“I took over a form of Cobra,” Isha corrected her. “We’re winding up operations and going legit. My mother—our mother—was a fool. The power isn’t in illicit operations any longer. It’s in influencing the world with vast amounts of legitimate money.”
Krish cleared his throat. “Both those strategies sound pretty evil.”
“Yes, but one carries the threat of jail time, and the other does not, and if our mother’s misery is any indication, jail is not fun.” Isha paused. “I didn’t think I’d actually get to meet you, Sejal. I didn’t think I wanted to. I was afraid to.”
“I can understand that.”
“Now that the shock is out of the way, what can I do for you?”
Sejal tried to refocus. “We’re really here about Krish’s brother. Do you know what happened to him?”
Isha took another sip of her chai. “Agent Avi. Yes. He called my attorney a couple weeks ago and told me he’d be happy to trade your location for money, as he had once before with our mother. I sent him on his way. I figured if you wanted to be found, you would be. A shame he figured out that someone else was interestedin your whereabouts. If I’d known he was shopping your privacy, I would have neutralized him right there and then.”
Isha paused. “I’m sorry about trying to choke you, Krish, but knowing how cavalier your brother was with Sejal’s safety, I figured you were up to something, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The surprises kept coming. Krish sat forward. “You...youstrangled me? In the hotel.”
Isha inclined her head. “Guilty, yes.”
“Jesus Christ,” Sejal muttered.
“I was trying to protect you!” Isha protested. “Krish, you are far better at combat than I thought a librarian would be. Your mother taught you well.”
“You know my mom?”
Isha’s eyes gleamed. “I know of her. I know of everything, Krish.”
Sejal was eyeing Isha like one might eye a friendly shark. “If you know everything, then you know what happened to Avi.”
“Why do you care? I just told you he sold you out.”
“I already know that.” Sejal’s gaze flickered to Krish, and Isha tracked it.
“Ah,” the former nanny said. “Got it. For what it’s worth, I did advise him to face the investigation and throw his supervisor and partner under the bus, but he said that that wasn’t possible. Apparently, he was quite nervous about you and your mother finding out that he did anything corrupt. He said you were sternpeople, not very forgiving of errors, that you’d disown him immediately.”
Fuck. Krish sat back. Is that how Avi had seen him? Their mother, yes, but him?
Isha glanced at him from under her lashes, and Krish spotted a hint of Sejal in that look.
“I don’t see it. You look harmless to me.”
He thought of all the times he’d had to bail Avi out of trouble when they were kids. Had he been cold and annoyed? Probably. But he’d still helped Avi, hadn’t he? Avi had been Krish’s responsibility. He’d held him as a baby. Vowed to protect him.
Except now. He’d failed him now, when he needed Krish the most.
Being the eldest doesn’t mean you have to solve everyone’s problems. And not solving everyone’s problems doesn’t mean that you’ve failed at being the eldest.
A cough from a diner in one of the other booths brought him out of his musings.
“Anyway,” Isha was saying, “I looked into it after I saw you, Krish. All I know is that Avi booked a ticket south of the border after he received the wire transfer from Ivanovitch. He could be anywhere by now.”
“Anywhere, yes.” The world was big. Avi wasn’t only a trained federal agent, he was their mother’s son.
Sejal leaned forward. “Isha, you could find him, surely.”
“Find him for what? To come back here to face being fired and jail time?”
