“We need to discuss the Tirawa offer that just came in.” Payal held her father’s gaze. “I want Lalit to run that negotiation.”

Lalit’s head swiveled toward her, but he said nothing. Pranath, in contrast, put aside the organizer on which he’d been focused, and said, “Is there a reason you don’t want to personally handle such a major deal?”

“I’m part of the Ruling Coalition,” she pointed out. “There are certain duties I must perform that will take me away at times. Lalit’s more than capable of closing this.”

“Are you?” Pranath demanded of her brother. “You’ve been slipping of late. Did you really think I wouldn’t hear of you demolishing your suite? That kind of a lack of control is of a child.”

She didn’t expect it. Not then.

Lalit had used his telekinesis to pick up Pranath and break his neck before their father was even aware of what was happening. “Good-bye, Father dearest.”

No guards responded.

Pranath hadn’t had anyone on standby. He’d been expecting only Payal. Whom he had on a leash.

She shoved Lalit telekinetically to the other end of the room as he began to turn toward her. He smashed into the wall, cracks going out in every direction … then smiled and said, “You and me, little sister. Oh wait, we have another sibling, don’t we?” Then he vanished.

Canto, Lalit just killed our father! I think he’s going for Karishma! She teleported the split second afterward, right into Karishma’s living space at the school … just in time to see Lalit blink out of there. It happened so fast that she couldn’t tell if he’d had anyone with him. “Kari!”

She’s not at the school, remember? Canto’s calm, clear voice. You told me she and Visha Ramachandran went on a small vacation to a rural property that you own.

Payal’s panic flatlined. Yes, and Lalit has no knowledge of that property.

I just used your passwords to access the security system of the vacation property, Canto added. I can see them—they’re fine, doing a puzzle in the living area. If Lalit could get there, he’d be there already.

Thank you. Her mind snapping back into focus, she returned to her father’s suite.

The doors flung open at the same instant, Pranath Rao’s guards arriving too late.

She slammed them back with her Tk before they could raise their weapons. “My brother is now a murderer.” One who was on tape, because she had zero doubts her father had a security system that recorded everything. Including Lalit’s vicious and mocking good-bye, and the way he’d just slightly raised his right hand at the exact moment Pranath was killed. A small tell, but one Lalit had developed young; it wouldn’t be hard to prove that, of the two of them, he was the one who’d committed the murder.

“Call Enforcement and send out an alert that he is dangerous and wanted for the murder of his father.” Lalit’s plan must be to take her out, too, then seize control of the entire Rao empire. But the instant she made his crime public, she would throw a massive spanner in the works—and might just flush him out.

Her father’s secretary coughed. “Are you sure, ma’am? This is family business.”

“I’m sure,” she said, her voice arctic. “This is my family now. If I ever need to repeat an order again, you won’t like it.”

No flinch, no reaction, but the middle-aged man began to make the call.

His cooperation wouldn’t equal a position at Payal’s side, or even in the sprawl of Rao businesses. The secretary had seen far too much and allowed far too much. Payal would never trust him.

Releasing the guards, she said, “Get out.” Safe in the knowledge that Canto was watching over her sister, she’d stand guard over her father’s corpse until the arrival of the investigators. She didn’t trust the secretary and others not to decide Lalit was the better option and attempt to help him by removing Pranath’s body.

What she didn’t do was search her father. He would’ve kept nothing on him that would give her an answer when it came to the drug. No, he’d taken that secret to the grave with him. “Bravo, Father. You won this round.” But the game wasn’t yet over.

Six more days before her tumor would begin to go active.

CANTO made sure he had Karishma and Visha on his center screen.

Around them were the feeds from the cameras in Vara. He’d also reached out to all his moles in Lalit’s camp. No one had spotted him, and the security cameras couldn’t see him, either.

Then there he was, literally smashing his way into Payal’s suite.

Payal, he’s broken through a wall into your apartment. I’m going to handle this. He’d fucking had enough. The man was a psychopath and a murderer, and Canto wasn’t about to allow him to skulk away and start hunting Payal from the shadows. Don’t stop me.

Do it, she said. I don’t want Kari looking over her shoulder all her life. That’s why he’s in my apartment—trying to find some way to get to her.

There was his 3K. Thinking about someone else rather than herself. But all that mattered was that she wouldn’t stand in his way. I need to get into your private organizer. She’d messaged him from it last night, but she hadn’t had it with her when she exited the apartment, which meant there was a high chance it was in her bedroom.

Payal telepathed him the necessary information.

“Thank you, baby,” he muttered, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “It’s time to take out the garbage.” He pinged her organizer; he’d already turned off the screen control remotely and upped the volume.

As if Payal had made a mistake and left it unlocked.

His message was simple: Hi, Didi. Payal had shared what Karishma called her, told him the import of Karishma’s chosen form of address.

Lalit spoke the same language, would recognize it.

If Payal’s brother had already teleported out, it wouldn’t work, but Canto didn’t think that was a possibility. Lalit wanted to destroy Payal—and he’d somehow worked out that Karishma mattered to her. He was in that apartment, searching.

A reply pinged on Canto’s screen: Hello, Karishma. What are you doing?

Adrenaline pumping, Canto messaged back: Waiting for you to visit. You said you’d come today.

I keep my promises. Just send me a photograph of where you are—I’ve been distracted, seem to have misfiled the image.