I believe in my grandmothers magic absolutely. Besides that, now that Ive seen you, Im totally convinced youre the babys uncle.
Why?
You both have a very distinctive eye color. That clear ice-blue is not something Ive seen before.
Colin looked uncomfortable about more than just the bandage shed applied. So Ive been told. But its not enough to assure me the child and I are related by blood. I wish for your sake it was.
This was getting them nowhere. Exhaustion was overtaking them both, making compromiseor even clear thoughtimpossible.
Sleep for now, she whispered. Well talk about it more when youre rested. I wont let any harm come to you. Trust me.
I dont trust easily, Maggie, Colin said as he lay back. But I will sleep. Then when I awake, well have the rest of our questions asked and answered. Count on it.
Sunlight streamed down the air shaft outside the hotel room window. Maggie had no idea how long shed been asleep. Last night, shed curled up in the overstuffed, ugly, flower-print chair, watching over a sleeping Colin until her eyelids grew too heavy to prop open.
She cast a sleepy glance toward the mussed-up bed and sat up. She couldnt believe her eyes. Colin was gone.
Holy moly. He must have slipped out while she was asleep. But why? She was fairly sure that shed cured his wounds, but they hadnt finished talking about his brotherand more important to her, about the baby.
Jumping up, she checked the room. Colins things were missing, too. Darn. She couldnt just leave and go home to Emma. Colin knew where she lived. He could show up on her doorstep any day and demand she turn over his niece.
Maggie knew what she needed to do. She had to find him. Had to make him agreein writingto leave the baby with her for good. She went to her pack and pulled out her grandmothers crystal, the one that could locate people.
Shed never tried this by herself before. Had never needed to. But this time, as she peered into the glass and focused her mind on finding Colin, the murky depths of the crystal began to clear and images began to form.
A shaft of panic slowly rose up through her spine as she saw Colins silhouette in a back booth of a darkened bar. His eyes were trained toward the front door as if he were waiting for someone.
But then another vision came into view in the crystal. A man, hunched into a trench coat, approached the restaurants back door. He slid his hand down into the coat pocket and withdrew a gun.
No!
Maggie grabbed her backpack and raced out the door and down the hotels stairs. Her mind knew the way to go, and
it was clear she had to go now.
But would she be in time to save his life?
Chapter 3
Needing to test his muscles, he stretched in his seat. A little soreness remained, but none of the intense pain from before. That Maggie Ryan had done an amazing job on him.
He had no trouble understanding why hed so easily accepted her natural healing ability, yet still could not believe her witchcraft story. Years earlier, he himself had received training from a curandera healer. His father had been a diplomat, stationed in the Mexican state of Vera Cruz at the time, and Colin went for summer holiday. Hed spent a couple of fascinating months there learning about natural healing, honing the healing skills hed picked up years earlier from his Irish mother and grandmother.
Colin seldom allowed himself to dwell on his early lessons in native plants, or on the Irish half of his background for that matter. Such thoughts usually turned dark when they led to the uncomfortable memories of his mothers abandonment, and from there to thoughts of John, and the worthless reasons hed given himself for neglecting his own brother.
He now knew that no amount of anger toward his mother was adequate grounds for deserting his baby brother. It hadnt been Johns fault that their mother drove a wedge between the family. Colin realized, too late, that John had looked up to him, counted on him. And Colin had let him down. Stayed away when John needed his big brother the most.
Feeling melancholy, Colin tried to shake off the memories. Hed left Maggies room because, if hed stayed, he might have begun to believe all her stories. Her spirit had called to him, her body set his afire at first sight. He couldnt think clearly around her.
Natural healing was one thing, but witchcraft and crystals were quite another. Deep in his being, he did not believe.
He wasnt ready to give up on John. To admit hed lost his only brother. Not yet.
After making a couple of phone calls, Colin had gotten hold of a man who swore to know the truth. He was to meet that man here, in this pub, in the middle of the day.
It now seemed a waste of time.
Without warning, Colin felt the cold steel of a gun barrel as it pressed against his neck.
Dont move, Fairfax, the deep voice said in heavily accented English. And dont make a sound.
Where had the bastard come from? Colin had been watching the front door, and the bloke had appeared out of nowhere.
Were going to take this out to the alley. But if you make any wrong moves, Id just as soon shoot you here. Understood?