Protector Unmatched, page 11
A block away from the property, Pearce pulled into a parking spot along the curb and switched off the engine. Then he turned to Daphne, who already had her hand on the door handle.
“Wait.”
She looked at him.
“Ground rules first: you stay behind me at all times, and if I tell you to do something, you’ll do it without protest. Agreed?” His first priority was keeping Daphne safe, his second extracting her brother—if he was indeed inside this building—without bloodshed.
“I understand.”
Pearce rolled his eyes. He wasn’t born yesterday. “I didn’t ask whether you understood. I asked whether you agreed.”
“Fine. I’ll do what you say.” She opened the door. “Has anybody ever told you that you’re bossy?”
She got out of the car, and Pearce did the same, then looked across the car’s roof to where Daphne stood waiting for him on the sidewalk. “Last night you liked bossy.”
She blushed at that, but didn’t retort. He sidled up to her and took her arm, ushering her along. “Just stay close, okay?” he said in a softer voice. “I don’t want you to get hurt, and we don’t know yet what we’re walking into.”
He hoped he’d have better intel as soon as Enya was done with searching the building. Under other circumstances he would have done it himself, but with Daphne in tow, he couldn’t very well make himself invisible and walk through walls. And leaving her behind in the safe house hadn’t been an option either: Daphne would have never agreed to let him go alone. He knew her well enough by now. So he hadn’t even tried to persuade her to stay at the house.
Now all he had to do was stall until Enya joined them.
Arriving at the building, he looked at the names on the doorbells, then turned to Daphne. “Have a look through these names. Do any of them sound familiar?”
She gave him an odd look. “Are you saying I might know the kidnapper?”
He didn’t think so, but he needed to buy time without looking like he was twiddling his thumbs. “I just want to cover all our bases.”
He motioned to the doorbells again, and Daphne came closer and scanned them. She lifted her head and shook it. “Nope. Don’t recognize any of them.”
“Okay. How about the neighborhood? Has your brother ever mentioned it?”
“If he has, then I don’t remember it. Though it’s not too far from where he lives, maybe ten minutes by car.” She looked to the door. “So, how are we gonna get in and figure out where the kidnapper called from?”
Pearce smiled. “Easy. Let’s ring a few doorbells.” He pressed several random doorbells, then waited.
A few seconds later, a voice came through the crackling intercom. “Yes?”
“Delivery,” Pearce said.
A door buzzer sounded, and Pearce pushed the door open. “Ladies first.”
Daphne walked inside ahead of him. He followed and pulled the door shut behind him, then heard footsteps from the stairs.
“Act normal,” he whispered to Daphne, and took her hand.
The moment they turned the corner to where the stairway was located, they came to an abrupt halt. Enya was coming down the stairs.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “I already looked around.” She made eye contact with Pearce, and he understood. She’d swept the building invisibly.
“Did you find my brother?” Daphne asked.
Enya nodded.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe it. How?”
Enya shrugged. “I just knocked on a few doors, said I lived in one of the apartments, and asked if I could borrow some tape to hang up a poster.”
The explanation sounded believable. Pearce was glad that Enya had thought of something good to maintain their cover. Daphne couldn’t find out that he and Enya had skills that defied nature.
“And you saw him? Is he all right? Is he hurt?” Daphne glanced up toward the top of the stairs.
“He seemed fine.” Enya turned to Pearce. “Didn’t you say that he was tied up in the video that the kidnapper sent?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, he’s not tied up right now.”
“Are they watching him with guns?” Daphne asked.
“They?” Enya shook her head. “There’s only one other guy in the apartment from what I could see.”
“And did he have a gun?”
“I couldn’t see any. I think it’ll be easy to sweep in and grab the kidnapper. Let’s go.”
Enya walked ahead. Pearce took Daphne’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Whatever they were confronted with, he would handle it for her. As they followed Enya up two flights of stairs, he turned to Daphne. “Remember to stay behind me. Just in case the kidnapper is armed after all.” Not that he believed that Enya had made a mistake.
