The Leader_A Mumbai Mafia Romance Read online

  The Leader

  (A Mumbai Mafia Romance)

  By

  P. G. Van

  © 2018 P.G. Van

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Vishwa felt no pain, just numb lying on the concrete road, a group of people surrounding him talking amongst themselves, and bright, festive lights blinking in the background. He tried to take in a deep breath of the humid air of Mumbai, but he couldn’t. It was getting difficult for him to breathe, and darkness started to envelop him, and the loud, festive music was starting to fade. The group of people around him cleared out a bit, and he saw how the car he was driving had crashed into the SUV, just as he had intended, but never intended to get hurt or die in the process.

  “Call an ambulance… Fast!” a woman called out over the chatter and the music, but all Vishwa could think about was his family—the loving face of his mother, his sister’s adorable smile, his supportive older brother, and the grim face of his father when he told him he didn’t want to do anything with the family ten years ago. He felt the pain of walking away from them in that moment and wondered if he would ever see them again.

  “Someone, please help me get him off the ground. He stopped that car from crashing into the wedding pavilion,” the woman who was kneeling on the ground next to him pleaded.

  “Don’t touch him, this should be a police case,” a man advised the woman who had a fabric pressed against the open wound on Vishwa’s forehead.

  “If you are not going to help me stop the bleeding, just go away from here,” the woman barked at the people who surrounded them.

  “I called the ambulance, and they will be here in five minutes,” another woman said in a weak voice.

  “Take Zoya inside… I will meet you back there,” the woman said to someone, and there were gasps.

  “The wedding ceremony is not over yet, you cannot come into the pavilion with blood on your clothes,” a shaky woman’s voice stated.

  Vishwa heard every word that was said, but his eyes were fixated on the woman who tried to hold his head, raising it off the hard, concrete surface as she pressed on his wound. He saw something in her eyes, something he never thought he would see from a complete stranger—concern.

  He laid in a suspended state for an unknown amount of time before he heard the booming sounds of the ambulance. Multiple vehicles pulled up in front of them, and a couple of men rushed toward him holding a stretcher. Everything happened so fast he didn’t know how he was suddenly inside a small space and a bright light over his head. A man in a white uniform was hovered over him checking his pulse and listening to his heart.

  A deep sleep started to take over him as the cold air from the oxygen mask filled his lungs, and he wondered if that’s what it felt like before going away, forever. The accident he caused may have saved a lot of lives, but he wasn’t ready to die. If only his timing were better. He had no regrets in life except for not seeing his sister for one last time.

  His eyes were starting to close when he heard jingling at a distance. The soft sound of metal on metal was soothing, and he fought to keep his eyes open. The sound was coming from one direction, and he turned his head to that side. His vision was blurry, but he did not fail to catch the sight of a woman who was talking to someone, arguing about something.

  She was dressed in a long white dress, and she was the source of the beautiful sound that brought him peace. She had stains of red on the beautiful dress, but that didn’t seem to bother her.

  “He needs to be seen by a cardiologist, he has a broken rib…” the man was saying to the woman, and his words suddenly reminded him of the shooting pain in his chest making him groan loudly.

  “Take him to the nearest hospital. I will go with you to take care of the admission.” The woman hopped into the ambulance and sat next to him, taking his hand in her’s.

  “What’s the case?” a robotic voice asked on the radio.

  “Two-car accident. He is one of the five people being brought to the hospital. Maybe broken ribcage, so you need to check his heart for any rupture,” the man who was checking on him said into the radio.

  Vishwa moved his eyes to look at the woman who had her face less than a foot away from him. Her light brown eyes scanned his wounds, and he wanted to thank her for being there for him. He had spent the last ten years alone but never felt as lonely as he did laying on the hard road.

  Vishwa tried to say thank you, but it was barely a whisper. The woman looked at him and leaned closer to him. “We are almost there, you will be fine.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Sir, please rest. I will be with you until we get to the hospital,” she whispered.

  “You are my anchor of hope… stay with me.” It was a plea.

  She nodded holding his hand, and he felt the firm pressure on his palm from her grip as he fought the sleep that threatened to consume him. He didn’t want to close his eyes. Instead, he looked into her large eyes drawing comfort just from looking at her. He wanted to talk to her, ask her who she was, but all he could speak were his thoughts. His voice was a murmur, but he knew she heard every word of what his heart poured out, from the way she looked at him— the way her eyes spoke to him.

  After a few minutes, his eyes slowly closed shut with the image of the woman burning into the back of his eyes.

  Hours later, the light streaming through the blinds and the sound of beeping machines brought Vishwa out of his suspended state. He opened his eyelids slowly to find a woman standing next to him listening to his heart with the stethoscope.

  “Hello Mr. Sengupta, I’m Dr. Preethi. Can you hear me?” the woman asked softly.

