“Let’s go down there together,” Anice suggested.
Maggie nodded and turned in the direction of Callum’s office. Anice fell into step with her. Anice, for her part, kept up the chatter as they made their way down the halls.
“I still think we should take you to the hospital. I know that your kind—you don’t mind if I say your kind because you are different than we are—don’t like hospitals, but Phoebe and I are both worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
Her concern was genuine and Maggie felt herself relax a little.
“Yes. It isn’t much different than when a witch first comes into her or his own power around puberty.”
“So, you hit puberty, have all the wonderful happenings that normally go with it and you get socked with Magick?”
Maggie nodded.
“How long does it take for you to get over it?”
“Get over? Like as in having a cold or something?”
Anice shook her head. “I mean, the transition.”
“Just like puberty, depends on the person. I was in and out of mine within nine months.”
“Oh, that’s interesting. So easy.”
“No. Actually it was pure hell. Some people have two years to get used to it. I was hit full force and it just kept hitting me. Mum had to keep me home from school because she never knew what would happen.”
“And you refer to men as witches too?”
She nodded, wishing Anice would walk faster. Maggie had a feeling the woman was slowing down while she tried to pick her brain.
“And you haven’t done much with your abilities since you had Jack?”
“Yes.” Not exactly true, but the cousins were not being truthful with her either. She knew they were hiding something from her. Granted, most people who would hire her to steal something were hiding bits and pieces of the whole puzzle, but this was different.
“How weird for you.”
A bubble of laughter caught her by surprise. Anice stopped, causing Maggie to look back over her shoulder at her. Mortification filled her expression.
“I’m sorry I said it that way. Bloody hell, donna tell Callum about this. He will never let me hear the end of it.”
“Don’t worry, Anice. I have a healthy respect for privacy and keeping secrets from men.”
“Ohhhh, what secrets are we keeping?” Phoebe said as she caught up with them.
“No secrets, other than I made a fool of myself again.”
Phoebe wrapped her arm around Anice and squeezed. “You’re too hard on yourself, but then you’ve been surrounded by all these men for too long. Don’t you agree, Maggie?”
Maggie shrugged. “I was raised by my mum, but for the last few years I have been surrounded by men. First my husband and his brother…not to mention his friends. Now, I have Jack.”
“Well, that is all that is important. He’s such a wonderful boy.”
The idea warmed her from inside. “Thank you. I’ve wondered if I let him down a bit.”
Phoebe shook her head. “No. I can imagine how hard it was to raise him by yourself.”
“We don’t have all day for the hen party.”
Callum’s voice echoed down the hall. Anice frowned and Phoebe shook her head.
“Come on. If we don’t go now, he’ll just get grumpy.”
Anice laughed and winked at Maggie. “Only Phoebe gets to call him grumpy.”
She smiled as she walked in behind the other two women. The moment she stepped over the threshold she felt it. Family ties looped throughout the room, their love and admiration for each other was strong. Stronger than just normal family relations. The cousins had connections that would take decades to forge, and not just the three or so decades they claimed to have spent on this earth.
“Let’s get on with this,” Callum said, his gruff voice belied by his actions. He pulled Phoebe to sit on his lap behind his desk. “I am sure you understand that we have a lot to cover today and I don't want to waste any time."
Callum was definitely the businessman his cousin had described. It was barely nine in the morning and he was dressed in his suit. He made her feel damned shabby, even though she had a very good excuse.
How it must have felt for all the cousins to put up with him for centuries?
The idea popped into her head before she could stop it. These kinds of things were not easy for her to deal with. Seriously, it had always been a problem having half truths pop into her head with no warning and no real explanation of what they meant.
It had been one of the things she had wished had worked better when she met Ian.
"Okay."
"Why don't you have a seat? I am sure Angus will be showing up soon."
Phoebe glanced at him then smiled at Maggie. "If you are not ready to talk about this, we can wait."
Her husband rolled his eyes and sighed. "Sassenach, I am trying to be business like here and you are ruining it. Now go sit down and let me handle this."
She would have laughed if she didn't think Callum would frown at her. She could tell that it was all bluster where Phoebe was concerned, but Maggie didn't want to count on that for herself.
"Now I understand that you will expect a monetary reward."
“And new identities. For Jack and my self."
He nodded. “It won't be easy hiding."
"It will now if I keep my powers. Still, I would rather have real documentation, or at least somewhat real documentation to pass inspection. I can probably keep ahead of my problems with enough money and the proper IDs.
He nodded and named off a figure that was three times the amount she expected.
"I..."
"You can take your time to decide."
That came from Phoebe and it earned her a hard stare from Angus. She ignored it.
"No, I am fine with the money and the IDs. That will work fine for us."
"And, once the heat dies down, I will happily fly you anywhere you want to go."
Suspicion curled within her gut. She hated it because the money was almost too good to pass. And truly she had no choice in the manner now.
