Deep (The Deep Duet 1)

Assassin Brain: Two bullets through the door while you’re fucking her takes care of both problems.

Rational Rafe: “I’m sorry baby, I need to get that. Hold that thought.”

“That’s not what I was holding.”

With a frustrated growl, he jogged to the door. He didn’t need to check his phone. He knew who it was. The last person he’d ever expected to find on his doorstep.

Rafe yanked the door open. “Matthias, what the fuck do you want?”

The kid smirked. “I was in the neighborhood. And I have the information you want. You left in such a hurry I didn’t get to give it to you. Noah said I’m supposed to play nice. This is me playing nice.” His gaze slid past Rafe to Diana inside and he grinned. “Did I interrupt?”

Assassin Rafe: Get out the knives and let’s play.

Rational Rafe: Punch him in the face and go fuck.

Rafe sighed. “You could have mentioned you were coming around.”

The kid shrugged. “I could have, but this way I get a chance to say hi to Diana.” He brushed past Rafe and whistled. “Nice flat, mate. Gosh, I have interrupted something. It wasn’t something important, was it?”

“Fuck you,” Rafe growled.

Matthias chuckled. “Sorry. Not sorry.” He sauntered over to a now-standing Diana and gave her a hug that lasted too long in Rafe’s opinion. “Diana, love. You all right?” Rafe knew the kid had proximity issues. He was a cagey fuck who didn’t like to be touched too often, but still, he was standing in Rafe’s living room with his arms around Rafe’s woman.

Relax. He’s trying to get a rise out of you. Rafe could only scowl.

Diana grinned up at Matthias. “I’m good. It’s good to see you.”

“You know, Rafe’s never invited any of us over before. We just show up uninvited. It’s nice to actually receive a warm welcome for once.” Matthias smirked at Rafe. “And the place looks better than ever. I don’t doubt that you had something to do with it. I can’t really see him buying pillows.”

“I thought I’d help make the place cheery since he’s been so nice to let me stay for a bit.”

That was enough. Rafe nodded at Matthias. “You need to tell me something?”

Matthias chuckled. “Yeah, let’s talk.”

Rafe inclined his head. “This way.” The kid was still angry at him. Good God, the Blake guys were such pussies. They all needed to get over the trying-to-kill-them thing.

That one time.

Okay, maybe twice. But so what? They were all friends now. Jonas and Oskar had warmed to him. But it seemed Matthias still held a grudge. Maybe because he’d bested the kid in hand-to-hand?

Rafe would never admit it to anyone, but he still felt a twinge of guilt when he thought back to the lengths he’d gone to rescue his sister… who hadn’t needed rescuing at all. He’d let out that part of himself he swore was gone for good.

Rafe led Matthias into the office and closed the door behind them. “Okay, what’s up?”

Rafe had never seen the kid smile this much. He looked positively giddy to have fucked up his night. “Okay. I did as you asked. I looked up Diana. It’s like she said. She’s from Yonkers, no points on her driver’s license, and no debt to speak of. Granted, there’s not really anything before three years ago when she graduated university. But she was a minor before that. So if there was anything, that’s a little harder to find. I can do it if you want. But I’ll only be able to find stuff specifically on her if she was registered in public school or had a run-in with law enforcement. Anything else I find will be on her parents and any family she has to speak of. You want me to dig deeper?”

Rafe frowned. She’d been telling the truth? Despite what Matthias was saying, everything in Rafe told him there was more to the story. “Yeah. Keep looking.” The words came out clipped.

“You look tense, mate.”

“Fuck you.”

“If you’re into that, I won’t judge. Maybe Diana would like—”

Rafe was across the room in seconds, ready to level the kid, but he stopped short. In a split second, the shutters had fallen over Matthias’s eyes, making them go dead. In an instant he’d gone from the teasing swagger of a friend to the cold façade of a killer. If Rafe touched him, there would be blood. A lot of it.

While Rafe didn’t make a move, he kept direct eye contact and held his ground, showing him that he wasn’t fazed but also wasn’t aggressive. After several breaths, the kid seemed to shake off the killer and then averted his gaze.