Page 11 of Protector Unmatched

5

The day seemed to have dragged on forever. When Daphne finally finished the tasks on her list and signed off the computer, it was already dark outside. She snatched her things and rode down in the elevator. The security guards had changed shifts, and in a way, she was glad that Gus wasn’t on duty anymore. She wouldn’t have been able to joke with him on her way out.

Shock still sat deep in her bones. Recalling the sight of the severed digit still made her nauseated and reminded her that she hadn’t eaten anything all day. But she knew she had to get something into her stomach, if only to keep her strength up and be ready for when Guido—clearly not his real name—contacted her again to give her the details of what she needed to do to free her brother.

Assuming that Guido’s henchman was watching her, she cast a look over her shoulder every so often as she hurried to a busier area where coffeeshops, fast food places, grocery stores, and small boutiques were open late. Even though she noticed nobody following her, she felt the hairs at the back of her neck rise and shivered. Would this be her life now until her brother was safe again, always looking over her shoulder, always worrying that she was being watched?

She hated this feeling. It was bad enough that she was on probation and had to comply with way too many rules. But now? She was violating her probation just by keeping the fact that she was being blackmailed from her probation officer and the police. If anything went wrong, not only would her probation be revoked, her brother would die a horrible death. She shuddered at that thought.

She shook her head and tried to rid herself of the negative thoughts. There was nothing she could do until not-his-real-name-Guido contacted her again. She assumed they were watching her right now to make sure she kept her mouth shut before they revealed to her what part she would play in their criminal plan.

Frustrated, she stopped on the sidewalk and looked around. She had to eat something; maybe then her mind would be clearer again. Maybe then she would come up with a plan of her own. One that kept her clean in the eyes of the law and her brother away from bodily harm.

Not in the mood to go to a restaurant, she decided to enter the supermarket on the next corner to grab something simple that she could heat up in the privacy of her own apartment, and then eat in front of the TV to distract herself from her problems.

The store was busy with office workers who had the same idea as Daphne. Some of the aisles were so packed that shoppers bumped into each other and squeezed by far too close for comfort. At the freezer section, which was always filled with ready-made microwavable meals, she perused the selection. It had been picked over, and her choices were a vegetarian pasta dish, a chicken pot pie, or an Asian stir fry. She bent over the chest freezer when she spotted another option that was half hidden beneath a bag of French fries. She tried to reach it, but her messenger bag got caught on the lip of the chest freezer.

“Crap!” she said quietly. But having seen that the fourth option was beef stroganoff, one of her favorites, she wasn’t going to give up. Swiftly, she put her messenger bag next to her feet and dove back into the freezer. Her fingers closed around the ready-made meal, and she pulled. It was wedged between the French fries and the lattice dividing the freezer into different sections. With her second hand, she reached for the bag of French fries, then finally was able to wedge the beef stroganoff free.

Triumphantly, her prize in her hand, she emerged from the freezer, then she suddenly felt something brush against her shin. Startled, she spun her head to it, but there was nothing. Only her messenger bag sitting next to her feet.

“Phew!”

She began to perspire. How stupid of her to have left her bag there at her feet where anybody could have just snatched it while she had her head deep in the freezer. Luckily, it was still here. She would be smarter next time.

There were four checkouts. She chose the one marked with a Fifteen items or less sign. Luckily, tonight people obeyed the rule, and the three ahead of her had no more than five items each. The line moved quickly until it was her turn. The cashier scanned the item and bagged it.

“Seven eighty-five, please. Cash or card?”

Daphne, already digging into her messenger bag, replied, “Cash.” She searched for her wallet. “Sorry, just a moment.” She opened the flap of the bag and opened it up wide. It took her only seconds to realize that her wallet wasn’t inside. Had she left it at the office? Or had somebody stolen it?

“My wallet. It was here earlier,” she said to the cashier.

“You can’t pay?” the cashier asked loudly, and she cringed, wanting to crawl into a hole.

Embarrassment flushed her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, but it should be here. I might have left it in the office.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You’re holding up the line,” a woman complained from farther behind her.

“I’ve got it,” the man behind her suddenly said. She turned halfway and watched him hand the cashier a twenty and slide his own purchase toward hers. “Just put it on the same tab as mine.”

“But you can’t just—”

“It’s no problem. I forget my wallet all the time,” the man said while the cashier added his prepacked sandwich to her purchase and calculated the change.

“But—”

“It’s done,” the cashier said with an exasperated look, and handed the man the change.

The stranger took it, then reached for the shopping bag and motioned toward the exit. “I think we’re holding up traffic.”

Still shell-shocked, Daphne took a few steps to clear the checkout area and stopped. Only now did she have a chance to really look at the guy. He was handsome. That was the first thing she noticed, and for a while, it was the only thing. A few seconds passed before she could really take everything else in. He was in his mid to late thirties, tall and muscular. His hair was short and not quite as dark as hers; his face sported a five-o’clock shadow, his teeth were white, and his nose straight. But the most striking thing were his eyes. Baby-blue, an unusual color for a man with dark hair, but it suited him.

However, he was a stranger, and she hated being indebted to anybody, particularly a stranger.