The sound of footsteps echoed across the abandoned parking structure, each one slow, cautious—until a shadow stepped into the dim light ahead.
Dev and Rehaan froze.
"Kiaan…"
There he was—standing tall, but not quite steady. His eyes found theirs and for a second, a flicker of emotion rushed through him—relief, maybe even guilt. The late evening light spilled across his figure, and that's when they saw it.
His shirt was open at the collar, revealing the angry bruises decorating his skin—fresh ones along his neck, slightly faded red and blue bite marks across his collarbone. But the thing that made both Dev and Rehaan still in place was the ink—
"Reyaan Malhotra" tattooed on his wrist in black, bold script.
Rehaan stepped forward, his voice suddenly low and unfamiliar. "Kiaan… what the hell happened to you?"
Kiaan exhaled shakily, eyes avoiding theirs. "I… I told you to come alone for a reason."
Dev's eyes were scanning every mark on him. "Who did this?" he demanded, his voice dangerously close to boiling.
Kiaan didn't answer immediately. He looked down at his arm, at the branding of his enemy's name etched into his flesh, and slowly, like pulling the weight of a thousand bricks, he spoke.
"Rex. He took me. After I agreed to save you all… to get Tara help." He clenched his jaw. "I didn't know what he wanted until I woke up in his world. I couldn't see anything. I was drugged. He played games. Sick games. Mind games. Physical games…"
Rehaan's fists clenched at his sides. "And this tattoo? This is one of them?"
Kiaan gave a hollow laugh. "More like his signature. A warning, a claim. Whatever it is… I let it happen because he threatened all of you. Especially Tara."
Dev looked away, unable to hide the emotion pooling in his chest. "Why didn't you call for help? Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"I couldn't," Kiaan said, his voice cracking for the first time. "You think I can walk into HQ with this on my skin? You think I can face Tara, after what he did to me—after what I had to let him do just to protect her?"
Rehaan stepped beside him and gripped his shoulder tightly. "You are not the one who should feel ashamed. He is. You made the choice no one else could've made."
Kiaan closed his eyes, whispering, "But it doesn't make the fire inside me burn any less. I'm not broken… I'm just… poisoned with rage."
There was a long silence, heavy with everything they wanted to say but didn't need to. Dev finally spoke, his tone colder now, sharpened by vengeance.
"Then we take him down. Not as agents. As men who were crossed, burned, and underestimated."
Kiaan nodded slowly, a storm igniting behind his tired gaze. "Then let's give him hell."