Chapter Four
Sejal pushed Krish away like he’d burned her.
“Fuck me,” she muttered.
He cocked his head. “Going somewhere without me?” If there was an edge to his voice, so be it, seeing as how he was on yet
another night of almost no sleep. He would have been here earlier, but her trail had gone cold for a while there.
It had been extra annoying to hunt Sejal down only to find her at the exact airport he’d wanted to take her to in the first
place.
“Move.” She tried to go around him, and he sidestepped with her. She glanced behind her. “I have to go.”
His relief at finding her dissolved. He’d seen her in an anxious panic once before, and here it was again. An actress she
might be, but he didn’t think she could fake this. Or that she’d willingly reveal a vulnerability like fear. Even handcuffed,
she’d been a fighter. “What’s wrong?”
“Uh, nothing.”
That was not convincing. He looked past her. Automatically, he tugged her to the side, to hug the wall, so others could go
around them. “Something’s wrong. You’re scared, and not of me.”
Her hands clenched. “I’m not scared of anybody, especially you.”
“I know. That’s why I’m concerned that you look concerned.”
She looked behind her again. “Fine. I was at my gate and saw someone from my past.”
“Not a friend,” he guessed.
“No. He worked for my ex. Things ended poorly between us.”
“Recently?”
“No. It’s been years.”
“Someone you dated ages ago sent their employee after you now? Why?”
She slashed her hand through the air. “I don’t know, Krish! They’re not friendly folks, okay? Even if I had stuck around to
talk to him, he wouldn’t just tell me calmly why he’s stalking me.”
She’s using your real name. He tried not to let that, or his odd thrill upon hearing it, detract from his mission. “Could it be a coincidence?”
“I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Neither did he. “What’s your plan?”
“Buy another ticket for a flight in another terminal, and not with you. If you were smart, you’d want to get the hell away
from me, too.” She succeeded in pushing past him, and he followed her, matching her fast pace, which, in New York City, was
hardly suspicious; they appeared no different from every other traveler. “Trust me when I say he’s up to no good. If he sees
you with me, he’ll hurt you, too.”
“Has he hurt you before?”
She was quiet for a moment. “Yes.” She swiped a hair out of her eyes. “I don’t want to discuss this.”
Krish didn’t need more details. The remembered fear in her tone was enough to convince him that she was telling the truth. His hand curled into a fist, and his body tensed. He searched the crowd around them, though he didn’t know who he was looking for.
Avi had been the one with white knight syndrome, his sixth sense for wounded birds always on high alert. Though Krish wouldn’t
tolerate someone hurting another, he had never felt a huge urge to swoop in and rescue a woman. Except now, multiple times,
in the short time he’d spent with Sejal.
Funny, because, on the surface, there was no one who needed rescuing less. Even if Sejal was not, as all signs indicated,
an active part of Cobra, she’d spent the last two years on the run, she used multiple aliases, and he’d watched her steal
a Rolex through sleight of hand that would make David Copperfield proud. She wasn’t exactly an innocent wilting flower.
Fool. The goal is not to help this stranger, it’s to help your brother. If she’s running away from someone, you can redirect
her to run with you. “How did they find you?”
“I don’t know.”
Krish feared he did know, and what he suspected would mean that his plan was also fucked. “Does this guy have resources?”
“Yes.”
“Like, money? People at his disposal? Could he hack or hire a hacker?”
“Yes, yes, and yes. Now you’re getting it. He’s super-dangerous. Can I—”
“Then you can’t get on a plane to anywhere anymore.”
Sejal hauled her knapsack’s strap up her shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“How do you think your ex found you? You were at a gate? You booked a flight? It’s shockingly easy to hack a flight manifest.” Or at least, that’s what Google had told him during the time he’d spent prepping to bring his brother home.
Thanks to his own forward thinking, he hadn’t had to actually figure out how to hack anything today.
“I didn’t use my real name.”
“Which alias did you use? Seema? Iliana? Jessica? Chandra?”
She stiffened. “You think you know so much about me, huh?”
“Your cover is good. It’s not perfect. Even if you do have a second passport in that go-bag of yours, it’s quite possible
it’s already compromised.”
Sejal’s steps faltered. They were almost to the AirTrain, the shuttle that would take them back to ticketing and baggage claim.
“Is that how you found me?”
No. “Yes.”
Her jaw worked. “Then I rent a car.”
“Why do that when I already have one?” He took a step closer to her, his brain shuffling and reshuffling to get around this
new roadblock.
Fine. They couldn’t get on a plane? They’d drive. One way or another, his plan was happening, because nothing else had changed
for him. His list of options remained the same as ever. Bad.
“Come with me. I’ll keep you safe.” And he meant that. He might not be an FBI agent, but he was a good fighter, adept with
a gun, and a solid survivalist. He could thank his unconventional mother for those skills.
“And where are we going to go, if I come with you?”
“To California. Like I said before.”
“To . . . you want to drive thousands of miles? It’ll take days to get to LA.”
“Only three or four.” He’d have to stop and rest, and there was no chance in hell that he’d let her drive.
It was a last-minute, incredibly reckless adjustment, but everything he was doing was reckless, so why not add another layer on top of that?
Yes, he’d have to spend days on the road with Sejal, not get distracted by memories of that kiss, keep track of her, keep an eye out for her mysterious, dangerous ex he was itching to ask more questions about, and hope that her aunt didn’t prematurely get wind of him hanging around her precious niece and put a hit out on him.
