by M. Malone
And she was going to. She even turned around and headed straight for the panic room. But then she saw Jakob with his gun raised. A gunshot rang out, and Diana’s insides turned to ice. No. Not Rafe.
Rafe froze in his tracks before staggering another couple of steps. Jakob fired another shot. This time Rafe fell to the ground, even as he tried to fight. What was happening?
She was frozen, and shock rendered her unable to move. But she had to. This was her family, and she had to fight. Jakob fired another shot in her direction, and she ducked behind a pillar. Jonas elbowed the guy he was fighting in the temple. The guy went down. Jonas got him by the neck, then very calmly grabbed him by the top of the head and the chin and twisted.
Diana heard the crack, and her stomach roiled.
Matthias was shot but still fighting. When Diana peered back around the pillar, Jakob was on Rafe. He straddled him, raining fists on his face.
But Rafe was fighting off the blows. No. This was not how it ended. Her child was not going to grow up without a father because of who her family was.
She had zero fucks left to give. And she was not giving up on her man.
In the kitchen, Jonas had Hans pinned down. In the foyer, Dylan was starting to stir. And then there was Noah. Thank Jesus, Noah was moving.
He and Oskar were the only ones still engaged in hand-to-hand combat. He took a kick to the sternum and flew back, but he was up in an instant. He looked savage and raw and lethal. Even as beautiful as he was, that man was nothing but deadly. Nothing but a stone-cold killer.
Rafe was fighting for his life, and she ran straight for him. She didn’t know where it came from, but a roar bubbled up deep inside and she screamed. Her brother looked up with a sneer. She didn’t know where she gathered the strength, but she delivered a roundhouse kick so hard to his face he staggered back, then shook his head slightly as if trying to shake it off. While he was temporarily disoriented, Diana lunged.
Putting her full weight behind her body, she managed to push him back until he was off Rafe and on his back. She grabbed his ears and planted her thumbs in his eye sockets again.
She was not having it. She kept pressing as hard as she could. She was weak and tired, but she didn’t dare let up.
Behind her, someone wrapped arms around her and picked her up as if she were nothing more than a doll. “Let me go. I will kill you.”
“I’m glad to hear that, princess. But let me do this. You go to the panic room. Now.”
“Rafe?”
“Yes.” He put her down gently, and she turned in his arms.
“You’re okay? But you were shot.”
“I’m wearing a bulletproof vest. We all are. All except you. Now go. Let us deal with the rest of this.”
Jakob groaned again. But this time Rafe just reached into his back holster, pulled out his gun, and fired a shot to his shoulder.
Diana didn’t even flinch.
“Baby, panic room. Do not watch this. Do not see the thing that I am. Please go.”
“I’m going but only because you need to stay safe and I distract you. But I’m not afraid of you. I see all of you, and I love you.”
She turned to head for the panic room as she was told, but when she looked around, she could see that all the other men had their assailants either down or dead. Hans, unfortunately, was still alive. Though groaning.
“Looks like it’s over.”
Rafe pulled her close. “Still, go back to the panic room. We need to move the bodies out of here and call the cops. You don’t want to be here for this. I’ll come get you when it’s time to make your statement.”
“Okay, I’m going.” But first she had to see. She lifted his shirt to see the thin fiber that might as well be vinyl for all she knew. Sure enough, there was a flattened bullet stuck to it. “Oh my God. Things like that exist?”
He nodded. “One day I’ll show you all the tech I’ve got. But in the meantime, please, let me do this.”
JJ came storming out of the back hallway. “So who do I call to move an unconscious body? Some guy tried to take Isabella, so Lucia kicked him in the nuts so hard he passed out. Also, I might have kept kicking him while he was down.”
Noah grinned from his crouched position by the kitchen island and pushed to his feet. Jonas shook his head. “Baby, what have I told you? If the guy is down, you run. You don’t keep kicking him.”
She shrugged. “He tried to take my goddaughter.”
Noah groaned. “What the hell were you doing out of the panic room anyway?”
JJ flushed. “Uh…”
Noah just rolled his eyes. “Lucia made you because she was worried about me?”
The pretty blonde folded her arms. “I plead the fifth. So which one of you burly men is going to come take out the trash? I’d do it, but I just did my nails.”
Rafe turned his attention to the team. “Dylan, Ryan, call our cleanup guys to come and deal with the bodies. Jonas, Oskar, you call the feds. Get them in here for anybody who’s still alive. Noah, you go deal with your wife and daughter. If I know my sister, she’s guarding that body to make sure he doesn’t get up again.”
Diana watched him as he took full control of the room. This was the man she loved. And after today, she was going to get to keep him.
Cleanup after a scene like that would normally take days. But the crew that Noah had on call for emergencies took care of things pretty fast. The FBI would likely have some additional questions. After all, the story they’d given about how they’d apprehended Hans and Jakob Vandergraff was a little too pat to be believed. But in the end, they didn’t have much of a choice.
Rafe had hand delivered them their targets on a silver platter. Even Interpol would rather have them than not. So he expected, once the bullshit final interviews were over, that they would be in the clear. The events of the past day would just become one more mission he locked away never to think or speak of again.