  He nodded unable to speak and moved his eyes slowly away from her face toward the movement in the background. What caught his eye was that of the woman he had seen earlier before he had drifted into the darkness.

  He looked at her as she cuddled into a chair in one corner of the room, her head resting on the backrest, sleeping. She had changed out of her blood-stained clothes and was wearing a nurse’s uniform. She may have changed out of the ornate white dress she had on earlier that night, and even with the white scrubs she had on, she still looked like the angel who saved him. She wasn’t too close to him, but he could see how beautiful she was on the outside as well as the inside. He remembered how she looked at him with those beautiful eyes with concern and care.

  Vishwa took a deep breath as if he wanted to gather the strength to call out to her, and thank her for being there for him in his loneliest moments. He couldn’t figure out why he felt the sudden urge to call out to her, but his voice came out as a feeble groan. His heart started to drum rapidly, and it beat louder than his voice.

  “Dr. Pandu.” The doctor who stood next to his bed called out to another doctor. “His heart rate is increasing, please come quickly.”

  The doctor gave out an inaudible instruction to the nurse next to him before rushing to Vishwa’s side. The doctor spoke with a high sense of urgency with the other doctor, but all Vishwa heard was his heart pounding in his ear while his eyes were on the woman who was awake taking in the situation.

  Vishwa watched the woman who looked at a monitor to one side and looked at the doctors hovered over him.

  “Mr. Sengupta, can you hear me?” the doctor asked.

  He nodded and was surprised when he felt a sense of relief sweep over him. The woman in front of him, a complete stranger, gave him a sense of comfort, and he couldn’t understand why. He wondered if it was because she helped him when no one else was willing to for their own reasons. Something about her made him feel at peace, a feeling he hadn’t had in years, and he longed for her to be with him.

  “Mr. Sengupta, please take a deep breath,” the doctor instructed.

  He followed the instructions but kept his eyes trained on the woman’s face.

  “Mr. Sengupta, blink twice, please.”

  It wasn’t until the doctor’s instruction that he realized he was staring at the woman without blinking. He smiled under the oxygen mask and blinked twice.

  “Dr. Preethi, he is fine. He may have gotten agitated by his sudden shift in surroundings,” the other doctor stated looking at the monitors.

  “Mr. Sengupta, please rest. Your wife brought you in at the right time. Your heart had an internal bruise from the rib fracture, but it should heal on its own over the next few weeks.”

  Vishwa smiled at the woman. His Wife?

  The woman talked to the doctor and turned to look at him after she left. Her eyes fell on him, and he extended his hand toward her. He looked vulnerable with an oxygen mask covering half his face and a cast on one arm.

  Vishwa took her soft palm into his hand. “Thank you.”

  She smiled, her eyes brightening up. “You are welcome. I called the last person you called, Mr. Nanda. He will be here shortly.”

  “What is your name?”

  “Komal.”

  “Komal, what you did for me last night, I will be grateful for the rest of my life.” r />
  “Please don’t say that, sir,” she whispered.

  “Vishwa… I’m Vishwa.”

  She smiled at him. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Did you and I get married, and I don’t remember?” he asked, a small smile appearing on one corner of his mouth.

  “The hospital was hesitant to admit you since it was an accident case, and I had to sign the papers as a relative. They just assumed, I’m your wife.”

  “Thank you!”

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Much better. Please don’t leave me.” He knew he sounded like a needy child, but he couldn’t think about not being around her.

  “I’m here… please rest.” She gently patted his hand, and within minutes he was drifting back into a blissful sleep.

  Later that day, Komal lay in bed exhausted from everything that happened in the last eighteen hours. She never expected herself to be lost in thought about a complete stranger, the man who put his life at risk to stop a drunk driver from driving an SUV into the wedding pavilion.

  She thought about the time she sat next to him in the Ambulance. The noise from the siren and the beeping equipment in the back of the ambulance made the small space super noisy, but she had focused all her senses as he mumbled to her as if he was pouring out unstoppable poetry.

  “My mother always said I should find myself a person with a pure heart. You have a pure heart, my angel.”

  What she did was what she had seen many people do in Mumbai city and yet, he had called her ‘His Angel.’ She knew she was no angel, but it made her feel good listening to the way he talked to her, his voice gravelly, his mind in a daze as they rode in the back of the ambulance.

  She ran her hand over her heart to slow down her beating heart. She had too much darkness in her heart from her childhood, and yet he saw pureness in her. Komal wondered if he was a loner, like she was for many years when the hospital couldn’t locate any records or emergency contacts for him with any of the departments.

  She didn’t have anyone to call family until Damini contacted her after being out of touch for many years. She felt her stomach twist at the memory of the time when she had no connections in life. After being sold to a local goon at the age of seven by her uncle for money to drink for that night, she had no one in the world she could trust. Her parents had passed away in an accident, and her grandma raised Komal until she passed away.

