Sejal looked at her sister. “You still have that hacker friend, right? Can she get me Alexei’s address?”
Mira was already shaking her head. “I’ve had her on it since before we left for the storage unit. The man’s a hermit. She was able to track down his driver’s license and a bank account, but the address on them was bull.”
“Bank account, huh?” Sejal steepled her fingers together. “Can she clone me a debit card or a credit card of his?”
“Probably,” Mira allowed. “Might take her a minute.”
Krish turned to face her. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we can’t wait for Alexei to put another bag over our heads. If we can’t go to him, we lure him out. Lay a trap, show him what we have, and then get him off our backs once and for all.”
Krish’s immediate response was to sayhell no, but then he thought about it. She was absolutely right. They had to get this over with, and far better to be on the offensive than the defensive. “Let’s do it.”
She hesitated for a beat, and he wondered if she was going to tell him to fuck off again, but she turned to her uncle instead. “Sunil Uncle, can you loan us some of your security guards and some surveillance equipment?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“I also need you to get out of here. All of you.”
Mira straightened. “I’m not leaving you to face this on your own.”
“You have to. You have a daughter now.”
Naveen took a step toward his wife. “Sejal’s right. Sunil has a safe house set up for us. I’ve already sent Isha home, so she’s safe. We have to go, Mira. Think of the baby.”
“I’ll be okay,” Sejal assured her sister.
“You could get in trouble again,” Mira said fretfully.
Sejal’s face fell, a fleeting expression that Krish caught. Nobody knew better than him how much it sucked to be underestimated. Krish cleared his throat. “Sejal is actually quite capable. She’s a magician, you know.”
Mira squinted at him. “What do you mean, a magician?”
He waved his hands. “I mean... a magician. She can make cards disappear. She can get out of locked cuffs.”
“Shecan?”
“He’s making a bigger deal out of it than it is.” Sejal’s cheeks had darkened. Praise was not something she was accustomed to.
Too bad. Neither was he, but maybe that wasn’t a good thing. “I’m not. She’s extremely wily. I would bet on her over every mafioso in this country.”
Sejal shifted her weight. “We’ll get rid of Alexei and give you a call when we do.”
Sunil took hold of Mira’s arm. “We’ll head out now. Keep us updated, Sejal.”
The flinty look in Mira’s eyes mirrored the one her sister often displayed. “Keep my sister safe, Krish.”
Krish nodded. Sejal might stay pissed as hell at him, but that wasn’t going to stop him from protecting her. “Understood.”
Chapter Twenty
A facial, a massage, a blowout, and a sexy, tiny strapless black dress could do wonders for a girl’s spirits. Sejal crossed her legs and let her Louboutins dangle off her toes. She’d never had red-bottomed heels before, and no one had warned her that the damn things hurt. The short walk from the boutique to the restaurant had nearly killed her. But they did make the muscles in her legs pop.
Thanks, Alexei.
They’d moved to another hotel, the Solterra, which was more upscale than the Wyatt, and she’d reserved their room using Alexei’s dime. Once she felt she’d spent enough during her shopping spree at the hotel boutiques, she’d found a restaurant to wait in. The waiter had just brought her a dry martini.
The ceiling was mirrored, and the woman she saw reflected there barely looked like her. At least, not the her who had spent the last few days in a man’s sweatsuit.
