Chapter Eight
A few weeks later, Rafe brushed his hands over Diana’s hair to comfort her. Or maybe to comfort himself. This was so far outside his usual wheelhouse. He’d never brought someone in to the FBI who actually wanted to be there. Although looking at how she was reacting, he wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to do this. But she seemed determined to do the right thing.
He could relate. It was a bitch when the right thing seemed like it would tear you apart. But at least this way he could get her protection on all sides. If you still have any pull.
“Agent DeMarco. We’re ready for you.” An agent he’d never seen before hovered at his elbow uncertainly.
Except he wasn’t an agent anymore was he? “Okay, we’ll be just a minute.”
Rafe turned back to Diana. Her dark eyes were red and shiny. She’d been crying off and on since she’d made the decision to do this. He’d called ahead so there was an agent ready to take Diana’s statement and open a case for her. She’d be an official informant after this. It was a huge step, but it was likely the only way to get her out of this situation.
He kissed Diana gently on the forehead. “It’s all going to be okay. All you have to do is be honest and tell them what you know.”
Diana blew out a breath. “I know. It’s okay. I can do this.”
They stood together, but before they could move, Rafe’s phone went off with a text alert. Cursing, he grabbed it from his waistband. When he saw who it was from, he was prepared to blow it off. Then it started ringing.
“Damn it. Hello,” he bellowed, not even caring about rudeness at this point.
“Agent DeMarco, it’s Emilie Durand. Where are you right now?”
He sighed. “In the FBI field office in New York.”
Instead of being annoyed like he’d expected, she let out a huge sigh of relief. “Good. I called because there’s been a break in the Vandergraff case. We need you. Conference Room M.”
“Give me a few minutes.” He turned to Diana.
She must have guessed what was going on because she smiled gently. “Duty calls, huh?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately. If this wasn’t really important, you know I wouldn’t leave, right?”
She waved him off. “I know. Go. I’ll fill you in later. I just need to get this out before I lose my nerve.”
The agent who stood behind them was still waiting. Rafe pointed at him and growled, “Take good care of her until I can get back.”
The young man nodded frantically. “Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”
Diana squeezed his arm. “Easy, tiger.” Her whispered words washed over him, calming his agitated nerves. He wasn’t sure why, but all of a sudden the idea of leaving Diana on her own made him very nervous. She was clearly capable of doing this. But still, he watched until she went into one of the offices with the nervous young man and then turned to find his way to the conference room.
When he walked in, Emilie turned around. “You aren’t going to believe what’s happened.”
Rafe took a seat at the table, nodding to those he knew around the room, which were quite a few people. He’d spent enough time in this office lately to have more than a passing familiarity with half the table.
“It must be good if you’re this excited.”
Emilie didn’t respond to the dig, another clue that whatever had happened must be big. She leaned over and hit a button on her laptop.
“Good is maybe the wrong word. More like it will be good. We got a hit on facial at JFK. We got a hit. Well, two hits.”
At that, Rafe squared his shoulders, even as the knot of unease settled between his shoulder blades. She sounded happy. Too happy. Like starting an evil empire kind of happy.
“What’s got you so happy?”
“We found them.” Emilie’s smile telegraphed her glee at the find. It was obvious that she was enjoying this.
He held his breath and prepared for her to drop a bomb on him. Some shit like maybe he’d been connected to the diamond after all. But that wasn’t what she was saying. He frowned. “Who?”
“Oh c’mon, wake up.” She pressed a button. “Look familiar?”
She hit another key on her laptop, and the screen behind her lit up. Then two familiar images appeared. Another keystroke and their names were highlighted. Rafe squinted when he saw the names on the images.
Fuck. Me.
“That’s Hans Vandergraff.”
Emilie smirked. “And his brother, Jakob Vandergraff.”
Rafe could feel the stares of the others, but his mind was too busy racing with this new information to care.
Those were the bastards who had tried to kill Diana.
What was the likelihood that his old case would reappear in his life randomly? He massaged his temple, trying to calm the storm inside. They looked different than when he’d last seen photos of them. Back then they’d been barely more than teenagers. But now they were men. Big, beefy bastards who had learned the tricks of the trade in their father’s businesses.
All this shit was coming back to him because of the sins of his past. He’d taken out their father, and now they were coming for revenge?
No, that didn’t make sense. Why attack Diana? Despite how strongly he felt about her, she was a recent development in his life. So that made no sense.
Unless this all came down to the fucking diamond.
There were two alternative theories. One, Diana worked for a rival organization, and they had planned to take the diamond from her and were pissed when she didn’t have it.
Two, the Vandergraffs were her employers… and well, they were pissed she didn’t have it. So what had been their plan? Send in a beautiful woman to distract him? His stomach flipped as he realized why Diana had been so scared to tell him the truth this whole time. No wonder she’d broken into his safe and then run away. She’d seen the evidence that her employers were into way more shady stuff than she’d probably known.
What the hell were they thinking sending someone as green as Diana in to get close to a man like him?
Focus, dipshit.
