Chapter Five #2
Kumble waved her words away with a dismissive hand. “Dhanush will assist Iqbal on this,” he said, giving his nephew a toothy grin. “They always make a great team, and we need that synergy for a case as high-profile as this.”
Naina gripped the edge of the table with her fingers while Dhanush mumbled a “fuck yeah” under his breath. Tejas smiled and patted him on the back.
“However,” Kumble went on, his eyes still on Naina, “we do have a client for you.” He stood, took the remote, and opened a different presentation deck.
“Preethi Acharya v. State of Karnataka. As we all know, she was arrested a week and a half ago for murdering the famous director Rohith Pai, who was once—”
Tejas spoke up, his forehead creased. “Allegedly,” he said.
He’d read about the case just that morning in the newspaper.
Preethi Acharya was a barely C-list actress who now made a living posting exercise videos and doing fitness brand endorsements, while Rohith Pai had dozens of blockbusters in the Kannada film industry—commonly known as Sandalwood—to his name.
This case wasn’t going to be an easy one.
Kumble nodded approvingly. “Allegedly murdering Pai,” he went on, “who was once her lover. He remained an A-list filmmaker, while her acting career flopped, and now, years later, he decided to direct her comeback film. Is this revenge? An accident? Or is someone framing her?” He shrugged.
“Whatever the case may be, her former lawyers have given up; so, Naina, you’re now in charge of proving her innocence. ”
“I can do that,” Naina said confidently, but then her smile faded. “Wait, just me, right?”
Holy fuck. Tejas felt it coming before Iqbal gestured to him. “Well, we’d love for Tejas to work with you on this one, since he handled a lot of Bollywood cases while in Mumbai.”
“Absolutely,” Tejas said, smirking, loving that Naina trembled when his gaze met hers. “I’d be perfect for the job.”
“I’d prefer to handle this one on my own, actually,” Naina replied, looking back at Iqbal and Kumble.
“If you’re even to be considered for senior associate, we need to know you can work as a team, Naina,” Kumble said, wagging a finger at her.
Tejas bit his lip as Naina tugged on her shirt collar, visibly recoiling.
“So that settles it.” Kumble nodded when she said nothing. “Naina and Tejas will handle Preethi Acharya’s case. It’ll be a tough one for you, Naina, so let’s hope Tejas can keep the emotions to a low, yes?”
Tejas’s fists clenched at the implication.
He paused, wondering if anyone would speak up, or if this was just the norm at AKC to let misogyny slide.
Anil let out a small, frustrated grunt, while the rest of the room exchanged glances in the stifling silence.
Dhanush too looked down at his brief notes, his eyes boring a hole into the page.
Iqbal hesitated from where he stood beside Kumble, like he wanted to object, but ultimately he only sighed.
Just as Tejas opened his mouth to say something, anything, in defense of Naina, Kumble dispersed them and headed out of the meeting room.
“Well, I’d best get started,” Dhanush said eagerly, thumbing through his phone as he stood, but Tejas wasn’t really listening.
His eyes were on Naina, who was storming out of the meeting room, her face flaming.
He scrambled to his feet and raced after her, then stopped her by wrapping a hand around her wrist, cool to the touch.
“I’m sorry about what just happened,” Tejas said when she faced him. He put his hands in his pockets, head ducked. “Mr. Kumble was being such a—I know I should have said something, and I was going to, but…”
“But you owe me nothing,” she said, and when he looked up at her with a frown, she shrugged, though there was a twitch in her jaw. “After all, we barely know each other.”
Tejas’s eyes darted around the empty corridor. Then he stepped closer, so close he could smell her familiar lavender scent in the air as her breath caught. “Bullshit. I meant everything I said in Goa, and I meant every word I left unsaid. And I’ll regret leaving for the rest of my life. Naina, I—”
Footsteps thudded closer, Dhanush’s voice growing louder as he pushed past them, yelling into the phone. “Jennifer, I don’t care how you do it, I need those reports ASAP!”
By the time Tejas returned his gaze to Naina, she was walking backward, shaking her head at him. “I’ll set up a meeting soon to talk about the new case.”
“Wait—” he started, but she had already hurried back to her desk. Straightening his tie, Tejas got himself a coffee and went to his cubicle, where Dhanush was still purple-faced and glaring at his phone.
“My paralegal just doesn’t understand how to do simple tasks,” Dhanush said as Tejas sat down beside him.
“Sorry about that,” Tejas said. He spotted Naina ahead, shoulders hunched over her desk as she aggressively typed on her laptop.
As he looked around the office, Tejas realized with a lurch that Naina was the only female junior associate.
When Tejas had asked the guys about Naina being “unapproachable” yesterday, they had all nodded in agreement.
None of them seemed to particularly like her.
Was she close with anyone at work besides Anil?
Tejas exhaled, sat up straighter, and switched tabs to his calendar, where a new meeting event had just shown up for nine a.m. the next day: Discuss Preethi Acharya case.
The description said: Meet at Sunstag to strategize, then head to client’s house by 11.
Tejas accepted Naina’s invite, nodding to himself.
There was probably no chance Naina wanted to start things up again romantically, given her walls were up higher than they’d been in Goa, and that was fine by him.
But no way was he going to let her push him away as an ally… or even as a friend.