Mira’s smile spread over her face. “Good—” Her pocket rang, and she reached into it. “Hi, Naveen.” Her eyes grew wide and ricocheted to Sejal’s face. “Okay. We’ll leave right now.”
“What’s wrong?” Sejal demanded before Mira had even hung up. “Is it Ananya?” If Alexei had gotten his hands on her precious baby niece who looked like her, she’d take his tongue and use it to floss his brain.
“No.” Mira took a deep breath and grabbed Sejal’s arm. “It’s Krish.”
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.”
Abagover 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 beenhurt. “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.”
