Chapter 39

Only after the door had locked behind me did I realize I hadn’t told Sanjay about the treasure. I thought about knocking, but Sanjay didn’t need another distraction. I headed back to the hotel.

My shoes were off and my feet up on the bed when Tamarind walked in the door.

She frowned. “You’re not supposed to be alone.”

“I’m fine. How was the manga museum?

“A-manga-zing.” She cringed. “That didn’t work, did it?”

“Nope.”

“You look like a complete bummer sitting around the house in a bathrobe.”

“I’m in leggings and a t-shirt. In a hotel room.” My hair might have been a tad ratty from being tucked into a hat to fight the autumn wind, but I didn’t look that bad.

“Semantics. The point is the same. I’m seriously going to need to go into intervention mode if you don’t snap out of this.”

“Snap out of what?”

“I’ve never seen you this lovelorn. Call Lane already.”

I pulled a pillow over my face. “That obvious?”

“There’s something going on you’re not telling me. But my spidey-sense is good enough to know it’s about him. You keep looking at Lane’s photo on your phone. I’m not arguing it’s not a mighty fine photo…”

“Sanjay kissed me,” I blurted out, still hidden safely under the pillow. I hadn’t meant to do that.

“Shut. Up.” Tamarind grabbed the pillow from my hands. I tried to hold on, but she was stronger.

“I kissed him back. It was right after someone tried to kill him. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“You’re single. How could you regret it? If he’s a bad kisser, I’m a ninety-pound model.”

“That’s the problem. He wasn’t. It was exhilarating. Exactly what I’d want my life to be like—if this were an alternate universe. Not one where I’m in love with Lane Peters.”

“I knew it. I just knew it. L. O. V. E. Ain’t it grand?”

“No. It’s terrible.”

“Well, yeah. Of course there are the terrible bits. Does he know?”

“Does who know what?”

“Do either of them know anything?”

“Before I talked to Sanjay just now, I talked to him last night when I left you with Sébastien at the bar. He said I made it impossible for him to focus, because he’s never gotten together with someone he…”

“Loves? He said he loved you?”

“I don’t know. Not exactly. He stopped himself.”

Tamarind nodded sagely. “But he does. He can’t deal. That’s why he convinced me to come and tried to stay away from you until I got here. I’m a buffer. Have you not listened to him play sitar at the Tandoori Palace while you play tabla?”

I groaned. Even Tamarind had noticed what I’d only realized in the last day. I was the only clueless one. I’d always believed Sanjay was a terrible sitar player. How could I have known? Raj had always turned down his mic.

“Jaya, Jaya, Jaya.” Tamarind shook her head. “Sanjay is only a bad sitar player when he plays in front of you. Do you really think he’d subject himself to the agony of not being perfect at something in public, if not for you?”

“I know. I didn’t realize until this trip…”

My phone rang.

“Where are you?” Sébastien asked.

“At the hotel. Is everyone all right?”

“The hotel? Does that lovely friend of yours have you under lock and key? From my brief encounter with her, I believed her to be more adventurous than that.”

“She is. We’ve discovered a lot today already. You didn’t answer my question.”

“Oh. Yes. Of course. Hiro and I haven’t let Sanjay out of our sight. I wish you would have stayed to see me when you came by the workshop. I wanted to speak with you.”

“What is it?” I asked, my body tensing.

Tamarind mouthed the word “speaker” and pantomimed pressing the speaker phone button on her phone.

“I don’t like,” Sébastien said, “that Sanjay and Yoko are supposed to be performing in two days with a killer still at large.”

“I don’t like it either, but Sanjay is stubborn.”

Sébastien lowered his voice. “He’s fine, but not his usual self. Which is another reason I’m uneasy.”

I sucked in my breath. Even after we’d resolved things, he was still feeling the effects of our mistake. “He’s okay, though?” I asked again.

“Yes, do we have a bad connection?” Sébastien shouted. “I already answered that he was fine.”

I held the phone out from my ear. “No. The connection is fine. But I’d rather talk in person.”

“That’s why I’m calling. Yoko is frustrated the secret of the Indian Rope Trick died with Akira, and we’ve practiced all we can for now. I took the liberty of inviting us to Hiro’s home. There we can talk safely among friends. We’re stopping at the market, and Hiro is cooking dinner. You remember how to get there?”

“I do.”

“Bon.”

I tossed the phone aside and opened my mouth to speak.

“A dinner party in Japan?” Tamarind said, clasping her hands together.

“You heard?”

“He was totally shouting at the end. A Japanese dinner party…I hope I have something appropriate to wear.”

“I wouldn’t really call it a dinner party—”

“Assuming you and Sanjay were going to screw up your relationship at some point,” Tamarind said, “I’m glad you did it now. Not only did it mean I got to come to Japan, but also to look after you. Because just look what happens to people when they go off on their own. Someone tries to kill them.”