“Hello, Pooja Didi! Looking good too, I see.” Karan greeted her cheerily, giving her a warm, friendly hug. As with Jhanvi, his eyes lingered on her cleavage in Didi’s equally sexy white saree and I could see her raise her eyebrows a little at his obvious ogling of her tits.
Luckily Karan had the good sense to not make a comment about Didi’s looks. She was always a few years ahead of us, so he had more of a strict elder sister and clownish younger brother relationship with Pooja Didi. He used to play so many pranks on her, and I distinctly remember more than one instance when my friend had gotten a strong scolding for his antics back then.
“Well, come on in.” Pooja Didi said with a smile, stepping back to let him in, “Take a seat at the couch while Jhanvi and I go get some snacks for us.”
As both girls headed into the kitchen area, I gestured for Karan to sit. We sat down at the table where we were planning to have lunch.
“So…” he said, turning towards me, his tone a little conspiratorial.
“So… what?” I replied, looking a bit confused.
“How much do they know? I mean, about their husbands being in a conspiracy to take over your family. And that we both are trying to stop them. Do I need to be discreet about stuff, while talking to them, or is it ok to talk freely in front of them?” he whispered to me, and I shook my head.
“Nah! Don’t worry about that.” I replied with a chuckle, “They both know the full deal. I’ve told them everything.”
“Told us what?” Jhanvi asked, overhearing my last comment as she returned with Pooja Didi and set up plates on the table in front of us.
“That you both are aware of Ravi and Kishore’s evil plans and are totally fine to help us in any way possible to take them down!” I replied and Karan gave me a panicked look, “Really?”
Pooja Didi laughed at this, seeing Karan’s expression, “I thought, we decided to ease him into it. But then you go and just blurt it out?”
“Well, I think he’s been in the dark for way too long and still helped us out every step of the way, like a good friend. There’s really no point in hiding it from him,” I answered, grinning at Karan.
“So, you two are really on our team? Against your husbands?” He asked both women and Pooja Didi nodded, “Of course we are! We can’t be with them now can we, not after Suraj told us the truth.”
“Our husbands are assholes!” Jhanvi chimed in. “They deserve everything that’s coming for them.”
“And we do appreciate all the help you’ve been giving us in this, Karan.” Pooja Didi said with a smile, taking a seat beside Karan and leaning in to give him a soft peck on the cheek, “Thank you for being such a wonderful, loyal friend.”
On his other side, Jhanvi did the same, kissing him lightly on his cheek and adding, “We’re so glad you’re in our corner, Karan…”
Both women then leaned back and looked at the stunned Karan. His face had gone red from their attention, and he was staring blankly at us, “Uhm… yeah… sure…”
Jhanvi giggled and Pooja Didi smirked, exchanging amused glances at his reaction. “He still can’t handle women, can he?” she remarked to her sister.
“Still the same old Karan…” Jhanvi agreed, shaking her head in disbelief, “I thought you would have gotten some practice after leaving us for Goa. Or are you still pining for Tara like you did way back in the day.”
“I… uh… well…” Karan stammered, his face turning redder than before, and I couldn’t help burst out laughing along with the girls.
It seemed like Jhanvi still knew how to push his buttons, “I mean, he had this stupid plan to woo Tara back at school with a bouquet of roses and everything, and he was so nervous around her that he just handed her the flowers and ran off!”
Pooja Didi chuckled, patting a mortified Karan on his shoulder, “Oh come on, Jhanvi! Give him a break. He was what? Sixteen back then?”
“Seventeen actually, Pooja Didi. But he never grew up beyond fifteen!” Jhanvi giggled. “I mean, just look at him, all red in the face!”
“Oh, drop it, the two of you. What’s wrong in a guy having a long unrequited crush on a girl he loves? I mean sometimes it does work out for the guy in the end.” I added with a smirk, glancing at both Pooja and Jhanvi, who blushed a little.
I had to admit, the irony was a bit thick. I mean, I was in the same situation with Jhanvi and Pooja Didi and now I was fucking them both on a daily basis. In fact, while Jhanvi and Pooja Didi didn’t know of it yet, Karan had scored with Tara back in Goa already. But I’m not sure if this was the right time to reveal that story. So, I let it slide and let the girls assume that poor old Karan was just as pathetic as back then in his quest for a girlfriend.
The rest of the afternoon seemed to fly by quickly. With all the heavy stuff out of the way, we chatted endlessly with Karan. He regaled us with tales of his time at Goa and we reminisced about the antics we got in back in the day. Despite all the stress and drama of our predicament weighing down on us, it seemed that having Karan join us seemed to take all of us out of it. It was nice to have a carefree moment with our old friend, even if it was only a temporary reprieve.
