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Vihaan wrapped a towel around his neck. “He’s my brother, not my keeper. Besides, I do enjoy bugging him, and my hair just happens to be a sore point.”
“He’s right, though. You do need to cut your damn hair. You look like a hoodlum, not the COO ofKeyStone.”
“I will, when the deserts of Dubai freeze over.”
“God! You’re just too much, I swear. Come out soon now, we do need to talk.” Shaurya gave him a dirty look before following Aaryan out of the room.
Ten minutes later, showered and dressed, Vihaan walked into his living room. His brothers were seated on the couch talking softly.
Seeing him, Aaryan nodded to the mug of steaming green tea that was already on the table. Vihaan lifted the mug to his lips, taking a small sip before he asked, “Okay, what’s going on? It’s a weekend and far too early for you two to be dressed and at my house.”
“We have a problem,” Aaryan said, nodding at Shaurya to continue.
“From my estimates, we have cement to last us for only six months,” Shaurya announced. “No cement means no construction.”
Vihaan frowned. “What do you mean no cement? And why am I hearing this only now?”
“I just figured it out two days ago,” Shaurya replied. “Suddenly, our suppliers began cancelling our cement orders one by one. When I calculated our stocks, I realized thatKeyStonehas no cement for construction from six months hence. I immediately called Aaryan to inform him, and we’re here now to talk it over with you. We need to decide how to proceed.”
Vihaan’s family jointly ownedKeyStone Corp.—an immensely successful property leasing and construction company in Dubai. The three of them managed different aspects of the business; Aaryan was the MD, Vihaan the COO and Shaurya was the CEO/CFO and the face of the company.
KeyStone Corp.had gone places, thanks to all their hard work and now they were seeing abundant returns. Because Shaurya had been an unknown, he’d been able to publicly lead the company. He’d managed to take risks that neither Vihaan nor Aaryan had been able to, or were willing to, for fear of being recognized.
Thanks to Shaurya, none of them had to worry anymore about wealth for the rest of their lives. But that wealth had come at a price. One which all of them were paying—their anonymity had now been compromised and they’d done it willingly just so that Shaurya could have the happy life he deserved.
Years ago, after escaping the clutches of Dev and his father, Pritam Luthra, they had been forced to go into hiding. They’d been forced to play dead to the world, and because of that, till date, they all maintained a low, almost invisible, profile, except for Shaurya who publicly ledKeyStone. However, Dev had managed to find them because of Shaurya’s rising fame in Dubai. And now it didn’t matter if Shaurya was in the open or not. Dev had found them. He’d moved base to Dubai and he was here to stay.
“I still don’t get it,” Vihaan said, not sure what the problem was. “Cement is a rolling supply for us. Just order more like we always do, and why have the suppliers suddenly cancelled on us?”
Shaurya sighed. “Three of our cement suppliers in the Emirates have been bought over.”
“How does that matter?” Vihaan swept a glance across the two men. “We have a healthy reputation. We haven’t defaulted on any of our past payments. Last I checked, we have enough money in our accounts too. The new owners should be happy to work with us.”
“This is not about us, Vihaan,” Shaurya stated.
Vihaan splayed a hand out. “Then what?” And then his eyes widened. “Fuck! It’s Dev Luthra, isn’t it?”
Aaryan nodded. “All our major cement suppliers have been bought over by him. I have confirmed news that our suppliers in Bahrain are also considering selling to him. He is systematically buying out our cement suppliers, forcing us to go to him. To buy from him.”
“What’s worse is that he seems to have planned all this out,” Shaurya continued. “We are contractually bound to complete his villa inArabian Greens in two years. We absolutely cannot default on that. Imagine if we fall out on cement supplies, for sure his construction will get delayed and then he’ll have another reason to come at us, this time legally.”
“Let’s not forget we have to construct the hotel and the mall too atArabian Greens,” Aaryan added. “Work on that is to start in a few months.”
This, exactly this was what his sixth sense had been warning him about. Dev had been silent because he’d been busy making a move against them.
About two months back, Dev had found them in Dubai. He’d sneakily gotten in touch with their Arab partner, Al Jarami, and convinced him to sell the biggest villa inArabian Greens,KeyStone’spremiere property project, to him. Unfortunately for them, they hadn’t been able to refuse Al Jarami and had been forced to sell to him.
Not only that, Dev had tried to push his way with Al Jarami for Luthra Inc. to construct the mall and the hotel atArabian Greens, which was to beKeyStone’s baby. With a lot of difficulty, they’d managed to push him out of the deal. They were to begin construction soon on that project as well. But how would they do it without a proper supply of cement?
Bloody hell! This was just Dev’s new way of manipulating them.
“We’re going to be in trouble if we don’t figure out what to do and soon,” Aaryan said.
“We could just import from somewhere else,” Vihaan said. “That fucker can’t buy every company.”
“He’s managed to buy some of the companies we have an understanding with and those who provide us the best prices and is working to buy the rest,” Aaryan said. “The remaining companies in the Gulf don’t meet our quality standards, and buying from outside the Gulf is way too expensive for us. It will eat into our margins heavily if we import from elsewhere. However, there is one company,Lavell Cement,in Kuwait. They’re the right fit for our cement needs. When they rejected my request to even meet them, I dug into them and found that when they refused to sell to Luthra, he threatened them to not supply to us. Maybe he holds something against the owners that makes them afraid of him. I wouldn’t put anything past him. Hence, as of now, we’re in quite a fix.”
“Fuck!” Vihaan cursed. “I can’t believe he’s actually threatening people, finding their darkest secrets, just so they don’t sell to us.”
