Page 70 of Born in Ruin

Her phone rang, startling her. She saw Dhrithi’s name flashing and answered.

“Hello.”

“Yukhi, I can’t hear you very clearly.” Dhrithi’s voice sounded faint and distorted with Mayukhi only hearing every second word she spoke.

“I’m in the basement. Signal’s not great here,” she said, raising her voice, as she pushed the button to start her car. The engine sputtered to life and then died. What the hell?

Dhrithi’s voice crackled in her ear. She heard ‘Alibaug’ and ‘tonight’ and then just static. Tonight. It was all going down tonight and she wasn’t there with him. She knew Virat would make sure Ishaan was protected but still her heart clenched in fear. There were a million things that could go wrong and she would be too far away to help.

He wasn’t hers to protect, she reminded herself, tossing the phone to one side and trying to start the car again. Nothing. She’d just sent the car for servicing a week ago. This shouldn’t be happening.

She grabbed for the phone again and tried calling her father. But the signal was crap here and the call kept failing. It was a miracle that Dhrithi’s call had come through at all. Mayukhi swore under her breath in frustration, getting out of the car with her phone and walking a little distance to see if she could get any signal. She wasn’t successful. She walked back towards the elevators hoping to find a security guard or someone else exiting the building but so late in the night, there wasn’t anyone else around.

A scuffling sound in the distance had her jumping. What was that? Was that a rat? She hated rats. That’s what she should have told Ishaan in response to his ‘I hate cockroaches’. She smiled, the smallest smile at the thought, for once the memory of him didn’t bring pain.

She looked around her but saw nothing. Jamming her finger into the elevator button, she glanced up at the lit display. The lift was stuck on the fourth floor. Dammit. She pressed the button again but the lift still wasn’t moving. Either someone was deliberately holding the doors open or the damn lift wasn’t working. What a day! Was there anything else that could go wrong? Although she supposed she should be grateful that the lift hadn’t stopped with her in it. Small mercies.

She walked over to the side where the door to the stairs was. Hauling it open, she paused to pull off her high heels, and then started climbing. She wasn’t climbing steps in her stilettoes. She wasn’t a glutton for punishment. Her car was in the third basement so she had three flights to climb before she got to the ground floor and the entrance foyer and blessed cellular signal.

Mayukhi ran up the stairs, the empty space making her uncomfortable for some reason. It was brightly lit and there wasn’t a dark corner in sight but, for some reason, her skin was prickling. The sooner she was out of here, the better.

Up ahead, she saw the door to the second basement open and a man step in. Mayukhi paused, eyeing him warily.

“Hi,” he said. “The lift isn’t working.”

She smiled politely. “I know.” She walked past him and continued on her way up the stairs. He fell into step beside her, his suit jacket flapping with the jogging motion they’d fallen into.

“I’m here for a meeting with Portotronics. Didn’t expect to have to climb stairs to get there.” he said chattily. “I’m not exactly in the best of shape.”

She smiled tightly, hoping her lack of response would dissuade him from any further conversation. She could see the door to the ground floor looming in the distance. Just another flight of stairs to go. She wasn’t in the best of shape either, she thought. Her breath was starting to come in short, sharp pants.

“I mean,” her new stairs buddy continued. “If someone has an office on the sixth floor, they should make sure the elevator is working, don’t you think? Imagine a client having a heart attack on their way to your office for a meeting?”

“It was working less than ten minutes back,” Mayukhi said shortly, stopping for a minute to catch her breath. Her shoes swung in her grasp with the momentum, striking her thigh lightly.

“Well,” he laughed, a deep belly laugh. “My bad luck then.”

He was a large man, she realised. Tall, well built, and with the kind of face that was best described as craggy. He wasn’t a man who looked like he wore suits regularly. He looked more like a bouncer or a fitness trainer, someone who should be in tracks and hoodies.

Unease filtered through her as she realised he was now standing between her and the door. Her instincts were prickling again and she struggled to stay calm.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said politely, gesturing to the door at his back. “I need you to move.”

He smiled at her, a benign smile that sent dread racing through her. For a moment, she thought he’d refuse. She tightened her grip on her shoes, getting ready to swing with them if he attacked her. But a second later, he stepped aside.

“Of course,” he said genially. “Sorry about that.”

He followed her out of the stairwell and into the empty lobby. In the distance, the security guard stood, his back to them. Heaving a sigh of relief, Mayukhi nodded towards the strange man and murmured, “Goodnight.”

She pulled out her phone as she was walking away and pulled up her favourites list, tapping on her father’s contact. The call failed. Mayukhi frowned. She should have signal now. She’d made umpteen calls from this lobby.

She heard that same scuffling noise again and turned to look over her shoulder but her new friend was walking away from her and towards the stairs. She heard the sound again and spun in a circle. The security guard had vanished and there was no one in sight. It was barely eleven at night. This was Mumbai, the city that never sleeps and apparently, at least one company was having a meeting at this time, if her stairwell friend was anything to go by. So where the hell was everybody?

If someone has an office on the sixth floor…

Portotronics was on the third floor. Ice slid through her veins and she started to run towards the entrance. She almost made it before the security guard stepped out of the shadows and into her path. She breathed a sigh of relief and opened her mouth to ask him for help.

She didn’t get a single word out. She felt a slight sting at the base of her neck, her body turning to stone in seconds. Her vision blurred and then there was only darkness.

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