She flopped onto the sofa, stress eating at a bowl of crisps with her wide eyes plastered on the TV. Yafi Aman was over all the channels.
He was smiling as a storm of questions rained at him. Finally clearing his throat he spoke up. An aura so striking pin drop silence spread instantly.
"First of all, thank you for being here, and receiving me."
Everyone swooned at his gentlemanly tone while Ryan made a face as if she just tasted spoilt milk.
"Where are you from? Why have we never heard of you before?"
That same warm smile that got under Ryan's skin. With that he said something.
Ryan had to rewind it because she couldn't hear it over the noise of her own chewing and because he formed a dimple when he smiled.
"I assure you I am from this town as much as all of you, and so were my forefathers. I've just spent my recent years studying abroad thats all."
Liar! You weren't even in the directory!
"What did you study?"
She saw it. Nobody else did but she did. The little beat of silence and the glinting of those sapphire eyes as if he was pondering over it.
"...Criminal psychology." He answered at last.
More like practice criminal psychology, Ryan huffed.
"Are you married...?" A female reporter couldn't keep from asking. There were stars in her eyes seeing the young man.
Ryan's eyes widened. "No, no, no don't fall for it you'll end up in the woods you hormonal idiot!!"
He laughed mesmerisingly and for a second Ryan too got dazed before she slapped herself right.
"No, unfortunately I'm not married." Why did he speak like his words were made out of honey itself.
"Fortunately you mean." Another woman spoke coyly.
Ryan's eyes bulged out. Is this wench flirting with him?
Was this bastard flirting with women while his hounds chased her outside down the hallways?
The crowd too laughed along, they seemed to adore the young man already.
Ryan too let out a loud sardonic laugh, leaning back and tossing chips in her mouth. "Lets see how you'll be laughing when he drops you into the woods for the crows to feed on. Idiots."
"Who are you talking to??" Her mother walking into the room, looked at her with furrowed brows.
"These idiots." Ryan answered.
She looked between her daughter and the TV. Did she birth a mental?
Just then Ryan's phone rang. Ryan was too busy lost in the interview to look away.
It rang for a third time. Her mother seethed at her before picking it up herself.
"...Why did you choose to return and participate in politics? And why UDP?..."
"If its Mr. Iqbal tell him I got my periods and had to hurry home." She called out.
A hand was slapped over her mouth painfully.
"Yes who is this speaking?" Her mother spoke into the phone while Ryan winced in pain.
"....Though I lived away for most of my life, but this is my hometown...."
"Someone named Yafi Aman is speaking."
"...and I have always been concerned about its betterment...."
"Who the heck is Yafi Ama—" Ryan froze.
"I'm sorry this is a wrong number...." Her mother spoke into the phone, before turning to Ryan. "He says he knows you."
Ryan felt her hands trembling as she looked at the person on the TV.
He knows her.
"T-t-tell him I just got into a car accident and am in the hospital—no, no tell him I died!" She whisper shouted at her mother, panicked.
A hand slapped on her mouth again. "La howla wallah quwata! God forbid!" Her mother exclaimed. "Allah Allah! Don't misuse that wretched tongue!"
Ryan felt her face crumple in exasperation as the phone was thrown at her and her mother stormed out of the room. "And I'm not your personal secretory! Talk yourself!"
The phone rang again.
With trembling hands and after much hesitation she answered it, in the same manly voice she had used on Ghani, "Hello."
"You'll get a sore throat if you keep up with that."
Ryan's heart fell hearing that same tickling voice that arose goosebumps on her neck but she quickly composed herself and continued in the same tone, "what are you on about? And who are you?"
"Fine, suit yourself. But trust me, this voice doesn't go well with you, darling."
"You-you've got the wrong p-person. I said I don't know you."
A chuckle sounded from the other side, "I'm the owner of the phone and files you stole."
"I did not steal the phone!" Ryan exclaimed in her feminine voice accidentally. She gritted her teeth, grimacing at her mistake.
"Sure. And I did not steal your hat and jacket." Came a smug reply.
Curling her lips in anger Ryan involuntarily blurted out, "It's only dry clean so be careful with it, don't wash it—"
She bit her tongue mentally strangling her own self.
Clearing her throat she tried speaking in a more manly voice again while Yafi let out a breathy chuckle on the other side.
"I meant, I have no idea what you're talking about, you're only tasting your wine- ubba uh- as-astaghfirullah I mean wasting your time."
"Oh its definitely you alright." His voice was inked with amusement dipped in something dark. Ryan could hear that confident smirk on the other side.
Ryan felt a wave of dizziness out of her sheer stupidity. She wanted to turn into water and disperse into the ground.
