Page 71 of Protector Unmatched

“We’ve gotta get out before the police come.” Aiden motioned to his dusty clothes, indicating that if they stayed here, the police would see them despite their supernatural skill.

“Out, now, through the backyard,” Pearce ordered them, and headed toward that wall.

He jumped through it and landed in the garden, Aiden and Hamish on his heels. Quickly, he dusted himself off as best he could, and his friends did the same. They managed to get most of the dust off their clothes, but to a policeman with a keen eye, they would still be visible.

Two police cars were already stopping in front of the house, their blue lights and sirens alerting the neighbors. Another few seconds, and they would enter the property.

“Through the neighbor’s yard,” Pearce said, and took the same route he and Daphne had taken the night before.

They ran for a couple of blocks, far enough away from the property, before taking a different route back to where they’d parked the car on a parallel street two blocks away from the mansion, which was now swarming with cops. Their protocol of never parking a getaway vehicle too close to a place they were breaking into had paid off again. Sometimes rules and protocols were a good thing, Pearce admitted to himself.

Now visible, Hamish jumped into the driver’s seat, Aiden got in the back seat, and Pearce rode shotgun. Soon they were heading for their neighborhood.

“I think the largest of the demons was Zoltan,” Pearce mused.

“Very likely,” Hamish said, and looked into the rearview mirror at Aiden. “Looks like the demon we fought in that farmhouse in Sonoma, right?”

“The one who took Leila’s pendant?” Aiden asked. “Yeah, could be him. Though he was clean-shaven back then. And I didn’t get a very long look at him tonight.”

“Long enough to aim your dagger,” Pearce interjected. “Had he not used one of his men as a shield, he would have been toast. Good shot.”

“Clearly not good enough. I should have anticipated him and aimed higher.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Hamish said. “One demon less. Can’t always get the top brass. But we’ll get him one day.” He cast a look at Pearce. “How did the demons know about the safe?”

Pearce grunted. “It looks like we were all working off the same wrong intel, including Zoltan. Which can only mean one thing: he had the same source we did.”

“Vasili,” Aiden said.

“One way to find out,” Pearce said just as Hamish pulled into a small garage that housed three other cars.

Minutes later, they were back inside the compound. The others were already waiting for them in the command center, falling silent the moment Pearce, Hamish, and Aiden walked into the room.

Logan, Manus, and Enya ran their eyes over them, then looked at their hands.

“Where is it?” Logan finally asked.

Pearce shook his head. “The safe was empty.”

“Shit!” Manus cursed.

“Yeah, and not only that,” Pearce added, “the demons got there before us.”

“They got the dagger?” Enya’s eyes went wide with panic.

“No, nobody got it,” Pearce said. “They killed one of the residents and blew open the safe, but they seemed to be as surprised as we that the safe was empty. The dagger wasn’t in there. We were given bogus intel.” He looked at Enya. “Did you talk to Vasili?”

“Oh, I didn’t just talk to him. I put the screws on him. And he talked, sang like a canary. He believes that the dagger was in there. In fact, he swore that’s the information he had. And it’s also the info he gave to his client. Who was very keen on it. In fact, he’d searched for an item like it for a long time.”

“Zoltan,” Pearce guessed. “How does Vasili communicate with him?”

“Cell phone.”

“Then we can get—”

“Don’t bother,” Enya interrupted. “Already tried to trace it. It was a burner to start with, and now it’s defunct. Zoltan must have destroyed it after he left Vasili’s place. We have no way of finding him that way.”

Pearce let out a frustrated sigh. “Fuck! Are you sure Vasili told the truth? He’s not holding anything back?”