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The last thing Rafe wanted to hear about was Noah and his sister. “This is an entirely different situation. Diana and I are… we’re not permanent.”
“Why not? You think she might be headed back to her family? Or where she’s from? Where is she from anyway?”
Rafe rubbed at the back of his neck. He knew what Noah was doing. Nosy as he was, he wasn’t just going to let it go. And then, no doubt, Lucia would join in, peppering him with questions until Rafe finally relented and gave in from the exhaustion.
With a sigh, Rafe said, “I think I need to use your boy Matthias.”
Silence, then Noah said, “Something not adding up?”
“I heard the end of a conversation a few days ago. I’m not sure exactly what I heard. So I’m trying to figure it out.”
“She had the look of someone running from something. Does she need to be saved from herself?”
“I don’t know yet. She has some asshole ex. He’s the one she’s running from. He also kicked her and almost broke her ribs.”
Noah’s voice went low and deadly. “You want Blake Security to have a conversation with him?”
While many of Noah’s clients were upper-class businesspeople, he also did pro bono work. People who needed Noah’s help getting rid of boyfriends and stalkers. The dregs of society. People the police couldn’t or wouldn’t help. And maybe Diana would’ve needed someone like Noah. Except she had him.
And if Diana wasn’t going to open up on her own, then Rafe would just have to help her along. “I just want to have a look into her past and at that asshole who’s still after her. I need to be able to protect her.”
“Holy shit, this isn’t just some random girl. You’re into her.”
“She’s running from something. I’m trying to help her. That’s all.”
Noah laughed. “If you think you’ll get away with that, you’re delusional. It’s written all over you. Protectiveness, the desire to kill whoever it was who hurt her. You’re staking a claim on her. Oskar said you got cagey when he flirted with her. But I didn’t believe him.”
“Mind your own business. She just needs help. That’s all.”
“Uh-huh. Whatever you say, man. I’m just saying it’s not like you to not do a thorough vetting first.”
Fuck. He already knew that. “I don’t know what the fuck happened. I was supposed to just be helping her. Next thing, she’s under my skin, you know? With that sassy mouth and all the crazy shit she’s doing to my house. There was a candle burning on the table while we ate dinner the other night. A fucking candle, for the love of Christ.”
Noah laughed. “This is awesome. I honestly never thought I’d see it. I mean, it’s not like I thought you were a monk but hearing you all confused… It’s fucking fantastic.”
“Fuck you. You going to lend me Matthias or what?”
“Mi hacker es su hacker.”
Rafe rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever, man. You know I can do it myself if you’re going to give me grief.”
“Sure, you can do it yourself. But we both know Matthias will be faster, and you want to spend all your free time with little Miss Hot Blonde. Have to say man, you have excellent taste. She’s beautiful. And funny. Lucia loved her. Maybe she’ll finally get a sister out of you.”
“Don’t be a douchebag.”
Noah chuckled again. “I’m not exactly sure how to be any other way. Besides, I just want you to have what I found with Lucia. After the things we’ve done, to have someone look at you like that. I can’t even explain it. It gives your life meaning.”
Rafe swallowed against a swell of panic unlike anything he’d ever experienced. All his life he’d worked to protect his family, done unspeakable things, all with the aim of making sure they were safe. But he didn’t know how to be there for them anymore. He’d had to turn off that part of himself, the part that had once tucked Lucia into bed and read her bedtime stories. He didn’t know how to open the floodgates to all that emotion again without drowning in it.
He didn’t know how to be the kind of man Diana needed. Deserved. How did a man get that comfortable with putting himself out there? The way they’d been taught, feelings were a weakness. How had Noah gotten around that to open himself up to Lucia? How did he deal with keeping his darkness at bay so he wouldn’t hurt the woman he loved?
How did a man who’d been taught to assume the worst learn to trust?
“Rafe, you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I still can’t believe my kid sister is married with a baby of her own.”
“I know.” But Noah sounded proud instead of terrified. It had been quite a revelation to see the changes in him from being with Lucia. Rafe wouldn’t have thought there would ever come a day that he’d feel like he could learn something from Noah, but here it was.