If only it would be that easy for Diana. Rafe’s stomach flipped just thinking of it. His perfect warrior, Diana. He wished she wasn’t made for this sort of thing, but he had to admit, she had been one hell of an asset.
Having to lie and keep secrets, all the while knowing that she was putting her own brothers away for life. With every hour, he’d watched as the light in her eyes dimmed a little bit more and wondered how much more she could take.
Rafe leaned forward and looked through the window of the boardroom as Diana gave her final statement to the FBI taskforce. He’d wanted to be in there to support her through it, but Granger wouldn’t have it. He gritted his teeth. His old buddy just had to give him one last fuck you on the way out the door. But that was fine because after today, they were done.
They were finally free.
Emilie Durand stepped into the hallway first. When she spotted him, she straightened her shoulders. “I didn’t think your little Diana would come through. I underestimated her.”
“You underestimated both of us.” Rafe had a hard time keeping the smile off his face at her disgruntled look. She sniffed and then walked away. Women like her weren’t used to being denied, which made it all the more satisfying that Rafe would be the one she remembered as untouchable.
Ten minutes later, Alan left the room. When he spotted Rafe standing outside waiting, a wry smile twisted his lips. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t be far away.”
“You know it. Is she free to go?”
Alan nodded. “You both are free to go.”
They turned as Diana joined them in the hallway. She immediately gravitated toward Rafe, wrapping an arm around his waist. After her brothers’ capture, there’d been a noticeable difference in the way she treated him. Not in the way Rafe had feared. He’d been worried that after seeing the terrible things he was willing to do that it would color her love for him. Not that he thought she’d leave him, he knew she was made of stronger stuff than that. But he worried that she’d always see violence when she looked at him. Or even worse, that underneath it all, s
he would fear him. He wasn’t sure he could have survived if he’d looked in her eyes and known that she was afraid of him.
But instead, Diana had only drawn closer to him in the days since.
“So no more worrying about my crazy brothers? No one trying to kill us? What about Uncle Boris?"
Alan looked behind him to where Emilie stood. "With all the information the two of you have provided, Interpol has already built a hell of a case against Boris Klinkov. He's going away for a long time after this. You're free."
"Free?" Diana repeated, looking a little dazed. "I’m not even sure what that’ll be like.”
“Quiet probably. I’ve heard crossword puzzles help to pass the time.” Alan looked between them with a calculating gleam in his eyes. “Although I have to say, you have a cool head under pressure, Ms. Vandergraff. If you ever want a career in the bureau, we could use someone with your attributes.”
“Not a chance,” Rafe growled.
“I didn’t think so, but it was worth a try.” Alan gave a mock salute before he left.
Diana shook her head as they watched him go. “Some nerve, huh? Besides, it’s not like I actually did anything heroic. I just sat there and waited to be rescued really.”
Incredulous, Rafe pulled back. “Nothing? Diana, you came to New York determined to infiltrate the lair of one of the most notorious assassins the world has ever seen and find lost treasure. That’s pretty badass.”
There were men all over the world who would shake in fear if he growled at them, but Diana only snorted in laughter.
“Notorious assassin, huh? Well, your ego is definitely still intact.”
Rafe grinned. “Always. But what I said is true. What you did was dangerous and ill-advised and also pretty much a suicide mission.”
“Hey, I thought you were supposed to be making me feel better,” she grumbled before elbowing him in the side.
“Like I was saying, it was all those things, but it was also ballsy as hell. I don’t care how you look at this, what you did was definitely not nothing.”
They’d been walking leisurely toward the front doors, but before they got there, Diana pulled him to the side.
“Do you really think so? After all the crazy and exciting things you’ve done, I’m sure what I did was no big deal compared to that. In fact…”
He could tell that something was still bothering her, which wouldn’t do. When they left this building, Rafe wanted them to have a truly fresh start.
“Just spit it out.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s just that you’ve done all those amazing things. And I wonder if we go home and make a life together… well, won’t that seem a little… boring?”
Rafe tipped back his head and laughed. “Boring? The woman who once seduced me and then kicked me in the balls? The woman who broke into my safe and stole a lifetime’s worth of accumulated blackmail material? The woman who lured two of Interpol’s most-wanted felons into a sting operation all while being pregnant? Not likely. Hell, you’re almost as badass as Serena Williams.”
Diana slipped her arm through his. “I’ll take that. Because from here on out, it’s going to be us against the world.”
Chapter Seventeen
Three months later…
There was a gentle comfort about the last few moments before executing an op. All was quiet and you could hear the sound of your own heartbeat. For a man like Rafe, it was often the only times he’d felt peace.
Until Diana, he thought. Then again, Diana had changed a lot of things in his life. Too many to enumerate.
Rafe glanced over at the man on his left. Noah was outfitted in black head to toe just like he was. He also wore an earpiece. Rafe patted the utility vest he wore, which carried everything from knives to tape to zip ties. For years it had been his standard uniform when working. Putting it on this evening before going out had felt like donning an old uniform that didn’t really fit anymore.
