“Where is it?” the man with the bloody scrapes down his arm demanded from behind the navy blue bandana tied across his face.
The other guy was already walking around, yanking open drawers, digging through the contents. Making a racket.
“It’s not here,” I snarled.
“Bullshit. Where is it?”
His hand shot out so fast it blurred around the edges, his meaty palm closing around my throat, immediately cutting off my airway.
It was surprising how quickly I went from shock to panic to breathlessness.
My face felt fuzzy. My heart started to pound slower, but much harder, each beat like a punch against my ribcage.
And all I could do was think of Robin.
Was it like this with her?
Woken out of a dead sleep?
A hand around her throat?
A man demanding the location of something she knew she had to protect?
I wasn’t sure I would be as brave as she was. Holding out to the last moment.
If it was in the apartment, to save Liam, I might have told them. Let them take it. Then call in the cavalry; let the mob do what it did best.
Then again, I had no idea what was on that drive.
The last I heard, Zeno was still working on it. He was only able to use a few passwords every couple of hours, or he ran the risk of permanently locking it.
“She can’t answer if she can’t talk,” the other guy said.
But my attacker just squeezed harder.
One second.
Two.
I watched the way his eyes narrowed, like he was putting a lot of his strength into it. Like he was enjoying this.
On the third second, his hand opened, leaving me to gasp for air—big, violent gulps that took all my focus for a terrifying few moments as my body didn’t quite register that it was okay, that I could breathe, that there was enough oxygen.
If the strangulation had made my heartbeat slow and hard, breathing again made it go frantic—fluttering, pounding, skipping around. I felt like it was both in my chest and lodged at the back of my throat at once.
“Where is it?”
“It’s,” I gasped, “not here.” I took a step back as he took one forward. “I wouldn’t keep it here. I’m not stupid.”
The venom in my voice gave him pause.
“Stupid enough to be here all alone when you know what we do to people who get in the way of what we want.”
Good.
He thought I was alone.
So long as the other guy didn’t go into Liam’s room, everything was under control.