However, a phone call from Peter around noon, put a damper on things and brought us back to reality quite effectively.
“What do you mean he wants a meeting with the head of the international smuggling gang!” I exclaimed in surprise as Karan got off the call and informed us of the new hitch, “What other gang?”
Karan sighed and shook his head at the news, “Well, when we cooked up this story about gun smuggling, we needed to make it believable. Can’t just have a mysterious new seller who approaches Shah Rukh out of the blue. What if he tried to find out if the deal was true from some backchannel contacts.”
“And…” Pooja Didi asked, frowning a little.
“It would be easier to make it out to be some well-known syndicate but with bosses who are unknown, so that if anyone asks questions, they can’t get answers.” Karan explained, “So we pretended to be from this one gang where the old boss was kinda ‘deposed’ by his brutal young daughter, who’s now taken over the family business per se. Little’s known about this daughter and her new lieutenants, so we thought that would be the perfect scam.”
“And now he wants to meet the leader of this syndicate that we supposedly represent?” I clarified and Karan nodded with a frown.
“Can’t someone pretend to be the leader of this gang? Like Peter did when he met the goons?” Jhanvi asked. I could see she looked a little worried.
“We could, but I can hardly find any girl on such a short notice to meet the dreaded crime lord, who is a psychotic, ruthless killer. I mean, I could try, but it would be risky to use anyone I don’t trust fully…” Karan said with a frown.
“Fuck! This complicates things. How the hell do we pull that off?” I asked.
“What if I do it?” Pooja Didi said softly, looking at Karan and then at me.
There was a brief stunned silence at her words and Karan, Jhanvi and I both gaped at Didi. She looked at the shocked faces and continued, “I mean, why not? I could do this. I can pretend to be the boss of the gang, can’t I?”
“Oh, there is no way in hell that I’m going to send you into that lion’s den alone. No fucking way!” I said vehemently.
“Chotu… this is the only way…” she said calmly, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“I won’t let you…” I started but Jhanvi interrupted me.
“Actually, she’s right…” Jhanvi said, looking at her. “We have to do it! But, I think it will have to be me and not Didi who goes!”
It was now Pooja Didi’ turn to be shocked, “What?”
Jhanvi nodded with a determined expression, “Oh come on Didi, you can’t act to save your life. You’ll get made in minutes. I was the one who was in the theatre club back in school. I can definitely pull it off!” she declared.
“Jhanvi, I know what you’re trying to do. But there is no way I’m risking you either…” I started. “I mean you’re not even part of all this, Shah Rukh’s coming after me. You don’t need to do this…”
At my words, Jhanvi and Pooja Didi leaned in and hugged me. Jhanvi kissed me lightly on the cheek, “You’ve been doing everything for everyone else. Let us help you for once!”
“Yeah Chotu… you’re not alone anymore. Let me and Jhanvi help you out.” Pooja Didi whispered into my ear, giving me an affectionate kiss, as well, “Let us do this.”
I looked down at both of them, sighing. The thought of sending my Jhanvi into Shah Rukh’s den, made my stomach churn. But it seemed like I had no choice in this. They had both made up their minds.
“Fine, I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?” I finally relented and then looked up at Karan, “But I can’t send her in there alone and Shah Rukh knows my face!”
Karan who had been listening silently, finally broke in. “She won’t be! I’ll go along with Peter. Act as her right-hand man or something. Don’t worry. I’ll protect her, Suraj. I promise.” He said with a reassuring smile.
“Okay… Fine. When does Shah Rukh want to hold this meeting?” I said finally.
report “Tomorrow evening… Peter bought us some time and told him that she’ll be on the next private jet out.”
“Then, it’s settled.” Pooja Didi nodded.
“I’ll have to go prepare then. I guess I need to learn how to act like a crime lord, don’t I?” Jhanvi grinned.
“I’ll call Peter over. He’s from the underworld and knows how things work, but we don’t have much time. Just one day to train up our third musketeer into a feisty, psychopathic, crime boss.”
***
The meeting was at Shah Rukh’s mansion again. As Peter mentioned, Shah Rukh was deeply distrustful, and he wanted to have this meeting at his home turf.
I sat in our car, parked a bit away from Shah Rukh’s place, with Pooja Didi on the wheel. I looked through the tinted window, watching as four SUVs rolled in, parking in front of the gates.
“That’s them…” I commented, “I hope this goes well…”
“It will. Trust them…” Pooja Didi said, reaching over with her free hand, and squeezing my arm comfortingly, but I knew that inside she was also just as concerned about Jhanvi and Karan.
As I looked, the doors of the first car opened and two armed guards in suits first alighted. Karan had spared no expense, hiring out a full security detail of bodyguards and vehicles for the meeting, to make this seem authentic.
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