Married in Vengeance (Dynasty Rebels #4)

Prologue

RAM

Adrenalin pulsed through his veins as he strode through the crowded corridors of the district court. Another lawyer he knew in passing raised a hand in acknowledgement and Ram nodded back, not pausing to chat. He needed to find the bench clerk who’d been outside the courtroom earlier and find out when the orders on his case were being posted.

Normally, he’d send a junior for these menial jobs but not for this case. This one was personal. The fight against Anant Madhavan had been long, dirty and deeply personal. The man had groomed and abused Ram’s younger sister in the name of love. Ram would not forgive, and he’d never forget.

As a defence attorney, he couldn’t fight the case himself. But he’d worked hard with the prosecutor’s office to make it work. It had been a hard case to fight. They’d protected the identity of the minor he’d been with and keeping the child safe and out of the glare of the media and public had significantly weakened the case, but it had been a sacrifice Ram and the others had made willingly. That child would have a chance to heal in private unlike his younger sister who’d been thrown to the sharks in a media frenzy the likes of which none of them had seen before.

But his sister, Raashi, was made of sterner stuff than the rest of them. Married to the son of the sitting Chief Minister and the most successful movie star in Tollywood, she may not have craved the limelight but now that she was shoved into it, she owned the spotlight, toxic and otherwise, like the queen she was.

His other sister Veda and her husband, politician Agastya Kodela, had stood by them like rocks. The might of the Kodela and Gadde families had been behind them, a combined force strong enough to withstand even the worst that life and humanity had to offer. And still, he knew his sister suffered.

“Kumar Anna,” he greeted the benchclerk with an easy smile. “Orders?”

“Not yet.” The man looked hassled, a perfunctory smile on his face. “Too many cases still. Orders later or even tomorrow.”

Ram swallowed a curse. The courts were closed tomorrow. This whole thing was going to get dragged out even longer. He forced a smile at the benchclerk and murmured a goodbye. It wasn’t the other man’s fault that they would have to wait an extra day or more for judgement on a case that had dominated all of their lives.

Sweating beneath his black robes, he tucked the files in his hands under one arm and stepped away, allowing a line of handcuffed prisoners and their armed guards to shuffle forward.

His phone, set to vibrate, rang in his pocket but he didn’t reach for it. He needed to get out of here and to his car before he took any calls. Given the high profile family he belonged to and the one his sisters had married into, he couldn’t afford to have anyone overhear any of his conversations. Growing up as the only son of a Media Mogul, he knew better than most that information was the only currency that ruled the world.

The man who knew everyone’s secrets was the true kingmaker.

The phone buzzed incessantly again, his lawyer robes vibrating with the force of it. Frowning, he slipped it out of his pocket even as someone rudely shouldered past him.

Virat.

His frown deepened at the name flashing on his screen. If there was ever a kingmaker in today’s time, it was Virat Jha, the fixer to the rich and famous. But why was he calling Ram?

The phone went silent for a brief second in his hand before ringing again. Virat again. Ram’s eyebrows shot up. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good news. There was no good reason why Virat would be calling him repeatedly. None at all.

His stomach sank like a rock as he stared at the ringing phone. No. This wasn’t a call he could take here. He swiped up and sent a quick message to Virat.

Urgent?

It took less than a minute for the reply to come through.

Yes.

Shit. Ram ran a hand through his hair. What clusterfuck was this now? Did it have something to do with Anant’s case? Was there new evidence that would impact their case against the man? Ram was so sure they had this in the bag but if something new came up, he honestly didn’t know which way the winds would blow. Anant had a crackerjack legal team working in his defense and all they needed was a sliver of a lead.

He strode through the crowd, not breaking stride until he reached the car park. He got into the Jeep he’d driven to court, throwing it into gear and peeling out of the car park. He pulled Virat’s number up, synced the phone to the car’s speakers, and dialed.

“Ram.” Virat’s quiet, confident voice sounded through the speakers. “I’ve sent something to your phone. I need you to take a look.”

“I’m driving.”

“Then pull over.” The words were measured but Ram could sense the urgency behind them.

He did, in the first layby he could find. Traffic whizzed past him, as he sat in the air-conditioned comfort of his car, sweating slightly. He pulled up his messages and clicked on the ones with Virat’s name.

A video began to play. He frowned, squinting a little at the grainy image. What the hell had Virat sent him. Who-

Recognition slammed through him as the woman started to kiss the man’s neck and the man in the video moaned, throwing his head back.

He was looking at himself, in his most private moments. So private, that it was the only secret he’d kept from the whole world. He swallowed hard. Not a secret anymore.

On the little screen, the woman tossed her wild curls, Ram reaching to push them over one shoulder so he could nibble on her bare skin.

“Ram, you there?” Virat’s voice came through the speaker, tinny and distant.

Ram cleared his throat before speaking and still his voice was hoarse. “Yeah, I’m here.”

A surge of fury burned through him as he stared at the video still playing.

“Where did you get this?” he demanded.

“It was sent to your official email. My team intercepted it.”

All of them had handed over cyber security over their digital footprint to Virat. They trusted him implicitly and the world they lived in didn’t allow for them to live without an additional level of security, both online and offline.

With his eyes set on a Supreme Court judgeship, Ram knew better than anyone how important a spotless reputation was to him. And so, like everyone else in his circle, he’d trusted Virat to keep it that way. He’d hired Virat for moments exactly like this.

This had been sent to his official email? This was meant for blackmail then? The fury took on a decidedly violent edge as he contemplated the thought. If the person had thought to only target him, it would have been okay. But there was another person in that video with him.

His gaze went to her again. Aadhya Reddy, real estate heiress, ace architect, and part time witch who haunted his dreams. If this got out, it would destroy her reputation. Her conservative parents would kill her.

She was the oil to his water, the wild child to his old soul.

There was no universe in which the two of them were meant to be together.

They were not for each other and yet, they kept ending up in each other’s arms. On the screen, Aadhya moaned as he took one dusky nipple in his mouth.

“Kill it.”

“I have.” Virat didn’t sound like he appreciated the redundant instruction. “And wiped all traces. This copy will disappear too after this conversation.”

“Who sent it?” Ram looked out on to the crowded road. Someone honked loudly and incessantly to the right. A beggar caught his eye and hobbled over, rapping on the window and holding a crippled hand out. Ram brought the glass down and dropped a hundred rupee note into the beggar’s hand before rolling it up again.

“Virat?” he said, when the other man stayed silent. “Who is it?”

“We traced it to an anonymous IP address.”

Of course. Ram would have expected nothing less. He also knew that nothing as simple as that deterred Virat.

“Who is it?” he asked again. “Anant?”

“No, not him.” Virat sighed. “Listen man. I need you to not go off halfcocked at this.”

“Virat.” Ram’s voice flatlined, anger thrumming through it. “Don’t patronise me.”

“I’m not.” Virat didn’t sound the least bit fazed by the temper tornado rising on the other end of the line. “I’m telling you that you need to listen to me without losing it.”

“Tell me who the fuck it is!” Ram roared, a million thoughts running through his mind, a million voices yelling in his ears, the world screaming at him, judging him and finding him wanting, as always.

“Aadhya.” Virat’s voice sounded defeated. “We traced it back to Aadhya.”

And the world around Ram went silent.