Chapter Twenty-two

Simon knew there was absolutely no blood left in his face. His every instinct told him to smash the bracelet and charm with a sledgehammer, but some part of him said to keep it intact. He could use it.

“Where did you buy this?”

“I got them both online. I got the StrongArm from their website, but the modification came from a bulletin board at the gym I used to go to. It was a website on one of those tear-off flyers.”

“What gym?” Simon prodded.

“Day/Night Fitness, over on Forty-first Street. I just went the one time because there were too many people in the yoga class. I used to prefer to just do it alone, but I haven’t done it in a while …” Her words drifted off as everyone in the room completely understood why she didn’t do yoga anymore. Being called Yoga Girl by a bunch of twisted sickos would be enough to turn anyone off the activity.

Simon only had to look at Jordan before he moved. “On it.”

Ryan was next to question her, while Simon’s thoughts raced around in his head. “What exactly does the modification do?”

“Um, it measures heart rates, which is kind of cool. Every morning, I can look at a chart to see when my peak times for cardio are every day. Um … It plots out my runs—”

“Like it has a GPS on it?” Simon interrupted. She nodded, mute. Simon was still fingering the thin rubber on the bracelet, trying to find the evil inherent in the tiny piece of latex.

Ryan gently eased her back into questioning. “What else does it do?”

“It came with a strip reader thingy. I can prick my finger and put a drop of blood on a paper and put it into this reader thing, and it’ll tell me my glucose levels, blood oxygen counts, and cholesterol, but I don’t use that option very much. It will also gauge how much fat I’ve burned in any given time period, measures activity versus rest time, caloric burn. There’s a program on the computer that has a meal analysis. If I put in what I eat every day, it comes up with meal plans and such. It tracks my activity, sleep, weight, steps, floors climbed, water intake, stuff like that.”

Simon gave credit to the genius of whoever was behind this. They’d hit a market that would give them a limitless supply of women.

As if echoing his thoughts, Quinten muttered, “Fucking brilliant.”

“So you charge it every night, right? When was the last time you plugged it into your laptop?”

“I charge it every night but not always on my laptop. I haven’t done that since I was home. Y’all have my laptop, remember?” Her voice was a little shaky but steady. Simon saw the relief in her eyes that they finally had a reason for her attacks.

Hollerman was checking his phone. “Simon, I need to take this, it’s the PD.”

“Tell them what we’ve found out. See if the others have one of these StrongArm modifications.”

Dex nodded, answering with one hand while pressing a finger to his ear with the other, leaving the room.

Simon sighed. “Okay. What’s next? We know how they’ve been tracking her. We need to find out who’s behind this.”

Evan came bustling in, looking harried with deep, dark circles etched under his eyes. Simon felt a little bad. He’d been working non-stop trying to bring down a major human trafficking ring they’d stumbled upon. But he had to find out what was happening with Lacie.

After updating him, Simon left Evan with Lacie’s laptop and the bracelet, hoping his team could work some of their magic.

He was on his way to Quinten’s office when Hollerman found him.

“Police apprehended one of Lacie’s suspects breaking into another victim’s house. They’re putting him in a lineup for her to pick from when y’all can get down there.”

Lacie’s grip on Simon’s hand tightened, in fear or relief, he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t let her go since he saw those pictures. Whoever had sent them wanted them to know he was watching them and knew where they would go.

Simon looked at his watch. “We’ll get over there later this morning. I need to talk to Quinten first.”

“Well, I don’t see him leaving anytime soon, but I wouldn’t dawdle,” Hollerman drawled.

Simon nodded, walking past him, dragging Lacie along behind him. He knocked on the doorframe of Quinten’s office, eliciting a grunt of acknowledgement.

His brother looked up from the enormous book he was reading, most likely a law tome of some sort, and quirked an eyebrow at Simon, looking from him to Lacie and back again.

“You want me to wear the bracelet and live in your house until this asshole comes out of hiding. I’m to be the bait?”

“Better than Lacie,” Simon shot back.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t. I’d do the same thing if Val were in danger.” Neither man acknowledged the fact Simon hadn’t made any declarations to Lacie like that. Quinten made no bones about the fact he loved Valerie and would lay down his life for her in a heartbeat. “I’ll go over there and make some noise now.”

Simon felt a rush of affection for his brother, even though he wouldn’t show it beyond a slap on the back. Quinten wasn’t a gushy type, but when Simon had first come to him with the idea for Pierce Securities, Quinten was the one who’d been supportive from the beginning and helped him set up the legalities of it. No negativity, only suggestions to make things work. And he’d been with him every step of the way.

Gotta love brothers.

They’d figured out the tracking device.

Jonas cracked his knuckles with a gleeful grin on his face at the thought.

Her bracelet had been switched to someone else. Someone with a lower pulse rate and more stamina. His guess was it was one of the Pierce brothers, although that could be wishful thinking on his part. He wanted it to be a Pierce brother. That got him closer to his goal.

For the past week, Jonas had been single-minded in his focus to get his hands on Bonnie Pierce. He’d sort of put her on the back burner while he got this current endeavor underway, but now that the Pierce boys had gotten involved, he’d resumed his laser-sites on her.

It was just too damned tempting. His priorities had suddenly shifted, and the vague plan he’d had for the Pierce brothers had taken shape.

After doing away with last night’s whore, he’d gotten V to ready the van and load up with tranquilizer darts for today’s mission. It was going to be a doozy.

As they traveled through the sleepy, upper-class hills of Simon Pierce’s domain, they watched the GPS tracker for whoever was wearing Lacie’s bracelet. When the hulking figure showed, jogging down the path in sweats with the hoodie pulled up, he knew it was Quinten. The easy athleticism would have given it away, but Jonas had done his homework. He knew the massive bulk was Quinten. At six foot seven, he was the biggest member of the Pierce Securities team.

Yes, Quinten would deter most guys, but Jonas had come prepared for him.

V pulled the van up next to the jogger, and recognition registered in his eyes, as well as resignation when he saw the gun leveled at him. Jonas pulled the trigger, smiled as the big guy fell, and helped V load him up.

Perfect.