Chapter Twenty-Two
Krish considered himself fairly good at multitasking, but there was a lot going on.
His brother had traded Sejal’s safety to Alexei for money. Alexei was bleeding and writhing on the floor. The woman he’d been
itching to find since he’d discovered that his brother was missing was standing right in front of him.
Yes, this was A Lot.
Rhea Chaudhary raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow. Sejal’s aunt had to be in her mid-sixties by now, but she looked more like
Sejal and Mira’s sister than like their aunt. She was dressed in flare jeans and a tight shirt with a leather jacket thrown
over it. Her hair was in a thick braid, and her face was still unlined and youthful.
Krish tightened his grip on his gun. She was here. The head of Cobra, in his grasp.
Though, really, what did it matter anymore? Avi had probably used the money from Alexei to flee the country.
Your brother is corrupt, and you’ve been the fool trying to find him all this time.
“Hello, my love. Is the pretty one on our side? Or another one that I need to kill?”
Sejal pointed at Viktor and Alexei. “Uh, no. Those two are the bad guys. Krish is a friend.”
Krish started when he realized he was the pretty one.
“Hello, Krish. Lovely to meet you. My name’s Rhea.”
“Yes. I, uh, know.”
Rhea’s gaze hardened when it fell on Viktor. “I’ll just kill this one here, then.”
Viktor placed his weapon on the ground. “There’s no need for that. I can see myself and Alexei out.”
Alexei moaned again and opened his eyes. He pressed his hand against his flank. “You fucking shot me. How could you?”
“Because, like I said, I work for your father first.” Viktor took a step toward Sejal, stopping when both Krish and Rhea gave
warning noises. “Sejal, I’d like those photos.”
Her gaze flickered to Alexei on the floor. There was a slight green cast to her face. Krish had grown up hunting, but he’d
never seen a human shot, either, so he didn’t blame her. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. I’d rather keep them.”
“I’ll need to explain to Alexei’s father why I had to shoot him.”
“No, don’t tell my dad!”
“Shut up, Alexei.” Viktor shot the younger man a look of loathing.
“My plan was to ensure Alexei’s old friends found him,” Rhea interjected. “I think they should deal with him, save his father
the trouble. He stole from them, after all.”
Alexei tried to jackknife into a seated position, but sank back to the floor. “No! Is that what you want, Sejal? My death
on your conscience?”
“I mean . . .” Sejal met Krish’s gaze and sighed. “No.”
Krish cleared his throat. “If I may, I think I have a solution here.” He nodded toward Alexei. “You have proof of his embezzling,
right, Sejal? And therefore proof of his engagement in illegal activities? Let the cops deal with him.”
Rhea made a face. “I’m tired of calling in the cops to clean up our family messes.”
“If you put me in jail, I’ll also be killed,” Alexei yelped.
They ignored him. “Give me the flash drive,” Viktor urged. “I will turn him over to the cops.”
Would he really, though?
Does it matter?
No. So long as they left her alone.
“I have copies of everything,” Sejal warned.
“And I’ve had our man recording this conversation.” Krish pulled out his phone, still connected to Cary. Mob bosses weren’t
in his realm of expertise, but he imagined they didn’t love audio of their sons committing crimes. “Even if Alexei is dead
or in prison, we wouldn’t want any of these photos to see the light of day, right? It would be quite embarrassing for his
dad.”
Viktor inclined his head and holstered his weapon. “Understood. You have my word the Ivanovitches will not bother you further.
Keep the money, give the money away. It’s none of our concern.”
Sejal hesitated, then yanked the flash drive out of her pocket and handed it over to Viktor.
“Thanks. We will be on our way as soon as I figure out how to remove him without calling attention to ourselves.”
“I figured there might be a need for haulaway here.” Rhea relaxed her stance and went to the door. When she came back in again, flanked by Sunil’s guards, she was rolling a laundry cart.
“Good job not letting anyone in, guys,” Krish muttered.
To their credit, the guards looked abashed, but Rhea stepped in front of them. “Don’t be annoyed with them. I called Sunil,
and he told them to listen to me.”
Viktor bent down and scooped up Alexei like he was nothing. He ignored his former boss’s groans of pain as he dropped him
into the laundry cart and covered him with dirty towels. “Boys, why don’t you make sure this place is cleaned up and our friends
leave, as they promised?” Rhea asked sweetly.
Cary nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Sejal averted her gaze from the blood on the floor. “Our room is down the hall.”
When they were safely back in their room, Rhea glanced around. “Do you think there’s some tea here? I could really use a cup.”
“There’s a cart in the corner,” Sejal said.
“How are you doing, Sejal? I know guns are difficult for you,” Rhea said, as she went to the cart.
