Oh boy. Did it.
He was broad-shouldered and clean-cut, with burnished brown hair and eyes that couldn’t decide if they were blue or green. When he smiled again, the room brightened a notch too much.
Donna tilted her head. “I know accents, and yours is British. Not Irish…nor Italian.”
He studied her for a moment. “True. My lineage is Irish and Italian, but I was raised in London from an early age.”
Fascinating.
“What brings you in?” I asked, since both Nana and Donna seemed momentarily speechless.
“I’d like to make you an offer on the seven missing nugget boxes,” he said to Nana.
I tilted my head. “They’ve been stolen. We no longer possess them.”
“Yes. I’d like to buy them so that when they’re found, I own them.” His tone stayed friendly, but focus sharpened his gaze.
Nana studied him, her head tilted slightly. I’d seen that expression on her face before—her radar was on. “You have a phenomenal aura.”
“That’s kind of you,” he said smoothly.
“You’ve heard that before?” Donna asked.
He looked at her again, and for a second his eyes seemed to shift, blue to green, then back again. “More than once.”
I must’ve imagined the change in eye color.
Cormac kept his gaze on my sister. “You don’t like my aura, Miss…?”
“Donna Albertini,” Nana offered.
“Delighted.” He offered his hand. Donna hesitated only a moment before shaking it. She never hesitated. Was Mercury in retrograde or something? What was happening?
“This is Anna,” Donna said.
He turned toward me. His eyes had returned to the bluish green hue. “Anna.”
I took his hand, and his scent of smoke and amber filtered around us. “Why buy boxes that are missing?”
“I tend to find things,” he said.
“How do you know they’re missing?” Donna asked.
His smile showed a dimple in his right cheek. Just one. “Oh, it’s in the early edition of the paper.”
How did he arrive so quickly? “Do you live around here?” I asked. The guy was all charm. Way too much.
“No,” he said.
“Where are you from?” Donna pushed.
His grin didn’t falter. “I go where the wind takes me. Mrs. O’Shea, I’ll give you two hundred fifty thousand for all seven boxes.”
I steadied my legs before I hit the floor. “The map on the bottom is just for fun,” I said. “There’s no treasure out there.”
“I don’t know. I’ve followed more than one treasure map in my time, and sometimes they lead places,” Cormac said.
“You have?” Nana asked, delighted.