“Just like old times, huh?”
Noah shook his head. “Better. Our comms weren’t this good back in the day. Remember the ones we used to have? You’d get all that interference at the worst possible moments. Then it’d let out that high-pitched sound that was loud enough to pop your eardrum.”
Rafe laughed at the memory. Even though ORUS had always had the best technology available, it was undoubtedly true that the tech they’d used ten years ago would seem like absolute shit now.
“Things have definitely changed. But I think it was an advantage. Agents in our time were forced to learn to adapt to less than optimal conditions. The guys coming out now, hell, they’d probably call a whole op off if their tech goes down.”
Noah grunted in agreement. “Probably. They don’t make agents like us anymore.”
“Are you two going to start snogging, or are we here to steal some shit?” Matthias’s voice came over the line, interrupting their conversation.
Rafe almost laughed. It was one of the few times he’d ever heard the kid sound happy. But he couldn’t deny that he had a point. Waxing nostalgic could wait until afterward. When they were safely on the plane back to the States.
He glanced over at Noah. “Is it just me, or is Scotland Yard over there having way too much fun with this? The young ones used to be scared of us.”
“Don’t worry about me, old man. I’m just trying to get this done. If we miss our window, we have to stay another day and I don’t want to have to explain that. I’m not scared of you two but them…”
Noah made a face. He was probably imagining Lucia if he had to call and tell her that their trip had been delayed. Rafe couldn’t make fun of him because he didn’t particularly want to explain it to Diana either. His feisty kitten had claws when she didn’t get her way, especially now that her pregnancy cravings had kicked in.
“He has a point. Let’s do this.”
They crept around the side of the building, following the route they’d mapped out on the plane ride to Argentina. He’d been here before of course with ORUS, but without the powerful organization to grease the right palms, it had been a lot trickier than expected to get the information they’d needed. But somehow Matthias had gotten the information, and they’d landed that afternoon with only a scant eight hours total to execute their op and get out without attracting any attention.
He heard a thump and then a soft “clear” in his left ear. Rafe waited two seconds per their plan and then walked the pathway leading to the back of the house. He stepped over the prone body of the man who’d been on patrol for the past hour. They’d observed him for quite some time to discover his usual routine. He wasn’t the most observant to start with but also had a penchant for stopping for candy breaks. Almost too easy. With the night guard out of commission, he was free to climb the side of the house and enter through the bedroom window that had been left open for them.
A light flashed from the dark bushes up ahead, Noah signaling that all was clear. Rafe reached into his utility vest and pulled out the grappling hook he hadn’t used since he’d rescued Diana. It made him smile to think of it. Who knew that his less-than-honorable skills would land him the woman of his dreams?
Less than sixty seconds later, he was up the side of the building and climbing through the window into a dark bedroom. His eyes adjusted to the light quickly. There was a huge four-poster bed to his left, which meant that the safe was to the right. Exactly as he’d expected.
Rafe crossed the room quickly but quietly. It would have been so much better if they could have done this when the house was empty, but luckily, the homeowner was out for the night. The only people left in the house were staff, one of whom was responsible for helping them get in. He chuckled. Unhappy staff members were the worst security risk in the world. All they needed was a little money, and they were happy to see their employers fall.
In this case, they hadn’t even had to offer that much money to convince the elderly valet to not only leave the window open for them but to plant a hidden camera.
“All g
ood?” Noah’s voice was quiet in his ear.
Instead of speaking and possibly giving away his position to any staff members walking in the hallway, Rafe tapped his earpiece three times, their code for I’m busy, fuck off. He could hear Noah’s soft chuckle in response.
Rafe removed the painting from the wall that concealed the safe. It was one of those high-tech, digital safes. They could have used some advanced technology to crack the safe, but honestly it was just easier to watch the video footage and wait until the owner entered the code.
Maybe the younger agents aren’t the only ones who are spoiled, Rafe thought wryly.
These days the challenge of an op wasn’t what drove him anymore. Getting home safely to his fiancée was what mattered the most.
He entered the code and then stepped back as the door swung open. He ignored the stacks of cash and reached all the way to the back to grab a black fabric pouch. With one tug the drawstring loosened, and Rafe smiled down at his palm.
“Hello, beautiful.”
Diana was dreaming.
She was conscious that it was a dream the whole time, but strangely it didn’t bother her to know that. In the dream she was pushing a grocery cart. Pushing a grocery cart was actually a strange thing for her to dream about since she hadn’t done it too many times. Growing up, her father’s staff had done all that. She hadn’t gone to a grocery until she was in college. But she was happily pushing a cart and checking items off a list. In the front of the cart, happily chewing on its fist, was a baby.
Her baby.
She smiled at the cherub-cheeked toddler and passed a hand over his short, dark curls. His brown eyes were bright and watchful as she grabbed a few things off the shelf and put them in the cart. It was such an ordinary scene, a mom shopping with her little boy in tow, but it hit Diana with all the force of a battering ram. This simple, everyday domestic scene represented the most secret longing of her heart. To have a family of her own that she could love and care for. There was only one thing missing.