"I promise this isna a set up. We plan on paying you and seeing you on your way. We just want the emerald."
"You could buy it for as much as you are paying me."
"Yes, but Sweeney won't sell to us. He holds that thing up as if it were the Holy Grail," Phoebe said, shaking her head. "But I am not sure if that would have worked anyway."
"I canna understand why he just doesn't sell it. He needs the money," Fletcher said.
"It's a status symbol," Maggie said.
“What?"
"Sweeney, unless he has changed, was a lazy man who never wanted to lift a hand to work in his life. At least that's what we heard of him when we did our research for the heist." She paused wondering how much she should tell them. Her life before...she just didn't talk about it. It was better to not to open up to people and put them in danger.
"Go on."
She nodded. "He had never accomplished anything. He was awarded the money after his brother died early. Accident in training. He was military. Here comes old Franklin Sweeney, so proud of himself, and scooped up all the money. He thought he would get the same respect his brother did but he did not. In fact, he got less. It drove him insane. But there was one thing he did...or at least one thing he kept from happening."
"The emerald. He kept it safe."
She nodded. “I am sure that he sees that as the only success he had in life. What I really didn't understand was why it is considered so valuable."
“It wasn’t all that special, in fact, it was seen as sort of ordinary by some but there are a lot of legends attached to it,” Phoebe said. Maggie could tell she was trying not to reveal too much. Maggie had no problem with that since she was keeping some of her own.
“Yes. It is supposed to be Magickal or at least that’s what Ian and Dylan had found out or heard. But they had a buyer who was w
illing to pay a large amount of money for it, so they didn’t ask.”
“And you did not either,” Angus said from behind her.
She glanced at him over her shoulder then settled back against the chair. “No but that wasn’t my part of the job. That was usually Dylan since his Magick was iffy.”
“You’re saying your brother-in-law isn’t powerful.”
She sighed. “I say he wasn’t, I am not sure if he is or isn’t now.”
“Why is that?” Phoebe asked.
“Dylan was always trouble. Ian skirted the edge of it, but rarely dipped over into the bad parts of magick.” Or at least she had thought he had. “Dylan though had dabbled in some black magick, and he had no scruples when it came to where he could gain power. Still, until Ian died, he had been happy enough to use his brother and to a lesser extent me.”
Callum had been following the conversation, his intent stare making her nervous. “You dinna like him.”
She shook her head. “No. He wasn’t much different than Sweeney to tell you the truth. Lazy, always ready to let his brother do all the work. Then, when Ian died…I heard he went dark. I’m not sure how dark or if the rumors were true. I was out of the loop during the last few years for obvious reasons.”
“They are not so obvious to us.”
She didn’t want to explain things with Angus around. She knew for a fact he didn’t like the idea of her being Magickal any more than she liked the idea he was some damned scientist.
Phoebe answered for her. “From what I read in the diary, your abilities serve as a bit of a beacon. You can reach out to others in the community but they can pick up on that.”
“So every time you use your Magick someone knows?” Angus asked. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
Phoebe frowned but Maggie decided to answer this one. “No. If I reach out…I was strong enough at one time to do that. Now though, I am not. But if I could, people would pick up on it and if they were as strong as I am, well they could find me.”
He nodded.
“So what is the plan for the heist?” Phoebe asked.
“I think we can wait until all the cousins are present. If not, I will probably have to repeat it again and again.
“That’s a good idea,” Phoebe said. “We’ll have another family meeting and get it all set up.”
“There’s really no need,” Logan said as the three of remaining cousins filed into the office.
Maggie waited for them to get settled, purposively avoiding eye contact with Angus. Then, she pulled in a cleansing breath and started. “So, you want me to steal the emerald, but I don’t know why you just can’t hire someone else.”
“No one else will go into that house and try to steal,” Callum said. “Since your husband died, everyone has been afraid to try again.”
Bloody hell. If they knew exactly what went on that night, no one would worry. It was all very simple…but then she couldn’t very well let everyone know about that. Good lord, if she did, they would know her past, and that would be bad. Worse than being known as a thief.
“The plan was for you. Not him.”
This came from Angus. He had been offish since this morning. Well, fine. So he thought of her as a freak of some sort. Maggie should be used to it. She had grown up being called a witch even before she came into her powers. People in Northern Ireland might have come to her mother and her grandmother for help, but it didn’t mean they would accept their offspring. But somehow, this bothered her.
“Yes. Ian was the one who usually planned them, researched the hit, but that night, I was ill. I didn’t know…well I think it was because of my pregnancy. I was just three weeks pregnant at the time and had no idea.”
A little bit of a lie. She had been pregnant and she had known. But there was no need to let them know about it.
“So, you knew the plan?” Angus asked.
“Yes. We did a lot of the research together. Most of it though had to do with the security. If he has changed anything, I need to know.”
“But can’t you just use your magic,” Angus said.
