Chapter Twenty-Three #2
Her mother nodded. “Good. Well, a pleasure to see you both. Hope your brother’s okay, Krish,” her fucking bananas mother said
sweetly, and left.
Krish was silent until they got outside. Sejal looked up at him. The sun was high in the sky, and there was a sheen on his
skin. “You okay?”
“I didn’t actually think he did it.” Krish stopped at their car and put his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t actually think
Avi would take money from a criminal.”
“That’s if we actually believe my mother. She’s a liar, Krish. It could all be a lie.”
He scrubbed his face. “She had no reason to lie about that.”
“Except for the pleasure she gets from lying,” Sejal remarked dryly. “She slit her father’s fucking throat, man. Don’t put
stuff past her.”
“I think she was telling the truth.”
Sejal didn’t know why she felt it necessary to defend his foolish brother, except she hated how upset Krish looked. “Sounds like he didn’t do a lot of corrupt stuff.”
“He did it enough that he was compromised.” Krish tilted his face up to the weak sun. “And he’s the reason you were kidnapped.
I mean, both times, I guess. All three times? By your mom, me, and then Alexei.”
“To be fair, you and Alexei were failed kidnappings. Barely rose to the level of abductions, actually.”
“Why are you being kind to him?”
She leaned against the car next to him. “Listen, you were raised with very black-and-white thinking.” She waved at the imposing
prison in front of them. “Whereas I was raised with shades-of-gray people. Your brother . . . he did something bad. But not
so bad, you know?”
“You should hate me.”
She considered that. “Do you hate me for being her daughter?”
“Of course not.”
She’d figured as much, but it was nice to have the confirmation again. “Then why would I hate you?”
He rubbed his thumb over a callus on his finger. “Good point. Are you okay? After seeing her?”
“Eh.” Sejal waggled her hand. “I’m not as traumatized as I thought I’d be, for sure. Which is nice. It feels good to have
the closure of seeing her one more time where she’s the one that’s in custody and not me.”
“Yes, I imagine it was nice to be able to walk out of there and leave her behind bars.”
“It’s also nice to see her stripped bare. I had to grow up constantly keeping secrets about my family. It’s exhausting, and
kind of a relief when people know everything.”
He was silent for a moment. “I know what that’s like.”
“Yeah?”
“My mom was IB.”
She peered up at him. The afternoon sun brought out all the red highlights in his hair, creating a halo around his head. “What
is that?”
“The Indian Intelligence Bureau. I don’t know the details about what she did there, but she was fairly high up. After my dad
died, she wanted a fresh start. So my grandfather, who had a ton of money, wiped her record and got her and us resettled here.”
Internally, Sejal fist-pumped. “I knew she was intelligence. Thank you for gifting me with this validation of being right.”
“As usual, your radar is excellent. So anyway, I very much understand having to hide family secrets at all times. My family,
we’re also experts at sweeping things under the rug. It is exhausting.” He peered down at her. “No wonder you and I get along.
Neither of us asked for what our parents do or did. We have to muddle through life in spite of it.”
She didn’t know when it had happened, but she realized they were hand in hand. She rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her
lips against his. The kiss was tender. Sweet. She wasn’t used to either of those things.
They separated. “What now?” he asked, his breath puffing against her cheek.
That was a great question. She pondered it. “We could fuck off and go to Bora Bora.”
“A beach,” he said, with some longing. “That would be nice.”
“Or we can do exactly what we were going to do before. Go find out where your brother is.”
Krish’s lips twisted. “I’m willing to believe now that Avi ran away. That’s probably why he sold your location to Alexei. For funds to finance his fleeing. Why should I try to find him?”
“Because if my mom is telling the truth, Avi’s being framed for things he didn’t do by two people who definitely also need
to be taken out of law enforcement.” Sejal shrugged. “Isn’t it worth finding him?”
“Gray areas.”
“Gray areas.” She squeezed his hand. “Come on. It’s the last piece of this puzzle. We can’t give up now. Not when we’re so
close.” She was curious, but more importantly, she didn’t think Krish would ever get over not knowing exactly what had happened
to his brother.
And that mattered to her. He mattered to her. So weird and scary.
You also still don’t want to say goodbye to him. Well, there was that as well.
He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss on the back of it. “Okay, but we have to talk about what a silly name Naan
Negotiable is for a restaurant.”
“Right? When Naan Stop is right there.” She tossed him the car keys. “You drive. I’ll take aux.”
Krish caught them. “Or Naan the Wiser, if they really wanted to lean into being a mob front.”
“Naan of your Business.”
He tapped his nose, and she reveled in his grin. “That’s it. That’s the one.”