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For a moment it was just the two of them, together as they were supposed to be, as they’d planned to be, nothing about who they were or what he’d done mattered. Between that first touch, still in their minds but closer now, to her jumping into his arms, he’d lost track of time. Her husband, the man who’d helped save his life, was watching them not with anger or even jealousy but with curiosity. Kala hung on him, pressing herself to him, matching the strength he used to lift her up. Neither of them were letting go until finally Lito called out “aaaand scene!” and the entire group exploded with laughter, Wolfgang and Kala breaking away breathless.
“Sorry,” Kala muttered as he set her down, her face flushed. “I should introduce you.”
“We’ve met,” he and Rajan said simultaneously, having just spent hours together in the back of a cramped van making small talk since the rest of their cluster had decided one rescue was plenty and chose to let him hang himself with her husband. Except Rajan was the most supportive husband on the planet, and the fact that his wife was in love with another man meant befriending said man instead of taking the evil billionaire route and having him violently murdered.
“Right,” she muttered. Wolfgang could feel that anxiety rising, that inner conflict that was so intrinsically her. He was used to leaping into action without a second thought but everything Kala did was measured. Sometimes too measured.
“Here.” He handed her his glass of wine, which she downed in one gulp. “Easy.”
Kala chuckled nervously and set the glass down only for Rajan to immediately hand her his as well. This time she sipped it, far more ladylike with her husband. “Thank you.”
Rajan looked around at their audience, all eyes on them, not like he was self-conscious about being the butt of a joke but like he was trying to save his wife from an embarrassing situation that was entirely of her own making. “Maybe you two should go somewhere private to talk,” he suggested, as if the two of them being able to talk privately wasn’t where this whole problem started.
Coming to Paris was supposed to help Kala decide. But time and time again Rajan had proven himself, and now even Wolfgang was having second thoughts about her leaving him. Tilting his head towards the house, he led the way inside. Kala resisted the temptation to take his hand.
Lito had claimed the largest bedroom immediately upon arrival, with the rest of the cluster setting their things wherever there was space. Wolfgang only had the clothes on his back until Rajan had presented him with his wife’s shopping bags, Kala somehow finding time in between panicking, making blockers, and filling in her husband to go shopping and replace everything Wolfgang had left behind in Berlin and then some. He’d chosen the room closest to the entrance of the house. And the exit.
No sooner were they in the room than Kala was shutting the door by pushing him against it, having discarded her husband’s wine glass and apparently whatever remained of her wedding vows. “We can’t,” he said, her hands already under his shirt.
“I know,” she panted. “Stop me.”
He didn’t want to stop her, and she barely wanted him to. But it was there. “Kala.”
“It’s medical. I’m just making sure you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” he said, stroking her hair and repeating it once, then again, and then she was sobbing, gripping his bare skin with her face pressed to his shirt. His throat was tight along with hers but no tears fell. He’d been raised better than that. Sorrow only led to anger for him, defensiveness.
She pulled away suddenly, her anger building with his own, both fists closed tightly around his shirt like she wanted to shove him away but couldn’t let go. “You fucking idiot!”
Kala rarely swore, and even then it was more like the language he’d get away with saying in front of his mother. When he was six. “Hey…”
“Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“Get kidnapped and tortured? Done.” He smiled. “Wasn’t even that into it.”
She hadn’t wielded a glare that sharp since Rajan called her mom to ask the likelihood of whether or not he was gonna get laid on their honeymoon. She was mad.
“You put a gun to your head. Like it was nothing.”
That’s what she was pissed about? That was…he wasn’t even sure how long ago. Long enough that it did mean nothing, and Whispers and Lila had both escaped. “And you tried climbing out a window,” he added, which somehow didn’t help to diffuse the situation.
“Do you not get it? Do you not feel my heart breaking for you?”
Of course he did. He’d been breaking her heart for over a year, and no matter how hard he tried pushing her away, protecting her first from his family and their continuing legacy of violence, and now failing to protect her from BPO, she was still there. “Whispers got away!”