  At that tender age, Komal wasn’t fully aware of what was going to happen to her when the goon’s men took her to the compound. She was relieved when she saw other kids at the compound, and she still remembered the first person she saw in the compound. Damini… her best friend. The only people she considered family were Damini and Zoya, her adorable six-year-old daughter.

  The wedding she was attending was mainly for Zoya, the apple of her eye. Neither Zoya or Komal had ever been to a wedding, and Komal jumped at the first-ever wedding invitation she got and took Damini and Zoya with her.

  The dress she had on was her very first expensive outfit ever purchased, and she smiled at the thought of the dress at the bottom of a garbage can at the hospital. It should have bothered her that it was ruined, and all that money was gone, but she knew the value of life—anyone’s life. Nothing was more important than life, and that resonated well with something he had said:

  Nothing lasts forever… I want you to be my nothing that lasts forever!

  Komal’s heart started to race again, but she told herself not to get carried away with what she heard, what the man had said in a dazed state, but in the most truthful state of mind. She smiled at the thought of the man who wouldn’t take his dark eyes off her as they rode in the ambulance and felt happy thinking about the admiration he had in his eyes and what he said about her— her being pure-hearted.

  She replayed the sweet words he muttered when they were on their way to the hospital and kept smiling. He was under the influence of anesthesia and his words were drenched in sweetness and coated with softness. She could only dream about someone talking to her like she was the most important and precious person in their life. Every memory of the sweet nothings he muttered in his groggy voice seemed so special. She would never forget those magical words he said, as he held her hand, his droopy eyes fixated on her face.

  Thank you, Mr. Sengupta, you made my day!

  Chapter 2

  “Komal, when will you have the reports ready for the Pandey case?” Anu, her boss and the head of the criminal investigation department, asked.

  “I need two more days. I need to confirm the bullet casings one more time,” Komal said without looking away from her computer screen.

  Anu smiled. “If you’ve looked at it once, it should be good.”

  Komal looked at the woman who was more experienced in the field than her. “Thank you for your confidence, but I need to check it one more time.”

  “Okay. You want to go out for lunch?” Anu smiled leaning on Komal’s cubicle wall.

  Komal smiled and shook her head. “You know the outside food doesn’t suit me.”

  Anu smiled. “We should go get Chai later.”

  “Sure.” Komal smiled at her boss. Her stomach growled at the thought of trying something new every day for lunch, but she knew she could not afford it. She could not afford to have a life and also pay for Zoya’s school. She made sure to pack leftovers every day for lunch and not make an exception.

  A few hours later, Komal was in the middle of documenting her report when one of the office security guard’s, interrupted her.

  “Komal, ma’am, you have visitors,” the young man said softly.

  “Visitors?” She never had visitors who weren’t allowed inside the office. Her work location was too far for Zoya and Damini to stop by and her usual visitors were either her clients or someone from the law firm who is handling the case.

  “There are two men waiting for you in the lobby and they are not our clients.” The man sounded as surprised as she was.

  “Are you sure they are here for me?”

  “Yes, and they want to see you immediately,” the man urged.

  “Okay, I am coming.” She picked up her phone and access card and followed the young man walking past the cubicles and down a long hallway. She turned at the end of the hallway and saw the two men waiting for her, and she stopped short. She looked at the man who stood with his back to her and knew who he was, and he turned as if sensing her presence. Her eyes met the dark ones of the man she took to the hospital a little over a week ago.

  The man who stood in front of her looked intimidating and indestructible and nothing like the man who held her hand for comfort, at the hospital. The moment of intimidation passed when he smiled at her and took a few steps toward her. She stood rooted to her spot, staring at him, remembering the sweet words he had said to her when she sat next to him in the ambulance. The words that stirred something inside her, a new want— wanting someone to feel that way for her—for real.

  “Good to see you again… Mrs. Sengupta.” His tone was playful, and it surprisingly put her at ease.

  She smiled at him and the man who accompanied him. The same person who showed up at the hospital

  “Thank you. This is Nanda, my friend who you met already.” Vishwa smiled at her.

  “Yes, we have.” She smiled shaking hands with Nanda.

  “Thank you for taking Vishwa to the hospital. I didn’t get a chance to talk to you much when I was there,” Nanda said softly.

  Komal smiled, and her eyes wandered back to look into the deep brown eyes that were trained on her. “I saw the accident happen, and I still cannot believe what you did.”

  Nanda raised a curious eyebrow. “What did he do?”

  “Just going fast… Nanda, can I have a word with Komal, alone?”

  “We need to talk about the accident when you get back,” Nanda said and turned to look at Komal. “Komal, thanks again for taking care of Vik.”

  “You are welcome.” She smiled.

  “Can we sit down and talk for a few minutes?” Vishwa gestured to the two leather chairs to one side of the lobby.