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Rafe
Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
I rolled over and tried to hit the annoying bird outside my window. It didn’t stop singing but instead just hopped over to the next windowsill. Frustrated, I tried to reach for it again but couldn’t move my arm. Panic filtered through the soft veil of comfort that I’d been wrapped in and I thrashed, trying to free myself. All I accomplished was rolling over and hitting the ground. Hard.
“Ooomph” was about all I could get out before my head started pounding.
I opened one eye carefully and peered around. The room didn’t look familiar at first until I saw the legs of my dresser across the room. Why was I looking at the legs? I groaned and managed to turn over onto my back, and when the ceiling came into view, that gave me some answers. The room looked unfamiliar because I’d never seen it from the floor before.
Everything hurt, but I kept my lips clamped together. My limbs were still unresponsive, so my best bet was to remain silent until whatever chemical agent that had been used on me wore off. I would examine things more carefully later to figure out how one of my enemies had managed to get so close. Transitioning into a civilian life made men go soft, but I’d been so sure that my security was tight. The idea that someone could actually get close enough to drug me was maddening. Then I remembered that I hadn’t been alone before I fell asleep, and my heart leaped.
Diana. What had they done to Diana?
Strength I didn’t know I had roared through my veins, and I managed to roll over and push up onto my arms. My head swam in a sickening wave, and I panted through my mouth, helpless, battling back dizziness and nausea. I had to fight through. I had to make sure she was safe. But once I was able to move again, I had to concede that I wouldn’t be much help to her as weak as I was, if she was even still there. Nevertheless, I pushed to my knees. It took quite a bit of effort, but I managed to stumble down the hall. Diana’s room was empty. I kept going to my office.
As soon as I walked in, my eyes went to the painting. The safe was wide open.
God. If they’d taken what was in the safe, then there was no doubt this was an ORUS job. Who the hell else would even care about the files I’d kept or go through the extreme security measures to access them? It also meant that Diana was likely already dead. A dull moan slipped from my lips as I struggled to remain upright.
Diana, my poor, sweet Diana, wouldn’t have stood a chance against an ORUS-trained hit man. Despair unlike anything I’d ever known swept through me.
I had to call Noah and Lucia. I had to warn them. Maybe they could find out who’d done this. I needed to know. If it took the rest of my life, I’d find out who’d hurt Diana and make them pay.
Then I remembered my cameras.
Anyone ORUS deemed capable of taking me on would have disabled most of the cameras, but with my training, I knew how to hide a few that might not have been found. My laptop was still on my desk, so I dragged myself over to it and used my fingerprint to boot it up. When I opened the security system and saw that it hadn’t been disabled or tampered with, I faltered. What the hell?
Even with a new Orion in charge, there was no way an ORUS agent would be this sloppy. For the first time, I looked down at myself and forced the fog to clear from my mind. Nothing about this made sense. I’d been in the bed, vulnerable and unable to defend myself. So why was I still alive? What kind of job was this where they’d open my safe and take Diana but wouldn’t kill me?
I pulled up the video for the day and sped through until the timestamp showed a few hours ago. Then I saw Diana walk out of the front door with a duffel over her shoulder. Alone.
I rewound the video and watched it again, searching her face for signs of coercion. Was there someone else who’d threatened her and made her leave? There didn’t appear to be anyone else in the video. Why would she just leave in the middle of the night?
Then I thought about the way I’d woken up, obviously after being drugged, and I looked back at the video. I paused it on Diana’s face.
“Who the hell are you?”
PART2
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Rafe
Diana was gone.
I leaned unsteadily against the doorframe to my room, looking out into the empty hallway. When I’d woken alone, I’d gone looking for her. It wasn’t until I saw her room that it sank in. The closet was empty, and her purse and shoes were gone.
She’d left me. After everything we’d shared over the past couple of weeks, she’d walked out.
I tried to force the rest of the fog out of my brain. Problem was even though my mind was gaining more clarity, my body certainly wasn’t. My legs were still wobbly. And joy of joys, my dick still thought it was party time.
Fuck, why was I still hard? After everything we’d done last night, my dick should be asleep for a very, very long time.
But oh no, just the thought of Diana and I was ready to go again. Inside my mind, worry warred with self-loathing and rage. Lots and lots of rage.
How stupid was I? I’d let in this woman, whom I didn’t know at all, and I’d been had. Where the fuck were my instincts? Someone needed to come and take my assassin card away. Go on and kick my ass out of the club. No more assassin potlucks for me. I’d been played by a novice.
A few months out of undercover work and I was sloppy?