Is that all?
Yes, that was a lot to ask, but he could do it if she cooperated and didn’t take every opportunity to tuck and roll out of the car. Krish looked down at Sejal. She seemed smaller
now than she had in her apartment. Perhaps it was his oversize sweatshirt. She’d rolled the sleeves up, but it still hung
loosely on her. Someone bumped him, and he swiveled his head, ready to attack. Just a little old lady who gave him a dirty
look back.
Sejal narrowed her gaze at him. “Why can’t an FBI agent charter a flight?”
Yeah, why couldn’t he? “I told you before, I can’t afford a single leak. It would compromise my case,” he bullshitted. Krish
turned back to Sejal and tugged her behind a column. They were far too exposed here, and they needed to reach some kind of
agreement, fast. Before her guy found them, and before she thought too hard and saw the giant holes in his story. “Look, I
think we got off on the wrong foot.”
She glared up at him. “Oh, when? When you let me kiss you thinking you were some regular hot guy in a bar? Or when you lied
your way into my apartment? Or when you threatened to get me tossed in jail if I didn’t narc on my own aunt?” Her voice rose
on every sentence, like she was making herself mad. She slapped her hands against his chest.
He caught them automatically, curling his hand over her much smaller ones. Her fingers were long and elegant. They were so fluid when she was manipulating cards.
Wait.
Hot guy? He was the hot guy?
Not important right now. Except he hadn’t often been referred to as hot, especially so casually, like it was a common fact. Intimidating. Handsome.
Forbidding. A bull in a china shop. Not hot.
Buddy. “We have an opportunity where we can help each other here. You should want to be in my custody.”
The wheels in her head were turning again, he could smell them. “Don’t make it seem like you’re on my side. You want to use
me. Why would I go all the way across the country with you when I could disappear on my own?”
He cleared his throat, because the use that had popped into his head was different from the use she meant. His use required long hours, a bed, and the AC on high to cool them down, and it was a use that would never happen.
“I do want to use you,” he agreed bluntly. She had no idea how badly he wanted to use her. “So use me back. For protection.
I’ll keep you safe.”
She pursed her lips. “Strange, the timing of all this. Nobody was stalking me until you showed up in my life. Did you trigger
something?”
“Did I trigger your angry ex finding you while investigating your aunt? Unlikely.” Avi’s files had been hard copies in his
home office, mostly handwritten notes. He hadn’t even put them on his work computer, so it was unlikely that Krish or his
brother had been hacked.
She looked past him, eyes unfocused, like she was working something through in her big brain. Her silence was so loud. Krish shifted his weight. He had to get her on board. “I’ll let you have control of the radio.”
She refocused on his face. Her laugh was a rough bark. “Damn it.”
“Come on.” He tugged her hand, and she looked down at it before easing away from him.
“On one condition.”
He eyed her warily. “What’s that?”
“I need to make a stop in Las Vegas.”
The request made him pause. “Why?”
“I grew up there. You don’t think I want to visit my hometown?”
Left her hometown when she was eighteen, does not seem to visit. Possible friction with her dad. Her file had not painted a picture of a sentimental woman. “No. Why do you really want to stop there?”
“Don’t worry about it. We have to pass by it anyway, don’t we? I want an afternoon, by myself, to get something done.”
The stubborn tilt of her chin told him she was going to dig her heels in on this.
She’s up to something. Well, obviously. When was a Chaudhary not up to something? Did it matter? If it motivated her to stay with him, he’d take
it. He had days to change her mind or figure out what her plans were around Vegas. “I’ll give you an hour, but I’ll stay with
you,” he allowed.
“Two hours, and fine, but you don’t get to stop me or get in my way.”
That was a terrible deal, but he nodded, simply so they could get on the road. No matter who was chasing her, he needed her more than she needed him, and he’d have to do his damnedest to make sure she never discovered that. “Fine.”
She pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over her head and tightened the cord. “Any chance you have any of my clothes in your
bag?”
“Sorry, no. I left the bag I thoughtfully packed for you when you went out the window.” But he did have her phone in there.
He’d swiped it from her dresser before he’d left the apartment. At some point, he’d have to figure out how to get it unlocked
so he could rifle through it for anything of value to him.
“I didn’t go out the window. Tracking clearly isn’t your strong suit.”
He ignored her and held out his hand. “Ready to play nice?”
She eyed it suspiciously. “We’re not friends.”
“Oh, I’m well aware that we’re natural enemies,” he said dryly. “I’m simply asking for a temporary truce here.”
“I don’t trust you to stick to a truce. I don’t trust you, period.”
“I don’t trust you to stick to one, either. But we’re both going to have to extend some level of belief in the other person,
right? There’s no way we can sleep with one eye open for the next twenty-eight hundred miles.” Though he’d try.
She hesitated, then shook his hand. “Fine. Truce. Only until we get to the West Coast, though.”
Krish took back his hand. He didn’t need her once he got her aunt, so that was fine with him. “Obviously, yes.”
She started walking with him, checking over her shoulder every few feet. His neck itched. “How did you get away from the guy
following you, anyway?”
“I sicced TSA on him.”
“Smart.” Very smart. He’d have to be on his toes around her.
They walked onto the AirTrain. Sejal carefully inspected everyone around them, her gaze sharp and astute. He faced straight
ahead, and the doors closed. One thing was for sure: he didn’t trust her, and she was right not to trust him.
If he felt like shit about that, it was a problem he’d figure out after he had his brother back.