Chapter Nineteen
Sejal shoved open the door to the bedroom. Krish looked up from where he was seated on the bed. Sunil sat in the armchair
near the window. “What happened?” she demanded.
Krish opened his mouth, but Sunil spoke first. “Someone tried to put a bag over your friend’s head and choke him out while
he was getting ice. Your sister’s nanny found him and brought him back here.”
A bag over his head. Sejal touched her neck.
That’s what her mom had done to her when she’d taken her. She could still remember the suffocating fear.
Alexei. She strode over to Krish. Her fingers were shaking as she tilted his head back. There was a faint red mark on his neck that
would probably darken over the next day or two.
He grasped her wrist as she brushed her fingers over his skin. “It was a pillowcase, and it’s fine. I fought them off, they
didn’t do any lasting damage. Don’t worry about it. Sunil had a doctor come check me out.” His voice was raspy, but strong.
Oh, God, her uncle was here. Her uncle and sister and Naveen and her fragile little niece, in this building where Krish had been hurt. “You all have to get out of here. Especially Mira and the baby. Clearly Alexei knows where we are.”
Sunil nodded. “I’m readying a safe place for us, don’t worry. Naveen is already packing. Did you find the flash drive?”
“Yes. Mira’s checking it out right now.” Did Krish have some burst blood vessels in his eyes or were they red from tiredness?
“We need to go to the hospital.”
“No. No hospital.” Krish’s face was pale, but his shoulders were straight. He took a sip of water.
“Are you serious? Do you know what damage strangling can do to your body?”
“Yes, I do. My mother described it in graphic detail when I was ten.”
Because his mother was an intelligence operative, damn it.
“Like I told your uncle and the doctor, I’m fine.”
“Krish really is fine. My doctor is excellent.” Sunil came to his feet and patted Sejal’s arm. “I know you care for him, but
hospitals require a great deal of paperwork. And usually names. Could put a bull’s-eye on you that you don’t need.”
“I don’t care what they require. We’re going.”
Sunil glanced between her and Krish. “I’ll let you two hash it out.”
Krish waited for Sunil to leave before speaking. “No hospitals. Someone will call the cops if I come in and say I was strangled.”
That word, strangled. She swallowed her nausea. She stroked over his skin again. “Surely you can flash your badge and they won’t hassle you.”
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
“What?”
Krish grimaced. “So, about that . . .”
“What?”
“I can’t flash my badge.”
“Why not?” she said in an explosion of air. Here he was, bruised, injured, because of her, and—
His eyes rested on her. Watchful, cautious, like he feared she would explode. “Because it’s not my badge.”
She froze. Her fingers slipped away from his neck. “What?” she nearly whispered.
“I’m not an FBI agent.”
She squinted at him. “What?”
He licked his lips. “I’m—”
“I heard you.” She took a giant step back. Her thoughts were swirling in a tsunami, but one rose to the top. “I fucking knew you weren’t a cop.”
“Yes, your cop-dar is excellent.”
“I’m going to kill you.”
His chest rose and fell. “I figured. If it helps at all, I decided I was going to come clean while you were at the storage
unit.”
“It does not, in fact, help.”
Where had he gotten that very legitimate-looking badge?
Why the ruse?
Who was this man she’d kissed?
You remain a terrible man magnet, it seems.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Krish did not blame Sejal one bit for being angry, but he really wished they could have had this conversation when he hadn’t
just been attacked by—potentially—a Cobra operative in a ritzy hotel. His brain was short-circuiting, and his throat was aching.
But he owed her an apology and an explanation. “My name’s Krish Anand. I lied about being an FBI agent, yes, but everything else was true.”
“Who the fuck is Avi? Were you catfishing when you called me all those months ago?”
“Avi’s my brother. He’s the FBI agent. And he did call you. I am, obviously, not him.”
“I probably should have figured out when you asked me to keep it on the DL from your own mother.” She closed her eyes. “Oh
my God. So much makes sense now. She straight up said, You’re not like your brother, Avi. I thought she was calling you by your legal name, not identifying Avi as your brother! Did you tell her what you were up
to?”
“No.” It was pure luck, in a way, that his mother was so angry with his brother and therefore hadn’t talked about him in front
of Sejal.
She let out a small squeal of fury. “Wait. Your scar. You said you got it as a kid.”
Krish touched his face. “I did.”
Sejal’s jaw clenched. “I should have realized right then and there. That photo, you didn’t have a scar in it. I knew when
you showed it to me, it didn’t look like you, but I let you gaslight me into thinking you suddenly got bigger and hotter at
some point in the last ten years.”
