“Has Lucia ever lied to you?”
Noah snorted and barked out a laugh. “Man, you don’t even want to know some of the things your sister has done. She’s a manipulative little thing when she wants to be.”
Now it was Rafe’s turn to snort. “Lucia? No way. She’s always been an angel,” he muttered sarcastically.
His sister had been raised to be the good girl. But somewhere along the line, she’d bucked that and started standing on her own. And sometimes that came with deception.
Like the time she and JJ had locked Delaney in the panic room so they could go after a killer.
Shit. He still lost sleep over that one.
He’d watched her grow up and been a surrogate father to her after their parents died. He’d always thought he knew her inside and out. But she had changed in all the time he’d been gone.
“You know as well as I do that your sister is no angel anymore. This is the girl who ditched her security by dressing one of the girls in her office in her clothes so she and JJ could hit a club.”
“Oh yeah, that night when I tried to get her back. You should have done something about that.”
“Like I could stop her. Have you ever tried to get between Lucia and something she wants? Not if you want to keep your balls.”
Rafe chuckled. He had to admit that despite being such a good kid, Lucia was really good at getting her way. She could just turn those big gray eyes on you and you’d cave and give her whatever she wanted. But not like this. She’d always been more… persuasive than sneaky. Nothing like he was seeing with Diana.
“You’re right. She could be a handful when she wanted. I blame JJ.”
Noah barked a laugh. “You know what, I’m inclined to believe that, but I think sometimes JJ just gives her permission to do things she always wanted to. She sent me a strippergram here at the office when she was pissed at me one time.”
“Wait, what? Lucia sent strippers? Why didn’t I know this?” Rafe wasn’t sure he wanted to continue the conversation. There were certain things he just didn’t want to know about his sister.
Noah’s laughter carried through the phone, and Rafe couldn’t help smiling too. Although it did make him a little sad, as it always did when he was reminded just how long he’d been gone, just how much his time with ORUS had really cost him.
“I don’t think I need to know too much about my sister as an adult. I’ll just keep thinking of her as a little pip-squeak with pigtails.”
Noah’s laughter finally trailed off. “That’s probably best. But in short, the answer to your question is yes. Lucia has lied to me before. Sometimes when it’s minor, and sometimes when it can get her killed. But it’s always because she feels like she’s doing the right thing.”
Rafe suddenly wasn’t sure he wanted to borrow Matthias anymore. What the hell was he doing assuming his relationship, or whatever you wanted to call it, with Diana was anything like what Noah had with Lucia? His friend and sister had known each other for years and had been through a lot together. What did he have with Diana?
“Woman troubles, Rafe?”
He grunted. Noah had always been an intuitive bastard. It was part of what had made him such a great assassin.
“I’m just not sure I can trust her. She’s different from any woman I’ve ever met. Nothing between us has unfolded in the usual
way, and I’m not sure how to handle her.”
Noah was quiet for a while. Rafe didn’t rush him. From experience, he knew that Noah liked to look at things from all angles before he offered an opinion.
“Do you think she cares about you? Because in my experience, when the woman you care about lies, it’s because she’s scared. Your girl have a reason to be scared?”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t trust me enough to tell me why yet. Some asshole hurt her. Right now she’s not telling me a thing about him.”
“Until then, it might not be a bad idea to put a tracker on her.”
As soon as Noah suggested it, Rafe wondered why he hadn’t already done it. Damn, he was getting soft already. “Definitely doing that today.”
“I can give you ideas for some really good trackers that she won’t even notice. But most important, keep your eyes on her. You’ve always had crazy good instincts. If there’s even a chance that this girl is into something bad, you might be her only chance to get out of it alive.”
Diana took another bite of her pad thai and chewed mindlessly, not tasting a thing. She glanced over at Rafe. This had been the weirdest day. Ever since they’d woken up, she’d been getting a weird vibe from him. It wasn’t that he’d treated her any differently or ignored her, but the previous open, raw intensity she’d gotten from him was gone. Cautious. That was the best way she could describe the way he seemed now.
Like you’re any better.