“We got away from Whispers. Again. We did the impossible. Again. This was never about killing Whispers. Will could’ve done that in London. This whole plan, everyone in this house is here for you. How dare you say you have no home?”
“I put you in danger! Whispers knows who you are because of me. Your family is in danger because of me.”
“That was not your fault, Wolfgang.”
He tried pulling away from her but she still had an iron grip on his shirt.
“Would it have been better if Will and Riley shot themselves in Iceland? Or are you the only one who needs to die?”
“That’s not the same thing,” he said. But that voice in his head, his mother’s voice, Angelica’s voice, said otherwise. Yes. It would’ve been better. The rest of their cluster would’ve gotten over it. Kala would get over him. Rajan would’ve kept her from jumping. Except Rajan hadn’t been there. “I didn’t ask for this. I’m not—”
“Worth it?”
“Yes,” he sighed. He rarely dreamed about his mother anymore. He did his best not to think about her at all. But whatever drugs Whispers had him on not only amplified the psycellium but also his memories, vivid recollections of her bruised face, the times when she was nihilistically resigned to a future of pain because she had no expectations of a better life. The best she could offer herself was an easy death. Those times were even worse, the only moments she had any hope were the ones when he knew he was going to have to call an ambulance. Or stick his fingers down her throat. Again. It was fitting the first moment he knew Angelica was her last. “Worth it.”
Softening, Kala wrapped her arms back around him. “You know, Yrsa and the so-called nice side of BPO wanted us to sacrifice you and kill Whispers. For the greater good. So did Bodhi. So until I can convince you to stop being an idiot, you could at least do it to spite them.”
He smiled. Spite and revenge had always been his two biggest motivators. “I could do that.”
“And anyway, Rajan put me and my family in danger too. Not even just the religious fanatics that I will remind you I need state sponsored bodyguards for. His friend Ajay knows he’s been talking to the authorities. His wedding gift was apparently a threat. I’m still keeping it.”
“Yeah, he mentioned that.” Rajan had told him all about Ajay in the van, and was weirdly accepting of his wife’s boyfriend coming to Mumbai to murder his former best friend. That was worth staying alive for too.
“Why are we arguing?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Because we’re scared,” he admitted to her as much as to himself.
She looked at him with such adoration he had to turn away again. “And pissed off,” she added, bringing his acknowledgment of fear back to something familiar. Something safe.
“And extremely pissed off.” He kissed her head, her hair smelling faintly of the shampoo he’d helped her pick out what felt like a million years ago. She’d brought it with her to Paris, along with the Ganesha statue that was a death threat from Ajay, that she used to pray for Wolfgang’s safe return. “I’m sorry I pressured you to make a decision.”
“You were trying to help. And you deserve a decision. These past few weeks, not knowing where you were…I can’t. If I have to lose Rajan, leave Mumbai…I can’t be without you.”
“I don’t want that for you.” And he didn’t want to do that to her husband. Rajan may have been the first man Wolfgang had ever truly been jealous of, but he was also one of the few who’d earned his respect. “You love him.”
“Well I don’t want people to keep trying to kill you, yourself included, so you’re just going to have to compromise and do what I say.”
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “I’ll try.”
“Are you really okay?” she asked. Felix knew not to keep asking. As long as Wolfgang was standing, he was fine. Kala was in his head. She knew better.
“I’m really fucking tired.” If Kala had shoved him onto the bed instead of against the door, not even her trying to undress him would’ve kept him awake. Sleep was what he needed more than anything, but he wasn’t looking forward to spending more time dreaming. The memories of his mother hurt nearly as much as the electrocution.
“I’ll sleep in here with you tonight.”
“You still have a husband,” he reminded her. And the beds they’d be sleeping in belonged to her husband’s friend.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight for the foreseeable future. He’s just going to have to compromise and do what I say as well.”
Wolfgang had only technically met him a few hours ago, but he already knew there was no man more willing to compromise for his wife than Rajan Rasal. If she asked him to, he’d sleep at the foot of their bed like an obedient dog. If she asked him to, he may even share their pillows. “He’s being really cool about all this.”
