Page 15 of Born in Sin (Phoenix #3)

Chapter Eight

CARA

I am always with you.

Lies, her brain screamed at her, even as her stupid heart did a little flippity flop in her chest.

Lies, she reminded herself, even as she took a deep breath to steady herself.

“Like I said, we should come at them from different angles,” she said now, more to avoid looking at him than because she was focused on what she was saying.

“We have a sting set up,” Amay said now, his quiet gaze going from Virat’s tight face to her closed off one.

“Yes,” Cara nodded. “Virat told me.”

Virat, another little reminder to herself. She couldn’t let the Vir slip out again. If she started thinking of him as Vir again, she would never be able to keep her walls up.

“So, between that and your plan, it’s two different approaches already.”

They all pretended to ignore the fact that Virat was standing there like a brooding, stone statue. A volcanic, brooding statue.

“I have another idea,” she announced.

“Well, aren’t you a veritable fountain of them?” Ishaan murmured, leaning back in his seat and laying an arm over the back of the couch.

“How many have you come up with, Einstein?” she shot back.

“He had one brilliant idea. He decided to blackmail Mayukhi Chatterjee into a fake engagement to infiltrate their group, then fell in love with her and cocked the whole thing up.”

Amay’s dry reply had a laugh bursting out of Celina.

“Listen, Brain Trust,” Ishaan turned on Amay. “You had none. At least I came up with something.”

The moment took her back to happier times, the friendly bickering, the constant back and forth between the four of them, they were some of her most precious memories.

“So,” she said, interrupting before the conversation ended in a ‘Shut up, Ish’ like it used to. “How is Mayukhi?”

Cara wasn’t often surprised by something anymore, but she watched almost with awe as Ishaan Adajania, the brash, in your face, with the chip the size of a house on his shoulder, boy she’d known blushed.

“Really now?” she murmured, smiling as she watched him scrub his hand through his hair and mutter, ‘She’s fine.’

“Really,” Virat confirmed, a small smile on his face. “It’s pretty incredible to watch.”

“The Fall of the Great Adajania.” Cara laughed.

“It was more like The Takedown of the Great Adajania,” Virat replied, walking over to a chair beside her.

Cara’s entire body tightened in anticipation as he came closer, every nerve ending coming to life. No, she told herself. This wasn’t what any of this was about. This wasn’t them anymore.

She took a deep breath and turned away from him. From the corner of her eye, she saw Virat freeze at her silent rejection. Without another word, he walked over to where Amay was sitting and sat down beside him.

“So, Ams,” she said now, fighting to ignore the pain clawing at her heart. “I hear Dhrithi and you are together now too.”

He smiled, that serious, gentle smile of his. “We are. Now and forever.”

She allowed her gaze to travel between Ishaan and Amay, forcing it not to swing to the right and look at Virat.

“I’m happy for you guys.”

“We’re happy for us too,” Ishaan grinned. “And look at you now, Ms. Superstar.”

Cara shrugged gracefully. “It is what it is,” she murmured. “I’m surprised you guys knew it was me.”

She’d changed so much about herself, minor changes but add it in to all the growing up she’d done, she knew she was practically unrecognizable as Celina Fernandez and she’d gone out of her way to never claim that identity.

“He knew,” Amay said, tilting his head towards a silent Virat. “And what Vir knows –“

“You guys know,” she finished for them.

Grief slammed through her, a naked yearning for what she’d once had with these boys. Acceptance, friendship, trust, and a love so deep, so raw, so powerful, it had had the power to both keep her heart beating and to stop it.

She wanted it back. She wanted them back. And mostly, she wanted him back. But that could never be. Not in this lifetime. This, whatever this was, was nothing, a brief hiccup in the otherwise regular tenor of her life. The commercial break to her life’s movie.

She took a deep breath. “So, like I was saying, I had another idea.”

“Shoot.” Virat leaned forward, watching her intently.

She glanced at him, met his shuttered gaze, and glanced away. What she was going to say was going to detonate their tentative peace. And still, she plowed on.

“I think we should have someone infiltrate their little brotherhood.” Cara wet her lips, nerves skittering as she tried to lay this out for them.

Ishaan raised a hand, a self-deprecating smirk on his lips. “Been there, done that. Didn’t work.”

“Not one of you,” she scoffed. “That idiotic idea was destined to fail. Why would any of the DD’s allow any of you into their inner circle? Ever?”

Ishaan shot her the middle finger and she stuck her tongue out at him. Appalled at herself, she tucked her tongue back into her mouth. Shit, old habits were hard to break. She tipped her nose up in the air and tried to pretend that break in poise hadn’t occurred.

“It can’t be one of you,” she repeated. “We need someone ridiculously handsome, wildly successful, horrifically rich and with enough pull to make them desperate to include him in their shenanigans.”

“Wow, way to stab us in the gut, Celi,” Ishaan muttered.

“Cara,” Virat and she corrected him together.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group.

“You can call me that in private if you want. But I need to stay Cara, in public, for any of this to work,” she said quietly.

“And anyway, I’m not Celina anymore. I haven’t been for years.

I’d appreciate it if you guys could keep my identity from Dhrithi and Mayukhi as well. For now.”

Amay looked uncomfortable. “I won’t lie to Dhriths.”

“The Kraken would have my balls if I tried,” Ishaan added.

The Kraken she assumed was Mayukhi. That was weirdly appropriate if her memories of the feisty, popular girl were accurate.

“Then please, tell them and ask them to keep it to themselves. And just so we don’t slip up, maybe just call me Cara at all times.”

“So,” Ishaan prompted. “This wildly successful, handsome, rich unicorn you were talking about? The one who is going to have the DD’s salivating at the thought of being his new bestie. Who is he?”

“Kabir Raizada,” she said, her chest tightening as her heart pounded against her rib cage. She could feel Virat’s gaze lasering into the side of her face, her cheeks warming under his burning stare.

“The movie star?” Amay asked, his eyebrows shooting up. “Can we afford to trust him?”

“Yes.” Cara’s hand tightened around the glass of water she still held.

“Why would he help us out?” Ishaan frowned.

“Because he’s her co-star,” Virat said, his quiet voice entering the conversation.

Cara took a deep breath. “And because he’s my boyfriend.”