Lips Do Lie

Chapter 17 - The End

I could hear footsteps approaching and his vague voice fell into my ears and my heart raced again. I tried my best to move out of the rope that I was tied to.

"Don't even try to do that girl..one shot and you both will kiss good bye to your lives", Harshad poked the gun on my head to remind me of the grave danger that I was in. I should have been scared though and I was a little as well but strangely the experiences in the past few days had given me immense amount of courage to deal with my fears. I butted the gun with my head and gave a fierce glare at Harshad certifying that I wasn't afraid of his cold threats. I was pretty sure they wont kill me till they got what they wanted.

"Attitude!!! Aan haan...listen you pest I am controlling myself just because of that Cabir...he thinks you are of some use and I cant really understand what is that so don't you instigate and with this gun in my hand you ought to be scared of me if not for yourself then your so called beau", he made sure he sounded evil. In the next moment Harshad unfastened the rope that tied me to the chair and literally dragged me further inside before Manik reached there.

***

"Manik let's wait here na...master's men might not find us", Cabir tried his best to guard Manik's way as he stormed in.

"No we can't be in open...police is hounding for us...our pictures have been circulated in all the police stations and flashed on Television and newspapers as well", Manik informed him as he strolled inside studying the surrounding keenly.

"What???", Cabir seemed a little confused. He didn't know if he should be happy about it. He was aware that the cops were after us but this piece of information that our pictures were out in open kind of gave him shivers. He dreaded if those pictures out had him or not. Everyone from the team and the hotel staff knew he was good friends with Manik so the possibility wasn't any less.

"You mean yours and Nandini's right?", he attempted to clarify when suddenly Manik stopped and gave him a look which didn't quite give good vibes to him.

"Yeah", Manik nodded slightly after a pause and walked inside to the spot.

It was an old factory that we were in, in about 200 meters radius of the Fort. Manik inspected the area carefully, making a note of the place and its infrastructure.

"Cabir what is the plan how are we getting out of Goa...I hope you have a full proof way...I went through hell to reach here...the cops are really after our lives", Manik went on to narrate his chase sequence with the cops to reach here. He somehow fooled them and stole their car instead.

"I hope the chip is fine", Cabir voiced his most feared concerns

"It is", he patted on his chest pocket and Cabir sighed in relief.

In the process to keep me in control Harshad dashed against an old machine kept behind and it cranked noisily. I tried to make a run but he was quicker than me. Harshad grabbed me by my hair and jerked me back to the wall. Manik alerted to the sudden sound and walked towards the source. Cabir panicked in an instance and tried to divert him but Manik went ahead with slow prolonged steps.

"You know what Cabir...you were right...we shouldn't have let Nandini go..that was a big blunder on our part to send her back..we still needed her to get out of here", Manik stated loud enough to pierce the early morning serenity.

My heart sank as his words registered in me. I would have been okay with his statement barring the last portion. What did he mean I could have been useful to him? Did he want to use me more but for what. I gave him what he wanted, I saved his life, I confessed my love for him but I was just a ploy for him, a twinge of pain and hatred choked my heart. Honestly I shouldn't have been surprised, Cabir had already told me about them but then he also said that Manik liked me. So was that a lie too. I felt stupid to be asking that question, when everything between us had started with a lie then what truth was I expecting out of it. But as it is said heart had a mind of its own, somewhere there was still a hope that maybe I could change Manik but he crushed that last bit of hope too.