“He wants to protect me. And this isn’t over yet.”
No, it wasn’t. But none of them had any idea what to do next. “Felix is going to bring us guns. I called him on the way here.”
“Good. I’m going to shoot Lila.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You are?”
“You can have Whispers. That bitch is mine.”
Fuck, he loved her protective side. “Is that a compromise?”
“I’ve wanted to kill her longer than you have.”
He laughed. He loved her jealous side even more. “You know, your husband was flirting with me in the van.” It was more like mutual flirting, although Rajan didn’t give him a Conan the Barbarian themed song and dance, or buy him a room full of roses so maybe he was just being nice.
“I know you were flirting with my husband in the van. And you stole his watch.”
To be fair, Rajan was fully aware that he’d stolen it. Wolfgang also still had his phone, since he’d borrowed it to call Felix. “I gave it back.”
“I did buy you one.”
She did, and he was already wearing it. Along with his new clothes. “You didn’t buy me a Rolex.”
“You wouldn’t wear a Rolex. You’d give it to Felix which would defeat the purpose of it having a location tracker attached to my phone.”
“You’re tracking me now?”
“I told you that you’re not leaving my sight. You’re lucky I don’t have you microchipped with GPS.” She made an attempt to straighten his shirt, still wet from her tears. It was a good thing all his shirts looked the same. He’d have to change it, without it looking like they’d taken their clothes off together. Except she was still wearing the same clothes from the day before, and wasn’t letting him out of her sight. “I’ll buy Felix a Rolex when we see him. He can pick it out.” She squealed with excitement. “I can’t wait to meet him!”
Felix would love it if she microchipped him. Probably even more than the Rolex. “Me too.”
Nomi popped in to announce an incoming husband interruption and Kala immediately straightened her clothes instead as if she’d been the one getting manhandled. Wolfgang stepped away from the door so she could open it just as Rajan raised his hand to knock.
“Oh,” Rajan laughed. “Is that a sensate thing too?”
“Something like that,” she said.
“There was some disagreement over who got to cook Wolfgang dinner, which was very sweet but also very crowded with everyone cooking at the same time. I got let off the hook since…” he gestured around the villa. “And I wouldn’t know what to cook for you anyway.”
He’d thought making small talk in the van with him was uncomfortable. Making small talk in front of Kala in the doorway to his temporary bedroom was significantly worse. “Oh, I’ll eat anything.”
Kala shot him a look in their heads. “Must you? ”
“What? I didn’t mean it like that. You’re the one thinking it like that. Pervert.”
“I’m sure there’ll be more than enough. Thank you,” she continued the conversation aloud. “And thank Jean-Pierre. Hopefully BPO doesn’t figure out we’re here and raid the place.”
Rajan’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak, but only managed to agree, “yes hopefully.”
“Did you get a room for us?”
“Oh, no we ran out. I wasn’t sure what you wanted to…I can sleep on the sofa. One of them. I’m on a different time zone anyway and you’re all acclimated. I think Nomi had our bags.”
Was this a guilt trip or was he really like that? Wolfgang glanced at Kala who was definitely looking guilty enough for either. “Rajan,” she started.
“It’s fine, my love.” He stroked her cheek. “Are you okay?” He probably wasn’t as accustomed to seeing her cry as Wolfgang was. Or making her cry.
“Yeah, I’m…” She looked to Wolfgang again like it was his turn to save her from herself.
“Careful what you wish for,” Wolfgang said in her head.
“I’m just gonna go get cleaned up before dinner.”
“I thought you weren’t letting me out of your sight? ”
“You can multitask.” She kissed Rajan as she went past him.
Wolfgang smiled at him and shrugged. “She could probably use another glass of wine.”
Rajan laughed and nodded. “Couldn’t we all.”
He let the silence settle until he couldn’t take it anymore. “Not to rub your face in it but…”
“You’re joining my wife in the shower?”
“Yup.”
“At least you’re honest.” He patted him on the shoulder and walked away.