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If I did, I’d be putting my only friend in danger. Not just her, but her husband, her children.
I already knew the kind of man Rafe was. He wouldn’t hurt children. But after what I’d seen about my brothers, I needed to put distance between myself and Charisse. While they didn’t know of my entire plan with Rafe, they did know about Charisse. And unlike Rafe, they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt the babies if they thought it would get them what they were looking for. And I had a year before I was supposed to marry Uncle Boris.
A shiver ran over my skin. How could they do that to me?
Because you don’t matter to them. Think of the hundreds of people they’ve sold. Your only value is in that diamond.
No. I wasn’t doing that to my friend. “Thank you.”
“So,” Charisse asked as she bustled around the kitchen. “What are you thinking the plan is? I’ll worry less if I think you at least have one, other than you’re going to go in kamikaze style and shoot everyone.”
“Well, you can put your mind at ease. No shooting anyone for me. I’m mostly trying the whole stay alive thing right now. I was thinking there might be another way. My father left me a trust. There’s one for each of us. If I can get access to theirs, I can maybe send it to the authorities. There’s bound to be all kinds of criminal activity.” I certainly didn’t want any of that money, especially now that I knew where it had come from.
“Are you planning to take that information to Rafe? I thought you were afraid of him.”
I sighed. “I’m more afraid of how mad he is at me. I don’t think Rafe would hurt me, though he could. He still doesn’t know who I am. Right now he thinks I’m just the woman who walked away from him and stole some files.”
“And he’s FBI. They don’t kill people.”
I hesitated. “Was FBI. Was being the operative word. Now he’s Blake Security, and they are a different monster altogether. But for the most part yeah, I don’t think they kill people. I’ve been following them, and not once has anyone they’ve gone after ended up dead that I can find.” I ran a hand through my hair. There was still so much I couldn’t tell Charisse. Like the information on ORUS. I had a feeling spilling the beans about a top-secret government organization that trained and used assassins was the kind of information Rafe’s so-called friends would certainly kill someone for knowing.
“You said before you were worried about him?”
There was something about the way Charisse asked the question that brought my head up. “I— Yes, I’m worried about him. If my brothers find out what I’ve been doing this past year or so, they’ll go after him. And you, which is why I can’t stay.”
Charisse narrowed her eyes as she poured pancake batter. “Stop worrying about me. Anything feels hinky, and I’m off to see my sister in Vancouver. Are you sure that’s the only reason you’re worried about him?”
I flushed. “I—”
Charisse laughed. “Honey, it’s okay to say you care about him. You said yourself he’s a good guy, so it’s not a bad thing for you to care about someone.”
“It’s just I didn’t mean to fall for him. And that certainly wasn’t part of the plan. A few weeks ago I went into this thing thinking he’d killed my father in cold blood and stolen my mother’s jewel. And like a moron, I still let him slide past my defenses and fell in love with him. What kind of a person does that make me?”
Charisse pointed a spatula at me. “That makes you human. It makes you someone who trusts your instincts. It makes you one who believes in the way someone treats you rather than what you’ve been told.”
I wiped away a tear. “By that philosophy, I should have been wary of my brothers all these years. And probably my father. Papa was kind but dismissive, and I always felt like I wasn’t good enough. And my brothers, well, let’s just say they are not the kind of people I’d use the word love loosely with.“
“You’re going to have to find a way to forgive yourself, Diana. You didn’t know. And they used your ignorance and naïveté against you. You just played right into their hands. Now the question is what are you planning to do with that information?”
Wasn’t that the question of the century? It was safer to run. To put distance between myself and Rafe and my family. To take the money I had and hide.
The self-preservation part of my brain wanted to run. But I’d spent a lifetime doing that. A lifetime not fighting. A lifetime hiding from my own life. I wasn’t doing that anymore.
“I can’t just leave him. At the very least I can leave information about my brothers’ accounts for him. He’ll know what to do with it. Though he probably hates me by now and maybe has a shoot-to-kill order on me or something.”
“I highly doubt that. Have you stopped to think that if you were falling for him, then he was falling for you too?”
“Even if that was happening, that’s over now. I betrayed him. I lied to him. He introduced me to his family, and they were kind and open. With my running around, they’re in jeopardy. He’s not going to let that go. Believe me, he’s the kind of person that will put his feelings for me aside. If he had any to begin with.”
“I don’t know. I think you’re selling yourself short. Love is a powerful emotion. Even when you’re mad at someone, you still love them.”
“I promise you, Rafe doesn’t love me.” I inhaled deeply. “It doesn’t matter though. I know the kind of man he is. I knew the first day he rescued me from the ravine. Who was it that said when someone shows you who they are, believe them?” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m listening to that. He helped a perfect stranger. Invited me into his house, took care of me, tried to protect me from my fake ex-boyfriend. He’s a good person, and I’m not letting him get ambushed. I need to see him one more time. I don’t really have a choice; I at least have to warn him. Give him time to get his sister safe. Give him some idea of who might be coming after him.”
Everything I said about Rafe was true. But also, what Charisse said was true. I’d fallen for him. And damn, I missed him. I missed his smell and the intense way he watched me. I’d seen that kind of intensity in the way Noah watched Lucia. I’d never thought I’d have that. And then when I’d gotten it, I’d thrown it away for some misguided family loyalty.
It didn’t matter though. I knew I had to warn him. Once I did that, I’d go. But I’d never forgive myself if something happened to Rafe.
* * *