They reached the third floor. Enya pointed to the right. There was a sign for apartments 3A to 3E. A similar sign indicating apartments 3F to 3J pointed to the left. Enya continued walking. Pearce was close behind her. She stopped in front of apartment 3C and motioned to it.
“Door’s unlocked,” she said in a low voice.
Daphne put her hand on Enya’s arm. “Why would they leave it unlocked?”
“I made sure of it. Before the guy closed it, I put tape over the bolt, so it can’t lock. He didn’t notice.”
Enya had thought of everything. Knowing that they couldn’t just walk through the door in Daphne’s presence, or their secret would be out, she’d made sure there was another way to access the apartment without alerting the people inside.
“Enya and I will go in,” Pearce said, looking at Daphne. “You’ll stay here until I give you the all-clear. Should the kidnapper manage to get past us and run out, I want you to get out of his way. Don’t try to stop him. Understood?”
Daphne tipped her chin up. “I have to go in with you. He’s my brother. I can’t have you and Enya take all the risk.”
“We know what we’re doing,” Pearce insisted.
“But how? You’re computer programmers, just like I am.”
Pearce sighed and quickly searched his brain for a plausible explanation. “But we work for a defense contractor, and they provide all their employees with extra training in case of hostage situations and such.” It was total bullshit, but Daphne didn’t know that. “We know what to do in situations like this. Please trust me.”
Slowly, Daphne nodded. “Okay, fine. But be careful. Both of you.”
Pearce nodded and exchanged a look with Enya. They’d done this kind of thing plenty of times before. Pearce tested the doorknob. It turned. He pushed the door in slowly and, without making a noise, peered inside. When he saw nobody in the short hallway, he slid inside and waved Enya to follow him.
The television was on in the living room. Pearce listened.
“…call her to set up the handover,” a man said. The voice didn’t come from the TV, but from a person in the living room.
Pearce inched forward, getting closer to the door, which was half open, and picked up a scent. He sniffed. Fresh pizza. He moved closer and could see a man on the couch bending forward to take a slice of pizza from the oversized box.
“Yeah, after we finish the pizza,” a different man answered, his voice coming from the right.
Pearce looked at Enya, who was now next to him, and made a sign for the number two. Were there two kidnappers and not just one, as Enya had assumed? She shrugged, then made a motion that she would take whoever was to the right, while Pearce would overwhelm the one on the left.
With a nod to her, Pearce pushed the door open and charged in, barreling toward the man on the couch who was about to bite into his pizza. He dropped it on his lap, where it landed upside down. Before he could even get up, Pearce was already on him, yanking him off the couch and slamming him onto the coffee table, his face landing in the pizza. The jerk yelled out, but his words were swallowed up by pizza sauce and extra cheese.
“What the fuck!” the other guy yelled, and Pearce whipped his head to see how Enya was doing.
She wasn’t pinning the second man down, nor did she have him in a chokehold. She simply held him back. Pearce realized why: the second man wasn’t a kidnapper. He was Daphne’s brother.
“Tim?” Holding the kidnapper down with a knee in his back, Pearce motioned to Daphne’s brother. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
Tim shook his head, clearly confused and upset. “What the fuck do you guys want? Let go of my friend! You’re hurting him!”
Pearce exchanged a look with Enya, whose forehead furrowed.
“Friend?” Enya asked, and tugged on Tim’s shoulder.
Tim stared at her, then ripped himself free. Enya let it happen. “Who are you guys?”
“We’re—”
“Tim! You’re okay! Oh God!” Daphne charged into the room and ran to Tim, wrapping her arms around him. “Oh my God, I was so worried.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Daphne?” Tim pulled away from her, then glanced at Pearce and Enya. Then his eyes darted to the man whose face Pearce was still pressing into the hot pizza, the man Tim had called a friend.
Pearce quickly looked around. No signs of weapons or restraints. Tim wasn’t here against his will. It all clicked now. His eyes landed on Tim again—whose face showed no bruises, when in the video it had looked like somebody had played soccer with his head. “You little shit!”