She definitely does not mean the hotter part right now. “I honestly didn’t even realize I slipped up when I told you that. I’m really not used to subterfuge.”
I did lie to you, but I’m not good at it, see?
It wasn’t a great defense.
“What do you really do?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m a librarian.”
She sank into the chair Sunil had vacated like he’d deflated her. “A librarian.”
“At Georgetown, yes.” He grimaced. “Lying felt like the only way I could convince you to help me. Your file didn’t exactly
showcase a demonstrated respect for librarians.”
“I put my life in the hands of a fucking librarian. Who went to Harvard. And uses words like subterfuge.” Sejal licked her lips. “Tell me that’s a real gun you have, and not, like, one that shoots ink.”
“It is a real gun. I do know how to shoot, and how to fight. My mom ensured it.”
“Your mom who is definitely not a former florist.” She kept talking before he could answer. “Why the hell did you do this
to me?”
“I didn’t mean to do anything to you. It was . . . I had to get to Cobra.”
“Why, though?”
“Because my little brother’s missing.”
“Avi. The actual FBI agent.”
“Correct.”
She linked her hands over her stomach. Some of the fury had left her face, but he wasn’t fooled. Anger simmered in her dark
eyes; it was a tense aura around her. He swayed toward her like he could bank it with his own hands.
You shouldn’t care so much that she’s upset with you.
Except he was. He was incredibly, terribly upset.
“Tell me everything,” she demanded.
He grabbed the glass of water Sunil had left for him. Ironically, it had no ice in it. Mira and Naveen’s nanny had found him
while he’d still been sucking air in and helped him back to the room, but the ice bucket had been left behind.
Krish took a long drink. His vocal cords hurt, but she deserved this honesty and explanation.
“A known Cobra associate, an attorney, was pulled over for speeding last year. He flashed Avi’s business card to try to get out of it.
The FBI started a probe, and in exchange for cooperation, the guy claimed that Avi, for the last five years, had taken money and gifts from Cobra in exchange for information. ”
“What kind of information?”
“Running law enforcement database inquiries on suspected Cobra associates or potential associates to see if they were under
investigation. Interfering in active investigations where he could. Mostly keeping them informed and jamming up the works
when necessary.”
“So your brother was arrested?”
“No. It would be easier if he had been. Things didn’t get that far. He disappeared. They think he ran away to some island
somewhere.”
“But you don’t?”
Krish pulled out his wallet, then held out the folded-up letter inside. “I found this in his house.”
Sejal took it from him and opened up the letter. Though Krish hadn’t had it for long, he’d read it so many times the paper
creases had settled into grooves. He’d memorized exactly what it said.
Krish,
By now, you’ll have heard that my colleagues believe I took money in exchange for favors to an organization called Cobra.
You know me, and know I could never betray my oath like that.
Cobra approached me five years ago and asked me to help them.
I refused. Since then, I’ve kept close tabs on them and their associates, to see if I could vet out any other corruption.
I found plenty. I believe they decided I was a liability, and framed me to get me taken out of the picture.
Unfortunately, that means that the Bureau will not help you.
Don’t trust any of them. Consider everyone a Cobra operative.
If anything happens to me, please know that I did not go voluntarily. Tell Mom I played by the rules, no matter what. Don’t
bother looking for me, please—I don’t want you to get hurt. Know that I am content with my choices.
I love you. Avi
She folded up the paper. He tried to read her expression, but it was blank. “So you think your brother is innocent—”
“I know my brother’s innocent. Or at least, something funky is going on.” He quickly summarized his phone call with Peter.
“Does your mom even know he’s gone?”
“Yes. She believes he’s guilty, and that he ran away.”
“Your mom struck me as very astute.”
She was astute. His mother was usually right about these things. “Normally she is, but she also has a very definite sense
of right and wrong. We were held to very high standards growing up. I’m not surprised she’d wash her hands of Avi if she thought
he failed to meet them.”
Sejal tapped the letter in her palm. “Okay, let’s assume he’s innocent. So you think my aunt and Cobra have, what, kidnapped
him? Killed him? To make sure he doesn’t incriminate other dirty agents in the Bureau?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
“What does this have to do with me?”
“Avi knew where you were. Your neighborhood, the bars and café you frequented. He had a file on you and your aliases. He’d been tracking you.”
“Again, what does this have to do with me?”
“You were my only lead.”