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I stared at him. He had a freakingoriginalDaniel Decker painting? The British artist had come into fashion in the late eighties. It was said the royal family even had one of his pieces. There was no way someone normal owned a Daniel Decker. They went for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Oh shit. I didn’t mean to touch the frame. I assumed—”
His lips did that twisting half-smile thing again, and my skin flushed warm. Okay, him smiling at me was going to be a problem. I had to get a handle on my response to him. He wasn’t the first man to ever smile at me.
Yeah, but he’s the first one to look this good.
“It’s okay. I have motion sensor alarms set for the living room. I should have warned you. The moment you set foot in here, you set off one of them. But you can get as close to the painting as you like.”
“Holy cow,” I muttered. “Motion sensors. Wow. Though, I guess with an original Daniel Decker, you probably should have motion sensors. You should probably get a whole laser-beam situation going.”
And again with that smile. “Would you crawl under it like Catherine Zeta-Jones?”
For a full two seconds, I stared at him. Was he flirting? Because my body certainly thought he was flirting, the way I practically melted into a puddle of hormones.
“While I do enjoy a pair of good yoga pants, I’m not quite that desperate to get a closer look. If I’d known it was an original, I’d have peered in here through the dining room.”
“No big deal. The painting belonged to my parents.”
“Wow. Were your parents in the mob?”
His laugh was rich and deep, and it poured over me like warm brandy. “No. It’s actually a pretty cool story. My father won the painting in a card game. He and my mom died when I was sixteen. This and an Abigail Noir photo are the only things of value they left behind. My grandmother refused to sell them even when money was tight.”
“I’m so sorry. Here I am opening up old wounds.”
“It’s okay. It was a long time ago. Come on. I’ll take you back to bed.”
Why, oh why, did my synapses fry at the sound of that?
No, you idiot, he doesn’t mean he’s taking you back to his bed.
I had to get a grip. Because as attractive as he was, it was never going to happen. And before this was all over, I was going to lie, cheat, and steal from him to get my answers.
CHAPTERFOUR
Diana
The next day, I waited for about ten minutes after Rafe left before I jumped out of bed and started searching the apartment again. I’d learned my lesson the prior day. He’d been gone such a short time that he’d almost caught me inspecting the windowsills.
I couldn’t afford that kind of error again. This morning he’d said he was going out for some groceries to make breakfast, so I was pretty sure it would take him at least half an hour even if he only got a few things.
As I pulled open drawer after drawer, I was struck again by how sparse everything was. If I had to guess, I’d think he’d only just moved in instead of having been here for years.
My fingers lifted to the chain around my neck. The half-dollar was tarnished as hell after all these years, but it wasn’t about what it looked like. Every time I touched it, I could almost hear my father’s voice.Luck comes to the bold, Diana. If you want it, then you have to go and get it.
I breathed through the pain of missing him, an ache that might go dormant for weeks and then return with a vengeance that could take me to my knees. Over the years, I’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, I was still alone. Left with no parents, and brothers who regularly forgot I existed.
And there was no way to heal that.
No, there was no healing in my future. But there was something that would make me feel better—getting revenge on the one who’d torn my world apart.
The thought galvanized me, and I moved faster. When I’d staged the crash,I’d known then that I couldn’t take anything with me, so I’d left my actual valuables in the long-term hotel room I’d booked under an alias. Eventually I’d go retrieve my things. But for now, appearing helpless and needy worked in my favor.
If I’d gotten his psychology right, Rafe wouldn’t allow me to leave but instead would ask me to stay under his protection until he was sure I was okay. I shook my 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 I’d observed it before.
I guess he doesn’t feel the same obligation to be a protector when he’s out killing men.
I growled at the thought and then walked to the kitchen to retrieve a plastic bag. Not that I had much to take with me, just the makeup and the outfits we’d picked up when Rafe took me out shopping.
