Chapter Fourteen #2
even on the nicer side of town, Las Vegas had always felt oppressive to her.
Though it hadn’t been all bad. Sejal had had Mira.
She’d been the one to walk her little sister into her kindergarten class, the one who coached her throughout school on which teachers to avoid.
That had been most of them, partly because Sejal hadn’t been the most studious of children, and she’d always had a smart mouth on her.
She’d also had Rhea, for however long her aunt would deign to sweep into town. And she’d had her dad’s friends, a weird and
motley crew of con men she had called uncles.
Don’t go painting this place in a rosier hue than it deserves. Glass half full is not your way. “Yes. I need to go into a storage unit. You can wait in the car.”
He pulled into a spot, then immediately unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car. She considered fighting him, but she
was tired. Tired from traveling, and tired from thinking about kissing him again. Tired from knowing she wouldn’t get to kiss
him again.
Don’t think about it.
That was right. She’d stuff the idea of touching him down to the depths of her soul, the same place that held other things
she didn’t want to think about. That was the only way she’d been able to sleep this past night on the road to Vegas.
And now she had to finish her errand and get rid of this guy. It was for his own good, after all. She was doing him a favor.
FBI agent or no, his harebrained scheme could actually get him hurt. If not by the Ivanovitches, then by her aunt and Cobra.
She fell into step next to him as they walked to the entrance of the building. “What’s here?” he asked.
“Something I’ve stored.”
“I see.”
He didn’t speak again, which was good. She better get used to silence, because she’d be on her own pretty soon, which was
good. Just as she liked it. Nobody to bare all her secrets to, that was what she wanted.
Sejal roused herself when they got to the door.
“Ten twenty-four,” she said, and Krish punched it in.
The door clicked open. She should change that code, actually.
It was her mother’s birthday. Well, the date their dad had told them was their mother’s birthday.
Who knew when Rushali’s actual birthday was.
Krish followed her into the climate-controlled building. “How long has it been since you’ve lived in Vegas?” he asked. His
voice echoed in the hallway, bouncing off the concrete and cinder block.
“Not since I was eighteen or so. Though I visited a couple of times.” Once out of necessity, once under duress.
“But you kept a storage unit here?”
“Not mine. My dad’s.”
“But he’s gone, right? Who’s been paying for it?”
“My dad didn’t think he would ever die. This thing is probably paid up for decades.” She stopped in front of a unit. Number
1024, like the code. God, her dad had been so hard up for his wife. It would be sweet, if the woman wasn’t a crook who abandoned
her young children.
“You stored stuff here?”
“No. Only my dad did. But he had something of mine.” She fingered the lock on the door.
“Do you have a key?”
“Not on me, no. But I don’t need one.” She unscrewed the necklace around her neck, revealing the sharp pin hidden in the oblong
pendant. She flourished it at him.
He didn’t look as impressed as she thought he might. “I saw it in the bar. So that’s how you kept getting out of the cuffs.”
“Yeah, man. Did you think it was actual magic? I’m good, but I’m not Houdini.” She inserted the pin into the keyhole and finagled it. A minute, maybe two, and the lock popped. She hummed in satisfaction and took the padlock off.
The smugness turned to swearing, though, when the door slid up and the light came on. “What the fuck?”
“I take it it’s not supposed to look like this.”
She gritted her teeth and walked inside the completely empty unit. “No, it’s not.” She crouched down. There were marks on
the floor where a desk had been, and a thin layer of dust on the concrete. Everything had been moved a while ago. Fuck.
“Could your father have emptied this place out before he died?”
She shook her head. “No. When my aunt told me about his death, she told me he’d left stuff in the unit. Said it would be here
when I was ready.” Sejal hadn’t wanted anything from her dad at that point. Alexei hadn’t been bothering her then.
Her Rhea Auntie had been hurt by Sejal’s lack of a reaction to Vassar’s death. He loved you. He just wasn’t good at raising little kids.
Every repressed memory had come roaring to the surface. How Vassar neglected them as children, making her parent her sister,
how he kicked her out because she’d refused to be a party to his dangerous schemes, how he hadn’t cared about them unless
they were making him money.
Then he shouldn’t have had any kids, she had shot back, furious with her aunt. Rhea had merely hung up. Sejal had marked the news of his death by going to a
pub and getting intensely drunk.
Fuck you, Dad. She raked her hands through her hair.
“Sejal?”
She turned around to find Krish leaning against the doorframe. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair was a mess, but he somehow
still looked more put together than she felt. “What?” she snapped.
“You’re panicking.”
“No fuck.” She paced back and forth. “I needed the— I needed what was in here. It was important.”
“How important?”
“Life and death.” Their lives.
“What was it?”
The problem was, she had no idea. “A USB drive, or . . . or . . . a bunch of spreadsheets.”
“Spreadsheets are life or death?”
Sejal stopped pacing. “When I left Alexei, he didn’t let me go quietly. I underestimated how stupid he was, because he was
embezzling from his little smuggling ring. Right around the same time that I left, his associates discovered it. He tried
to pin it on me. They came after me, so I ran.” She gave a harsh laugh. “Right to my dad.”
“That couldn’t have been easy.”
“He was my last choice, but things were looking grim.”
“What did your dad do?”
“After he called me an idiot, you mean?” Her nostrils flared. “My aunt was there, and she calmed him down. The smugglers were
arrested, and then my dad somehow found proof of Alexei’s embezzlement. I don’t know how, since neither he nor my aunt were
hackers. They took the proof to Alexei and told him they wouldn’t just go to the police, they’d also make sure his former
colleagues knew he screwed them over. He was probably more scared of his old partners, even though they were in jail, than
of being arrested.”
