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"The Bug" did something to Rajan's phone so it couldn't be tracked, and they all piled into the back of a van to travel across the city to "the squat" where apparently there was a man chained in the wine cellar.
Rajan had inadvertently led the police to his fugitive wife and her telepathic friends—who beat said police unconscious—and now he supposed he was a fugitive as well. He had so many questions he didn't even know where to begin. So many more questions.
What he did know was that Kala was in danger. He'd sent her to Paris at the risk of their marriage to keep her safe from his secrets, only for her own secrets to catch up with her here. Although, they did seem to have everything under control which was more than he could say about the Ajay situation.
He declined the croissant that was offered to him. Every few minutes someone different would ask if he was doing okay and he'd politely nod, and then it would be silent again. All eyes were on him, save for Capheus who was driving, and Kala who was actively avoiding looking at him even while they held hands. She kept sighing the way she would when she was having conversations with herself that she needed to have aloud.
In all this insanity—not insanity, this was really happening—in all this new reality, Rajan barely had a chance to register how happy he was just to see her. Even when they were first dating he'd cut short his business trips, catching red eyes back to Mumbai so he wouldn't miss a moment with her. Lately he'd been spending his limited free time in Delhi, but that didn't compare to the weeks they'd been apart while she was hiding from the BPO.
As worrying as it was that a strange medical organization was asking questions about Kala, he hadn't considered for a second that they were a threat to her. He owned a pharmaceutical company after all; medical research organizations were nothing new. And Kala had turned out to be so good at the job he gave her—despite her lack of experience in the field—that she'd corrected half a century's worth of business practices Rajan considered to be the literal word of God. He'd already heard from the World Health Organization as a direct result of his wife's influence on his company. But the WHO never showed up at her father's restaurant.
Now here they were, squeezed into the back of a van with ten other people, fleeing the police.
Rajan went over their names in his head as they drove, not wanting to forget anyone. They were important to Kala, so they were important to him. Lito, who'd been half-naked. Sun—that one was easy enough to remember. Capheus. From Kenya. Little pieces of the puzzle that was his wife were beginning to fit together. No wonder she'd been so angry with him. Not that her anger was unwarranted, regardless of whether she personally knew someone who lived in those distant places. Will was the one with the gun. Riley. Blue. Naomi—no, Nomi. Amanita, Dani and Hernando. Croissants. The Bug. Rajan assumed that was a nickname, but it honestly may not have been. Jonas, who fled. Whispers in the wine cellar. Wolfgang.
Kala's "cluster" all had the same hesitation while speaking Wolfgang's name. Kala hadn't spoken it at all.
He glanced her way and she sighed again. She hadn't wanted a croissant either.
How stressful this whole ordeal must've been for her to keep to herself. Lying to her about Ajay was stressful enough for him, even before Ajay made a direct threat against her with that wedding gift. But Rajan knew something that would make her feel better. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out the Lonavala chikki her father sent him to Paris with. "From your dad."
"Ooooh!" she squealed with delight and started passing it around to the appreciative group. Perhaps Sanyam knew more than Rajan did, preparing so much of the sweet treat. Kala offered him the second to last piece, averting her eyes as she quietly said, "For later," and put the remaining piece away.
For later meant for Wolfgang, whose rescue was imminent. But she didn't say his name. Silence resumed the rest of the journey.
The squat was a rundown building on a narrow side street with bright red stickers covering the outside of several windows, which Rajan could only imagine cautioned about the safety of stepping inside. "Should I just buy us another apartment?"
"Thank you, but that's not necessary," Kala said sweetly. "We won't be here long."
Riley removed the padlock from the rusting iron door while the rest of the group began unloading their things from the van. The inner windows were covered with newspaper and cardboard but there was furniture and it looked clean and honestly quite cozy.
"I'm gonna check on Whispers," Will said. "Capheus?"
"Coming."
Will cleared his throat as he passed Kala. Capheus patted her shoulder and followed him.
Rajan took the initiative because he knew his wife would not. "Should we talk?"
With a pitiful glance at the rest of her cluster, Kala nodded and led the way to the other side of the squat to give them some privacy. She opened her mouth and closed it several times before managing, "About Wolfgang…"
As soon as she spoke his name, Rajan knew. His wife was in love with another man. This was the big secret. Kala being a different species seemed like such a small thing comparatively. Was that why she suggested he go home to Mumbai? To abandon her while she was in danger? "You and he are…" He couldn't bring himself to say it.
She winced. "I'm sorry."
In hindsight it was obvious. More obvious than it had been that she wasn't in love with Rajan. And yet she'd still married him. They had a life together. A good life. One that he'd already acknowledged might be over when he put her on that plane. Just not like this. "Are you leaving me?"
"No—I…don't know." She paced around in a tight circle like a caged animal. "Everything has just happened so fast. I wanted to tell you and then you said I had to come to Paris and then Wolfgang"—she choked back a sob and shook her head. "I never meant to hurt you."
Even as his heart was breaking it took all Rajan had not to comfort her. "Do you love me?"
Kala raised her eyes to meet his. Those eyes he'd been losing himself in from the moment they met. "Yes, I love you."
