Deeper Read online

  Table of Contents

  Back Cover

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  More from The Malones

  About the Authors

  Copyright

  BACK COVER

  The plan was never to fall in love...The plan was to avenge my father's death.

  Hell, I knew better. Never fall in love with the mark.

  For ten years I have plotted and planned my revenge against Rafe DeMarco. He took the most important thing in my life away from me and I meant to return the favor.

  Except, I was wrong...

  Now, I need his protection. And I'm the fool who went and fell in love.

  The best laid plans and all.

  (Deeper is the finale of the Deep Duet. Start the duet with Book 1, Deep.)

  Chapter One

  Diana was gone.

  Rafe leaned unsteadily against the doorframe to his room, looking out into the empty hallway. When he’d woken alone, he’d gone looking for her. It wasn’t until he saw her room that it sank in. The closet was empty, and her purse and shoes were gone.

  She’d left him. After everything they’d shared over the past couple of weeks, she’d walked out.

  Rafe tried to force the rest of the fog out of his brain. Problem was even though his mind was gaining more clarity, his body certainly wasn’t. His legs were still wobbly. And joy of joys, his dick still thought it was party time.

  Fuck, why was he still hard? After everything they’d done last night, his dick should be asleep for a very, very long time.

  But oh no, just the thought of Diana and he was ready to go again. Inside his mind, worry warred with self-loathing and rage. Lots and lots of rage.

  How stupid was he? He’d let in this woman, whom he didn’t know at all, and he’d been had. Where the fuck were his instincts? Someone needed to come and take his assassin card away. Go on and kick his ass out of the club. No more assassin potlucks for him. He’d been played by a novice.

  A few months out of undercover work and he was sloppy?

  Enough. Think this through.

  Who could have sent her? Was this about money? He didn’t have any… none that she could access anyway. But the truth was he did have enough money to make himself an attractive target for thieves. ORUS had paid him well back in the day. He’d had enough sense to squirrel most of what he’d earned from them into an untouchable offshore account on the off chance that he’d have to run and take Nonna and Lucia with him. He’d made sure they’d never have to want for anything.

  But Diana couldn’t know about that account, and the only way into it was the account number, both thumbprints, and an eye scan. So this wasn’t about that.

  And then it hit him. There was something else far more valuable. Fuck, had she stolen the Decker?

  He lurched down the hallway, holding on to the walls for balance. Once he reached the kitchen, he paused and forced himself to drink some ice water from the tap and then splashed some on his face. He needed to wake the fuck up. This was definitely more than sex stupor. He’d definitely been drugged. Just what had she given him?

  Thanks to the water, his brain was functioning a little more clearly, and his legs were slowly catching up. Now as he lurched, he did so with more purpose. He stumbled into the dining room and then careened around the corner to make sure the Decker was still there.

  His heart thumped against his ribs, and his breath came out in sharp, choppy gasps. Oh thank fuck. It was still here.

  If this wasn’t about stealing the painting, then what was wrong? What could have caused her to do this? Maybe she was scared? His conversation with Noah came back to him in bits and pieces. One of the few reasons a woman lies is because she’s afraid.

  Rafe frowned. It was possible that Diana was hiding from something serious. He didn’t think it was the boyfriend. Rafe was good at reading people, and he believed the guy when he said he didn’t know her. So what was it? He’d told her that he would protect her. He would do anything to keep her safe. She knew that right?

  You beat the shit out of that guy? Had that scared her? Had that made her run?

  Rafe had done his best to keep that part of him hidden. Sure, he hadn’t killed her asshole of an ex, but he’d worked him over good. And he’d enjoyed every second of it. What the hell was wrong with him?

  Had she seen the bruises on his knuckles and thought about what those hands could do to her?

  But then he thought back to the camera footage. She hadn't been upset. She'd been calm.

  He barely made it to the bathroom before he was sick.

  To force his body to wake up, he stripped and stepped into the shower. He turned the lever until the water streamed out ice-cold, pelting his skin for as long as he could stand it. After a few minutes of punishment, he turned off the water and toweled off briskly.

  He snatched his clothes and headed back to his office. In the midst of his initial shock he hadn't done a thorough search of the safe. He needed to see exactly what she had taken. He was assuming all the cash was gone but he'd had other things in there that were far more valuable.

  The thing about intuition was that it wasn’t so much there to warn you about awesome things in your life. That little lizard brain in the back of most people’s minds usually warned of impending danger or that something was wrong. It was that feeling everyone felt in the pit of their stomach when someone said they needed to talk.

  As his hand closed around the doorknob, Rafe had that same exact twinge of intuition, that thing that said, “Hey, dude, shit’s about to hit the fan.”

  And he wasn't ready.

  There wasn’t much in the safe. Just some files that were better locked away. Files on ORUS agents. Files on undercover work that he’d done. Files he needed to hold on to to keep people safe. There had been cash. Nearly $50,000. All gone. Fine, whatever. He could do without the money.