“So your dad and your aunt bought your safety with Alexei’s own crimes.”
“Yeah. But my dad wouldn’t give me the proof. Said he’d keep it safe, that it was insurance. He said I had proved I couldn’t be trusted to look after my own well-being.”
“What a dick.”
Sejal snorted. “Yeah. And I was so mad, I told him to go fuck himself and left. I really didn’t care because I never thought
I’d need it. All these years have passed. I thought Alexei had been scared off for good.” She wished she really had stolen
some of Alexei’s money. At least she’d be rich, then.
“So your plan all this time was to come here, find this insurance, and threaten Alexei with it,” he said slowly.
She sucked her teeth. Now he’d be annoyed, either because she’d had an ulterior motive for stopping in Vegas or because she
hadn’t clued him in. Or because he suspected . . .
“And then ditch me.”
The words fell between them with the force of a bomb. She opened her mouth. Closed it again. “Yes.”
He took a step toward her. To her surprise, he didn’t look pissed or hurt, but somber. “Makes sense.”
She wasn’t sure why she felt driven to explain herself. “I couldn’t take an FBI agent to my aunt. I might have issues with
her, but I’m not about to let her get arrested.”
“I told you—”
“Come on. I know you’re keeping secrets from me. So, no, I don’t believe you.”
You don’t care about me. You’re going to get what you need and leave me like everyone else.
The insidious, insecure words raced around her brain. “There, it’s out in the open, I have no plans to help you with my aunt.
So if you want to leave now, go, and I will figure this out on my own.”
His eyes darkened, and his jaw worked, like he wanted to say something but couldn’t. He rocked back on his heels. “I’m not going to leave you here while you have the mafia on your trail.”
“Why not?”
He bared his teeth. “I’m just not, okay?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose, wishing she could pinch away the surge of relief she felt at that vow. It sounded authentic,
and more than anything, she wanted to trust him. But how could she?
“Look . . . we need a new agreement.”
She rested her foot on the wall. “What kind of agreement?”
“A more immediate one. You don’t have to help me with your aunt. Or Cobra. We can part ways right after Alexei is off your
back.”
Sejal studied him. “What about your precious case?”
“I’ll figure something else out. I don’t want to use you.”
He didn’t? Because he’d seemed real fanatical about it a few days ago. “What brought about this change of heart?”
“Because I . . . Don’t worry about my case. I’ll figure out something else.” He made a shooing gesture. “I free you from helping
me.”
“But you’ll still help me. What do you get out of it?”
Krish stuffed his hands in his back pocket. “I’ll also get Alexei off my back.”
“This seems—”
“Do you want my no-strings-attached help, or not?”
She’d be foolish to decline it. “Fine. Okay. I’ll take your help until we’re done with Alexei. And then . . . then we’re done.”
“Yes. We’re done.”
She was getting everything she’d wanted. Protection and assistance dealing with her terrible ex, and then for Krish to leave her alone. So why did she feel . . . hollow?
Already on the new mission, he studied the empty space like answers would appear. “Who had access to this unit? Who could
have emptied it out?”
Right. She breathed in deep, trying to root herself in the present. She had to think, not wallow. “My aunt. But like I said,
I’m not going to lead you to—”
“Forget your aunt. Who else?”
Whoa. He wasn’t going to jump at any excuse to get to Rhea? Maybe he was being genuine. “My sister.” Who she really didn’t
want to go running to. “If I knew that she had it, we could break into her house, but it’s a long way to go on an if.”
Krish cast her an odd look. “I was thinking more of a phone call. Of course we’re not going to break into her home and steal
things.”
Sejal thought about the text she’d sent Mira, when Viktor had been about to kidnap her from the diner. She wondered if her
sister had ever gotten it, or if it had even been sent. “I have her number, but I don’t want to call her.”
“Why not?”
He didn’t know her and Mira’s history. “Has your little brother ever had to rescue you?”
He scratched his upper lip. “No. But I hope he would, if he could. That is what siblings do, whether they’re older or younger.”
Because Krish was a proper sibling. And you’re a failure, Sejal, like the rest of your family.
“Before I went to my dad for help with Alexei, I went to Mira. We hadn’t seen each other since I’d left home.
She was in college. I found her dorm. She was there with her roommate.
” Sejal remembered everything about that room.
How clean and tidy and normal it was, with a poster of Van Gogh’s Starry Night on the cinder-block wall.
How proud she’d been that Mira had gotten into such a good school.
How Mira had looked at her, with barely suppressed resentment and annoyance. You’re just like Dad.
How Sejal had felt then, like she’d been slapped. “Mira wasn’t pleased with me, to say the least.” She managed to keep the
forlorn tone out of that last sentence and deliver the words matter-of-factly.
Krish’s eyes narrowed. “That was a long time ago. You’re both adults now.”
And Mira had already had to rescue her once as an adult, too. Sejal shook her head. “No. We can’t bother Mira.”
He must have sensed the finality in her tone. “Okay. Nobody else? What about an old accomplice of your dad’s?”
She squinted at Krish. “Huh.” She paused. “Oh.”
“What?”
“There’s someone here who might know where the stuff is.”
“Who is it?”
“A friend of my dad’s.” Sejal squared her shoulders. “You really meant what you said?”
“About sticking around until Alexei’s neutralized? Yes.”
Inexplicable, this man. Inexplicable that she believed him.
It’s temporary. You heard him. Until Alexei’s neutralized.
Hell, she was used to temporary. “Then let’s go to a strip club.”