Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)(97)

She walked to her desk and leaned back into it. “I know that.”

For a moment he said nothing, just studied Emma’s painting on her wall with some surprise. She’d had it mounted the day after Emma gave it to her.

“Nisha has her reasons for keeping her secret.”

“Everyone always has reasons for keeping secrets.”

He was right.

Everyone always had reasons. She’d had a reason for not telling Yash that Julia had developed an unhealthy obsession with him. She’d thought Julia was her friend. And when her friend had begged her to keep her secret, she’d done what her friend needed. It had been the biggest mistake of her life. One she’d be repeating if she didn’t tell her family that Julia was working with DJ and Emma. But it would mean he’d lose the job.

In her gut she knew that he didn’t deserve that. She’d seen the fire in his eyes at the Astoria, during the tasting at Nisha’s. She also knew in her gut that Julia’s being here wasn’t a coincidence. And Yash . . .

“Mr. Caine . . .” He turned to her. “Do you mind if I call you DJ? It’s seems like it’s time we moved past last names.”

He swallowed, a strange look crossing his face. “Please.”

“Julia is taking advantage of you and Emma to hurt my family. I know this for sure.”

“Can you tell me how you know this?”

“No, I can’t. It could hurt my family too much if I did.”

Pride in who he was glittered in his eyes. “I would never break a confidence.”

“I know that—you didn’t just now with Neel and I appreciate that.” But not everyone was like him. That was the problem, wasn’t it? Ashi had told her that he was still helping with her menu, even after she’d rented the kitchen and couldn’t let him use it.

Worry about how much Julia could hurt him stomped through her. But she couldn’t compromise Yash.

“Why didn’t you tell me that Julia was working with Emma, DJ?”

“I wasn’t aware that I had to run whom I choose to associate with by you, Trisha.” He pronounced it “Trisher” and said it deliberately, as though to emphasize how long it had taken them to get around to this basic level of intimacy, and how she had leapt right over that threshold to dumping her feelings at his feet.

And now all she wanted was for him to say her name over and over like that.

Could the floor open and swallow her up, please? “I told you my family won’t work with you if you associate with her.”

“Maybe that’s why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t think it was fair for you to take another thing away from her.”

She laughed. “I have no idea what Julia’s been telling you, but I assure you that I’ve never taken anything away from anyone, most of all not her. I have always been honest with you—often to my detriment. Can you at least weigh what you’ve seen before deciding you want to trust her over me?”

“You want me to mistrust someone on your word?”

“You’re mistrusting me on her word, aren’t you?”

That gave him pause. He squeezed the back of his neck. “In the absence of it being refuted.”

“I can’t refute it because there are things I cannot reveal. Things that aren’t mine to reveal.”

“Well then, we have a problem, don’t we?”

That they did. Actually they had a clusterfuck of problems. “She hurt my brother very badly. I just can’t give you the details. You wouldn’t let anyone hurt Emma, either.”

“No, I wouldn’t. But Emma wouldn’t destroy anyone’s life.”

That made her take a step away from him. “My brother has never hurt anyone. He is the best human being I know.”

“Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sister say that. Emma’s more interested in telling me how I’m a total git.” He smiled, then realized he’d smiled and went stormy again.

“It’s obvious Emma feels that way about you, too.” She’d never told Yash how she felt about him. “It’s hard to tell your family how you feel. Have you told Emma?”

“Told her what?”

“How you’re feeling right now? How important it is to you to not lose her.”

“She knows.”

Trisha thought about all the things Yash and she hadn’t said to each other when they should have. “Or maybe it’s exactly what she needs to hear.”

He didn’t respond.

“At least look Julia up. She’s taken thousands from the FundMe campaigns she’s done. This is how she makes money.” Of course she’d looked over HRH’s PI reports and googled the heck out of her.

He pressed his hand into the back of his head again. “She hasn’t asked Emma for a penny.”

He wasn’t going to believe her. Not with how he saw her. Not without her side of the story, which she couldn’t give him. “I can tell you that she’s cost me my family. I lost their trust because of her. I got thrown out.” For fifteen years.

He glanced at the door beyond which Neel was waiting. “From where I’m standing, you don’t seem thrown out of your family.”

“It’s complicated.”

That made him laugh. “In my experience, when families throw you out, it’s really quite simple.” He snapped his fingers. “They throw you out. You cease to exist. End of story.”