Page 25 of Protector Unmatched

She gave him a long, assessing look. “Assuming I believe you up till here, how did you know about the second alarm?”

He smiled briefly. “I worked a lot on programming alarms. When I saw what type of alarm you disabled, I remembered that that particular company likes to upsell their clients with a secondary silent alarm. It was an educated guess, which proved to be true when the police came. That’s why I had to get you out of there. I couldn’t allow them to catch you. It’s kind of hard to date somebody who’s in prison.”

Daphne suddenly dropped her arms to her side. “Oh crap.” Then she let herself fall on one of the kitchen chairs, her anger visibly deflated. “You don’t work for Guido?”

Pearce shook his head.

“So you’re just a good guy?”

Pearce nodded. “I’d like to think so.” He pulled a chair closer and sat down opposite her. “Would you now tell me what’s going on? You mentioned your brother.” Even though he could already piece together what was going on, he needed to get the full story from Daphne.

“I can’t tell you. Guido warned me.”

“Guido will never find out that you talked to me. Besides, I just helped you evade the police. Don’t I deserve the truth for that, if nothing else?”

Slowly, she nodded. “You’re right. I’m so grateful. I’m totally in over my head. How could I even think that I could handle something like this?”

Pearce reached for her hand and patted it. “Just breathe. And then start at the beginning. Maybe I can help you.”

A shimmer of tears coated her irises. But she pulled herself together, swallowed, and nodded. “I have a younger brother, Tim. He always gets into trouble for one thing or another. The day we met in the supermarket, I’d gotten a call from a guy who called himself Guido. He said my brother owed him money, lots of money. But he’d wipe out his debt if I did a job for him. Tim must have told him that I’m a programmer.” She sighed and dropped her head. “You’re not gonna like this part. But I was a hacker. And I got caught.” She looked up and waited for his reaction.

“Okay?” Pearce said.

“You’re not shocked?”

He shrugged. “I know plenty of people in the field who’ve done some hacking in their time. Go on.”

“Well, somehow he knew about it. Tim probably told him, stupid idiot. Anyway, Guido, or whatever his real name is, said if I broke into that house and cleaned out the safe, he’d wipe out my brother’s debt and release him.”

“So, he’s keeping your brother locked up somewhere?” Pearce asked.

“Not only that.” She met his eyes now, and a pained expression distorted her face. “They’re torturing him.”

“How do you know?”

“They sent me a video.”

“Do you still have it?”

She nodded.

“Show me.”

Daphne pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket, then unlocked it and navigated to the video. She handed it to him.

“It’s warm in here,” she said, and freed herself of her messenger bag, which she set down on the floor, before taking off her jacket.

Meanwhile, Pearce tapped the video and watched it. It was short, but confirmed Daphne’s statement. “They’ve beaten him.”

“Yes. And worse.” A tear stole down her cheek. She sniffled. “When I told Guido I wouldn’t do it, he sent me a photo a few minutes later.” She motioned to the phone. “Scroll down.”

Pearce did as she asked and stared at the photo the kidnapper had sent. Then he looked up and met Daphne’s eyes. “They cut off his finger.”

“Yeah, because I didn’t comply immediately. It’s my fault.” More tears streamed down her face. “Because I was worried about my own life, about my plea agreement being vacated if I got caught.”

Pearce took her hand and squeezed it. “It’s not your fault. Please. Don’t think that.”

But Daphne kept crying. His heart broke for her, but he had to tear his gaze from her, or he would pull her into his arms to comfort her, and who knew where that would lead? Instead, he looked down at the horrid photo of the severed finger again. He enlarged it and studied it in more detail. It was a pinkie. At least they hadn’t severed his thumb. You could function very well without the little finger. Losing a thumb was much more devastating.