Blood River Blues by Jessie Kwak

Author:Jessie Kwak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessie Kwak

CHAPTER 15

LASADI

Lasadi shifts gingerly off her hotel bed at the knock, setting her feet on the floor with a wince at her new aches. The doctor at the clinic had given her a burn salve for her right arm and told her there wouldn’t be any scarring; she’d started laughing before he realized his faux pas. Any more scarring, he’d amended, with an apologetic grimace at the tapestry of burn scars on her bare left shoulder. And he hadn’t even seen the worst of it.

No one has, since the doctors who put her back together, and she’s been planning on keeping it that way.

She yanks open the door to her hotel room, stomach growling.

“Thanks,” she says. “That was fast — oh.”

Raj is standing a few steps back, hands shoved in his pockets. He’s changed out of the grease-stained clothes she last saw him in at the dockyard and is wearing twill trousers and a loose cotton shirt in a rich green that brings out the warmth of his tawny skin. The sleeves are rolled up to display fine-toned forearms, sculpted muscle and sinew.

“You seem disappointed,” Raj says, wry; Lasadi realizes with mortification she was probably ogling. “Expecting someone else?”

“Room service.” Lasadi makes a show of looking past him, hoping he can’t see the color rising in her cheeks. And, frankly, hoping to spot one of the staff heading her way with a tray of food. With the fight and planning, she’d forgotten about lunch, and now she wants nothing more than to eat her weight in fish and rice, then curl up for an early night’s sleep before the big day tomorrow.

“I wanted to explain,” Raj says. “For last night.”

“You don’t need to explain.” Even if she did want an apology, she’s not in the mood to talk about it now.

“I know you can fight your own battles.” The quiet weight in his tone, the intensity in his eyes, Lasadi stills, studying him. “But last night wasn’t just about you. Anton was trying to rattle you, and he was doing it in front of us to see if we cared enough to stop him. I needed him to know you had our respect.”

Lasadi’s surprise robs her of the easy Don’t worry about it she’d planned in response. She’d been expecting a half-hearted I got out of line. A non-apology about how he was sorry she took it the wrong way. But Raj’s explanation is simple, direct. And proof that he — like Ruby — sees and understands much more than she’s given either of them credit for.

“You should cancel your room service,” Raj says when she doesn’t speak. He clears his throat. “The whole town is out at the race kickoff party, and I thought we could go have dinner and watch some of the festivities.”

A spark flares in her chest before she realizes what he means — dinner with the crew. Another group dinner following rapid threads of conversation as they’re flung across the table: Anton’s veiled barbs and

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