The Bodyguard

by Ruchi Singh

  "Don't worry. I'm fine." Vikram smiled and she beamed at him. Cautioning him to take care once again, she left the room.

  "I have to go to Delhi. They have a lead." Nikhil said as the door swung close and the three of them were alone in the room.

  Vikram, who was nodding absentmindedly scanning the project reports they had discussed last, stared at Nikhil. "What?"

  "They have a lead. Uday has tracked down someone who had let the vehicle out of the parking,"

  "Be careful, Nick. Don't go overboard," Vikram said.

  Esha frowned at his words, but masked her expression as Nikhil turned to look at her.

  "Xena, you'll have to manage with Jay. He knows the operations in the office and the general protocol."

  "Don't worry, I've read them too. We'll manage."

  * * * *

  Jindal's Election Office, Mumbai

  11th October, 9:00 PM

  While going back home, Vikram instructed Jay to take them to Jindal's office. "You stay here," Vikram told Esha when she made a move to follow him. "This is private," he muttered.

  But Esha had no intention of listening to him and followed him inside. Vikram sensed her presence when they were halfway through the office, turned and glared at her. She straightened to her full height and met his glance squarely. He pursed his lips then regarded the couple sitting at the corner desk, reading and cutting news items from the various newspapers and magazines scattered around, least bothered about the visitors.

  Unwilling to make a scene, Vikram sighed and moved towards the inner office. The couple in the room, sitting on the wide office chair, broke apart hastily, as Vikram opened the door. The woman squealed and turned her back to them. They couldn't help but watch her button her blouse and re-wrap the sari around her. Without meeting their eyes, she left the room muttering something inaudibly to Jindal who, after the first stunned moment, sat smiling on the chair.

  "Vikram, what an untimely entry! I expected you to follow the basic etiquettes of calling or knocking." He threw a cursory glance at Esha. "And what is your PA doing here? Are we going to have the minutes of our meeting recorded?"

  He turned towards her. "Esha, wait outside," he instructed, then added, "Please."

  Nodding, Esha scanned the room discretely and moved out closing the door behind her. The voices from the room could be heard, but she couldn't make out the conversation, which should be acceptable, she thought. She planted herself on a chair outside the door pretending to read the messages on her phone, alert in case of any unnatural sound or movement.

  A few minutes later, a cold, unnatural wave of air caressed her nape, making her shiver. The couple at the desk had left, but Esha sensed she wasn't alone in the room. She looked around casually, but she could see no one. The feeling of being watched, however, intensified. She discreetly scanned the room for any hidden cameras but couldn't find any of those either. It wasn't surprising, since there were too many objects in there that could be used to hide a small camera.

  Someone was watching her, Esha was certain, maybe through a camera. She relaxed her demeanor without lowering her guard, even as she slipped her hand in the pocket and unclipped the safety latch on the gun.

  * * * *

  Jindal's Office, Mumbai

  11th October, 9:05 PM

  Vikram relaxed in his chair and calmly looked at Jindal swiveling his chair, left to right. He was adept at waiting people out and Jindal was not a patient man.

  "Okay, truce." Jindal stamped the table after a few minutes and went towards the bar. "What will you like to have?" He continued when Vikram didn't reply. "I'm not having an affair. You know an affair would be an unnecessary encumbrance for me at this time. These are just a few transitory people who need something from me, a little favor here and a little there. You know..."

  "Don't you think it is an insult to my sister?"

  "Aah... your sister... beautiful, elusive... your holier than thou sister." Jindal raised his glass in silent toast. "Vikram since you have seen what you have seen, and since your sister has complained to you about my indiscretion, I think it's better if you know the complete story." He waved his hand around. "And I'm not justifying or giving excuses. I'm telling you the facts of our lives, your darling sister's life." He paused to take a sip of the drink he had prepared. "She doesn't allow me, her husband, in her bed. In fact, I'm not allowed to enter her room without her permission, for the last... the last nine-ten months or so..."