  His eyes immediately did a quick scan for the thumb drive. It was gone. She’d fucking taken it. His stomach dropped.

  That friend of his, the intuition, was back.

  He looked again, hoping he was just foggy from the drugs. No one went through this much trouble just for money. If so, she’d have taken the Decker weeks ago. No, she’d hung around this long for something more valuable than money. Because the information on that flash drive was worth way more on the open market.

  Rafe’s head fell forward.

  How many people were now in danger because he’d been thinking with his dick?

  He didn’t have time for this shit. He needed to track Diana down and in a hurry. Still naked, he went straight to his room and grabbed his phone. When he’d bought her phone, he’d connected it to his account.

  He immediately pulled up the Find My Phone app. And what do you know? Bingo.

  “Gotcha.” She was on the move. He squinted, looking at the map. She was near the shopping center where he’d taken her to get her clothes. If he left now, he’d have just enough time to catch her. Maybe. He didn’t know what the fuck she was doing, but he was going to get her.

  Because after everything, he sure as shit wasn’t letting her go.

  Had she made the wrong decision?

  You don’t have time for those kinds of questions.

  How had Diana gotten everything so wrong? Her father, her life, her famil
y. Her mind raced, sifting through her childhood memories. Had her father ever cared about her? Had he cared about her mother?

  Mama.

  Had her mother known? Had she known the kind of man she’d married? Had she brought a daughter into the world, knowing what her husband did to others?

  Diana’s hands shook as she stepped out of the taxi. Luckily, she hadn’t been so shaken that she hadn’t remembered to take evasive maneuvers when leaving Rafe’s place. She’d walked down the street, crossed over to another street, and then doubled back to the rear corner behind his place before hailing a cab. That way if he had any cameras out front that she didn’t know about, he’d think she went east. Not that she’d stump him for very long. But every minute—hell, every second—helped.

  She made it to the bargain department store, legs weak and her breath coming out in ragged gasps.

  Get it together. You do not have time for this. If you falter, you are a dead woman. Because at the end of the day, Rafe was going to come for her. And he clearly knew how to kill. He might work for the good guys, but she, most decidedly, was not one of the good guys. At least her family wasn’t. And when he caught her, there was no telling what he would do to her.

  You know what you need to do. Stay focused. And get the hell out. When you’re safe and out of sight, then you can think this through. But first she needed new clothes, a new bag, and definitely a new phone. And she needed them now. She thought of the rolls of cash in her bag. Rafe’s secret stash of money was going to bankroll this little shopping trip. She hated to take money from him, but under the circumstances, she didn’t have much choice.

  In less than three minutes, she had three sets of new clothes. Jeans, long-sleeved shirts, T-shirts, underwear, socks. Another pair of shoes. Most importantly, a new phone.

  She ran to the checkout line, paid in cash, and then headed straight for the dressing rooms to change. She left the phone Rafe had purchased for her in the bathroom stall. Once he woke up, he’d be able to track her with that. So it had to go.

  When all was said and done, she dragged her new clothes into the backpack she’d bought. She tucked her new phone into her back pocket. She snorted softly. The phone Rafe had bought her was a shiny iPhone. The one she’d bought herself was a flip phone. At least it could text though.

  Once Rafe tracked her phone—because let’s be serious, he would—he’d come here, but he wouldn’t be able to find her.

  As long as you get out in time.

  She hustled herself out of the store, pausing around every corner, well aware of who might be watching, well aware of who might be looking for her. She sent a text to the one person she knew would help her. It was a risk, and she didn’t want to put her friend in danger. But right now she needed a safe place to stay for the night. Rafe would be looking for her in hotels.

  Diana: Charisse, it’s Di. There’s been a change of plans. Can I crash?

  While she waited, she impatiently inhaled a protein bar, then guzzled a bottle of water. She’d been in such a hurry to leave, she hadn’t eaten anything. At least she had the protein bars for now. Once she got to Charisse’s, she’d be able to get some real food. She only hoped her friend actually read the message and didn’t ignore it since it was coming from an unfamiliar number.

  How had she gotten herself into this mess? What the hell was she going to do?

  Her first option was to run. Get on a plane, access her trust fund, and bolt. But after everything she’d seen in those files, did she really want to do that? Apparently there were a lot of people, very bad people, looking for anyone named Vandergraff. She could always try going to the man who’d created the fake documents for her, but he worked with her brothers, so that wasn’t the safest option.

  Which meant that her current identity as Diana Renquist wasn’t safe either.

  Diana shivered. She had no money, save what she’d taken from Rafe, and her credit cards, which were trackable. What was she going to do?

  All she could do was run, use cash, and try to stay off the radar. Maybe color her hair, go back to dark. Go out West. Lay low, live an anonymous life. That was the safest option. But that meant her brothers and Uncle Boris would get away with everything. The things she’d seen in that file… she couldn’t live with herself knowing they were involved in human trafficking. They had to be stopped.

  Then there was Rafe.

