"When are you going to kill him?" Ohas asked, furiously pacing back and forth on the road. "You need to get rid of him soon."

Naina jumped down from the embankment, crying out, "He's dirt poor, Ohas. I was tricked! I had to pay for the meal that we had at the restaurant! Besides, he's not the old man that I was supposed to marry."

"What?" He stopped short, his cat eyes boring into her. Naina always found those eyes chilling, it made a shudder run down her spine like a cold wind on a silent night when he stared at her like that.  "What do you mean?"

"He's someone different. He's young like us, I mean two or three years older perhaps, but not more than five. I thought he would be old and wrinkly, but he's young and handsome."

The space between them was closed in an instant as his hands gripped her shoulders so tightly that they ached. "What are you saying?" 

"Firstly---" she wriggled her shoulders, trying to free herself. "---Chill."

He let go of her shoulders, turning away from her and watching the speeding cars pass them by, a stark contrast to the slow moving clouds above.

Massaging her sore shoulders, Naina began again, "I don't get why you're so angry these days. I mean I am too, considering that I married a poor fellow, but we'll find a way. I don't know if it's worth killing him now."

"So it was worth sleeping with him?" Ohas bellowed, running his hand over his face in frustration. "You didn't have to sleep with him."

"You don't have to tell me what I can do," she barked, matching his voice and raising her chin up to meet his fierce eyes. Those cat eyes were always intense, a cold storm trapped within. Her heart softened at that, she knew what he had been through. What they had been through together.

"You cannot sleep with him."

She snorted at his warning, her heart hardening again. "Why? Are you in love with me or something?'

"I don't love anyone," he snapped and she noticed how close the storm was to unleash. He would always get defensive at the word "love." She never saw him love anybody or be loved back. He was so close, yet so distant. All the time. So close to her, yet so distant.

"Ooh tough guy," she teased and slapped his back, to ease the tension. His muscles relaxed, those cat eyes became less chilling as he shrugged her hand off his shoulder. She liked them like this, they were bros. "Now, I'm going back to my husband. He's taking me on a honeymoon. I wonder where poor people go for a honeymoon. My parents went to Matheran for two days and my mother will never stop talking---"

"Honeymoon?"

"Why, yes, my parents are married and surprisingly forward in this regard---"

"You're going on a honeymoon," Ohas repeated in a low voice, his stiff back turned to her. His back resembled a huge rock, she was half-afraid that she would hurt herself if she touched him. His voice was stony too, stony cold.

"I mean I'm married---"

"No."

"What, no?"

"You cannot go."

"Are you in love---"

"No."

"Then cool. I'm going," Naina chirped, flying away before he could catch her and lock her up in a cage.

* * *

Naina had a secret. She loved to travel. As a child growing up in the worst excuse of a house where her parents visited Matheran once and the farthest trip she had taken was till Chowpatty, she had a stash of travel pictures hidden under her cot. Those pictures were from newspaper cutouts that promised trips at suspiciously low costs. At night, she would count the money that she had earned from taking tuitions and build dreams about visiting Paris or Maldives. Only for her father to take away all her dreams, the paltry sum for next day's dal chawal and tondli chi sabji.

She hated tondli.

"Come," Ahanay called out to her in the dark as she got up from the narrow bed. "We're leaving now."

"At this hour? I can't sleep well in the car! Why can't we leave tomorrow?"

"You can come tomorrow by yourself," his voice grew distant as he said that, already walking away.

Scrambling from the bed and picking up her suitcase, she rushed after him, shouting, "We're going on a honeymoon, you know! We're supposed to be together! Like husband and wife!"

"Together," he said, his voice so close that she could feel his hot breath on her pulsating ear.

"I-I mean next to each other," she stuttered, her words felt heavy in that still air. She could feel his large hand enclose over hers and she quickly slapped it, stepping away. "What the hell---"

"Good," his voice was again far away. "We both agree on how we'll be during this trip."

Naina was confused at his business-like voice as she hurried after him, watching his back stride elegantly to the street. When he strode in that brisk and effortless manner, he exuded power more than any dictator. Yet he was poor, how could he be? Oh no, was Naina supposed to pay for all their meals and stay during this trip?

"Who is paying for this trip?" she asked, her voice cautious. She refused to get anywhere near the parked car, she needed to know if she was going to be the ATM. Whatever little money that she had kept hidden from her dad, she couldn't let it go to her husband. Suddenly, anger began brewing in her body at the thought of men controlling her life. For her, money was life.

"You of course," Ahanay said and Naina quickly turned around, clutching the suitcase like her life depended on it. This was it. She wasn't going to go on this trip, whether Matheran or Mahableshwar. She began dragging the suitcase across the street when Ahanay caught her wrist. "Where are you going?"

"Don't make me scream," she seethed, struggling to free herself from his grip.

"I haven't done anything like that to make you scream." He smirked, not letting go. But he didn't realize that he was dealing with Naina, Naina who hated to lose in a challenge. She screamed, a shrill scream that pierced the air like a spear. It pierced his own brains, causing him to become brain dead for a good minute. And in that minute, the scream was met with its companion, the sirens of a police car.

"They can't come this fast. This is India for God's sake," Ahanay rasped in disbelief, quickly shutting Naina's mouth who was already screaming something in the lines of, "Bhaiya, bhayisaab, saabji, I'm getting kidnapped---"

"We're going to Maldives," he blurted out, watching her eyes widen like light bulbs.

"Mmph---" He removed his hand and she cried out, "Youshouldhavetoldmebefore!"

But Ahanay had no time for whining or arguing, he picked her up in his arms and threw her in the car. It happened so fast that Naina only remembered being tossed into the car by a strong force that seemed like the wind. Unfortunately for Ahanay, this just made him look more suspicious and the moment he started driving his car, the sirens were close to his wheels. Naina's light bulb eyes flashed in the dark like the sirens, secretly thrilled. And Ahanay blinked in frustration from all the lights blinding him.

"Fuck," he cursed, swerving the car as the sirens screeched behind him. "What did you do?"

"This is fun!" Naina squealed, no longer able to hold her excitement. Her eyes danced backwards, watching the police car chase them. Quickly, she clapped her hands and shouted, "Turn left!"

For the first time in his life, Ahanay obeyed a command, turning left without a single thought. Their car entered the smoothest road and suddenly the sirens stopped. Seconds later, they heard a loud crash, maybe even an explosion as both of them exchanged a knowing glance in the silence. Naina smiling in excitement, Ahanay's lips almost twitching upwards in boyish mischief.

They had most likely killed those police men.