I clear my throat. “What about it?”

“Your pad has a panic button.”

I nod. The technician, a potbellied man who told me to call him Big Jim, said if I ever pressed it, I had better make sure I meant business because the police would show up with guns blazing. He also said I had to press it for a minimum of three full seconds in order for the silent alarm to activate, and I remember thinking three seconds seemed like an eternity when there’s someone coming at you with a gun.

Now I’m wishing I’d asked him to install a couple of strategically placed hidden ones—right here under this breakfast bar, for example.

I duck my head, tucking a hank of hair behind an ear, using the motion to chance a glance at my iPhone screen.

The screen is completely black. Shit. I waited too long.

“Where are the other pads? By the front door, I’m guessing, but anywhere else? How many do you have?”

My head jerks up. “What?”

He pulls three paper towels from the roll and spreads them across the bar top, dropping on them clusters of grapes, distributing the snacks. When he gets to the cheese sticks, he needs both hands to peel back the plastic, so he places his gun on the island behind him. I stare at the weapon and wonder—could I leap across the marble and get there first? Could I grab the gun with one hand and a knife from the block with another? Cam’s sharpest Nesmuk with the carbon steel blade and handle of petrified bog oak. Could I use it to stab him in the throat?

The moment passes, and when he finishes, he reaches for the gun. “Come on, Jade, I really need you to focus here. Where in the house are the other alarm pads? And before you answer, I’d advise you to think really long and hard, because if you’re lying, if you accidentally on purpose forget to mention one of the alarm pads, I’m going to find out. And then this little problem will suddenly become a big one.”

“There’s one in the master bedroom,” I say, my heart sinking. “It’s on this level, down the hallway by the stairs. That’s the pad we use when we come through the front door. It’s the only other one.”