Tim’s reaction, the look of guilt on his face, the look of being caught, said it all. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Daphne stared at Pearce. “What?”
Pearce shook his head and motioned to Tim. “Why don’t you tell your sister? Or do you really want me to explain to her what happened here, because you’re too much of a coward?”
“Pearce, why are you talking to my brother like that?”
Pearce took his knee off his captive and pulled him up by his hair. The asshole squealed, but didn’t fight him. “And whom do we have here? Why don’t you introduce us to your friend, Tim? You are friends, aren’t you?”
Daphne stared at her brother. “What is this?” Despite the question, it appeared that she was already putting two and two together. She pointed to the stranger. “Is this your friend?”
Tim dropped his head and nodded.
“I couldn’t hear you!” Daphne said.
As if he’d been whipped, he lifted his head. “That’s Kevin.”
Still holding Kevin by his hair, Pearce said, “Why don’t you say hi, Kevin? Or do you only talk on the phone when you pretend to be Guido, the strongman?”
It was obvious that Kevin wanted to bury his head in the sand, but Pearce wouldn’t allow it.
Daphne took a step toward her brother. “You made all this up? You faked a kidnapping to have me break into a house and steal for you? What the actual fuck!” She pulled her arm back and smacked her brother in the face so hard that his head whipped to the side and he lost his balance and crashed against the armchair, where he landed rather softly.
But Daphne wasn’t done. “You piece of shit! I worried about you! I thought they’d cut your finger off!” She slammed her fist in his chest, while Tim held his arms up defensively. “I nearly got caught by the police! You no-good jerk! How could you?”
When Daphne launched her fist again, Pearce gave Enya a sign. Enya snatched Daphne’s arm and pulled her back.
“Don’t. He’s not worth it,” Enya said gently.
Daphne stepped back and took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Daph,” Tim said in a rather meek voice. “But I needed the money.”
Daphne whipped her head back to him, her eyes full of fury. “You needed the money? Oh, let me punch you another one for that.”
Pearce let go of Kevin, who was no danger to anybody, and grabbed Daphne before she could beat up her brother even more. “Enya is right. He’s not worth it.” He pulled Daphne into his arms and rubbed her back. After a while, she nodded, then freed herself from his embrace and turned back to her brother.
“What was it this time? Gambling? Laziness? Or some harebrained business idea, huh?” she asked, glaring at him.
“It was Kevin’s idea!” Tim said, and pointed at his friend. “He knew about the safe in the house. He’d worked there on some carpentry job. He knew about the alarm system.”
“Fuck, Tim!” Kevin said.
Daphne pivoted and glared at Kevin. “Oh, by the way, about the alarm system…” She went right up in his face, but Kevin didn’t dare make a move. He was actually afraid of Daphne, a woman several inches shorter and many pounds lighter than he. “There was a second alarm system, you idiot! You nearly got me arrested!” She pushed him back, and he landed on the couch.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Kevin said, and pointed back at Tim, “if Tim hadn’t known that guy who hawks expensive stuff. But he said that guy could sell anything for good money. And the stuff in the safe, it’s worth a shitload. And Tim owed money to him from some other deal, so he needed to get him something.”
Pearce let out an exasperated breath. “Enough!” All eyes shot to him. “You’re both guilty! And if it wouldn’t implicate your sister, I’d drag both your sorry asses to the police and let you rot there. But I won’t, because Daphne doesn’t deserve this. She’s gone through enough.” He glared at both men. “So listen carefully. If you ever plan anything like this again and even attempt to draw Daphne into it and use her, then I’ll be personally skinning you both alive. Is that clear?”
Tim and Kevin gaped at him, Tim’s face drained of blood, Kevin’s just as white under the layer of tomato sauce.
“I need an answer. Let me give you a hint: there’s only one right answer.”
Both blurted out, “Yes.”
Pearce motioned to Enya, letting her know that they were done here. Then he took Daphne’s arm. “Let’s go. I’ll take you home.”
