If that phone rang one more time, Ishan thought angrily, I am going to throw it into the fire or bring a hammer down on it. It was his one day of leave, and his muscles were already screaming at him to lie down. The phone finally stopped ringing, and Ishan fell back on the bed, exhausted.

It hurt him to admit, but he got tired pretty fast nowadays. Rohit bhai would tease him about his age catching up, but he knew it was because of the torture he had gotten in South Africa. It wasn't the beating that would torture him - it was the memories of sinful lips and brilliant smiles, stuff he would see in his dreams every night, until they turned into nightmares where Shubman screamed, until his voice was hoarse, to save him, until he screamed at Ishan that it was all his fault for bringing him into his world of killers and blood.