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A shudder racked her body. She turned herself away from her brother as much as possible. But he didn’t seem to care. His hands were all over her, patting her down, sliding into her pockets. When he slid into her back pocket, he pulled out the flash drive.
“What is this?”
Oh shit. “It’s not anything.” She prayed he believed her and wouldn’t look on that drive.
“What is this? Did you steal this from him?”
“It’s not anything. Give it back.”
Hans glared at her. But when he spoke, he was talking to their brother. “Jakob, you have the laptop?”
“Yes.”
“Here.” He tossed the flash drive over his shoulder, and Diana watched in terror as Jakob snatched it out of the air, then pulled a small laptop out of the inside of his jacket.
They were going to kill her when they saw what was on it. She had to keep them from looking at it. “I told you, there’s nothing there.” All she wanted was to go back to her old life. Where she didn’t know anything about assassins or her father.
This was the kind of man her father had been. Someone who intimidated and terrified. Someone who killed, who stole. Her brothers were made in his image. The man she’d gone to avenge was just like them.
“There’s nothing on it,” Jakob said.
Hans stared at her. “Larissa, what was on the drive?”
What the hell? Had Rafe replaced it? How could that drive be empty? She’d seen what was on there for herself. People would kill her just for knowing about that drive. “I told you. Nothing.”
“Very cute, little sister. When you got the drive, was there something on it?”
She didn’t know what possessed her to say it. Maybe she wanted the satisfaction of knowing that he knew he couldn’t have what he wanted. Not from her. “You’ll never know.”
And then it happened. The moment she knew she was going to die. It was sudden. One second Hans was staring at her with cold fury, the next his eyes had gone dead and flat. His hand shot out and wrapped around her neck, squeezing so damn tight she couldn’t breathe. The edges of her vision turned gray, getting darker and darker the tighter he squeezed.
Diana struggled helplessly, tugging at the arm around her throat. Then he slammed her against the wall, and her skull felt like it was cracking. He added his other hand and squeezed.
Dizzy. So dizzy.
She tried to do a simple pluck with her hands, but she had no leverage; she couldn’t even budge her brother’s hands. They were so big and beefy they overlapped each other around her neck. Her self-defense training didn’t help much when she couldn’t breathe.
Arm straight up, drop the opposite shoulder. God, she was tired. She struggled to remember what she’d learned about breaking a choke hold. Twist the body. Drop the—
Bang. The crash of the door splintering and exploding open had everyone jumping. Suddenly Hans was loosening his hand, but it was too late. Her vision clouded.
And then all she saw was black.
Rafe made a quick assessment as he barged in. His heat-sensing devices had told him there was a guy on the door, so he’d taken care of him first. A quick blow to the back of the head had him crumpling into a heap just inside the door. When he saw that asshole with his mitts around Diana’s neck, he let out the rage he mostly tried to keep concealed.
With nothing more than sheer brute force, he dragged the guy off her, shielding Diana with his body.
This guy was big. Nearly as tall as Rafe was. He definitely had some training, but he wasn’t a professional.
This would take different tactics. Good thing Rafe had been trained to kill and to do it with startling efficiency. Granted, most of the subjects didn’t know he was coming.
A quick glance at Diana told him she was alive—hurt—but alive. He growled in frustration and turned back to his prey. I’m going to kill that asshole.
The brute lunged for him, and Rafe deftly stepped out of the way but not before delivering a right hook to the temple. The guy staggered, but unfortunately he caught hold of part of Rafe’s sleeve and pulled it down with him.
Shit, scrapping on the ground was not how Rafe wanted this confrontation to happen. Pound for pound, he was too evenly matched on the ground. Maybe even outmatched.
Jujitsu training had never been his favorite. There was something about sweaty balls in the face that lacked a certain appeal for him. But still, he’d been a quick study. He kneed the guy in the groin. And although the move was somewhat effective, it didn’t slow down his attacker as much as he would have liked. The motherfucker put his hands around Rafe’s neck and squeezed. Rafe had seconds before it was lights out. He managed a punch, but the guy just groaned and continued applying pressure to his neck.