Until he sighed with relief, Rajan hadn't realized he was holding his breath waiting for her response. He'd never been in love with more than one person at the same time, but who was to say it wasn't possible? An hour ago he thought psychic connections weren't possible, yet Kala could feel the man she loved being tortured. The man she also loved. And Rajan had nearly ruined their plan to rescue him. "Should I go? Do you want me to go?"
This was a woman who spent more time deciding what to order at a restaurant than she spent eating—even at the restaurant where she grew up. She was a scientist through and through, who weighed variables and outcomes before coming to any decision, much less verbalizing it. But Kala didn't hesitate. "I'm glad you're here," she whispered, then turned away, unable to face him. "Do you want to go?"
What he wanted was to protect her. To keep her safe. To make her happy. To spend the rest of his life with her. But as he'd recently discovered, there was a great deal more to her than he could've ever imagined. "I want to help you. All of you."
It appeared that was the wrong answer. She blinked back tears, looking perfectly miserable. "I know this isn't how our life was supposed to be."
That was certainly an understatement. He gently took her hand. She still wore his ring. He'd wear hers forever. "If there's one thing our first wedding taught us, it's that things don't always go the way they're supposed to."
"True." She cracked a smile that faded just as quickly as she intertwined her fingers with his. "Speaking of weddings, what's going on with Ajay? You were so worked up about that gift."
Kala was being honest with him, it was the least he could do to be honest with her. "That wasn't a wedding gift." Even now the fury of it—the shame of letting the danger get so close to her—caused him to stumble over his words. "It was a threat. Proof of how easily he could get to you while I was away. How easily our marriage…how easily you could be broken."
There was no trace of fear as anger flashed across her face. "And he's the one who bloodied your nose," she stated more than asked.
He was suddenly—briefly—more afraid for Ajay than from him. "Yes, but I'm fine. I probably had it coming. Definitely had it coming in his eyes." Rajan had learned the hard way not to tell her how beautiful she was when she was upset, but he wasn't a sensate so he could still think it.
She gripped his hand tighter. Maybe a little too tight. He must've flinched because she released him entirely and crossed her arms over her chest instead. "Well I'm not sending him that thank-you note."
"That's understandable," Rajan said with a chuckle.
"Why didn't you tell me about him before? I was being nice to him because I thought you were friends."
"I thought I had it under control. I thought it would be better—safer—for you not to know." Rajan swallowed hard. "And I was ashamed. This is someone I grew up with. We were friends. I didn't want you to think badly of me. Again." He'd never forget the look on her face when she discovered the truth about his business. For all the time he spent convinced she felt something for him that she didn't, there had been no denying what she felt for him at that moment. "Is Capheus ill?"
The remaining hostility in her dissipated completely. "His mother is. Was. She's doing much better."
Kala's words came back to him, asking what he'd do if she or his father were given subpar medications. How easy it had been to discount her concerns when it wasn't a life or death situation for the people he cared about. And yet Capheus had seemed happier to see him than Kala. "I'm surprised he was so welcoming towards me."
"Capheus isn't really the type to hold a grudge. You're making things right. That's what's important."
He'd never forget the look on his father's face either when he told him things were changing. Yet their stock price had rallied and business was better than ever. The WHO even praised Rajan's leadership. And it was all thanks to her. "Because of you," he said. "We do make a good team, despite not being very honest with each other."
"We do." His wife, this incredible woman who he loved more than he'd ever loved anyone. Who felt that way about another man, and had been bearing the burden of her conscience while Rajan lied to protect her.
Thus far, they'd spent their entire marriage not talking to each other about the biggest things in their lives. If it was true that the first year of marriage was the hardest, maybe they would make it through this after all. "Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
Kala shrugged. "Not really. Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
"That basically covers it."
"Are you okay?" she asked as so many of her friends had back in the van.
He shrugged too. "I think so. Are you okay?"
"I'm worried about him."
Rajan had vowed to be a better husband to her than his father had ever been to his mother, and he'd be damned if he failed now while she needed help. "We'll get him back."
Kala hugged him, pressing herself against his chest and holding onto him like she was afraid to let him go. "Thank you, my husband."
He kissed her head and took a deep breath to steady himself. He'd already come to terms with the fact that he couldn't compete with Kala's love of Shah Rukh Khan. So what if he couldn't compete with Wolfgang either? She did love him. He could live with that. "Well, what's he like?"
"Ugh," she let out a pained groan.
He couldn't help but laugh. His ever practical wife being inconvenienced by complicated feelings. "You picked him."
"I really didn't," she grumbled. "We couldn't be more different and yet we…connected. He's impulsive and reckless and infuriating. And German." Kala bristled, but softened as she continued, "But he's got such goodness in him. He's just had a really hard life and that leads him to make the absolute worst decisions at all times."
"He sounds…interesting." Rajan's rival. The infuriating German with a hard life.
She forced a smile, her eyes filling with fresh tears. "I can't lose him, Rajan. If something happens to him, it would kill me."
And if something happened to her, it would kill Rajan. The important thing right now was getting her out of danger. And that meant getting Wolfgang out of danger. He held her tighter. "I can't wait to meet him," he said. He was fairly certain he meant it.