SECRETS.....

Maink's POV:

Her grip on my hand tightened and I contemplated the amount of trust she had on me. I held her closer and inhaled her scent and couldn't stop the smile from coming on my face. I suddenly turned towards my right as I could sense a pair of eyes on me. I saw Abhi looking at me. It was not the Abhi, the best friend, the look said he was calculating my move, reading my body language, like we do with criminals and suspects. I just smiled at him, trying to reassure him that it was all mission related.
    My grip on Nandini loosened on Nandini and at that very moment we fell from the mountain. I expected her to be scared or hold onto me again, firmly but she didn't. I looked at her and there was a smile on her face. She had began to trust me, a lot. I didn't care about anything in that moment and hugged her more to myself and closed my eyes.
    After paragliding for 30 minutes, we were back. These 30 minutes were like heaven. Nandini's hair was brushing my face. I would inhale her scent each time I breathe. My breathe fanned her neck and she would blush each time that happened and I would just smile at her reaction. She would be too playful and I would school her with a nudge or a warning and she would just smile and brush it off. Those 30 minutes with her made me realize that I feel something for her, something I haven't felt for anyone before. Her being around made me forget everything, myself, my problems, my mission. I decided that I'll talk to her about everything regarding the mission. The Nandini I knew would never be the one we had heard of. The girl who would take care of an abandoned child in the fair could never kill anyone. Maybe there was something we didn't know. I decided to discuss everything with her, everything.

    As soon as we reached the ground, the straps were removed from us and that put distance between us. I frowned at the distance and Nandini saw that and smiled shyly. We started walking towards the group together.

"Manik I want to talk to you about something." She stated the way she said it meant she had given it a lot of thought.

"Yeah? Me too." I replied, thinking about what it was that she wanted to talk about.

"Okkkaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy." She said, probably curious about what it was as she stretched her reply. I smiled, despite myself, at her cute and kiddish behavior. 

We continued walking towards our friends when all of a sudden I felt her hand on my wrist. For a second I disregarded it as something casual but her grip seemed tensed. I looked at her and saw her pale face. I followed her gaze and saw her looking towards the crowd. 

"What is it?" I questioned her directly, I was done with all the mystery and secrets.

"We have to get out of here."

"Why? And what will we tell the others?"

"I will leave Navya  a text, please Manik, we have to go right now. I promise I'll explain as soon as we reach somewhere safe."

"Fine, but only because you promised," I said and caught her hand and swiftly mixed us into the crowd and using the fire escape, we reached the basement. From there she texted Navya and I booked a cab. As soon as the cab came, I pushed her in and I too sat in the cab. 

"Manik we can't go to the hotel."

"Fine."

I asked the driver to take us to the nearby park. As soon as we reached she started panicking. 

"Manik this isn't safe."

"I don't care, Nandini, I want to know what's going on."

"But Manik this isn't the place for it."

"Hey, I'm here right and nothing can happen to you when I'm around, you know that. You trust me right?" I asked her while approaching the nearby bench.

She nodded.