  She closed her eyes, caught off guard by the tsunami of emotion that just thinking about him wrought. All this time, she’d been torn by the conflicting feelings she’d had for him. In a way it was vindicating to know that she hadn’t been wrong. Rafael DeMarco was, if not a good guy exactly, at least someone who was working to make the world a better place. An FBI agent. She hadn’t seen that one coming.

  The text she’d been waiting for came in after a few moments.

  Charisse: Of course. You know the address.

  With a sigh of relief, Diana called a taxi and then walked to the address she’d given them. She could just download the Uber app or something onto her new phone, but she wasn’t taking any risks with her accounts or her emails. Rafe was good. Too good. As it was, he was going to find her soon.

  She just needed to have a plan of attack before he did. And maybe, just maybe, she’d get lucky, and he wouldn’t find her. She just had to stay ahead of the game.

  When her cab showed up, she gave the driver the address and slouched down. She couldn’t help but look up at the front of the department store, and then she saw him. Long, lithe movements. Focused drive, and determination in his stride. Rafe.

  He was already on her tail. Dammit. No doubt, it would take him five minutes to find the phone. Another ten to get security cameras pulled up. Enough to see that she’d walked out maybe five minutes ago, so she had about a fifteen-minute lead before he started calling taxi companies. Fantastic.

  She let the taxi drop her off at the library at U Penn. Then she called another taxi, which took her to the residential neighborhoods and dropped her off about five blocks from her friend’s house.

  She took a back path through a neighbor’s yard and then through another. All she could hope for was that none of these houses had motion sensor lights.

  When she reached Charisse’s house, she walked up to the back door and knocked. Her friend opened the door with wide, surprised eyes. “Hey! What are you doing back here? I expected you to come to the front door.”

  “Hey. Sorry. It’s a long story. Thank you for doing this.”

  “It’s no worry. Richard’s on a business trip, and the kids are asleep. They’re going to be thrilled to have Auntie Diana here for a bit.”

  Diana nodded her thanks. “You know I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t need to.”

  Charisse frowned. “What are you talking about? You’re always welcome. Now, you want to tell me why you’re calling me in the middle of the night from a new phone number?”

  It was only then that Diana let herself sag, and the first tears rolled down her face. “Charisse. I’m in so much trouble. And I have no clue what to do.”

  And then her friend reminded her of why they were so close in the first place. She didn’t get angry or say I told you so. Charisse led her to the couch in the living room, put a comforting arm around her shoulders, and said, “Tell me what happened.”

  Chapter Two

  Run. Run. Run.

  Diana jerked awake with a shot of adrenaline in her blood. Immediately she checked her surroundings, looking for the exit. It took her several moments to realize where she was. Charisse’s place. She was in the same guest room she’d occupied while she’d formulated her plan for Rafe.

  The sheets were soft, and the room smelled like lavender. And the sunlight filtered in through the blinds, casting the room into a warm morning glow.

  Diana scrubbed her hands over her face as the events of last night slammed into her like a tidal wave. Forty-eight hours ago, she’d been in Rafe’s arms, simultaneously loving being there and hating herself for wanting to be t
here. That connection she’d felt with him, the one that she’d loathed over the past month, was real. She’d fought it. She’d undermined it. And last night, she’d blown it up for what?

  For absolutely nothing, that’s what. There was no family to protect. No honor or justice for them. Her family. Her father, her brothers, they were the ones the world needed protecting from. She’d lied, stolen, stalked, and cheated to avenge a man who had essentially sold her off. The bile threatened to rise in her throat again. She dragged in deep breaths to push it down.

  Rafe DeMarco, he was one of the good guys, relatively speaking anyway. And to make matters worse, she’d fallen for him. Fallen for his laugh, his smile, fallen for the man that loved his family more than anything in the world. And in the end, she’d hurt him. She’d drugged him, fucked him, and then she’d hurt him. There was something so seriously wrong with her.

  She dragged the covers off and after a quick shower, dressed quickly. She found Charisse in the kitchen, making breakfast.

  “Morning, sunshine.”

  Diana gave her a bright smile. “I see you’re still a morning person.”

  “Are you kidding? It’s the only time I truly get to myself anymore. I’ve got two babies under two. I mean, dear Lord. I just finished feeding Jessica, and Braden will be up in an hour demanding something sugary like jam for breakfast, and I’ll have to do the mommy song and dance and at least negotiate some toast with that jam as well as fruit. My life is oh-so-fascinating.” Her friend cocked her head and studied her. “How are you feeling? A bit better after a good night’s sleep?”

  Diana nodded. “Thank you. I don’t know how to even say that properly. There are no words.”

  “None are necessary. C’mon. We’ve been friends forever. So… What’s the plan? Besides let your friend make you breakfast and play with your niece and nephew?”

  “Honestly, you don’t have to make me breakfast. I’m fine. I need to get on the road anyway. Rafe is good. I’m sure I was careless and sloppy somewhere, especially when I started letting my vagina do the talking, so I can’t guarantee you’ll be safe.”