“Her hand was forced.” But later, Mira had been kind and welcoming to her.
That couldn’t possibly have been genuine, though. Or if it had, Mira probably hadn’t thought it through. Her sister had a nice, sanitized life and didn’t need her messy family fucking that up.
“Why do you want to know so much about me, anyway?” And why was she telling him?
This is part of his game. He’s a way better interrogator than his mother is.
“It helps me understand you a little more.”
She drew back. That sounded earnest, and was somehow worse than intel gathering for law enforcement purposes. “Why would you want to understand me?”
His cheeks puffed up. “I’ll be honest... I have no idea.”
The phone rang between them. They both looked at the blockednumber for a ring or two like it was a live bomb, and then Sejal answered, placing it on speaker phone. “Hello?”
“The tiger’s got a friend.”
She was confused by the raspy feminine voice until she reached way back into her childhood. “The friend’s a rabbit.”
A pause. “Come to the Wyatt. Suite 3540.” The line disconnected.
She hung up and put her belt on, a new urgency taking the place of her worries about Krish. She could deal with it if her big mouth got her in trouble later, but Alexei needed to be neutralized immediately. “The Wyatt’s not far. Come on.”
He started the car and pulled out. “Will your uncle be there?”
“Hopefully.” Or maybe not hopefully? It was unclear how she felt about seeing Sunil again.
“What was that about a rabbit?”
“Take a left out of the parking lot and get back on the freeway.” Sejal sat forward in her seat, anticipation coursing through her veins now that they were on the move. “When we were little, my uncle used to read me a story. About a tiger who only made friends with other predators, because he felt that prey were beneath him. But then one day, when they were in the midst of a drought, the tiger realized that all of the predators being friends meant that none of them ate. So he set out to make friends with a bunny. With the objective of eating him at the end of the day.”
“Jesus, what kind of brutal children’s book was this?” Krish navigated onto the freeway.
“A standard one, so many of them are brutal. Anyway, the tiger realized he was having fun with the bunny, so he didn’t eat him that night. Every night that went by, he made excuse after excuse as to why he wouldn’t eat his rabbit friend.
“The other predators became jealous, so they tracked down the bunny. Just when they were about to eat him, the tiger leapt in and saved him. The other predators were angry, but the tiger stood his ground, bunny in his mouth. They ran off together, and lived in a little cave, taking in other animals, predators and prey, who wanted to have fun, with no ulterior motives.”
“Well, at least it ends happily.” Krish glanced at her. “Wait, am I thebunny?”
Sejal agreed that, as big as Krish was, he wouldn’t make a very good bunny. “She was asking if I was with you under duress.”
“Oh. I see. Fine.”
The Wyatt was a huge upscale hotel and casino on the strip, and it took them longer than she would have liked to park their car and wind their way to the elevator. Sejal worried a thread from the sleeve of her sweatshirt around her finger, until Krish stopped her by taking her hand. “Relax. This is a friend, right?”
“Yup.” A friend who had known and loved her father, someone she had known and hated. A man from the childhood she’d done her best to leave behind in this godforsaken city. Easy.
They came to the suite door, and Krish knocked.
The door opened, and Sejal felt like she’d been punched, the wind knocked out of her. The woman standing on the other side of the door appeared equally stunned.
Mira’s hair was longer, and she had gained weight since Sejal had seen her last, her face now rounder and rosier. She wore casual clothes, expensive jeans, and a wrinkle-free long-sleeved shirt that fit her curves well.
But as good as her sister looked, all Sejal could focus on was the brown-skinned, fresh little baby sitting on her sister’s hip. The childwas angelic, maybe a few months old, wearing a green-and-white-striped dress, with matching ribbons holding her curly dark hair up in two short pigtails.
“Sejal,” Mira breathed.
Sejal tore her gaze away from the baby. “Mira. I’m sorry—”
