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Lucia looked like she was trying not to laugh. “Um, well, at least she’s comfortable with you!” She took Izzy back and waved over her shoulder as she headed for the nursery. “I’ll be right back.”
Matthias glanced at him briefly. “Noah’s on his way up.”
Rafe rocked back on his heels and let out a slow breath. It was odd, being part of the family yet still on the outside. Noah and Lucia had built something together that he would never truly be a part of, and he was happy they had. They’d fashioned a true family filled with people with ties even tighter than blood. It was something that had taken years to build, years that he hadn’t been there. Nothing could change that, but at least he knew his sacrifices had been worth it.
Lucia would never be alone again.
“Hey, you could have come back.” Noah appeared at his elbow, looking stressed and tired.
“I didn’t want to intrude. You mentioned you needed something.”
Noah glanced at Matthias before nodding. “Yeah, I didn’t want to talk about it over the phone.” He handed Rafe a slip of paper bearing a name that Rafe didn’t recognize.
“This piece of shit has been slippery as fuck. He keeps a very low profile online, which is why Matthias is having trouble tracking him. But no one does old-school tracking like you do.”
Rafe grinned. It made him feel a million years old to have the methods he’d been trained in described as “old school,” but there was definitely value to the manual methods. Plenty of people avoided leaving an online footprint, particularly because of how easy it was to track. But no matter how careful this guy was, it was impossible to exist without leaving some trace. He had to eat. He had to rest his head somewhere at night.
And when he did, Rafe would find him.
“I’ll take care of it.”
Lucia appeared again with Isabella changed into a fresh onesie. “Okay, let’s try this again. I wouldn’t want her to miss her uncle fix. No one calms her like you do, Rafe.”
He accepted the baby back and, for the next hour, walked around the penthouse murmuring softly to her. Seeing that her daughter was sound asleep, Lucia left to finish some laundry, which made Rafe think of Diana. He should get back and check on her. Take her to get something to eat.
“I’ve gotta go. Can you let Lucia know that I’ll be back tomorrow?”
Matthias nodded and took the baby. When she sighed and didn’t wake, he looked relieved.
Right before the elevator doors closed, he heard Matthias’s soft curse.
“Bloody hell. She’s soiled her nappy again?”
chapter five
The next day, Diana waited for about ten minutes after Rafe left before she jumped out of bed and started searching the apartment again. She’d learned her lesson the prior day. He’d been gone such a short time that he’d almost caught her inspecting the windowsills.
She couldn’t afford that kind of error again. This morning he’d said he was going out for some groceries to make breakfast, so she was pretty sure it would take him at least half an hour even if he only got a few things.
As she pulled open drawer after drawer, she was struck again by how sparse everything was. If she had to guess, she’d think he’d only just moved in instead of having been here for years.
Her fingers lifted to the chain around her neck. The half-dollar was tarnished as hell after all these years, but it wasn’t about what it looked like. Every time she touched it, she could almost hear her father’s voice. Luck comes to the bo
ld, Diana. If you want it, then you have to go and get it.
She breathed through the pain of missing him, an ache that might go dormant for weeks and then return with a vengeance that could take her to her knees. Over the years, she’d heard so many platitudes about death. It gets easier with time. Time heals all wounds. It was all bullshit. Because no matter how much time passed, she was still alone. Left with no parents, and brothers who regularly forgot she existed.
And there was no way to heal that.
No, there was no healing in her future. But there was something that would make her feel better—getting revenge on the one who’d torn her world apart.
The thought galvanized her, and she moved faster. When she’d staged the crash, she’d known then that she couldn’t take anything with her, so she’d left her actual valuables in the long-term hotel room she’d booked under an alias. Eventually she’d go retrieve her things. But for now, appearing helpless and needy worked in her favor.
If she’d gotten his psychology right, Rafe wouldn’t allow her to leave but instead would ask her to stay under his protection until he was sure she was okay. She shook her head. It was such a strange thing that there were some violent men who believed in protecting women. It was the most oddly contradictory thing, but she’d observed it before.
I guess he doesn’t feel the same obligation to be a protector when he’s out killing men.
Diana growled at the thought and then walked to the kitchen to retrieve a plastic bag. Not that she had much to take with her, just the makeup and the outfits they’d picked up when Rafe took her out shopping.
