Page 47 of Don’t Hate Me (Secrets of Ravens Hollow #2)

“We don’t have a lot of time, so today I’m going to teach you how to kill a man in a few simple moves.”

I stretch my arms over my head and roll my shoulders back, casting my gaze at Onyx in the mirrored wall of the gym.

He’s in gray shorts and a loose singlet, with his tattooed biceps on full display.

He looks hot as hell, and it’s mighty distracting.

“I already know that. Shoot him, or if that fails, a knife to the neck always works nice and fast.” I smirk back at him, knowing he’s seen me kill someone exactly like that before.

He steps in behind me, his finger tracing a line up my arm and stopping when he makes it to my sports bra.

His eyes lock with mine in the wall of mirrors.

“What if you can’t get hold of a weapon?

Like when you first got here?” His hand continues until his fingers are wrapped around my neck, just like they were last night.

I meet his determined gaze. This is on me, I asked for these self-defense lessons, and with nothing better to do with our time while we wait for Romeo to get back, today is as good a time as any to start. That’s what the boys told me at breakfast, anyway. “Okay, teach me what you know, big guy.”

“If an attacker grabs you from behind.” He moves to bear hug me, wrapping his arms around my front tightly.

“I want you to drop your weight fast, shift your hips, and grab one of his wrists to create space.” He moves my body with him to demonstrate how he wants me to do it.

“Then quickly rotate to the side and behind him. One arm goes across his neck, in the rear choke position, the other pushes his head forward sharply.”

His eyes meet mine, asking if I understand. I nod for him to go on.

“With a quick, forceful twist and push, you can potentially fracture the cervical spine if done with enough force.” He shows me on him, where I should aim.

I pretend to do it a few times, practicing the movement. “To break his neck?” I ask, curious.

“Exactly. Try it again.” We go through the move another couple of times until he’s convinced I have it.

“If he comes at you from the front, you have a couple of options as well. You can try a palm strike to the nose.” He moves to my front, staring me down as he takes my hand and demonstrates, his massive body looming over me.

“Use an open-handed palm strike, driving upward into the attacker’s nose.

The goal is to shatter the nasal bone, driving fragments upward into the brain. ”

“Sounds vicious.” I smirk back at him, imagining doing that exact move on Syd. The fucker has it coming.

“Fatal if you do it right. The second option is a throat crush. If you have to act fast, drive your fingers into the attacker’s trachea, crushing his windpipe.

” He shows me the way to do it, making sure I can get my hand just right, before he shows me exactly the place on his neck I should aim.

“You can follow it up with a knee to the groin or a strike to the solar plexus.”

“What if he’s too fast for me, or too big, and I’m knocked to the ground?” I ask, remembering the fight I had on my hands when Orlando took me. I was no match for his brute strength no matter how hard I tried.

He helps me onto my back as I stare up at him. “If you’re trapped on your back, pinned beneath an attacker, you want to go for the eyes, gouging in with thumbs as hard as possible. When he recoils, shift your weight and grab the neck or rip at the throat or Adam’s apple.”

“If the guy is as big as you, I have no chance. Do I?”

His forehead creases. “You have the element of surprise. He won’t expect you to know any of these moves.

That’s why it’s important that we practice so you can act on instinct if you ever need to.

Lucky for you, I’m never leaving your side again, so you won’t have to use them.

” I see the seriousness in his eyes. That’s his plan, to stay by my side forever.

I raise a brow. “We both know that’s not practical.”

His lips form a thin line. “Why? I have no reason to ever be away from you.” The wild possessive way he looks at me tells me he’s deadly serious about this.

“Onyx,” I warn when I see the crazy bubbling up. “There will be times when I need to do my own thing, and you need to trust me to take care of myself.”

A low growl, thick with menace, rumbles in his chest as a warning. “It’s not about trusting you, it’s about keeping you alive.”

“Are you two training without me?” I shift my gaze toward the door. Reef stands there, his cell in his hand, and I’m grateful for his distraction. Things were about to get heated and not in a good way.

Onyx raises a brow in his direction, pulling back from me reluctantly as he stands. “You were on that call a while.”