“I’m okay.” Sejal licked her lips. “Better now that I’m not in that room.”
Krish tucked his own gun into his holster. “How did you know we were here, Rhea?”
“Tracker.”
Sejal leaned against the sofa. “What?”
“There’s a tracker in your earrings.”
Sejal touched her earrings. “Mira gave them to me.”
Rhea gave a stern nod and opened the wooden box full of teas. “She must have been worried about you. She knew I’d look out for you. Smart girl.”
“You’d look out for me,” Sejal repeated, then took a step forward. “You’re the reason I’m in this mess at all!”
Rhea grimaced. She abandoned the teas and leaned against a table. “I’m so sorry, Sejal. I was only, in my clumsy way, trying
to do what was right by you and your father.”
“My father! My father started all this by getting greedy and going after Alexei’s password. I have no idea what he was thinking!”
“He was thinking that he wanted to avenge you,” Rhea said gently. “Only he died before he could finish the job.”
“He wanted to avenge me or he wanted millions of dollars?”
“Don’t be foolish, Sejal. If he wanted the money, he would have withdrawn it. Instead, he sat on it. He wanted to give you
a gift. Make up for . . .”
“For being a shitty parent?” Sejal asked pointedly.
Rhea’s lips thinned. “If you must.”
“You accessed Alexei’s fortune, didn’t you?”
“And recently transferred ten million out,” Rhea concluded, her face grave. “I didn’t care about the money. Sejal, I promise,
I only wanted to lure Alexei back into the open so the people he double-crossed would find him. I didn’t think he’d go after
you, or that if he did, he’d be able to find you. You were doing such a good job of hiding!”
Krish took a step forward. “So you took that money.” He looked at Sejal. “And my brother sold you out. I’m sorry, Sejal.”
Rhea blinked at him. “And who is your brother?”
“Agent Avi Anand.”
“Oh. Am I supposed to know who that is?”
Krish didn’t know Rhea well enough to be able to tell if her bewilderment was real, but it seemed authentic. “He’s FBI. He
disappeared recently, after being accused of working with Cobra.”
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry.” She made a face. “Was Cobra involved in his disappearance, or did he leave voluntarily?”
Wait a minute. “You—you don’t know?”
“Why would I know?”
“Aren’t you running Cobra?”
“Cobra?” Rhea laughed. “Oh my God, absolutely not. Rushali hated me for not letting my brother elope with her. Her people
would never give me loyalty. Even if I had the silly desire to be in charge of a crime ring, of all things. Too much paperwork.”
Krish and Sejal looked at each other. “So who is running it?” Sejal asked.
“I couldn’t possibly know.”
Well. That was that, then.
Finality pressed down on Krish, anchoring his feet to the floor. The room felt too small, though it was lavish.
You can still go through that attorney. Figure out who the real head of Cobra is. Except Krish wasn’t an FBI agent, and he didn’t have access to any other intelligence except what his brother had left him.
He was a librarian. Good at reading and researching and pointing people to resources, not good at being an international superspy.
Anyway, what did it matter? Avi had sold Sejal’s location and aliases to the highest bidder. An innocent man wouldn’t do that.
And now he wouldn’t see Sejal again, either. They were done. She made him laugh, and she was weird and silly and just mysterious enough that he wanted to sit down and slowly peel her layers off, one at a time, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Krish?”
He focused on Sejal’s face. It was softer than he was used to seeing it.
“Can you go out on the balcony so my aunt and I can talk for a minute?”
His response was immediate. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I would like some time alone with her.”
Still he hesitated. Rhea might not head a criminal organization, but she was awfully comfortable with a gun, and he didn’t
know her well enough to leave her alone with a woman he was . . . was as fond of . . . as Sejal. “Sejal—”
“Please.” The word pierced through his own whirlwind thoughts. She didn’t plead with anyone.
He nodded, reluctant. “I’ll be right outside.”
Rhea beamed at Krish. “It was lovely working with you, Krish. Please take care of Sejal, eh?”
“I don’t need taking care of,” Sejal said, but Krish replied to Rhea. Both because he understood that she cared, and because
he wanted to make the vow to someone.
“I will.”
Sejal waited until Krish was on the balcony and out of earshot. Not out of view, though. His rigid shoulders were more than
visible through the flimsy curtains.
She focused on her aunt. “Okay, he’s gone. Tell me the truth. Are you in charge of Cobra?”
“I am not. I’ve been so busy in hiding, honestly, I haven’t paid attention to who is running things.”
“And you don’t know who Krish or his brother are.”
Rhea shook his head. “No, but I see how much you care about this Krish, and that makes me very happy. Is his full name Krishna?”
“Yes.”