Page 23 of Protector Unmatched

“Shhh!” he said. “What the fuck are you doing, breaking in here?”

She knew that voice. Recognized it immediately. Which didn’t dampen the shock at all. “Pearce?” she mumbled against his hand.

“No time to chat now. The police are coming,” he whispered. “Not a word, or they’ll find us.”

His face was close enough for her to see now. She nodded, and he lifted his hand off her mouth. She took a deep breath, but Pearce was already dragging her back toward the living room. That was when she heard them too: police sirens.

Shit!

Panic made her heart thunder into her throat. Why were the police coming? She had disabled the security system. She was sure of it.

“But I cut the alarm.”

Already at the French doors in the living room, Pearce glanced at her. “Not the secondary one.”

“They have two alarm systems? But why didn’t you and Guido tell—”

“Me?” he interrupted, then shook his head. “I had no idea breaking into houses is your pastime.” He unlocked the French doors. “Now let’s go, or we’re stuck here.”

Confused about his comment, she tried to ask something, but as soon as she stepped on the deck, she could hear the sirens blaring. The police were already at the front gate. Their blue lights were reflected in the windows of the neighbor’s house.

Pearce put a finger on his lips and pointed to the fence that separated this property from the one behind it. They ran to it, Pearce now holding her hand as if to make sure that she wasn’t running in the opposite direction. At the fence, he easily lifted her over it. By the time she looked over her shoulder, he was already standing behind her. How had he managed to jump over the fence so quickly? He had to be extremely agile.

The neighbor’s backyard was dark, helping them escape prying eyes. They reached the street moments later. There, Daphne stopped and took a much-needed breath. She was panting, both as a result of the exercise and her fear.

“What now?” she asked, turning to Pearce.

He was staring at something on his phone, then he looked up and pointed to the right. “This way. It’s a mile. Can you run that far?”

She nodded. She wasn’t exactly an accomplished sprinter, but she jogged regularly, and a mile was easily within her capabilities, even with the messenger bag that was still slung across her torso. Thank God she’d never taken it off, because in the panic she’d been in, she could have easily left it behind.

While they ran along the sidewalk, making turns and crossing intersections, Daphne had plenty of time to formulate the questions she had. Why had Pearce followed her? Why had Guido not warned her about the secondary alarm, when his henchman had known about it? Was Pearce taking her back to the place where they kept her brother? What would they do to her now? And why the hell was she going with him? Oh yeah, because the police were after her! Because that fuckwit Guido hadn’t done his homework and let her run into a trap.

By the time they reached a small apartment complex, Daphne was fuming. It took all her mental strength and control to keep her anger under the hood until they reached an apartment on the second floor and Pearce unlocked the door.

Time to tell him what she thought of his and Guido’s stupid plan.