Vedu wrapped an arm around her supporting her. “Let’s go,” she whispered. “I’m ready to be done with this horrible night.”
The lawyer walked up to Kabir, talking to him, and showing him some papers to sign. Kabir didn’t even bother reading through them before scribbling his signature down on it. Vikram’s car beeped open, and he held the rear door out, gesturing to Vedu and Kimi to get in. Rehan had already slipped into the front passenger seat. The girls hurried to get in at the back and Tani moved to follow them.
“Vik.” Kabir’s voice sliced through the early morning silence. Tani froze, her back to him, her hand reaching for the sanctuary of the car. “Tani will ride with me.”
Vikram nodded, not seeing anything unusual in the request. He slammed the door shut behind the girls and straightened.
“See you at home,” he said briefly, before getting into the car and driving off.
Leaving Tani still standing there, her back to Kabir and her desperate, frantic gaze on the car driving away from her and taking any hope of escape with it.
She heard a car door open behind her and she slowly turned, facing him. Kabir stepped back silently, holding his car door open, watching her.
“Shall we?” he asked, his voice deathly quiet.
CHAPTER 27
KABIR
They drovein silence for a long time. This silence had the teeth of a rabid dog. It gnawed at the space between them, filled with all the things they refused to say, all the truths they’d killed and buried and kept resurrecting every time they saw each other.
Kabir’s hands strangled the steering wheel, knuckles white, veins standing out against the skin. He pulled on to the highway that led back to Il Cuore, his jaw clenched as he stared out into the lightening sky, the empty road stretching endlessly into the horizon. Rage pounded through him, a steady ticking in his brain. He kept his gaze fixed on the horizon as if staring hard enough could stop the storm of emotion punching its way up his throat.
The silence ballooned, expanding dangerously until Tani decided to pop it.
“Vik shouldn’t have called you.”
The calm words detonated him. Kabir’s rage surged hot and vicious, snapping through his remaining control, exploding it, and shattering it to smithereens. He wrenched the wheel, pulling the car onto the shoulder of the road. The tyres shrieked againstthe asphalt, the seat belts bit into their bodies as the car jolted to a violent stop.
For a moment they just sat there, the air between them thick and breathless. He tore his seatbelt off with a single jerky movement, shoved the door open so hard it nearly rebounded on him, and stumbled out into the clean morning air.
Breathing deeply didn’t help. Nothing helped.
He dragged both hands into his hair, gripping hard, tugging until pain zigzagged across his scalp. His chest heaved like he’d sprinted miles, the cool, dawn wind scraping against the raw edges inside him.
Behind him, Tani’s door opened quietly. He heard her step out, shut the door behind…calm, controlled movements that set his teeth on edge.
“Vik shouldn’t have called me,” he repeated, the words sounding bitter on his tongue. He whirled around to face her. “Who the fuck should he have called?” He waited a moment for her to say something but when she didn’t, he added, “Jay?” The name was little more than a sneer.
Tani shrugged. “I was actually thinking the parents, my dad maybe.”
“So,” he said, his voice cold as ice. “Anybody but me?”
“Yes, Kabir,” she snapped, her fury flaring to match his. “Anybody but you.”
Her voice rose, sharp and shaking, echoing across the empty fields stretching on either side of them.“Youleftme.”
The words sliced through the air. Through him.
“I told you I loved you,” she shouted, chest heaving, “and you pushed me away.”
He stiffened but she wasn’t done. She was just getting started.
“I kissed you,” she spat out, voice breaking, “and you acted like I’d poisoned you.Like touching me was a mistake you couldn’t wait to scrub off.”
Kabir flinched, each word landing like a fist to his ribs.
Tani’s breath hitched as she kept going, pain spilling over anger, her voice cracking around it.
