“Kabir.” Rahul shoved his way through the crowded dressing room, waving the phone in the air.
Kabir swallowed another mouthful of some of the finest whiskey money could buy and eyed Rahul’s worried face. He lowered the bottle and wiped his mouth with the back of his sweaty hand.
“What is it?”
In reply, Rahul held the phone out. “It’s your mother.”
Kabir grabbed the phone in the next instant. “Ma?” he said, his voice softening instinctively.
“Kabir.” The relief in her voice had his instincts prickling. “Is your show over?”
“Yes. What’s wrong?” he asked, brusquely, his blood chilling. Her next words had it turning to ice.
“Did Tani come to your concert? She mentioned that Jay and she had passes.”
“No.” Kabir was already on his way out of the dressing room, his mother’s worried voice in his ear.
“She called Shikha a short while ago,” Aayushi Kashyap said. “She sounded incoherent and then the line cut out. We can’t reach her since then. We even tried calling Jay. But he isn’t answering either.”
Jay. The name left a sour taste in his mouth as he shouldered his way out of the building, his assistant opening the door to the limo that was waiting. Kabir got in, Rahul right behind him.
“Do you know where she was? At her place or Jay’s?”
“We think Jay’s,” his mother replied, after conferring with Shikha Maasi. Kabir could hear her anxious voice in the background.
“I’m just about ten minutes from there. I’ll call you when I know something.” He cut the call, dropping his head on to the backrest, shutting his eyes and trying to take deep breaths. If he didn’t get a grip before they reached, he didn’t think the night would end well for any of them.
Fury bubbled inside him, familiar and bright. His hand twitched at his side. His playing hand, he reminded himself. It wouldn’t help to hurt it.
“Kabir.” Rahul’s tentative voice reached him. “We’re here.”
He cranked an eye open and looked out. Jay Malhotra had a condominium in a swanky skyscraper in downtown Manhattan. Fucking hedge fund dickhead.
Kabir shoved the car door open before the driver could get to it. Rahul scurried after him, mumbling Kabir’s name again. By the time Rahul had dealt with the perplexed doorman, slipping him some money to ignore the presence of someone famous who was behaving irrationally, Kabir had already reached the elevators. Kabir was on the list of people allowed to enter this building since Tani lived here too and she’d put his name down on the accepted list of visitors the day she moved in.
The flames in his chest burned higher as the memory of that day swam through him. He’d helped her move boxes and boxes of clothes and shoes into a tiny apartment on the first floor. Small enough to fit into her bathroom back home but large by New York standards. She’d been ecstatic. A space of her own. The start to her new, independent life. He hadn’t been blind to the fact that out of all the cities in the world, Tani had chosen to study and then work in New York, where he lived.
She’d been happy and he’d been happy for her. He hadn’t been blind but he’d pretended to be. For her sake.
“Kabir,” Rahul said again.
“What?” Kabir snapped, jamming his thumb against the elevator button.
“Do you want to put a shirt on?” He held out a black t-shirt with the band’s name on it. Kabir ignored it and stepped into the elevator. Rahul followed, glancing nervously at him from time to time. They reached the highest floor in record time and before Rahul could stop him, Kabir was hammering on the door to Jay’s penthouse, forgoing the buzzer beside it. The door was hauled open a moment later.
“What the fu-“
Kabir shouldered past the fucking douchebag, his gaze scanning the empty apartment. “Where is she?” he growled.
“Kabir! Dude! Bro!” Jay grabbed him in a bearhug. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
“Where. The. Fuck. Is. She?” Kabir shoved him away and advanced on him with every bitten off word.
“She’s in the restroom man. Sorry bro. We wanted to come to your concert but we got a little sidetracked.” Jay winked, a sleazy grin on his lips. “You know what I mean?”
Kabir’s stomach turned as the furious fire in his chest turned to acid burning through his heart.
“Kabs?” The soft voice stopped him before he punched the asshole in his face.