  "You are lying."

  "Oh please, Vikram! We have been married for twelve long years, and you know I have worshipped the grounds she has walked on. But I guess feelings change. She has taken an averse dislike to me, and I don't know the reason. I tried to sort out the problem, I did try, but I couldn't solve. And a man... a man has his needs. I don't need to explain that to you, m'dear."

  "Why didn't you talk to my mother or me, then? Right at the beginning?"

  "Pride. That is also an emotion to which you will relate will."

  "I can't. Not in this case."

  "Then you better get the hell out of here before I lose my cool. I don't have the time for you or your sister and her theatrics."

  "You are forgetting that I can lose my cool too. The only thing that stops me is the values of my family."

  "Oh yes! Your family and their lofty standards. No one can do... no let me state this correctly... no one should do anything wrong that will adversely affect the honor of Vikramaditya Seth Sr's family!"

  Jindal was now talking about Vikram's father's principles in life, but Vikram didn't feel the need to defend his father. His father had always done right by everyone.

  "And if anything goes wrong, brush it under the carpet. For, God forbid, if the world sees it, any of the ugly truths of Seth's family, lightning will strike." Jindal waved his hands in the air and crackled with senseless mirth.

  Vikram watched him with uncharacteristic detachment—somehow, he had never warmed up to the man. The tension of the impending elections was making its presence felt. Tiredness and age showed clearly on the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth.

  Jindal now struggled to control his laughter, even as tears streamed down his face making him look like a shadow of his elegant self, the image he portrayed in front of the media. Vikram gritted his jaw, tired of the whole mess.

  "My father had a code of honor and lived by it all his life. But he never said that you should stay in a relationship that is not working after you have done everything in your power to mend it. He never opposed my divorce. Not that I'm hinting at yours. You have chosen to stay married because you want to portray a false image of an upright family man for your ambitions of becoming the Chief Minister of the state now, and maybe the Prime Minster later."

  Jindal smirked and took another swig from his glass.

  Vikram was well aware of Jindal's campaign not going in the direction he wished and of his frustration thereby. The people Vikram had employed to track the election campaign and the preliminary results had briefed him about Jindal's not-so-bright prospects.

  "Do you need more money?" Vikram asked him pointedly.

  "Oh come on, Vikram, don't behave like your father, always trying to buy my affection for your sister." Jindal gulped his drink in one go and smashed the glass on the fake electrical chimney. "I have enough money of my own."

  "Just to let you know that you have my blessings for whatever decision you both take about your relationship. Please sort this out with her." Vikram didn't want to interfere into their personal matters. "But I won't tolerate the hitting again." His tone had taken a hard glint. It might be their personal matter, their relationship, but there was no way he'd tolerate Jindal abusing his sister—physically or mentally.

  "What do you mean? I have never hit a woman in my life." Jindal spread his hands.

  Vikram had come to the end of his patience as Jindal delivered the lie with a high dosage of drama. He didn't have the patience for this anymore. "Just remember this my dear jijaji, zero tolera
nce if you touch my sister again," he spat and left, leaving the man sweating.

  Esha came to attendance as she heard the door to Jindal's office open. Vikram came out with his eyebrows furrowed and hands fisted. She followed him out and the hair at her nape prickled again as the car passed a uniformed man at the gate. She couldn't see his face clearly under the dim lamp post with the cap pulled low over his forehead, but filed his partial visual statistics in her brain. Just in case.

  The moment the car exited the gate, Vikram flicked a switch and a glass screen came up cutting Jay from them at the back seat. "I told you to stay in the car." He sounded a bit like an old military general, but didn't care. As it is, it was embarrassing that she had witnessed his family's mess.

  "I have been told to apply my own discretion in this job."

  "He is my brother-in-law."

  "In my eyes, everyone's a suspect. I'm not buying the terrorist story."