Reef moves into the room, running a hand through his hair, and I can see the stress lines forming on his forehead. “I was trying to defuse a bomb.”

I sit up in a rush, my heart leaping into my throat. “What bomb?”

“I just got off the phone from Jagger. Commissioner Sedgwick has been down at The Raven’s Nest. There is talk of your disappearance around the streets of Ravens Hollow, and Jagger couldn’t hold her off anymore.

She stormed the club this morning with another warrant.

Has given him twenty-four hours to get you into the station for questioning or she will be launching a missing persons investigation into you. ”

I feel a surge of adrenaline in my chest. This is why I need to be there. “What did he fucking tell her? Please tell me he had a good story.”

“He told her you were vacationing with your new boyfriend and would be back in a few days.”

I stare Reef down, starting to freak the hell out. My brothers are not equipped to deal with stuff like this. “And?”

His head drops, and he lets out a heavy sigh. “She doesn’t give a shit. She’s getting closer, Sloane. She knows the club had something to do with the disappearance of Ava Kingsley, and she thinks you know something, that’s why you disappeared.”

I look at Onyx, desperation clawing at me. “Fuck. I need to get back there. I have to sort this shit out.”

“Nope, not going to happen,” they say at the same time, causing irritation to crawl under my skin. Fucking control freaks, the both of them.

I glare back at them, crossing my arms over my chest protectively.

“Jagger said he will keep her busy for a few days, buy us some time,” Reef assures me, but it doesn’t help.

“Why is she so interested in this case? It’s fucking cold as hell.

I went missing twenty-one years ago. Who cares anymore?

” I throw my hands up in the air as I stalk from the gym.

Heading toward the kitchen, I shove open the swinging door and go right for the fridge.

Taking out a pitcher of ice-cold water, I fill a glass and chug it down, slamming it on the marble counter when I’m done.

This is bad, really fucking bad. I start to pace, not sure what else to do.

Commissioner Sedwick can’t work out who I am.

No one else can. The more people who know, the more real it is, and I don’t want that to be my reality.

I’m not that girl they’re all searching for, I’m Sloane Stryker.

Reef’s hand, heavy and warm, settles on my shoulder, stopping me from moving any further into the room. I shift my gaze back to him. “He said this one is personal. Malachi has just worked out why. Your birth father was her older brother.”

I stare back at him in disbelief, my limbs feeling like they’re about to fall out from under me. “C… Commissioner Sedwick is my auntie?” I stutter out, trying to process his words.

“Looks that way, wildcat. I knew it had to be something, she’s been like a dog with a bone about this case since I started. She said it’s why she took the transfer to Ravens Hollow in the first place.”

I have a living relative. Would she help me if she knew who I was?

“What is it, trouble?” Onyx asks, and I realize he’s followed us into the kitchen as well.

“It’s nothing,” I mutter, but my mind is racing.

It’s too much to process. I try to think back to the couple of times I interacted with her.

She had no idea it was me. She gave me the impression that she would lock me up and throw away the key any chance she got, like she was so much better than I was.

She has that high-and-mighty thing going on, and I was the scum of the earth.

Just how I imagine my birth family to be, too fucking good for the likes of me.

She’s nothing like me, and I can’t think of anything worse than her working out who I really am.

Reef’s hand moves down my side, settling at my waist he pulls me toward him. “We can see the cogs turning. What are you thinking?”

I turn my attention back to the two of them. “Why does she need to know where I am so badly? Because she wants to know her niece or is it something more sinister? You both know it was my father who was tangled up with the Morettis. What if she is working for them as well?”

“She’s as straight as they come,” Reef huffs, not agreeing with me.

“I would have said the same about you until you turned up at the safe house on the docks with a mafia boss and I caught Romeo sucking your cock. People only show you who they want you to see; we have no idea who she really is.” I glance at Onyx, wondering what he makes of all this.

He swallows hard, and I know he’s keeping something from me.

“Spit it out,” I demand.

“Jagger’s fucking her,” he snips like he really didn’t want to tell me.