“So…this would ruin you? This tape? Lots of people come through a scandal like that,” said Jas, struggling to understand.
“It’s a sex tape with no sex,” said Ajay. “It shows me trying to seduce her and her turning me down.”
“Then that’s even less…incriminating,” said Jas, frowning.
“Not really. Not when my career depends on my relationship with Bollywood’s richest financier, Meera Shah. If she sees that tape, I’ll never work in Mumbai again.”
“You have a girlfriend!”
“It’s hush-hush, but…I owe her a lot. I can’t break free.”
“She’s your sugar-mummy?”
“Don’t mock me! There are a lot of politics in Bollywood, just like everywhere. Meera got me where I am today, but she could end my career with a snap of her fingers. If she sees footage of me trying to get Anjali into bed…”
“So Anjali…”
“This whole Bollywood Superstar contest was Anjali’s idea. I offered to get her an audition in Mumbai, but apparently that wasn’t go
od enough. So I suggested this to my studio and they fell for it. But when you auditioned, there was a problem. She wasn’t a dead cert for the winner any more.”
“So you thought you’d try to nobble the race?”
“What is this, nobble?”
“Fix it. Try and get rid of the competition.”
“I had no choice, Jas. I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I like you very much…”
“You’ve an odd way of showing it.”
Ajay shrugged, as if to say he’d explained enough and had no more apologies left in him.
“So that’s that? Anjali wins, you get your tape back, and I…well, I stay in my shop in a Leicester backstreet.”
“Only if you want to,” said Ajay. “You do have a talent. You could make it in Bollywood. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d like to offer you that part…”
“I’ll pass, thanks. Don’t really want to work with you again.”
“That’s understandable. If you want to use me as a reference…”
Krish snorted loudly. “You were prepared to drag her name through the mud. And what would precious Meera have said about that?”
“Oh, the thing about the sex tape.” Ajay smiled sheepishly. “Of course, there wasn’t one. And there wasn’t a journalist. It was one of Anjali’s cousins who rang the producers. We figured Jas would drop out of the contest if the threat was made.”
“You really are a piece of shit, aren’t you?” said Krish pleasantly.
Ajay curled his lip and turned away.
“My hands were tied,” he said. “And I’ll drop you right here in the middle of the dual carriageway if you speak to me like that in my own limousine.”
“What about all the speculation about us in the press?” asked Jas. “What will Meera think of that?”
“Oh, she won’t read the Leicester bloody Mercury, babe. Even if she did, it’s easily passed off. Crazed fan, getting too close, stalking me. Happens all the time.”
Jasmine shut her eyes and shook her head. She had been a sitting duck. She had no energy to talk, to accuse, to fight from her corner any more. All she could do was lean against Krishnan, who slipped his arm around her, and spend the rest of the journey breathing him in.
“I was expecting you to kill me,” said Ajay after a while, to Krishnan.