Luca POV
Forty-eight hours. That was all that remained before the shipment hit the auction block at Dragan Iyer's "Divine Selections." I'd lost a day to the journey and setting up camp. Now, the next two days would determine whether children and teenage girls were rescued—or lost forever.
I woke before dawn. Light slipped through the blackout curtains in pale streaks. My phone buzzed beside the bed—a message from Aditya.
"Sir: Surveillance complete. Three possible locations identified. Old cinema, abandoned factory, shipping container depot."
I didn't bother replying. I slipped into my charcoal grey suit, polished shoes, and met Aditya in the safe house's control room.
The villa groaned with early activity. Screens flickered with darkened warehouse interiors, map overlays, voice intercepts, and heat signatures. My team—Aditya, Dev, and Mahmoud—manipulated feeds. Stefano was reviewing the local intel on Dragan's shell company.
Aditya locked eyes with me. No words needed. We moved to the central board where we'd placed photos of guards, layouts of buildings, shipping tags, and time-stamped logs of truck movements.
"Location One: Old cinema hall near Shahdara. Heat signature: 16 unarmed individuals, likely detained girls," he reported.
I tapped the photo of the cinema's façade. "Supposedly abandoned. Guarded from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Daily. Security rotates."
"Location Two: Factory near Ghazipur," Dev said. "More industrial — large storage tanks, sporadic activity. Could be redundant storage."
"Location Three: Container depot near terminal," Mahmoud chimed in. "Trailer units modified into cells. It aligns with the seizure point from the Mumbai shipment."
I nodded. "We do not attack all three. We deploy surveillance teams to confirm timelines, rotation schedules, and vulnerabilities. Primary focus: Old cinema. High volume, high risk. But most likely site."
Stefano, rarely silent, spoke up. "Sir, we need entry confirmation. We don't know the ratio of armed to unarmed inside. We could walk into a kill zone."
"I know," I replied. "Tonight, after sunset, we send a recon drone. No intrusion. Just eyes and ears."
"Understood. I'll coordinate." Stefano paused. "Luca, be careful."
I stepped outside the villa into the white blaze of Delhi sun.
I needed to breathe.
And more importantly, I needed to be seen.
Because Luca Volkov wasn't just a ghost in the underworld.
He was also the CEO of one of the most powerful legitimate business empires in the world.
The Volkov Group.
It was my inheritance and my weapon. Real estate. Defense technology. Bioengineering. Infrastructure. From skyscrapers in Dubai to railways in Germany, my company was a global entity. Clean, compliant, and powerful enough to make presidents call back.
And the Delhi branch was no exception.
By early afternoon, I arrived at the Volkov India headquarters—an obsidian tower looming over Connaught Place. The reception was minimalistic—white marble, glass columns, and a massive golden "V" behind the desk.
My arrival caused ripples.
Guards straightened. Employees murmured. And then silence.
I didn't smile. I never do in public.
The regional director—a wiry man named Vishal—greeted me with folded hands.
"Mr. Volkov, we weren't expecting—"
"I never announce my visits," I replied.
"Of course, sir. Everything is running smoothly. Would you like a walkthrough?"
I gave a curt nod and followed him through the floors.
"Sir, production numbers are up 12 percent. Supply chain is strong. CSR initiatives in three new villages have been approved. R&D lab has completed phase one on the new bio filter."
I nodded at each report, walking through the sleek halls. I paused briefly in the R&D lab. Scientists buzzed around high-tech equipment—testing new eco-tech prototypes that could revolutionize water purification. I allowed myself a small nod of satisfaction: not everything I did was darkness. My company was not a facade. It did real good.
Because I needed it to. I needed at least one part of my life to be untainted.
The employees greeted me with nervous smiles. Some looked at me like they were staring at a tiger in a three-piece suit. That was fine.
Let fear be the motivator. But I watched closely. Every room. Every manager. Every policy. My gaze missed nothing.
Vishal voice lowered. "The public image this branch holds relies on your ongoing success. The government is monitoring."
I turned to him, expression steady. "Keep it that way."
He exhaled. "Yes, sir."
In the boardroom I watched projections of profits, share prices, and development charts. At one point I glanced at myself in the glass wall and felt the duality: mafia don, philanthropist, CEO. Two halves making a whole.
I nodded. "Everything is in place here. Thank you."
By noon, I knew two things:
One: The Delhi branch was secure.
Two: I was restless.
So I drove without direction.
I dismissed my convoy and drove a solitary black Mahindra SUV through the bustling roads of Delhi. Past India Gate, past the President's House, into the quieter, older sectors of the city.
Eventually, I stopped near Lodhi Garden.
It was one of the few places in Delhi where silence coexisted with beauty.
I walked past ancient tombs, tall trees, couples taking selfies, runners sweating under the orange sun. A strange peace settled around me. The kind I hadn't felt since Naples—maybe even since before Naples.
I chose a bench under a neem tree and sat down, elbows on knees, eyes watching the fountain trickle nearby.
My mind wandered.
I thought of my sister. Her smile. The day we buried her. The day justice died for me.
I thought of my mother, lying in a pool of blood, her hand still clutched to a broken idol of Radha-Krishna. She believed in God and love till her last breath.
I didn't.
Not after that day.
No god worth worshipping would have allowed that kind of pain.
So I became the god people feared.
Then something broke my spiral.
A laugh.
Soft. Musical. Wrong.
A sudden flutter. Breathy, warm—the kind of laughter that lights a room. But there was something brittle in it—like porcelain cracked in silence.
I turned instinctively.
Somewhere near the rose beds, under branches bouncing gold dust, a small group of girls sat in a circle on a mat, plastic containers of snacks between them. Most of them were laughing. But my eyes zeroed in on one.
She was sitting cross-legged, a paperback novel open in her lap, a half-eaten samosa in her hand. Her hair fell like ink across her shoulders, and her eyes—though I couldn't see them clearly—held shadows.
At first her face was blank, a neutral mask. Then she laughed. A full, bubbles-and-light laugh. But I saw the lack behind it: no brightness in her eyes. No warmth in the corners of her lips. A practiced flourish of sound.
I've seen fake smiles on diplomats, on spies, on killers.
But on her? It felt like a wound.
My pulse quickened.
There was something... breakable in her aura. She laughed as if it was a performance she had perfected. The kind you wear so others don't ask what's behind it.
I didn't know her.
But I noticed something strange happen inside me.
A pause.
As if my breath waited.
She looked up briefly, but her eyes didn't meet mine. She turned to her friends as they said something cheerful, and laughed again.
That laugh.
It struck something raw.
I stood, suddenly uncomfortable, and walked away. The drone pinged in my pocket—intrusion warning. I checked my phone: a photo loaded—infrared of the old cinema. Squad entry plan overlay visible.
Aditya: "Sir, you have the plan. Recon team is ready. Update?"
I tapped the screen. Entry scheduled 3 a.m. Confirmed heat signatures from both upper and lower floors. We go in dark, fast, surgical.
"Copy that. Make sure we extract the innocents before dawn. You're all clear."
Lights dimmed on my phone, walked faster through the garden path, but I looked over my shoulder once.
She was still there, her laughter now softer, almost sad.
Still smiling that broken, beautiful smile.
And for reasons I didn't understand, I couldn't get her out of my head.
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Hey guys, so finally our hero has seen the heroin and just by looking at her he felt something different.
Stay tuned to know all about their romantic story, and please do like and comment your reviews.
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