A Game of Chess Ch. 03

He heard footsteps and he knew Meera was approaching. He quickly closed the closet and got back onto the bed.

"Oh, you are awake!" she said smiling at him, "I was hoping to kiss and wake you up."

She placed the breakfast tray in front of him. "I hope you didn't do anything naughty, because the walls have eyes in this room," she said.

Armaan just shook his head.

"Eat something," she said.

"No thanks," he replied, "I am not hungry."

"Doesn't matter," she said smiling and looking into his eyes, "When I tell you to do something, you do it, without question."

Armaan quietly ate the food she offered. She smiled at how he was forced to obey everything she said.

"Good, now get out of my house. I'll call you when I feel like having your tongue on my asshole again," she said giggling. She touched his healing brand and said, "Congratulations! You are my personal bitch now."

Armaan eagerly got out of her house. He called a cab and reached the rented house. Neil and Reyansh were waiting for him.

"Did it work?" he anxiously asked Neil.

"Pretty much," Neil said, "We've got something solid here. Not only did I manage to recover our videos, I also got that thing she has on Alisha. There is evidence here that can incriminate her for multiple murders."

"That's good to hear," Armaan said as he rested his back, "I've bugged her car, let's hope that's fruitful."

"That's great," Neil said, "I've also found something interesting. Meera had blackmail material against some really influential men. I guess that is where all the money and power came from."

"Well, she has certainly lost her leverage now," Armaan said as he calmly lit a cigarette, "That is what happens when you get overconfident."

Neil nodded. "There's something else...a bunch of videos of Pankhudi..." he said in a sad tone, "I don't know if you wanna watch..."

"I will," Armaan said gritting his teeth, "I will watch each and every one of them. I want to know everything about what she is doing to her!" Then he got a hold of himself and asked Neil, "Is there anything in the videos, any clue as to where she is?"

"Come on brother!" Neil said, "I haven't watched any of those videos, neither has Reyansh. We respect you Armaan, I just found a folder with her name on it and some videos in that, that's all I know."

"I really appreciate that, thanks guys," Armaan said.

Reyansh sat down next to him and tried to comfort him. "Could she have more copies?" he asked Neil.

"I've managed to hack and erase her phone and cloud account too" Neil said "I cleaned up the whole system she doesn't have anything on that laptop, phone or cloud now. But it is possible that she could have a backup hard drive somewhere."

"Yeah I was looking for a hard drive," Armaan said, "But there wasn't much time. I found her second cell phone, but I couldn't access it. And then she asked me to get out. She said she'll call me again; I hope I can search her house more thoroughly then."

"What is that Armaan?" Reyansh asked observing the wound on Armaan's neck.

Armaan took of his coat so that Neil and Reyansh could see the letter M burned into his skin.

"That filthy cunt branded you!" Reyansh shouted, "How dare she!?"

"I don't really care what she does to me," Armaan said calmly taking a puff and leaning back on the couch, "I just wanna find Pankh."

"We will brother," Neil said patting his shoulder to comfort him, "Are you OK?"

Armaan nodded wordlessly.

The silence was interrupted by a phone call.

Raghav: I've got a lead on Alisha. She has an appointment with her doctor at Healthline Hospital at 2 pm today.

Armaan: About time. Thank you.

Armaan quickly made another phone call and said, "2 pm, Healthline hospital. Remember I want her alive and unhurt."