Heeriye

Twenty Six.

Sidharth

Vanraj has been tapping his way through this entire damn meeting and I'm about to explode on his ass if he doesn't stop right fucking now.

"Is there something wrong with your finger, Uncle, or is there something you want to say?"

The tapping stops.

Thank fucking God.

Then he starts to talk instead and I immediately regret my choice to speak up.

"I am concerned."

No shit. We're all fucking concerned.Of course, some of us are more concerned than others. Faham, for example, looks like he'd rather be in his gardens, tending to his roses and his chrysanthemums. If there ever comes a day when I'm more interested in begonias than business, I'm just gonna have Kanan put a bullet in the back of my head and call it a day.

"There's reason to be," I agree. "My orders weren't followed the night of the launch. And it's not my men that did it."

Vanraj's eyebrows rise. "Is there someone you're accusing?"

I lean over my folded arms. "Let's review the facts: Suyansh is missing and Venera samples were tampered with the night of the launch. Both those facts suggest that this is an inside job."

Vanraj's eyebrows peak higher. "Are you trying to accuse someone in this room?"

The moment he speaks, everyone in the boardroom stiffens—with the exception of my father, who still looks like he's barely paying attention. My gaze flickers over the three other men present today.

Madhavan Prasad—one of the chemists that helped Suyansh develop Venera.

Jaideep Verma—head of the security team that was in charge of protecting Venera samples and overseeing its circulation.

Akash Sachdev—my logistics consigliere. The man responsible for recruiting an entire apparatus of dealers and delivery services to inject Venera into the lifeblood of the city.

All of them have something to lose by working against me, so it doesn't make sense that they would fuck up an operation with massive personal payouts.

Still,someone had a motive. It may not be obvious right now, but that's only because my perspective is incomplete. I don't have all the information.

But I can smell it.

Right there in front of me.
Just out of reach, but getting closer by the day.

"I'm not accusing anyone in this room. Yet. But I do think that we need to keep a close eye on Aarush."

"Wasn't Kanan supposed to be doing that?" My father meets my eyes for the first time during this meeting. "Speaking of your second, he's not here. He's never missed a meeting before."

He's right. Kanan should be here. And he better have a good fucking reason for—

Speak of the devil.

When the door swings open to reveal him, Kanan's face is somber. He doesn't make eye contact with anyone as he walks in and heads straight for me. He doesn't make apologies, either.

Which can only mean one thing—trouble.

He leans in, his lips close to my ear, and whispers, "Something came up." I nod, giving him permission to continue. "It's Shehnaaz."

That's all he needs to say. Before I know it, I'm out of my seat and flying towards the door.

"Sidharth?" Vanraj's voice is stunned, but I ignore it and storm out of the boardroom.