"I have to give it to you for trying so hard." He added nonchalantly, "Well, I just wanted advise you that, it would be better if you stopped with whatever you have going on in that little brain of yours. You have one week." By the end his voice had taken a whole 180 degree turn, low and piercing.
Ryan gulped, knowing she was a goner, but regardless she stuttered out. "I d-don't know who you are."
A cold silence answered her. She could feel her bones chill at the sound of his breath.
"Indeed you don't." Came his dark voice, "You don't know who you've messed with."
With that the line went dead.
Ryan was left with a parched throat and a pounding heart.
"Who was it?" Her mother asked, peaking her head back in.
Ryan stared at her, lost in her own thoughts. "Mother I'm going to tell you something very important. Listen carefully.... If anything goes wrong, remember to check the woods."
"What?!" Ms. Siddique exclaimed in confusion before shaking her head, annoyed at her own self for indulging her. "Anyway, I'm going to the market."
"No!" She called out holding her arm. "Don't leave me alone!"
Her mother huffed, putting on her shawl and bag, "alone? Don't you see the half a dozen freeloaders your brother and father-in-law has left outside. Its precisely for their grocery that I'm going out."
Ryan calmed down looking out of the window to see the uniformed guards. She had forgot about them. For the first time she felt grateful of being engaged to Ali Yahya.
But remembering the dead body in the woods she still shuddered.
You don't know who you've messed with.
Who knows how powerful he is to carry even a party leader in his pocket.
"I'll be back later!"
Ryan only curled on the couch, face crumpling into tears. "Bring me some doughnuts...!"
***
An office worker walked in and froze as his eyes landed on the dangerous looking giant of a man and the old remains of the Victorian era sitting in the middle of the copy room with cups of tea lying on an unplugged printer.
All it took Ghani was one flick of the eyebrow and he quickly backtracked out of there.
The slow slurping of tea sounded in the room, along with the whirring of a printer.
"We know who she is now why don't we just pick her up and force the files out of her??" Ghani asked after a while, wondering why nobody was considering the obvious solution.
Tamrud smacked him on the head. Provoking him to raise his fist back but was cut off by his words.
"She's not just anyone dumbass. She's the DIG's daughter-in-law."
"So?"
Another smack answered him. "So you want to end everything before its even started? Sahab's gone public. And she knows who he is, and God knows how many people she must've told. If something goes wrong who do you think will be blamed?? Do you think he'd risk his entire plan on this one girl?" Tamrud ended with another smack on his head.
This time Ghani could only rub his head, unable to refute the other's point.
The printer whirred again.
"So what will we do now?"
"We'll have to take the files from her without kidnapping her. Or compromising our identity." Tamrud sighed.
Ghani too sighed solemnly. "Thats a first."
"What?"
"The non-kidnapping part. Things used to be so easier back in the city."
The machine hummed in agreement.
"And so much more extravagant." He sighed looking around the small stuffy room.
"Yeah and you didn't mess up as much back then."
Ghani narrowed his eyes at him but he only slurped his tea.
The click and turning of the machine sounded yet again.
"When the heck are we getting that skyscraper??" Tamrud too let out, finally fed up.
***
"I'm telling you this girl is into some witchcraft. There's no way she could've fooled us so many times." Ghani spoke up as he drove the black lexus smoothly down the lane.
Sitting in the backseat with his head lost in files Yafi rose an eyebrow at him absentmindedly. "Why? Can a girl not have brains?"
"The pretty ones don't is what I've been told."
Yafi paused, an amused huff escaping him. "You think she's pretty?"
"She's a sorceress."
Tamrud, sitting in the fromt seat, furrowed his brows. "Is that a yes or a no."
Ghani continued thoughtfully to an uninterested Yafi. "My grandmother told me to stay away from such girls. They're like snakes."
"Is she a reptile or a witch make up your mind." Tamrud contorted his face angrily.
Ignoring him he spoke to Yafi cautiously, "Sir ji, I'm telling you be careful. Who knows what kind of devious magic she's into."
Yafi couldn't help but chuckle silently, as he studied Ryan's picture from the info files Raza had given him.
Twinkling big brown eyes, a dimpled smile and long dark hair that seemed to be forever a bird's nest. She looked the physical embodiment of the word harmless.
Ghani was right. What a sorceress.
Sucking in a deep breath he forwarded the picture to Tamrud.
"Get the men to memorise this face, so next time they don't run around like headless chickens chasing a ghost."
Tamrud instantly recoiled, "Astghfirullah! I don't look at na-mehram females, master!"
Yafi's eyes hardened, and Tamrud blanched.
"Oh look they have cows here as well!" He turned to the window, pretending to face away from Yafi.
"Be careful she might be a female."
Yafi muttered dryly as he tossed the picture to Ghani instead, who fumbled to hold it whilst steering.
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