Mission Superstar_A Romance set in India

by M. V. Kasi

  “Take those men in custody for impeding the police,” she said.

  They drove inside and stopped in front of the building. “Surround the place. Don’t let anyone escape,” she ordered. She got out of the vehicle and took just six men and three women along with her.

  She was again stopped. This time from entering the building.

  “Move aside. Don’t make us use undue force,” she warned the guards.

  Less than a minute later, a man wearing an expensive suite flanked in between half-a-dozen armed guards came out from one of the sleek offices. “What’s going on here?” He looked at Shilpa and pretended to be shocked.

  Shilpa knew that the guards at the main gates must have already informed him that the police had forcibly entered the premises.

  “Is everything okay? What’s the problem, officer?” the man asked.

  “Mr. Calvin. We are here to inspect the premises.”

  He put on a surprised act. “Inspect the harmless operations of manufacturing children’s toffee? That seems odd.”

  “Everything about this place is odd, Mr. Calvin. The fact that you need armed guards for manufacturing something harmless like children’s toffee. The fact that a well-established international businessman like you set up a small chocolate factory in the middle of nowhere. It’s all odd.” She had used the term businessman instead of criminal.

  “There is nothing suspicious.” He gave her a smarmy smile.

  “So you don’t mind if my team and I inspect the place and take samples?”

  His smile increased along with the hard glint in his eyes. “Be my guests. Although if I had anything suspicious going on, I would have asked for a warrant first.”

  “Then I would have produced it.” Shilpa returned his smile. She had no warrant because the bastard had enough influence to receive information before hand in case she had applied for a warrant.

  Nearly a month ago, she had received the information that drugs being peddled as children’s toffee were manufactured at this particular location. But she had waited and bided her time until there was proper proof with the kingpin himself being at the location to oversee his operations.

  “I’m sure you know who I am, officer. And you must also know that I have many friends at the top-most posts in the government.”

  “Really? Care to give me their names? I’m sure the people would love to know the names of these friends who are associated with you.”

  He remained quiet. Ignoring the silent rage he threw off, Shilpa turned to her team. “Start inspecting. Get as many samples of everything you can from the batches.”

  Her team immediately dispersed, following her instructions. And just when Shilpa was about to follow them inside, she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being loaded and readied.

  The next thing she knew, there were sounds of multiple gunshots.

  Shilpa felt the bullets rip into her. Pain exploded in her chest and stomach and her body was thrown backward with the impact. She landed on her back and lay there struggling to breathe in air.

  The pain only intensified further. But along with the pain, it wasn’t fear she felt. It was regret.

  She realized that if she were to die, it would be with regret. Regret for having wasted time and not being with Dhruv all these weeks. Regret for not telling him she loved him. Regret for ever hurting him.

  “Do you think I never thought about how dangerous your job is? It would have been much easier for me to want to spend my life with someone who would cater to my needs and stayed home safe and secure.”

  “But not even for a moment did I second-guess how deeply I felt for you and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “Go home, Dhruv.”

  “But you are my home.”

  Tears prickled Shilpa’s eyes even as determination coursed through her veins. Clutching her chest, she slowly turned to her side.

  “Madam Sir, are you okay!” Satish frantically asked her amidst the chaos.

  Shilpa nodded. But her eyes were on her target. And then, ignoring the pain, she got up.

  There was still chaos everywhere. Shots were being exchanged, and some of the police back up from the outside had joined them. Amid the chaos, Shilpa watched as the kingpin was hurriedly being led away.

  She had enough proof to find him guilty and to get him arrested. The next few months, or possibly the next few years would be wasted in him trying to get out of this situation and possibly even roam free to supply drugs again.

  Her eyes met Satish’s. Understanding passed through them.

  Shilpa, Satish, and two other officers who now got the signal from Shilpa aimed the gun on the kingpin’s back and pressed the trigger multiple times.

  Chapter 34

  Shilpa rubbed at her chest as she drove the SUV as fast as humanly possible without causing an accident. She even turned on the police siren to have people give her way.

  “Dammit, Dhruv!” she muttered out loud. “Why did you have to decide today of all days to give up on us and leave.” Shilpa knew she wasn’t being fair. But this was ridiculous. If she were the superstitious kind, she would take it as some sort of sign. Luckily, she wasn’t.

  Dhruv had apparently just vacated his penthouse and was leaving the city on a permanent basis. He was going to resume his previous life where he would continue traveling to wherever the shooting of his upcoming movie was taking place.

  Shiv had called her an hour ago to let her know while she was in the middle of tackling the media circus outside the bust. It was one of the biggest busts since the key kingpin of the South Zone was now lying dead amidst the gunfire. The word ‘encounter’ was being bandied about. The Commissioner who had come to the place immediately was doing a good job handling the media. Shilpa had excused herself and left from there.

  Shilpa glanced at her phone. Shiv sent a message that they were at the airport security.

  “Dammit!” Shilpa yelled once again. And then, an idea struck. She hurriedly dialed the number of airport customs officer.

  “Anita! This is Shilpa here. Need a huge favor from you.”

  TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Shilpa parked the SUV outside the airport terminal where private jets took off from. She sped inside towards the security gates.

  She sighed in relief when she spotted Dhruv along with a group of people who were arguing with the airport customs. Shilpa joined them.

  “I’ll take it from here. Thanks, Anita.” As soon as Dhruv saw her and heard her say those words, his eyes flared.

  Shilpa smiled at him, her heart beating crazily inside her chest at the sight of him after so many days. “I need to talk to you,” she softly said.

  But Dhruv ignored her.

  Shilpa didn’t feel let down. Strangely, she only felt invigorated.

  “Mr. Jagannath, I need you to step away and come with me right now.” This time, she deliberately made it sound like an order.

  Dhruv’s eyes pierced into hers. “I’m not the same guy you ditched last week, Officer Dasani. So be careful.”

  Shilpa knew this was DJ. The billionaire superstar with immense influence and power. But Shilpa just smiled at his threat. “Either you come with me, Mr. Jagannath, or I take you in handcuffs. I have an arrest warrant, too.” The last part was a bluff.

  Dhruv’s eyes flared. Shilpa didn’t know whether it was with anger or he recalled their time when she had handcuffed him to her bed before having her way with him.

  “Should I call your lawyer again, DJ?” someone standing behind him asked with concern in their voice.

  There was a long pause. And during that pause, Dhruv’s eyes were locked on her face. Whatever he saw must have convinced him. “No. I’ll go with Officer Dasani,” he said.

  Giving another internal sigh of relief, Shilpa directed him outside the terminal where her SUV was parked. She got into the driver’s seat and waited until he got in.

  Dhruv sat next to her, but he did not talk or look at her.

  The man she
loved carried a mean grudge. Another smile escaped Shilpa as she imagined their future where she’d have to endure his sulks. Luckily, she knew just the way to get him out of one. Or at least she thought she knew of a fail-proof technique.

  She started the vehicle and began to drive away from the airport. Ten silent minutes passed when Shilpa took a diversion off the road and drove through the dense trees. And then, she stopped under a large shade giving tree.

  Dhruv remained silent.

  Unbuckling her seatbelt, she moved towards him and climbed on to him until she sat on his lap, facing him.

  His body stiffened, but he still remained silent.

  She held his face in her hands and kissed him with all her heart. “I love you,” she whispered against his lips. “I love you so much. And I’m sorry that I hurt you by being a coward. Please forgive me.”

  When he didn’t say anything, she continued to pour her heart out. “I fell in love before, Dhruv. And I lost him. I have been scared since then. I don’t care for my own life, but I can’t stomach the thought of anything happening to the ones I love. But now, I realized I was in more pain by not being with you. I love you. I want you to be my home, too.”

  Dhruv jerked his face away from her hands. Shilpa’s heart sank because she thought he was rejecting her. She even braced herself to hear him tell her that he didn’t love her anymore.

  But he didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he held her ponytail in a tight fist and tugged at it until she had no choice than to look at his face.

  “You better mean all those things, Officer Dasani,” he growled. “Because once you commit to me, I’m never letting you go. I want it all. Marriage, children. Us growing old together. You will remain mine until eternity.”

  Her heart felt relieved and then it thumped like crazy listening to his words. “Promise?” she asked with a smile on her face.

  He growled once again. And this time, he crashed their lips together. He kissed her until her lips felt bruised. His hands efficiently unbuckled her belt and unbuttoned her shirt.

  Shilpa pulled away and laughed breathlessly. “Mr. Jagannath, do you realize you are risking indecent exposure in a public place?” Even as she said that, her hands rapidly unbuttoned his shirt.

  “Damn right, I am. In a while, I’ll probably be breaking more than just one law. I’ll be doing things to you that are illegal in some countries.”

  Shilpa laughed once again and then groaned. Immediately, he pulled away. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “I even saw you rubbing your chest.” He pulled her shirt off her and stared at her chest and abdomen. Huge dark bruises had formed where the bullets had made the impact on the bulletproof vest. She had changed earlier out of the holes-ridden uniform shirt, but the bruises she couldn’t hide easily.

  Rage filled Dhruv’s eyes even as he gently rubbed the pad of his finger over the bruises.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “And besides the guy responsible for this has been shot dead.”

  “Good. Or I would have wanted to kill him with my bare hands.”

  Shilpa smiled and then she moaned softly as she felt Dhruv’s lips brushing over the bruises.

  The man she loved was a maverick with his hands and mouth. She didn’t know how he did it, but he managed not to cause any undue pain while he got the rest of their clothes off within the confined space.

  Soon, her loud sobs of pleasure and his growls of satisfaction filled the air in the SUV.

  Much, much later, when she could draw normal breaths and came back to her senses, she realized she was lying on top of him on the slightly flattened seat.

  His hands were holding her close, and his lips were moving gently on her forehead.

  Her body was sore, but she sighed in contentment.

  Dhruv broke the silence. “Say it again,” he said in a low, rough tone.

  Shilpa smiled and held his face. “I love you,” she said. “I love you, I love you, I love you.” She followed each sentence with a kiss on his face.

