Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)(117)

“I don’t think she’s the one who doesn’t think of me as her equal.” He removed her hand from his arm. Again. And took several steps away from her.

“I see.” How had he thought her eyes pretty? There was a flat immobility to them, and it made a strange mix with the cold certainty on her face of someone who believed they’d been irreversibly wronged.

“And how do you think this affair is going to end up when the Rajes learn that their daughter has gotten mixed up with a terrorist?”

The screech of a cart sounded in the distance. He realized with a start that it wasn’t in the distance at all; he’d slammed into the cart behind him when he’d stumbled back. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, have you not told your girlfriend that you were arrested for arson as part of a racially motivated terrorist attack?” she asked casually, reaching for her camera.

“You’re entirely insane.”

“What I am is a good journalist. Just because you’re blinded by the Raje glow, and fickle—don’t think I didn’t see how you looked at me when we first met—I’m not giving up my credibility as a journalist. I’ve released Emma’s film. I was going to share the donations with you, but now I’m not so sure.” She pulled a sheaf of papers from her bag. “This is a release form for the film. Sign it and I won’t go to the Rajes with your background. Oh, and if you think your girlfriend won’t care—because I know she’s dumb when it comes to things like that—I assure you that the family will care. And imagine the field day the press will have when I go to them with the fact that Yash Raje and his family are associating with a terrorist. You can’t cook fund-raising dinners for a candidate who doesn’t get to run, now, can you?”

TRISHA COULD HAVE sworn that she had made some progress with DJ over the past two days. She hadn’t hoped for much, but something about the way he looked at her had changed. There was a tenderness to him that made her extremities tingle and her insides warm. He’d never been like that with her before. It had made her hope that at least he didn’t dislike her anymore. Evidently, she was wrong. The least he could have done was warn her that he was with Julia.

How could he be with her? How? It just didn’t make sense. Was she drugging him too? Was she blackmailing him? Maybe he was sacrificing himself for Trisha. Maybe he was secretly in love with Trisha and bearing Julia’s horrible presence to protect Trisha and her family from threat of ruin.

Trisha groaned. She shouldn’t have binge-watched nineties Bollywood films on Netflix last night.

She heard a knock on her office door and sat up.

Julia walked in and without an invitation dropped into the chair across from Trisha’s desk.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“You don’t own this hospital, Trisha. It’s public property. You don’t own everything”

Actually, the hospital was private property. But arguing with Julia would only make her crazier.

“What do you want?” Best to make this quick, because the sight of Julia in her beloved office was making her nauseated.

“I’ve slept with him, you know,” Julia said with absolute calm.

Don’t rise to her bait. Do not. “With whom?”

“Funny. You know exactly whom. You always had that face, transparent as a fishbowl. But it would figure that a princess whose family takes care of everything for her would never have to learn how to hide her feelings. Because God help anyone who would dare to hurt her.” She mock trembled.

“And yet, here you are.”

The original plan to not rise to her bait was much smarter, because Julia didn’t like that. Her eyes went glassier with anger.

“I’ve had to do it all myself, Sha-Sha,” she said, making the nickname sound ugly. “Someone like you would never understand that. I’ve had to care for me, my whole life. There was no one else. Excuse me for stepping on your little feelings along the way.”

You didn’t step on my feelings, you sick fuck. You drugged and sexually assaulted my brother and then tried to ruin him. The words almost burst from her tongue. But Trisha held them in because she wasn’t going to let her anger risk Yash by turning Julia’s focus on him. “How is hurting everyone who tries to be your friend taking care of yourself?” That she did say. She had to say it. But even as she said it, she knew it would make no difference. Julia didn’t understand how things like love and friendship worked. “If you stopped for one moment to think about giving instead of taking, you might not be so alone.”

If Trisha had thought Julia was angry before, now she came unhinged with rage. “You want me to give?” she snarled. “You selfish bitch. You know what? You know how many news channels would pay me to give them an interview about Yash? About what your family did to me? Maybe that’s what I’ll give.”

Trish stood, blood pounding in her ears. Screw being compassionate. Holding back was not going to work. “And if you do, you’ll go to jail. Your NDA is watertight, and you know it. If you so much as mention my brother in the media, our lawyers will make sure you regret ever being that stupid. You can’t touch what you did to Yash back then and you know it.”

Julia’s jaw tightened with frustration. She didn’t have a response to that. Which was both a relief and terrifying. Her being here didn’t have anything to do with the video, but that just meant Julia had something else up her ugly sleeve. “Actually, why are you even back?”