Angus (3 page)

“Why don’t you leave him and run away with me, Phoebe? A businessman like that cannot appreciate a fine scientific mind like yours.”

She laughed. “It’s because he doesn’t appreciate it that I like him. Be careful.”

“Sure. Give my love to the family.”

He clicked off the phone. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to Callum again. It would just make Angus nervous about what he had to do. He had never been good with intrigue and lies. That had always been Callum’s department. Well, and Fletcher’s. They were both good at deceiving, especially the opposite sex.

Straight forward. That was the only way around this. He pushed away from the wall and found a seat in what he knew to be her station. She hurried over, a distracted smile on her face and those damned gorgeous green eyes sparkling. She wasn’t looking directly at him and he found he didn’t like that. Angus wanted—
craved
—that she acknowledge him directly. It was odd to have this reaction to a stranger.

Then, he realized she was asking him a question.

“Excuse me, I didn’t hear you.”

She laughed and then looked directly at him. Her smile faded and her eyes widened. For a second, maybe two, everything in the noisy pub seemed to fade away. It was gone a second later when she shook her head.

“Sorry,” she said, and looked away. There was no hint of her homeland in her voice. “Want a pint?”

“Yeah. A pint and is that shepherd’s pie I smell?”

She nodded. “It’s pretty good today.”

“I’ll take that.”

“Thanks.”

Then she hurried off. He watched her, enjoying the way her full hips swayed and how the denim hugged her ass.

He shook his head trying to keep it on track. He had a mission and he would not screw it up.

She approached with his Guinness.

 “Busy day?” he asked, trying to come up with something to keep her at the table.

She nodded. “It’s odd because we aren’t usually this hectic, but thankfully I’m almost done.”

Maggie set the pint down and he reached for it. For a single second, their hands brushed and something between them sparked. It was more than static electricity. This actually looked like a high voltage shock. And it felt like it too. Heat traveled up from his arm, through his blood and to his head, which was buzzing when he looked up at her. All the color had drained from her rosy cheeks.

“Harriet.”

He knew that was the name she was using now, but she didn’t respond when the bartender called her name.

“Harry!”

She shook herself and backed away from him then hurried back to the bar. He watched as she talked to the manager, then slipped into the kitchen. Something niggled at the back of his brain and he watched as another waitress came forward with his meat pie.

“Where’s M…I mean Harriet?”

She gave him a cheeky smile. “Had to run out because of some kind of emergency.”

Angus watched the woman head off to another table as irritation crawled through his veins. Maggie had apparently picked up on his reason for being there. Well, dammit, he wasn’t any happier about it than she was.

He threw some money on the table and pulled out his phone. Angus realized he was going to have to hunt her down at home before she skipped town.

*  *  *  *

Magdalene Maria O’Conner ran up the stairs to her flat as she tried to think of the best way to disappear this time. She had been so sure that they wouldn’t find her, that she was safe from the prying eyes of the O’Conner family. She was out of breath when she burst through the door.

The smells of colcannon filled the small flat. No. Apartment. Americans called these things apartments. Even after a year of surviving in the miniscule dwelling, she still couldn’t get used to using the right language.

“Harriet,” Mrs. Dolan said with a smile. “You’re early.”

“Yes. It was a slow day at the pub.”

“Well, Jack is busy in his room. He said he had things to ponder.”

Maggie smiled. Normally, she would laugh, but now…it told her he knew of the coming move. Jack had always sensed what was going to happen before it actually did.

“Thank you. Would you like to stay for dinner?”

Mrs. Dolan shook her head. “I’ve got my book club meeting later. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, dear.”

Maggie wanted to tell the woman the truth. That tomorrow the sun would rise and she would disappear off the face of the earth. Mrs. Dolan had been a Godsend when she arrived here to work. Maggie hated that she’d had to lie about her past, and even about her name.

“Mrs. Dolan.” She stopped and looked back at Maggie. Her faded blue eyes filled with questions. “Thank you so much. I don’t know what we would do without you.”

