Chapter Five
If Rafe hadn’t been ready to kill Diana before, kicking him in the nuts was certain to solidify that now. She couldn’t believe she’d done it.
She hadn’t gone there looking to start trouble. She’d just wanted to warn him. But then he’d caught her.
Diana flushed as she jogged up to her door at the motel, thinking about what just happened.
Him catching her, the icy quality to his voice, the distinct heat. When he’d used his arms to cage her against the wall, part of her was terrified. Maybe that was the rational part of her brain talking. But deep down, Diana knew Rafe would never hurt her. Yeah, instead, you keep hurting him.
If she had told him to stop or that she didn’t want that, he would have backed off. But she had wanted it. She’d wanted him not to be angry with her. She had wanted him not to treat her like she was fragile. She wanted that intensity that Noah and Lucia had. She’d wanted raw, unfiltered, and desperate.
Rafe DeMarco was the only man who had ever given her that. The forceful way he’d gripped her hips and slid home. Every damn inch of him.
And she’d come apart. No foreplay, no tender words, no long lovemaking session, nope. Just a quickie against the wall. That had been angry sex. And goddamn it, she’d liked it. Jesus. Her legs were still shaking, her skin was still humming, and her blood still burned in her veins. The way his hand had slid into her hair as he had dragged orgasm after orgasm after orgasm out of her with his words, with his body.
What the hell was wrong with her? It was like she needed something real, something tangible to let her know that these few weeks were not a dream, or nightmare. And Rafe had certainly given her that. Judging by the tender feel of her skin, the cocky bastard had left hickeys on the back of her neck! She’d never had a hickey in her life. But the idea that Rafe had marked her, why the hell was that so hot?
Okay. Enough.
She had to stop thinking about that. Because even if that was the best sex of her entire life, not that she had that much to compare to, he was clearly angry with her. And he has good reason to be. Yes, yes, details. But she’d made it worse just now.
She’d run from him, and to boot, she kneed him in the balls. Her favorite toy and she’d attempted to smash it. “You need some serious psychological help,” she mumbled to herself as she unlocked the door to her motel room.
“I certainly have to agree with that.”
Diana whirled at the sound of the voice coming from the corner. “Hans?”
Her brother stepped out of the shadows. “Tsk tsk, Larissa. You’ve been a bad, bad girl. Imagine our surprise to find you were no longer with DeMarco.”
Diana tried to back out of the room, but Jakob was right behind her. “Where you going, little sister?”
She had no choice but to stumble forward into the room. “What are you two doing here?” But after the things she’d learned about them, she had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what they were doing.
Making sure they didn’t lose one of their investments.
Hans slid a glance at Jakob, who merely shook his head. When Hans spoke, his voice was low, angry. “Did you really think that we wouldn’t know what you were up to?”
Diana struggled to keep her expression even. They didn’t know that she knew about their shady business interests. They couldn’t.
“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve been hanging out with an old friend and sightseeing.”
Hans chuckled. “I have to admit, I didn’t actually think you’d make any headway. After all, we’ve been trying to track down the Jewel of the Sea for years with no luck. But you managed to lead us right to it.”
Her stomach dropped. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Hans made a face, like he was disappointed. “You’re trying to tell me that after weeks of fucking that FBI agent, you have nothing to show for it?”
Oh God. It was worse than she’d thought. They’d been watching her this whole time. And now they thought she had the diamond.
“Listen, I broke into the safe. There wasn’t anything in there. There was no diamond, no nothing. He doesn’t have it.”
She swallowed hard as she backed farther into the room. Maybe if she could get into the bathroom, she could lock herself in. Because every instinct in her body told her she wasn’t making it out of this room unscathed if she didn’t hide or run.
“You’re a terrible liar.” Her brother slid the backs of his fingers along her cheek. “My beautiful sister, Larissa. What are we going to do with you?”
“Hans, I—”
He interrupted her. “You know, you make Jakob sentimental? I suggested two years ago we give you to Boris early. The Russian has always had an unhealthy fascination with you. He would have paid extra to have you early.”
Diana recoiled. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
Hans shook his head. “Of course you don’t. And I’m the fool who listened to Jakob. ‘She’s our sister, Hans.’ Pathetic.”
Diana swung her gaze to Jakob. But he looked just as foreboding as he always did. And this time he was standing directly in her exit path. She flinched away from Hans when he tucked his fingers under her chin to make her meet his gaze.
“Larissa. Where is the diamond?”
“I told you, I don’t have it. Rafe doesn’t have it.”
Hans laughed. “Rafe, is it? Since you are unwilling to give us what we want, it looks like Jakob and I will have to pay him a visit. And we’re going to make it very, very painful. But in the meantime, you don’t mind if I go ahead and search your pockets, do you? Because I don’t believe you.” The last word came out with spittle as he spat in her face.
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.
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 season 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.”
The other guy looked at the one Rafe was holding. Ah so this one was the ringleader.
The guy said, “We need information she has. So I would rather neither of us dies at the moment.”
“Could have fooled me. You were choking her out when I walked in.”
“Well, she angered me. You know how it is with whores.”
Again with the stroking of the trigger, but he knew if he killed the guy in his arms, Diana would be gone. And that would be on him. He had to get his shit under control. He couldn’t let his emotions rule the moment.
The guy holding Diana smiled. “Easy now, killer. Let him go. Gun down. You can’t win this fight today. We’ll come for you both another day.”
“You can come for me all you want. But come near her, and I will put a bullet between your eyes.”
“You’re welcome to try. But in the meantime, gun down. Or little Miss Blond-tits-and-ass goes.”
Motherfucker. Diana’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head. “Rafe. Don’t.”
He wasn’t sure which one she was telling him not to do. Not kill the guy? Yeah, he was already with that program. Not to save her? She was crazy if she thought that. Like he could just walk away from her after everything? He fucking loved her. Which was inconvenient at best.
He put the safety back on and lowered the gun, letting the other guy fall to the floor. “You shoot her, and you don’t walk out of here. Neither does your brother. You make your choices.”
“Not to worry, I’ll be back for the both of you.” The other guy threw Diana down on the ground with enough force to make her bounce.
Rafe sprinted toward her while the other man dragged his brother out the door. Rafe wanted to go for his gun, to shoot the retreating forms, but Diana was his concern now.
She groaned as she tried to sit up. “How did you find me?”
He held her gently even as he systematically checked her for wounds. She would have severe bruising on her neck tomorrow. “I tagged you with something when you were at my place. While we were… busy.”
Her eyes went wide. “Are you fucking serious?”
“You can yell at me for that later. I’m taking you somewhere safe. You need to be checked out better. Right now you can talk a little, but I don’t know how long that’ll last. The bruising on your neck is ugly.”
“I can’t come with you. You heard him. They’re going to keep searching for me. I have to go. I need to run.” Then she frowned as if she remembered something. “Did you erase the flash drive?”
He swallowed and then nodded. “Yes. I have a device that lifted the data off of it while it was still on you.”
“How did you know I’d have it on me?”
“I figured you came to either give it back or blackmail me. And since you’re on the run, the safest place to hide it would be on you. I took a calculated risk.”
Her lips trembled. “How am I going to get out of this?”
He stared down at her and brushed a lock of hair off her face. “With me. I’m going help you get out of whatever this is. But first you and I are due to have a long conversation.”