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Hans probably didn’t realize just how much information she knew about him and their family operations. Since he’d never gotten his hands on the information in Rafe’s safe, he could only guess what they had on him. Maybe that could work to her advantage. If she could draw him out, maybe they could trick him into incriminating himself in some way. The idea of being anywhere near Hans again made her skin crawl, but it might be the only way to ensure that he was put away.
Her hand went to her abdomen. If he and Jakob weren’t put away, they would always be a threat to her and her unborn child, their own niece or nephew. She shuddered at the thought. Whatever fears she had would have to take a back seat when it came time to bring them down. This was about so much more than her personal history with them. It was about keeping her child and the man she loved safe. She looked over her shoulder.
Rafe was devoted to her. If she didn’t come up with a way to end things with her brothers once and for all, he would put himself at risk to protect her.
But she would have to be careful and strategic. Leaving Rafe wasn’t an option. She understood that now. If she left, he would follow. There was no place she could go where he wouldn’t track her and nothing strong enough to keep him away. Especially now that she was carrying his baby. Rafe would only endanger himself more, trying to find her.
Which meant that she would have to come up with a plan to draw her brothers out that didn’t involve drawing them away from New York.
Chapter Thirteen
The next day, Rafe wasn’t sure how things would proceed. Now that he knew Diana was carrying his child, everything took on a different meaning. Part of him wanted to scoop her up and hide her away somewhere safe, but she’d never go for that. No, his little tigress wouldn’t care for being caged.
Hell, she’d probably shoot him if he even tried it. Rafe grinned. Her feral side was a surprising turn-on. He loved that she was gutsy enough to take on anybody even if the man in him wanted to protect her from everything that could possibly harm her.
But from the moment they’d woken up, Diana had been relaxed, if a little shy. After another bout of vomiting that she assured Rafe was normal, he’d brought her some hot tea and crackers in bed. Everyone else was busy, and they pretty much had the place to themselves. It was odd for Rafe to not be actively working right now. He was used to keeping busy, but Noah hadn’t assigned him any new cases lately. Rafe knew he was probably trying to give him some space to figure out things with Diana.
After lunch, Diana was walking back to the hallway that led to their room. Rafe grabbed her h
and.
“Let’s watch a movie.”
She bit her lip. “Is that okay? No one else needs that room?”
“No, everyone is out on cases. It’s just us here.”
She relaxed slightly at that, obviously not comfortable in the penthouse just yet, something he hoped would change with enough time.
“Okay, that’s fine. What do you want to watch?”
Rafe led her to the sofa in the living room, getting her comfortable and covering her legs with the throw blanket on the back of the couch that he was sure had been Lucia’s doing. Then he picked up the remote.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here.” Noah had pretty much every movie channel available, so he was sure they could find something.
They were just past the opening credits on a popular new horror movie when Matthias appeared in the doorway to the living room.
“Hey, can I have a word?” He looked at Rafe and raised an eyebrow.
Rafe knew then that whatever he was about to say must concern Diana. “It’s okay. You can talk in front of her. It’ll save me the trouble of relaying it all to her later.”
Diana stiffened in his arms. No one had said anything directly, but he could read her feelings clearly. She wasn’t sure who to trust or whether the others trusted her. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure if Noah or any of the team had reservations about helping Diana, and he didn’t fucking care. They would give her the respect she’d earned or else.
Matthias looked between them uncertainly but then shrugged. “I have news about the Jewel of the Sea.”
Diana sat up so fast she almost bashed Rafe in the eye with the back of her head. “You found it?”
Matthias shook his head. “Unfortunately, the news isn’t that good. I didn’t find it, but I was able to confirm that it was sold on the black market a few years ago. There was a corresponding increase in ORUS financials right after the sale.”
“So it was Orion who stole it,” Rafe said.
“It looks like it. Not that we didn’t already know that. It’s unlikely that anyone but an ORUS-trained operative would have been able to pull off a heist of that level without leaving a trace. But still, now that I’ve confirmed the sale, we have a starting place for tracing the stone’s movement. The buyer was in Romania. That’s something.”
“Yes, it’s something.” Diana put her hands over her mouth. “I thought that I’d resigned myself to it being lost forever. You’d think it wouldn’t be such a huge deal since it’s been gone so long. But it’s the last thing I had of my mother’s.”
“We’ll get it back for you, baby. No one can trace the untraceable like we can.” Rafe kissed the top of her head softly. He would figure out what needed to happen to get that stone back. Just because Diana wanted it.
And because he wanted Diana.