The older woman smiled. “Of course, dear.”

Then she shuffled out the door. Maggie waited for the click before giving into the terror that had been riding her back since she’d run from the pub.

“He’s the one.”

Jack’s little boy voice echoed through the silent apartment and she closed her eyes and prayed for guidance. When she opened her eyes, she turned to face her son. He was so small, even for the age of four. And she really hated when he made proclamations like that.

“Who are you talking about?” she asked.

“You saw him today. He’s tall. And a Scot. He’s here to save us. To save you.”

Something cold tingled down her spine. “We don’t need a man to save us, Jack.”

He shook his head. His gray eyes, so much like the father he had never met, were filled with sadness. “Death will come.”

A four-year-old shouldn’t have to deal with these things. He should be playing Legos or trucks or something. Instead, he dreamed of death and the man who had scared the bloody hell out of her today.

She tried smiling but even without being able to see it, she knew she had failed. “Let’s not think about that right now. Are you hungry?”

She wasn’t. Not even close, but she needed to pretend things were normal. Even as good as the potatoes smelled, her stomach churned with worry.

Was the man there to kill them? To report back to her late husband’s family? She had thought she had lost them. Now though, she knew she and Jack would have to disappear. Again.

“Yes. Mrs. Dolan has some bangers in the pot too.”

Of course she did. As much as Maggie had tried to Americanize them, to make sure that people didn’t look at them and see Ireland, Mrs. Dolan had done her best to keep their home country alive for Jack. Her son hadn’t spent any time in Ireland, but he spoke with a thick accent.

Just as she walked to the kitchen area, there was a loud knock at the door. Cold fear drenched her and a strange heat threaded through her blood. Damn, it had to be the man.

And if she was getting her abilities back after ignoring them for so long…there was something really wrong with the man. He had to be Magickal, and he had to have been sent to get her. Kill her.

Mother Mary, if he found out about Jack….that would be the end of everything.

“Get in your room.”

Jack gave her a disgusted look. She wanted to scream at him to hurry, but couldn’t. Not without the man hearing her. If they could get out on the fire escape, then they could get away.

“I’m not hiding. He won’t hurt us.”

Then, he turned and walked to the door. She scrambled after him, but she couldn’t catch up with him before he opened the door.

There was a beat of silence, and then a dark, sexy Scottish voice said, “I think I might have the wrong flat.”

“No, sir, you don’t. You’ve come to save us.”

Chapter Three

Angus looked down at the small boy, who could be no more than four years of age and then saw Maggie step up behind him.

“Jackson Michael, come away,” she said, her voice tight with fear.

The little boy leaned closer and Angus bent down to be able to hear him.

“She only uses my formal name when I’m in trouble, but you can call me Jack.” Then, he stepped back and looked up at Maggie. “You know I’m correct.”

He slipped past Maggie and went running off, looking more like the little boy that he was.

“I think you need to leave.”

He glanced at the woman he had tracked down to New York and then had to find her again after she fled the pub. He wasn’t in the best of moods. Chasing after her had been bad enough, but it had started to pour. Cold, wet and thoroughly ticked off…he wasn’t in the mood to play games. Still, he tried to soften his tone.

“I’m not here to hurt you, just like the boy said.”

Her spine straightened. “You leave Jack out of this.”

The danger in her voice made all the tumblers fall into place. “He’s yours.”

Again, the color washed out of her cheeks. He rushed forward; worried she was going to pass out. She scrambled back from him and held out her hand as if to ward him off. He stopped and studied her for a moment.

“No. Leave. I don’t have anything to give you. You can report back to the O’Conners but I’ll be gone.”

He shook his head, trying to come to turns with what she was saying. It didn’t sound correct. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ll not go back to that pit of vipers. I will not let them near my son.”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about, but I dinna know you had a son until now. I’m not here for him. I’m here for you.”