Without a word, Daphne turned around and marched out of the apartment. Pearce followed her, Enya on his heels. She shut the door behind them. In the hallway, Pearce turned to her. “Thanks for the help.”
Enya sighed. “Sure. What now?”
“I’ll take Daphne home.”
“Will you be in the office later?” Enya asked, and he knew she wanted to know if he was returning to the compound.
He nodded. He’d done what he needed to do. Daphne’s brother was safe—had been safe all along. But Tim now knew that he’d be in trouble if he ever again tried to involve Daphne in any of his criminal activities. Daphne was on the right path again. Pearce was convinced that the event that had sent Daphne on the path to kill him had now been averted. He had helped Daphne out of a jam, and she was thankful. She had no reason to kill him now. No reason at all.
18
Zoltan stuffed the padded envelope into the inside pocket of his coat. This time he was prepared to track Vasili down if the unscrupulous human decided to play games. He was done with bowing to the conman’s terms when it came to what Vasili offered him for purchase. It was time to sniff out the man’s sources and deal with them directly. What did Zoltan need a middleman for when he could deal with the original procurer himself? It would also mean that fewer people knew what Zoltan was looking for. Besides, he didn’t like Vasili. The idiot thought himself superior, and nobody was superior to Zoltan. He was the Great One, the King of the Underworld, and soon the ruler of the human world too. And whoever stood in his way would be crushed.
But for this afternoon, he would play along with Vasili’s game one last time.
His colored contact lenses hiding his green eyes, Zoltan left his condo and waited for the elevator. When it dinged and the doors opened, he stepped inside and realized that he wasn’t alone. A well-dressed woman in her forties stood in one corner.
He met her eyes and said politely, “Good day.”
She gave him a quick smile then averted her eyes, but Zoltan didn’t miss the blush that colored her cheeks. Yes, she liked the way he looked. And he wouldn’t be averse to a quick fuck, but two things stopped him. The first was his rule never to get involved with a woman who lived in the same building, in case he had to dispose of her at some point. The second was that he had an important meeting with Vasili. Knowing the way the shyster operated, he’d quickly find another taker for his stolen goods if Zoltan didn’t show. It was something he couldn’t risk.
Swallowing his lusty feelings, Zoltan turned his back on the woman and stared at the doors while the elevator descended. When the elevator dinged to announce their arrival, Zoltan stepped aside politely and let the woman pass ahead of him. She whispered a thank you that sounded more like an invitation to her bedroom than a display of good manners. But he didn’t react. Couldn’t.
Well, maybe after his meeting, after he’d accomplished what he needed to do, he could pick up a woman to quench his thirst for some horizontal action. Despite the fact that he fucked demon females on a regular basis, he’d grown tired of their barely disguised agendas. They let him fuck them because they wanted to sit on the throne beside him, whereas a human female didn’t even know how powerful he was. They wanted him because of his charm and good looks. And somehow that was more palatable to him. And when he had them in his bed, he felt a kind of satisfaction he rarely achieved with a demon. Even though the thought of another woman, one neither demon nor human, always intruded when he climaxed. But he couldn’t have her. At least not yet. For now, he’d make do with human substitutes, petite women with long blond hair, pouting lips, and slender legs. But enough of the daydreaming.
His hands buried deep in the pockets of his coat, Zoltan left the swanky condo building and started walking. Even though it was early afternoon, storm clouds darkened the sky and prevented the sun from illuminating the streets. It felt as if the city could sense the ruler of the demons walking among the imposing buildings, as if the city had eyes and ears and knew something was brewing.
Zoltan turned into the narrow one-way street where Vasili’s meeting spot was. He swiftly walked along the sidewalk, then he heard a sound on the other side of the street. He spun his head in that direction and dove for the dagger in his boot. The movement saved his life. A weapon whizzed past above him, narrowly avoiding his head, and clattered to the ground, the sound of metal on stone echoing against the buildings. Had he been upright, it would have found its target.
