fault your mood. I'd be equally pissed if the drug I spent millions to develop ended up being a colossal failure before it's even launched. Dead on arrival. I heard that no one is touching the samples anymore. Gives new meaning to the term 'kiss of death,' am I right?"

I lean back in my seat. "Is this what you call sympathizing?"

"I'm not here only to sympathize—"

"Of course not."

"I also wanted to thank you." He hesitates—for dramatic effect, no doubt. Maybe he's just waiting for me to ask why he's thanking me. Joke's on him.

I don't fucking care.

He clears his throat, irritated by my complete lack of interest. "I'm here to thank you for inspiring me. I've decided to launch my own drug. Of course, mine will actually work."

Motherfucker.

It's not like an illicit street drug can be patented. I'll have no way of stopping this if he decides to roll out his own brand.

"Let me guess?" I say, pretending to be bored. "Venera 2.0."

He laughs, clearly high on his premature victory. "It's called Sopernik."

Motherfucker.

Sopernik. It means "rival" in Russian. A little on the nose, but then again, I'd expect nothing less from Aarush. The fucker is grinning from ear to ear. It would be so damn easy to shatter that smile with a bullet. Then I'd have Madhavi come in and clean the mess. That should make for a speedy resignation letter.

Two birds. One stone.

"It's a mild aphrodisiac that lowers your inhibitions. I've tried it myself and it's fucking brilliant. Makes you feel floaty and horny all at the same time. It's sure to be a hit."

"What do you mean, 'you've already tried it'? You've already got samples up?"

He licks his lips. "It would have taken years of development, but I was fortunate enough to stumble across this genius team who had experience developing party drugs. So I paid them handsomely and put them to work in my personal labs." Aarush's smile is starting to look unbalanced. "Ironic, isn't it? Just when you lose your chemist, I find a whole team of them!"

"'Ironic is not the word I would use."

"Oh, come now, my friend. You can be happy for me. It's not every day you stumble across a windfall like this."

Unless, of course, you've worked to steal someone else's.

"Word of advice,friend," I growl, leaning over my desk to fix him with a furious stare. "Watch your back. Success breeds envy and envy breeds action. You should know that better than anyone."

He blinks at me innocently. "Such wise words. I'll be glad to share some of my wisdom with you once I've launched Sopernik successfully." He gets to his feet and throws me a casual wink. "And say hello to Shehnaaz for me, will you? Tell her I think about our dance often."

He walks out while I imagine the day I can finally do away with the pretense...

And slaughter them for all at once.