  Vikram glared at her but she met his anger with an unflinching gaze, her chin raised. She was challenging his take on the matter but not overtly. His anger dissipated rapidly looking at her calm and serene face. What did it take to rile her? Expelling a long breath, he raked his hair with his fingers.

  "Defiance suits you." He smiled. Somehow, it didn't matter that she had seen one of his family members in a shameful act. She was not the one to judge anyone, ever. He was damn sure her mind never ran on those lines. "Were you always this indomitable and insolent or is it just me who brings out these qualities in you?"

  "We all have to do what we have to do."

  "I have been to Jindal's office countless times in the past twenty odd years and have never been threatened."

  "Feelings change. Motives change. You have been shot at also for the first time."

  "No, not the first time."

  She stared at him, genuinely shocked that she didn't know this detail of his life.

  "What? You don't know that I had been kidnapped and shot at when I was small?"

  That elicited a reaction. Her lips parted a bit.

  Vikram grinned, curbing the sudden urge to kiss her mouth close. "Great, at least the media gag worked on that episode of my life."

  Frowning, she turned to gaze out of the car.

  He waited for her to get over the shock and ask him the details on the kidnapping, but she kept looking out. Though it was one of the episodes he was not keen to relive, he had thought he would tell her if she asked nicely.

  She turned towards him.

  He waited expectantly for the questions.

  "Nick should look into the staff on Jindal's payroll too," she said instead.

  She was one stubborn woman with a one-track mind. He had got under her skin today, and he was sure he would figure her out by the time this bodyguard business was over and she stopped looking at him as an assignment.

  He sighed and flicked the button that brought the privacy screen down. They were about to reach home.

  * * * *

  Seths' Residence, Mumbai

  11th October, 10:30 PM

  Esha entered the kitchen by-passing the dining room as she had been doing for most of the days and spotted Kishore dada sprinkling salt on the salad.

  "Need any help?" she asked.

  He smiled, shaking his head. It had become their ritual. He was a man of few words, but he surprised her by adding, "Baba has asked you to join him in the dining room."

  She sighed, as her mind raced helter-skelter to come up with a valid excuse without any success. "I don't feel like having dinner." She threw the words, picked up a banana from the fruit basket, and hurried out the back door before he could respond.

  Putting on some light music on her phone, Esha took out the flavored yoghurt from the mini-fridge of the apartment and settled on the bed with her unfinished novel.

  Someone knocked. Her heart froze. Why couldn't he leave her alone? She turned the phone down and switched off the lights. He would think she was asleep. It was a sheer juvenile reaction, but she didn't want to face him. It had been a long day.

  To her surprise, the door clicked open.

  "Hi, I've brought you some aspirins," he continued as she lay face-down on the bed. "Esha, come on... I know you aren't asleep, I heard the music."

  That did it. She switched on the bedside lamp and sat on the bed with her legs crossed. "Why can't you take no for an answer?"

  "I want to talk to you. As it is I don't get time." Vikram placed the tray laden with dishes and plates on the bed.

  "Can't you take a hint?"

  "No." He picked up a plate and served. "I have to go to mother's tomorrow and to the CNBC event one of the days next week. And I don't like eating alone. No, that's a lie. I want to eat with you today."

  "How did you enter my room?"

  "Magic." Grinning, he waved the magnetic card in front of her face before slipping it in the back pocket of his jeans.

  He would have the master key of course, Esha thought mentally chiding herself. Why didn't she think about that? She should have bolted the door, she realized as she glanced at him. He had taken a shower and changed into casual clothes. Damp hair curled under the collar of his black t-shirt. The pulsating tingle she had been experiencing since the time he had entered the room, changed into sizzling alternating-currents. She dropped her gaze to the phone in her hand.

  "Major?"

  She looked up from the phone to find him holding the dinner plate for her.

  "I'm not hungry."