“Yes, but I have to know what to use my Magick on. If it is returning, then I will just have to know what I am getting into and how to get around it.”
“Do you know it will work?” Angus asked
She could lie, but she didn’t want to. “I’m not sure, but there is one thing I can do and that is practice it.”
The sour expression on Angus’ face told her that he wasn’t happy with that prospect.
“Practice.”
“I can conjure. It is part of the plan. If I can do that, we can easily trip the security. I will be long gone before he knows anything.”
“We will be long gone,” Angus said, his frown turning darker.
“What?”
“Like it or not, we are partners through this. We aren’t about to let you waltz out of there with the jewel.”
She knew why he was being so damned cold, but it still didn’t make it any easier. “Okay, as long as you don’t get in the way.”
Callum made a noise that sounded like irritation and amusement all rolled into one humph. “Maggie, tell us what you need, and we will help you get ready.”
“First, I need to know all the security he has and, while I can break in, it would be best if we could figure out a way to get in there without having to break the law in that regard.”
Anice stirred then. “I’ll see what’s going on. Sweeney loves to throw a party and show off his selections. There has to be something on his calendar soon.”
“Sounds good.”
“Now, what else do you need?” Callum asked.
“I have a list of things I need to practice with and space to do the practicing.”
Callum nodded as he handed over a pad of paper and a pen.
“Your wish is my command.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dylan O’Conner stared out the window, watching the way the rain dripped from the branches of the trees. The revenge he wanted, dreamed of, planned for, was close enough he could taste it. The last few years he had spent most of the fortune he had acquired looking for Maggie, and now, he was going to avenge his brother’s murder.
“Quite a bad day out there,” Franklin Sweeney said from behind him. Dylan turned around and studied the man he had set out to rob all those years ago. He was in his fifties, fit and as tall as the day is long.
“Not too bad for February in Scotland, although, my blood is a bit thinner since I’ve been spending most of my days south of here.”
Sweeney nodded and walked over to the wet bar. “Whisky?”
“Don’t mind if I do. Would definitely warm me up from that rain.”
After pouring the drinks, he offered Dylan a glass and motioned toward one of the leather chairs in front of the massive desk. Rich people were so easy to read. No one bought a desk that big unless they were trying to compensate for something they felt they were lacking.
After they settled, Sweeney behind the desk—the man was so bloody simple—Dylan said nothing. He drank his whisky, enjoying the slight burning of his throat as the smooth liquid slid down.
“So, you wanted to see me. I feel that it must be something very important for you to use blackmail.”
Dylan fought the urge to laugh at the man. Nothing like a few pictures with a younger woman to get the attention of a rich man with a wife who held the purse strings.
“Five years ago, someone broke into your house.”
“Yes.”
The way his brow furrowed told Dylan he was remembering the night well.
“I know how it was done.”
Sweeney paused with his drink half way to his mouth. “Indeed? Of course, that doesn’t matter, you know. He was unsuccessful.”
Dylan listened to the way Sweeney’s voice tightened on the last word. Still upset over that, are you?
“To a point. But he still got in. If something hadn’t happened to him, you would have lost your most bril
liant pieces.”
“No, the system worked.”
He did laugh at that. “Indeed? Are you positive?”
“My security—”
“Is a joke for the woman who helped him.”
Sweeney’s eyes narrowed as he studied Dylan. He was sure Sweeney used the technique to dominate other people. Most would back off with that look, but Dylan was different than ordinary people.
“See, you never found out who the bloke was, did you? With all the help of the government and computers and everything, you still don’t know who the bloody hell he was, do you?”
He nodded, once.
“I do know who he was and…I know the woman involved.”
“Let me guess…you want something from me for the names?”
“Oh, how simple, but it works, yes?”
“What the bloody hell do you want?”
Dylan waited for a few moments, just enough to make the man sweat. The slimy bastard deserved it. Part of the reason his brother had gotten tangled up with that woman was that fucking security system. She had been the only person who could break it…and Ian had become obsessed.
“I will let you know later on exactly what I want. But, first, let me tell you a story about a woman…a witch in particular.”
Chapter Fourteen
A day later, Maggie dug her mother’s journal out of her bag. The leather bound book was worn and had been passed down from her grandmother to her mother and then to Maggie. It had served her well for years.
She opened it and the scent of lilac and sandalwood surrounded her. It was something that always made her think of home. In the years since she lost her Magick, she had kept it with her but had not opened it. Whenever she did, emotions and memories overwhelmed her. She hadn’t had time for reminiscing.
“You’re going to use your Magick again?” Jack asked her.
She glanced at him. He had been a small when he was born. He’d been premature and still looked so small to her. She knew he was strong, stronger than most other children. He was always too intelligent for her peace of mind. Most four year olds didn’t grasp the concept of the things Jack said. Unfortunately, Maggie knew he did. And, as a mother, her heart ached for him. No child should have to deal with it.
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