If the Vandergraffs were in New York and had sent Diana, then there needed to be a change of plan. It was likely the FBI might not be able to protect her.
They’ll want to use her.
And that was the problem. He understood how shit worked. And with her so close to their clutches, he was afraid for her.
Way to protect her, asshole. You fed her to the leopard instead of the lion. Either way she still gets mauled.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen those two. I’m not sure why they’re reappearing now, but you have all my old intel on that case. There must have been something we missed. Otherwise, why would they be coming for us now?”
Emilie nodded at someone across the table. The man stood, then made his way to the front of the room.
Alan nodded to Emilie, and she brought up another image. Rafe almost choked when he saw it. The next image was of the Vandergraff girl. The photo was taken at her father’s funeral. She looked even skinnier than Rafe remembered her.
“This is Larissa Vandergraff.”
Rafe swallowed but kept his face impassive. He’d been well trained. Never show any emotion. In the field that shit could get you killed. But internally, he was fucked. If guilt were a monster, it had morphed into something way the hell scarier than even that clown from Stephen King.
“Is that the only picture of her?” His voice was cool and detached, right? He fucking hoped so. “She’d be early twenties now,” he murmured.
Emilie smiled. “This is where it gets exciting. The daughter looked like she wasn’t included in her father’s businesses. She is a typical pampered socialite. Attended all the best private schools. Went to college at the University of Pennsylvania. But after graduation, the girl became a ghost. The brothers must have kept her cloistered; all photos we have of her are grainy at best.”
“Is there a point to all this?” Rafe asked.
“Oh yes.” She clicked the button on the laptop again. Rafe glanced at the image of Larissa Vandergraff again, and ice settled into his veins. She’d had everything money could buy, but had she had a good life? Was she okay? Had he scarred her forever?
Her dark eyes stared back at him. The same dark eyes that had haunted him since.
Emilie practically danced with barely contained glee. “So obviously this picture is of Larissa Vandergraff at thirteen. You know that.” She clicked the key again. “We ran an aging program on this image. Look familiar?”
Oh shit. Hell yeah she looked familiar. Too familiar.
Somewhere in the distance he could hear Alan talking even as parts of Rafe’s cerebral cortex figuratively exploded.
“The Vandergraffs have done a hell of a job keeping this girl off our radar, but it’s likely they might bring her along for a trip to the States. Maybe even as a reward. It’s possible that she has no idea what kinds of things her brothers are into. If we can find her, we can use her,” Alan finished.
Rafe stared at the large screen. She’d lied to him. You already knew that. Is this what she’d been trying to tell him? When he’d told her they’d work it out together? His stomach flipped. She obviously knew who he was. The things he’d done… the things he’d done to her father. How the hell could she stand to be anywhere near him?
Or did she know the truth? If she didn’t know the truth about her family before she’d infiltrated his house, she certainly knew now after she’d robbed him and taken the information from that flash drive.
For weeks, he’d been kissing her. For weeks, he’d been making love to her. The woman on the screen was the woman he loved.
When he didn’t answer, Alan answered for him. “Since we know the brothers are here, we need to be on hyperalert. But we also need to work every avenue we can to find that woman. She could be the key to cracking the case against her brothers.”
Rafe couldn’t breathe. Every gasp for air was constricted through the narrowest of passageways. “Can you change the hair color on this thing?” There was a part of him that was still fighting. The part of him that didn’t want this to be true. The part of him that knew that it was all true.
Emilie nodded. “Yeah. To what?”
“Change the hair color to blond.”
Emilie crinkled her brow in confusion but leaned over her computer to execute the command. A few key taps later, the image on the screen was the spitting image of Diana.
Rafe put a hand over his chest, wondering if it was possible to die from shock. All this time and he’d had the key to the case living right under his nose. In his bed. In his heart.
She’d lied to him, betrayed him, and then tried to leave him behind only to come back and ensnare him even deeper. The haunted look in her eyes, it was no wonder it captivated him. It was the same haunted stare that had been with him for ten long years. The eyes that had made him question everything he thought he knew.
The eyes that now made him want to be a better man so he could deserve her love.
“I think I know how to bring the Vandergraffs in.”
The room went completely quiet. Emilie sat forward, anticipation on her face.
“You do? How?”
That snapped Rafe out of his delusion. If they were going to end this, for his sake and especially for Diana’s sake, it had to be done right. She was a victim in this whole thing and had been from the very start.
She’d been thrown into hellish circumstances the day she’d been born to a megalomaniac, sadistic monster like her father and then raised with two twisted brothers. But there were others who wouldn’t see it that way.
There would be people here in the FBI who saw her as just one more criminal and try to find a way to hold her accountable for the actions of her family.
Rafe wasn’t going to let that happen. Diana had been brave enough to come back to him even though she’d been afraid. All she’d cared about was making sure the information she’d taken didn’t fall into the wrong hands. She’d tried to leave him because she was worried about his safety. Hell, as little as she was, she’d jumped on a guy’s back to fight because she was worried about him.
He had to find a way to keep her protected in all this.
“I think I know a way to bring them in,” he repeated. “But first I need an immunity deal.”