“Do you have an order of extradition?” she asked, her voice barely audible.

She was trying to be brave, he could tell, but the vulnerability beneath the steel was easy for him to detect. This was a woman who would hurt him easily, but she was near her breaking point.

“Extradition? No.” He shook his head and then realized the door was still open.
Stupid, Angus, stupid
.

He closed the door then turned to face her. “I’m not here for him or really to arrest you. I’m here to hire you.”

“Hire?” she snorted and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “You’ve a pub you need a waitress for?”

“No. I need someone to help me steal a jewel and, from what I’ve found, you’re the woman for the job.”

The urge to scream almost overtook Maggie. If it wasn’t one thing from her past, it was another. “What?”

“I need a particular jewel and I need your help getting it.”

“No.” No way. Not in a million years for a million pounds.

Determination stamped his facial features. This was not a man who would give up easily.  “You’ve not heard my proposition.”

“I don’t need to hear it. I don’t do that work anymore. My partner is…no longer in the business either.”

Truth was Jack’s father and she had been the best in the business at one time. Their ability to crack any code was never questioned by those who wanted them for illegal purposes. But, they had been a team, one that had ended when he’d died and she had lost her magic.

“We can help you with that.”

“We?”

“First, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Angus Lennon.”

Not the complete truth
.

She hated that the voice was back. It had been the one thing that had gotten her out of the Dublin slums, but it had become the bane of her bleak existence later on. When people learned of it, they either became leery or wanted to use her.

She rubbed her temple trying to push the thoughts away. It had been ripped from her the night Ian had died, and she had been glad for it. She definitely didn’t need it now.

“Lennon?”

He cocked his head to one side. “Yes.”

It wasn’t the right name. The voice hadn’t been wrong, but she couldn’t figure out why. In the next instant, she remembered. Lennon…Scottish…

“You’re not the one on the telly all the time.”

He smiled then and she felt the full force of the grin. It made him look years younger.

Much younger than he truly is.

The words whispered through her. She pushed them away and prayed to the Goddess that they wouldn’t return. She didn’t need that ability…didn’t need the pain that came with it.

“That’s Callum. My older cousin.”

“And you want me to steal a jewel? With your money, you should be able to buy it.”

He looked truly uncomfortable then. “We can’t, and I can’t explain why. But, we want to hire you for a job. I’m not here to arrest you or whatever you’re worried about. I’m just here to hire you.”

He pulled out a card, then looked around. He grabbed a pen off an end table. It only took him a second to jot something down and hand the card to her.

“That’s my mobile here. The number under it is what we are willing to pay you for the job.”

Her heart almost stuttered to a stop.  When she looked up at him, he nodded.

“We’ve the money and it is very important we get this back.”

“So it’s yours and someone took it? Why not go to the police?”

“Hard to prove something disappeared from my family a couple of centuries ago.”

She nodded. Since they were Scottish, she was sure much of his family’s things had been stolen from them during the clearances and she knew that many of the Clans still hated the memory. Many of them were still trying to break away from the UK.

“I’ll have to think about it.”

“I only have forty-eight hours before I have to return to Scotland. I need an answer before then.”

She nodded. He hesitated, then said, “I promise we mean you no harm. I take it if you accept the job, you’ll be bringing the boy?”

“I haven’t agreed yet.”

He sighed. “I need to prepare things if he’s coming.”

It was a strange way of saying it, but she still nodded. Even though every one of her Magickal senses were screaming, she felt safe with this man.

“I’ll stop by tomorrow. Will you be here?”

The fear was still thrumming through her blood and something there was telling her to run. She had never ignored it, not since she’d had that feeling before her husband had been killed.

“It’s my day off.”

Not really an answer, but he accepted it.  “Goodnight, Maggie.”

“I go by Harriet.”

He shook his head. “I canna call you that. You’ve always been Maggie to me.”

Then he slipped out of the door and shut it. When she didn’t hear him walk away, she approached the door.