“Have you ever been shot?” he asked, determined to not sound like a scared little boy.
“I’ve never been hit by a bullet.”
“So you’ve been shot at?”
“The person under my protection has been shot at.” The woman seemed to be entirely unfamiliar with these things called emotions. In other words, she was Yash’s inner world right now.
“What did you do?”
“I pushed him to the ground and the bullet missed.” Still no emotion. None at all.
“How many times has this happened?”
It took her a few moments, during which her face blanked out even more. She was actually counting the number of times in her head. “Four.”
“Why do you do this job?”
“Someone has to do it and I can do it better than most.”
Nisha looked like a cat who had swallowed a giant tub of cream.
Yash threw his sister a look that said, Don’t you dare say one single word, before turning to Brandy again. “You can start tomorrow.”
He was about to leave, glad to be done with this, when Nisha spoke. “Actually she’s starting today.” She turned to Brandy. “Yash needs to go see someone in Palo Alto today. Now, as a matter of fact.”
Yash didn’t even bother to glare at Nisha. How had she and Ashna managed to even get through to India so fast? “I’d like to do that by myself. Thank you.”
“So you’re going to hire someone else for this job, then?” Brandy said.
God, he hated his life.
“No, he won’t,” Nisha said before he groaned out loud. “You’ll go with him. Your first assignment.” As if he didn’t know that Nisha had already hired Brandy before bringing her here.
Yash sighed. “I didn’t say I was going to go see India today.”
“You need to be back on the campaign trail. You don’t have the luxury of waiting until tomorrow.” Nisha no longer sounded smug, just worried. “Brandy and you can wait in the car. I just texted Ashna. She’s on her way down, she’ll take you over to India’s.”
Nisha and everyone he knew had spent a lifetime working to make his goals a reality. It was time for him to stop being a baby.
“Fine.” They walked in silence to his car.
He hadn’t seen India Dashwood in ten years, and now he was going to have an audience when he did see her.
At least there was zero chance that she would want to work with him. Which meant he had to show up, have her tell him she didn’t have time for him, and then . . . and then what, he didn’t know.
For the first time in his life, when he looked into the future, he hit a wall. A wall that loomed as dark and endless as the numbness inside him. For the first time in his life, he had a problem and no idea how to fix it.
Chapter Six
India handed her mother a cup of steaming ginger and turmeric tea. The shadows under Mom’s eyes were deep and her aura was still completely off, but between the meditation and the medication her pain seemed to have eased. “Is China back from her cooling-off walk?” Tara asked just as the doorbell rang, startling them both.
Their doorbell never rang. Not ever. Why would China ring the bell? Both the entrances had a security keypad with a code. Only the front studio entrance had a doorbell.
“The keypad must not be working,” India said, dropping a kiss on Tara’s head. “Get some rest. I’ll let China in and then I need to file some patient records.”
Making a mental note to get the keypad checked, India took the stairs down and made her way through the studio to the front door. She pressed her face to the mullioned glass to see who it was and threw the door wide open. The bells on the doorknob went off in a jingling frenzy.
“Ashna! I’m so glad to see you.” She wrapped her arms around Ashna. “How is your cousin? I was so worried. Is everything okay? Did you need a session? How is the bodyguard? Is he going—”
Ashna quickly returned her hug, then pulled away and looked over India’s shoulder at someone standing off to the side. India spun around.
Oh.
She had forgotten how tall he was. How long-limbed and athletic. How thick his hair. How stark the gray of his eyes against his dark skin. How wide his shoulders.
She’d forgotten the sheer force of his presence.
Like an absolute and utter idiot, she made a sound that belonged to no language on earth.
His lips did the barest twist. She had no idea if it was a smile or a grimace. Raising his hand, he gave her a wave.
A wave! As though he were onstage and she were one of his political groupies lapping up his speeches and waiting to shake his hand. Now that he was standing here all healthy and as vibrant as ever, she wanted to shove him away and slam the door in his face. She’d been waiting a long time to slam the door in his face.
“I texted you and tried to call. But you didn’t answer,” Ashna said, and India spun to her, praying that the embarrassment burning her face wasn’t visible.
She had turned her phone silent at the doctor’s office and forgotten to turn it back on.
“Do you have a moment to talk?” Ashna asked.
They wanted to come in? Both of them? Why? “Absolutely. Come on in.”
Before India could step aside and let them in, a woman in a black muscle shirt and an earpiece stepped out from behind Yash. “Is there anyone in the studio?” She had red spiked hair and the palest blue eyes. The word assassin came to mind.
“This is Brandy, Yash’s bodyguard,” Ashna said, sliding a quick look at Yash. “His new bodyguard.”
The lines around Yash’s mouth tightened. He looked away when India caught the punch of pain in his eyes. Now that she was past the initial shock, he seemed drawn. His angular face had filled out, all of him had broadened and gained gravitas. The streaks of silver radiating from his temples took the gravitas to the next level. Despite that, there was a hollowness to him. Not even a hint of the energetic sparkle she remembered in his eyes.
Don’t think about his aura.
His golden aura had been a magnet to her. The only aura that she had ever read wrong. It had dulled to a tarnished bronze.
He’d just been shot, and the rate at which he’d been campaigning was nothing short of frenzied, so maybe she shouldn’t be surprised. Gauging people was her job, intuitively knowing what ailed them was her greatest skill, but there was something in his face that she couldn’t put into words.
The bodyguard extended her hand and India took it. “It’s nice to meet you.” She hated how much she loved that his bodyguard was a woman.
India could carry a grown man up five flights of stairs without breaking a sweat. She could bench two-fifty. Not many people realized how strong a lifelong yoga practice made you. The last thing she needed flashing in her head right now was that first time she had met Yash at his sister’s wedding. It had been years since she’d thought about how dazzled he’d been when she’d helped him move those heavy boxes.
“Likewise,” Brandy said. To no one’s surprise she had an impressively assertive handshake. “Is there anyone else in there?”
“The studio is closed.” India threw a look at the CLOSED sign hanging on the door. “My mother is upstairs and we don’t open again until six.”