Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes #3) - Sonali Dev Page 0,56

her squeeze her temples too. “Okay, Yash, come on. I was not being manipulative. I understand that this isn’t easy for you, but listen . . . Never mind. Do you want us to cancel?”

“Now you’re just babying me. That’s not what I need from you right now.”

She took his hand, and if she hadn’t done it so gingerly, he might have pulled away. “Then tell us what you need. We already canceled the last two weeks of appearances.”

He stood, leaned on a column, and stared at the mountain beyond the house. Anchorage point, where he’d loved to hike as a boy. Where he’d taken his younger siblings when they needed a place to make them feel rooted, because you got a perfect view of the Anchorage from there. Where he used to go when he needed to think. Where he’d taken India that night, because he’d had to show her how the sun rose from behind the home he’d grown up in. Where he’d waited all night to kiss her but hadn’t been able to.

“Yash?” Nisha said behind him.

“I need time. Someone hated me enough to shoot me. I’m not broken but I am wounded, and I need time to heal until I can stand back up again.” Saying those words, her words, felt like being in her presence again, and the warm prick of emotion bloomed inside him. “Put out a statement that I need another few days to recover. Ask people to pray for Abdul, not me. We have a big enough lead in the polls that I can take a little more time.” With that, he made his way out of the gazebo.

“Okay,” she said behind him. “At least tell me where you’re going.”

“To get help.”

As Yash approached his car, he found Brandy waiting by it. He still wasn’t used to seeing her, or rather he wasn’t used to not seeing Abdul. He checked his phone to make sure there was nothing new from Arzu. A new trauma surgeon had seen Abdul today.

Brandy straightened up when she saw Yash. Actually, that was a lie. The woman had a way of being incredibly erect and alert at all times, but she did look up from her phone and there was something suspiciously like a smile in her eyes. Naturally, as soon as she saw him she put it away and looked at him in that icy assassin way again.

“Everything all right?” Yash asked, looking pointedly at her phone, and there it was again: the softening of her eyes.

With nothing more than a curt nod, she asked where they were going.

“I’m not sure. Hey, is it okay to ditch this today? Take the day off? We need to renegotiate our hours. I’d like to engage you only for rallies and events.” If he could ever do those again.

“Nisha’s orders are that I accompany you to all public places,” she said, emphasizing Nisha’s name like the leverage it was.

The urge to dig his fingers through his hair was strong. “I’m not really going to go out in public.”

“The yoga studio is a public place.”

“Wow. Umm. Is that where I said . . .” Never mind. If being surrounded by sisters had taught Yash anything, it was that Brandy totally had his number and arguing with her would gain him exactly nada.

He got behind the wheel and Brandy settled into the passenger seat.

He must have looked as defeated as he felt, because her tone gentled several notches. “Nisha said I only have to accompany you to places that don’t qualify as your family’s homes. She also said that we’d revisit that once you start doing events again.”

He let out a sigh. What Nisha meant was that he could have his independence back when he got his head out of his ass. “I really need space right now.” He tried sincerity, because if anything was going to work with Brandy, something told him honesty would.

“You can ignore me. Pretend I’m not here.” There was something about the way she said it, as though that were her dearest wish.

Being the center of attention was something Yash had always been comfortable with. Attention whore, Trisha very politely called it. This need for isolation was entirely new to him. Apparently his new bodyguard had the skill by the balls.

For a few minutes they drove in silence, then her phone buzzed and the ice in her eyes did a little tremble.

“We’re in a car. Unless someone is going to drive up alongside like a gangster