  "Don't be silly, you need sustenance. I know how hard you workout each day, and I also know you skip lunch because you can't leave your vigil outside my office. Don't remain hungry on my account, it makes me feel guilty. I'll go once we have eaten. And I promise to leave you alone, if you give me an honest answer to a question."

  That intrigued her enough to take the plate. "What's the question?"

  "Why are you avoiding me?" Loading his own plate, Vikram sat on one of the easy chairs near the bed and began eating. He watched her as she ate. He did right to bring the dinner to her. She was ravenous.

  "So, why are you avoiding me?" He repeated the question.

  She glanced at him from the plate, again with that bland school-teacher look.

  "I never thought you'd be a coward."

  "I'm not."

  "Not what? A coward?"

  "Not avoiding. I have to start my day early."

  "Come on, you have to start only fifteen minutes ahead of me. But you are going to the gym at five and having your breakfast at six. What should I construe from all this?"

  "You are not supposed to interpret anything from my routine. It's my time and I have full right to do as I please when I'm not on duty."

  He couldn't understand his own growing schoolboy fascination with her. The barrage of words and pronounced lisp indicated she was irked, but her eyes still remained placid. He wanted to ignite some emotion within her, even if it was a negative one. It was probably he had been without a woman for a long time, he took a lame guess. "Whoa... slow down. I meant it in a friendly way. I'm not complaining about your work."

  "I'm not a friendly person."

  This was new! He detected a kind of forlorn edge to her tone. It was uttered in a low, resigned manner as if it was her fate more than her nature.

  "I don't believe it. Everyone's friendly, given the right group, atmosphere, and circumstances."

  Esha kept quiet and continued to eat, wondering how to answer him without prolonging the discussion.

  "Esha?"

  "I have no intention of starting a WhatsApp group with you."

  "Though I have never used WhatsApp, I think it'll be hilarious to have a group of two people. Can't we just talk? Face-to-face, without the interference of technology."

  She glanced at him. He sounded amused as well as earnest. For a moment, she was tempted to be honest as he had suggested, but that would complicate things.

  Maybe he would laugh her views off, or maybe he would think she was ready for a fling as the ot
her women around him. Wouldn't that take her into the category of the Koels and Karismas of the world? She knew there was something wrong between Karisma and him. One showdown, though behind the closed doors of his office, had happened on Tuesday.

  Was he looking for a short-term fling with her? She was a safe bet, wasn't she? After the assignment, she would go her way. She was his safest bet since she wouldn't even stay back in the same city.

  "I don't find it easy to mingle with strangers."

  He smiled and took a bite from his plate without taking his eyes off her. "You are such a big liar, Major. Do you have a photograph of you in the uniform?"

  "No." She scowled. "Why?"

  "I'm curious to know if you look more sexy in a uniform or without it. You don't have it with you?" Taking a bite, he grinned then added. "Not even on WhatsApp?"

  "I have answered your question. Now please leave."

  "That wasn't an honest answ—" His phone rang, interrupting their conversation. He sighed looking at the caller ID, but let the mobile ring. "I need to take this call. Thanks for the company. We'll continue this discussion some other time. See you at breakfast tomorrow."

  He simply gathered their plates and took them out with him. She hadn't ever expected him to clear the plates. Esha stared at the door he had closed behind him, marveling at the multi-millionaire who didn't hesitate to do simple chores so that he could help his fifty-odd-years old servant who had gout. He could have left it for her to clean, after all he had brought the dinner and she worked for him.

  No doubt he was a charismatic man. And she had come across many such appealing men in the army. In fact, she had been involved with one. All the girls envied the attention Samar lavished on her.

  During the NSG training too, she was the only woman in their group, not that it ever got her an advantage from the officers or the fellow cadets. Esha didn't expect any thing else either. She shared the same bunkers and used the common bathroom. She had seen well-built, magnificent male anatomy and was no prissy female. At her age and in her line of work, she was expected to keep her emotions tightly leashed.