Page 21 of Born in Ruin

“By that analogy, Mayukhi,” Dhrithi drawled. “You are most definitely his fiancée.”

A slow smile spread across Mayukhi’s face. “Then I’m truly fucked.”

“Excuse me!” Ishaan’s beleaguered exclamation was ignored as the women grinned at each other.

“Watch it Kraken,” he said, irritation coating his voice. “In case you’ve forgotten I own your father’s company now and sinceyour little tailoring business was funded by your father, it means I own you and yours too.”

His little outburst was met with silence and then Mayukhi flicked her hand in the air like she was flicking a mosquito away.

“Yeah, yeah, you win the whose dick is the biggest contest. Now, are you guys going to tell me what’s going on or not?”

TWELVE

Mayukhi

“Why am I here?” Mayukhi asked again. She saw Dhrithi glance at the others. Whatever the other girl saw in their faces, she took a deep breath and leaned forward.

“Varun was,” Dhrithi paused. “Not a good husband,” she added after a moment. “I wasn’t happy in my marriage, long before it imploded quite so dramatically.”

“He was an abusive piece of shit. Got it.” Mayukhi leaned back against the couch, one leg crossed over the other. Beside her, she felt Ishaan shift, the heat of his body a burning brand against her side.

“You’re not questioning it?” Dhrithi’s level gaze held a level of wary that Mayukhi understood.

“No.”

Mayukhi wasn’t a fool. She’d watched Varun fuck his way through most of their social circle and beyond. She’d assumed Dhrithi and he had had an open marriage. From what she saw in Dhrithi’s face now, she knew that was not true. She’dalso always known that Varun was mean, spiteful and held petty grudges. She’d assumed that the worst he was, was small minded and that he’d outgrown some of his immature, vicious shit. It would appear Mayukhi had made a lot of assumptions that were falling by the wayside now.

“When Varun died,” Dhrithi continued when it became clear that Mayukhi wasn’t going to say anything more than that one word. “The police opened up an investigation into his life, professional and personal.”

“Why? What was he doing?”

“We don’t know.”

Mayukhi scoffed, the disbelieving sound echoing in the otherwise silent room. “You don’t know?” She looked at Virat. “Youdon’t know. If you don’t know, then how the hell am I supposed to?”

Virat didn’t reply but the tightening of pretty much every muscle in his face and body told her that he didn’t take that well. It wasn’t often he was accused of failing, she guessed. Well, too bad. She knew exactly who Virat Jha was and if the country’s most infamous fixer didn’t know something, she didn’t know how she, Mayukhi Chatterjee, Fashion Designer, was supposed to help. And that’s what this whole elaborate charade was about…her helping in some way. But what way exactly?

“I can’t help if I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do.”

“We need to find out what they’re involved in,” Ishaan spoke for the first time, his voice gravelly with emotion she couldn’t identify.

“They?” Mayukhi’s gaze scanned the tight faces in the room. “You think they’re all in on whatever this is, the old gang?”

“The Dusty Devils,” Amay drawled the ridiculous name. “Have you ever known them to not do something together? It’s like they all share one collective brain cell.”

Mayukhi raised an eyebrow at the derisive comment. “And yet their collective brain cell seems to be outsmarting you guys at the moment.”

Again, it would seem she’d said the wrong thing. She sighed.

“I’ll ask again, why am I here?”

Before anyone could answer her, Mayukhi’s phone started to ring. She glanced at the display, her eyebrows shooting up. Naveen was calling.

“That’s why you’re here,” Ishaan said quietly, pointing to her buzzing phone. “You know them. They like you. You’re our ‘in’.”

“They tolerate me,” Mayukhi corrected, silencing her phone and letting the call go to voicemail. “You know this, Dhrithi. I’m not part of their inner circle. I never was. I’m a friend yes but I’m not in there twinning with their souls.”

“But you are part of their circle,” Ishaan answered when Dhrithi stayed silent. “Unlike us.”

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