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Where was Dylan? He should have come up the back stairs by now. All she had to do was stay down, stay safe, and not catch a bullet. But then from behind her, she heard a gunshot. Not like the guns Noah and Rafe had with their silencers.
There was no way she was going to make it crawling. She had to stand and run. And risk getting hit. It was worth the risk. Because she was not going to let her brother catch her.
Diana pushed herself to standing even though her bones protested. She knew the fate that awaited her if she didn’t make it to safety. And she was so not down for that. She shoved herself up and ran, heading straight for the kitchen.
She heard the heavy footfalls behind her but just kept running. And then out of nowhere, someone came out of the side of the kitchen and shoved her out of the way. She tripped and sprawled forward. Fuck, she was done for. But nothing came. No one landed on her. No one was dragging her back by her hair.
She could still hear the sounds of footsteps, but there were too many of them. Had Noah called in more backup? Diana pushed herself to her hands and knees and twisted her head around. She needed to find some fucking weapons and quick. Thanks to the slivers of sunshine peeking in through the darkened shutters in the living room, her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Someone had Hans. And it sounded like one hell of a fight. The grunting, the cracking, the breaking of bones.
The elevator dinged again, but this time when it opened, there were more men. Where the hell had they come from? Diana counted at least four even in her haste to scramble away.
But then she couldn’t move because Jakob was on her. He’d pounced on her, slamming her face into the marble. Pain exploded in her head. She tried desperately to remember what she’d learned in her krav maga classes as his hands locked around her neck. And then it came to her. She quickly brought her own hands up to her neck and sharply yanked his hands off her skin. And then she did the simplest thing in the world. She brought her knees to her elbows in one swift move. And her brother was off of her.
He fell forward but was on his feet in a moment. And coming for her. Diana attacked first, lunging right for him. She placed her thumbs over his eyelids and pushed. He screamed as his head went back, exposing his throat. She made a fist and delivered one swift jab to his Adam’s apple. Jakob doubled over, choking and gasping for air. She grabbed his ears and brought her knee up to connect to his face. His head snapped back again, and he flailed. She took that opportunity to run.
The living room wasn’t an option. She’d be trapped in there, so she headed to the left toward Noah’s office. He’d have weapons in there. With weapons she could fight better.
Even as she turned and prepared to fight whomever was coming, she saw that someone else had engaged with Jakob. The hand-to-hand was on. But her brother had a knife. “Be careful,” she called out to Ryan.
Hans had been fighting Dylan. He’d come up through the back stairs only to find the melee in progress. The other men who’d come off the elevator were now engaging the members of Blake Security. Everywhere she turned, punches were being thrown and kicks were being landed.
Suddenly Ryan went down in a heap. He was bleeding from his side, and he wasn’t moving. She didn’t know what to do, and Hans was coming right for her.
She needed to get to Ryan, but she’d have to go around her brother first. It was one thing for her brothers to come after her. To hurt her. But there was no way she was going to let them get away with hurting her new family. She had to get to Ryan. Was he okay?
Diana used the palm of her hand to strike her brother right in the nose. He howled, but his head did not snap back. Instead, he looked angry and like he wanted to kill her. Shit. She had no ch
oice but to run.
As she darted back into the kitchen, she grabbed whatever she could find. The knives, yes. She grabbed one then tossed it at her brother. She’d never done much knife training, just how to defend against them, not throw. Even as she ran toward the bedrooms in the gym area, she heard Hans curse behind her.
Then someone else was in the kitchen. She couldn’t see who, but the shadows told her he was also big. That could be anyone, but when she looked closer, she realized it was Noah. And Jesus Christ, it was brutal. Hans was not playing around. He had the knife she’d thrown at him, and he’d already sliced through Noah’s shirt. There was blood.
She had to distract him. She had to find a way to help Noah. Something. And then she saw the copper pans hanging over the sink. As quickly as she could, Diana ran and grabbed one of them and slid her grip around the handle.
She tiptoed behind them. Noah gave her a firm shake of the head, but she paid no attention. And with a wide arch of her arms, she cracked the copper pan on the back of her brother’s skull. He went still. With his attention diverted for just one second, Noah delivered a blow to his kidney. Diana saw the knife too late. No, that wasn’t a knife. “Oh my God, Noah, he’s got a gun.”
The shot rang out, and Noah went down.
Oh God. No, not Noah. Oh God. Logic dictated that someone would be on guard at the panic room. Maybe Matthias? Where was Rafe?
But then things went really wrong. The lights came back up, and she saw that everyone was engaged. There were far too many of them, and she’d led the enemy straight here. It was one thing to set a trap for her brothers, but the team hadn’t been prepared for this.
Jonas was engaged in hand-to-hand combat as he fought someone in the kitchen, close to Noah’s body. Oskar now engaged Hans. Matthias was fighting someone in black. Where was Rafe? A quick scan of the rooms and she found him by the gym.
The look on his face was brutal, deadly. He meant business. As the guy he was fighting went down, Rafe spared her a glance and mouthed the word, “Run.”
And she was going to. She even turned around and headed straight for the panic room. But then she saw Jakob with his gun raised. A gunshot rang out, and Diana’s insides turned to ice. No. Not Rafe.
Rafe froze in his tracks before staggering another couple of steps. Jakob fired another shot. This time Rafe fell to the ground, even as he tried to fight. What was happening?
She was frozen, and shock rendered her unable to move. But she had to. This was her family, and she had to fight. Jakob fired another shot in her direction, and she ducked behind a pillar. Jonas elbowed the guy he was fighting in the temple. The guy went down. Jonas got him by the neck, then very calmly grabbed him by the top of the head and the chin and twisted.
Diana heard the crack, and her stomach roiled.
Matthias was shot but still fighting. When Diana peered back around the pillar, Jakob was on Rafe. He straddled him, raining fists on his face.