  He returned her smile.

  “Do you still love me?” she asked.

  He replied by asking her a question instead. “Did I ever tell you when I began to fall in love with you?” he asked.

  “Hmm… When we were together for the first time?”

  “No.”

  “When I kissed you for the first time?”

  “No.”

  “When I kissed you in front of your mother?”

  He laughed. “I already knew I loved you at that time. It was much before that.”

  “Hmm… when you watched me pole dance at the nightclub?” He did bring that up many times during their time together, calling it the single most arousing dance he had ever seen. Considering he lived and breathed movies where he got to watch many dances and even participate in them, it was a huge compliment.

  Dhruv grinned. “No. But damn, my feelings were confirmed that day. I wanted to throw you on my shoulder and carry you away while declaring to the world that you were mine.”

  Shilpa shook her head with a grin. “Okay, I give up. When?”

  “When I watched you order a beer and a dinner for your suspect before making him confess.”

  She laughed. “Liar,” she said. “We just met that day. And I gave you a hard time for many, many weeks after that.”

  He grinned. “I just know that at that particular moment, I had a strong instinct warning me that I needed to up my game and give my best if I had to win over someone like you.”

  She kissed him again. “And you definitely upped your game, Mr. Jagannath.”

  Epilogue

  Shilpa was seated on the bed while reviewing one of the case files when her phone rang. When she looked at the number, a smile covered her face.

  “How is the shoot going?” she asked.

  “It’s going fine. But the weather is freezing.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  There was barely a pause. “Send me your naked picture.”

  Shilpa laughed. “You know, I was a little worried when you sounded so tired. Glad to know you are your normal self.”

  Dhruv was gone for a week. And he wasn’t expected back until the next week.

  “I’m really missing you, babe,” she heard him say.

  Shilpa’s heart flipped, and she smiled. “I miss you, too. Can’t wait for you to be back next week.”

  “Wouldn’t miss the award ceremony for the world,” he replied. And then, he asked, “How are the little devils doing?”

  “Sleeping peacefully after having a long day at the park. Ma and I took them for a picnic.”

  “Send me pictures. And tell them I’ll video call them in the morning.”

  “I will.”

  They spoke some more, talking about their day until she insisted he hang up and rest.

  A WEEK LATER, claps and cheers erupted at an award ceremony.

  Dhruv pointed to the stage. “That’s your mommy,” he told his kids proudly.

  It was an award as well as a promotion ceremony too. Shilpa was being promoted as the new Commissioner of Police.

  The event turned out to be bigger than expected. It started off as a simple function put together by the department. But the fact that the biggest superstar was attending it to support his wife, had throngs of fans lining up till the outside.

  After hours of being congratulated and having several pictures taken, Shilpa, Dhruv, and their kids returned home.

  Dhruv was settling them into their beds. “Want to hear the story about how mommy and daddy got married?”

  “Yeah!” Five-year-old Vaishnavi shouted in excitement.

  Her eight-year-old brother didn’t look too impressed. “You already heard that a billion times and we even watched that part in the movie,” Akhil told his younger sister. “Mommy said she would shoot daddy if he didn’t marry her.”

  “I never said I’d shoot him,” Shilpa immediately corrected. “I just said I’d arrest him. I was only joking. How many—” She broke o
ff when she saw the grin on her husband’s face.

  “I like my version better, Commissioner Dasani,” Dhruv said with a cocky smile.

  Shilpa shook her head with an exasperated smile.

  The exasperating man had that particular version put even in the movie that was loosely based on their story. Shilpa used the word ‘loosely’ for the number of facts that Dhruv had changed to suit his purposes. The movie was hilarious as well as sweet and touching. And of course, it was still a resounding commercial hit like Neeru had predicted when she insisted on a movie being made on their lives.

  Although, Shilpa knew Dhruv had deliberately left out many things from their love story which he said were just their secrets and moments which he did not want to share with the outside world.

  Shilpa’s heart had melted when she heard him say that. And it melted again now, as she watched the man she loved narrated the story in a dramatic way while putting their children to bed.

  Soon, Dhruv joined her in their bed where they had a passionate reunion. They tried to make up for the two weeks they were apart. Shilpa didn’t know when she had passed out in exhaustion, but sometime during the night, she woke up when she heard murmurs.

  “Commissioner Dasani. I’m really proud of you, my love. I’m damn lucky that I get to wake up next to you. And I’m damn glad Neeru’s devious plan led me to you.”

  Shilpa kept her eyes shut even as her lips spread into a smile and she softly spoke. “You do realize it is quite strange that you keep having conversations with me while I’m asleep?” she asked.

  Over the years, Shilpa had woken up several times either to find Dhruv staring at her or murmuring things to her.

  “You call it strange, but most would call it romantic,” Dhruv stated tenderly.

  She felt his lips meet the pulse at her throat. Shilpa turned her neck, giving him more access. “I’m more romantic than you,” she insisted. “I’m the one who asked you to marry me. And my declaration of love was more dramatic than yours.”