Page 89 of Broken Promise
My hands shook as I stared down at the paper. “What is this?”
Rafe’s gaze was hard and unflinching. I could see the love, but more than anything I saw the determination. He nodded at the man, then the woman. “These are agents Granger and Durand. FBI and Interpol. And this is your freedom. Sign it.”
I had no idea what was happening. When we had come in this morning, he’d told someone that I was a walk-in, and then some guy had led me down to this office. Which, in all honesty, looked more like an interrogation room, all fluorescent lighting and linoleum floors. He’d told me someone would be in to talk in no time. But I had been waiting over an hour.
Next thing I knew, Rafe was walking into the room accompanied by a gorgeous redhead that reminded me of Jessica Rabbit, and a middle-aged, stern-looking, thin-lipped man.
He hadn’t said a word, just handed me the paper. My eyes scanned the document. It was an immunity deal.Oh hell. They knew. And now my brothers were going to come for Rafe. Because the more I read, the more I saw the deal was just for me. “I don’t think I can do this.”
Rafe leaned forward, planting his hands on the table. His voice was soft but pleading. “There is no other choice. You sign this, you’re protected. You don’t”—his eyes shifted to the left—“and they’ll throw you to the wolves. So please, for the love of God, sign the fucking document.”
A shiver ran through me, and I took the pen that he offered. This was not our deal. This was not what I wanted to do. But the look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. That agreement was shit right now. Even though I’d come in here to protect him, he was now the one protecting me.
And from the looks of the other two in the room, I was going to need all the help I could get. I took the pen and added my signature before I handed it back to him. The relief flooded his face immediately, and the tension around his mouth eased. Then he mouthed,thank you.
He took the document and handed it to the other man. “Immunity.” He turned his gaze to the redhead. “Now you can’t touch her.”
“Rafe, I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“It’s okay, Diana. I need you to tell them everything. All of it. Leave nothing out.”
I took a deep breath. “I guess this part you know. My father, he died when I was thirteen. You were there obviously.” I cast my gaze downward. “After he was killed, I was sent away to boarding school. After I finished secondary school, I went to Penn. I knew nothing about father’s businesses or what my brothers actually did. All I knew was that my father left me a trust fund. He’d always been adamant about that. That each of us have money of our own. He made us memorize the numbers backward and forward so we could do it in our sleep, and we could always access our funds. He set up my accounts, along with my brothers’. So I know their numbers as well. Those will come in handy for you later, so maybe you can track their movements or something.”
The redhead, Emilie Durand, scoffed. “We’ll need your accounts too.”
“You can have it. I don’t want any of that money now that I know how he acquired it.”
Rafe shook his head. “We’ll go ahead and leave your accounts alone for now. Your mother’s family was wealthy. I’m pretty sure she left you some money in there as well. So let’s deal with your brothers first, and then we’ll talk about you. Continue.”
I swallowed. “I wanted to find out who killed my father.” I glanced at Rafe and then back down to my hands. “I learned everything I could about that night, pieced together everything I could. Hired people to learn more. For months I watched you.”
Rafe swallowed hard but said nothing.
I had no choice but to continue. “I figured that if I got close to you, I would have a chance to recover the diamond. So I devised a plan. You were supposed to find me along the side of the road, needing help. I assumed you’d take me to a hotel or something. Once we’d met, I planned to run into you in the city later and strike up a friendship. Only that’s not what happened. You took me home. My plan had worked far better than I’d ever dreamed.” I waited for him to say something. He didn’t, but the muscle in his jaw clenched.
The redheaded agentrolled her eyes. “So you figured you’d flirt with him and that he’d just tell you everything?”
I glowered at her. “No. I didn’t expect him to tell me anything, actually. My plan was to get close to him and see if I could access his safe.”
I could almost feel Rafe’s stillness. This was hard. Too hard. But he knew the story already. So I just needed to get it out. Ignoring the other two in the room, I turned toward Rafe.
“You were different than I thought. And at the beginning, the whole plan was information. Find out who killed my father. But the more I got to know you, the harder it was to imagine you killing someone for no good reason. And of course then there was the safe.”
He frowned. “Yes, the flash drive you took.”
I inhaled deeply. “That wasn’t what I was after. I was looking for my mother’s diamond. The Jewel of the Sea. Twenty-five carats. Practically priceless. It used to be in my father’s study. The night before he died was the last time anyone saw it. And then that night. After…” My voice trailed. I took another deep breath before continuing. “After I was told to get in the closet, I saw the person who killed him, running across the lawn. I thought maybe that person had taken it. Then I opened your safe, and it wasn’t there.”
He frowned. “I never took that diamond. And I sure as shit didn’t make my egress across the lawn. It was too exposed. I took the tunnels to a checkpoint about half a mile away and drove out.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. That’s what I remember. It was a long time ago. At any rate, I started to put the pieces together. While I’ve been watching you, apparently my brothers have been watching me. They want the diamond even though it was willed to me by our mother. Every woman in my family has given it to her daughter on the eve of her wedding night as a sort of dowry. Apparently, my brothers have promised it to Boris. Along with me.”
The redhead leaned forward. “Boris Klinkov?”
“Yes. That’s him. After I saw the files in Rafe’s safe, that’s when I started to realize what was going on. I saw the files Rafe had on them. My father, his business, the trafficking, my brother’s roles in it all. I knew too much at that point. Once they found out I didn’t have the diamond, I knew they’d kill Rafe and me. I figured if I ran, they would come after me and leave him alone.”
“Convenient,” muttered Emilie.
“It’s the truth. There were other files that I stole. Those files, I realized, were really dangerous. I knew I shouldn’t have them, that if anyone ever saw them, people might die. So I brought them back to Rafe. I told him as much as I could while trying to not implicate him or get him killed.”
