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Rafe turned his head, relieving some of the pressure on the trachea. And then he worked his arm up and over between the guy’s arms, taking one sharp inhale before delivering a strike directly under the jawline at a pressure point. That loosened the guy’s grip enough for Rafe to bring his knees up and dislodge the asshole, flinging the guy over his head.
Once he was on his feet again, it was all about hand-to-hand combat.
Kicks were his favorite, and Rafe wanted to keep the big asshole from delivering any blows. He might be slow, but if he landed a punch, it wouldn’t be pretty.
Behind him, he could hear Diana rolling around, trying to get to her feet.
He delivered a midlevel front kick, then went straight for the knee. Knees were a close-combat tool. But they were effective.
Rafe pulled the guy in close, then used his arm like a bar under his chin directly on his throat. Grabbing hold of his shirt, Rafe used his other arm to drag the big guy forward. He delivered a knee to the stomach, and the guy doubled over. Then Rafe pulled back and delivered a knee to the skull. And it was lights out.
Quickly he turned to Diana. “Are you okay? If you can, get out of here. My car is—”
“Rafe, behind you,” she yelled.
Shit. The other guy was on his feet, moving fast. Way faster than his friend. And joy of joys, he had a knife. Luckily for Rafe, though, this guy was not as well trained as his partner. The knife swung down in a wide arc, giving Rafe enough time to just lean out of the way. The edge of the knife grazed his neck, nicking him, but didn’t deliver a fatal blow. He probably wouldn’t even need stitches. Leaning forward, he used his body to protect Diana and then swept his right leg out from behind him, catching the guy’s foot and sending him down.
Rafe was on him after that, going for his knife arm. He applied enough pressure to make the guy scream.
That’s right, bitch, call for your mommy.
It was times like this that Rafe couldn’t deny what he was. He was a killer. He enjoyed this. These were the moments that got his blood pumping. These were the moments that he lived for.
He was well aware that there was something wrong with him, deep down. But he didn’t have time to analyze that just now. The other guy was quick and had his other arm up, delivering a blow right over Rafe’s ear and making his head ring. But there was no way Rafe was letting go of the hand holding the knife. He wasn’t getting cut in this motel room again. Not today.
It was that fine line he had to walk between letting these assholes live, well, at least one of them, and burning this whole place to the ground, which was what he wanted to do. But he needed for one of them to talk. Right now Rafe was going to go with the one who hadn’t actively been trying to kill Diana when he walked in. It was open s
eason on the other guy as far as Rafe was concerned.
The guy refused to let go of the knife, and he was sick of that shit. While they both wrestled for control over that arm, Rafe made a fist and delivered a jab to the asshole’s trachea. Instinctively the guy beneath him reached for his throat and let go of the knife.
Seizing the opportunity, Rafe grabbed his wrist and rotated that puppy all the way around, the sound of the resulting crunch satisfying him. Even as the room filled with the asshole’s pitiful screams, Rafe did what he did best. He pinned the asshole’s arms with his knees then grabbed him by the ears and jammed the fucker’s head back onto the ground. Hard. Too bad they were on carpet. If it had been cement, then this guy would never be waking up again.
Well, he could fix that.
The problem with letting his monster out to play was sometimes it was a little hard to put the guy back in his box. In seconds, Rafe lost track of who he was, what was happening. All that mattered was these people had tried to kill Diana. This guy had hurt his woman. Enraged all over again at just the thought, he pulled out his gun and flipped the safety off.
The guy groaned at the sight, but there was no way Rafe was letting him die yet. “Oh no you don’t, asshole. You’re going to answer a few questions first.”
Behind him, Diana whimpered. Fuck. She sounded afraid. He forced himself to stand and drag his reluctant prisoner up with him while still keeping the gun on his temple.
“Diana—” The words froze on his tongue when she came into view.
The stockier guy had gotten up while Rafe was busy and now had Diana locked against him with a gun to her skull.
“It looks like we have a standoff.”
Rafe clenched his teeth. “Let her go, or your partner dies.”
The other guy grinned. “You let my brother go, or your whore dies. See, I can play this game too.”
Rafe’s finger caressed the trigger. The sound of that asshole calling Diana a whore made him twitch. But he had to be smart. His whole goal was to protect her. To keep her safe. Even if she didn’t want his protection at the moment, she sure as hell needed it.
“You really think I’m going to trust you?”
The guy shrugged. “You don’t really have any choice.”
“I could end your boy and have a bullet in your skull before his body even hit the ground.”
