“Nim! You’re hurt!”
“I can fix it,” she said, but her brow was furrowed. “I gave him a real good jolt of faerie-buzz which should have felt like an angry scorpion stinging his face. He barely flinched. I smelled magic around him.”
Great. Now she wasn’t fighting just a mortal foe, but one who had extra protection? “Lucas says Baylor can do that. Was it him?”
The faerie shook her head. “His stench would be far stronger. Are you planning on staying here tonight?”
Every nerve ending was screaming to pack a bag and go to a hotel. But her stubborn Irish mind was telling her no one was going to run her out of her home. She shook her head. “Whoever it was, he’ll have to get the briefcase to Baylor first. When they find out it’s not what they wanted, I doubt they’ll be brave enough to come back. He ransacked the place really well and, since I’m supposed to be dead, he can’t get any information out of me.”
“In that case, I’m going to call on some of my Sidhe friends,” Nim said. “The Fae can at least ward the outside of the house. If anyone comes near, he’ll think he walked into a swarm of angry bees.”
As she faded from sight, Sara racked her brain again. Who could have had a key?
****
Which was the same question an angry Michael wanted to know the next morning as he pounded on her door.
“What are you doing?” Sara asked as she let him in. “It’s barely dawn; you’ll wake all the neighbors!”
“I nearly got stung out there before Nim’s friends recognized me,” he said. “And she didn’t want to tell me what happened, but the Sidhe don’t leave their earth hills for just anything. So tell me.”
Reluctantly, she filled him in and showed him the bed. His face blanched as he looked at the bullet holes in the pillows. He pulled Sara to him and held her close. “By the Goddess, these people mean business. I should never have left you.”
For a moment, she relaxed in his strength and then she gently disengaged herself. “Your mother was hurt, remember? How is she?”
“They were getting ready to release her by the time I got there,” Michael answered. “Apparently a car came swerving around a corner too fast as she stepped off the curb to cross the street. Luckily, my mother has some preternatural skills herself and jumped back. The car barely swiped her.”
Sara felt chills down her spine, remembering the car careening around the corner in London. “Do you think Baylor ordered it? To get you away from here so he’d have time to break and enter?”
“Probably. But how would he have gotten a key?” Michael asked as they went back into the living room and sat down.
“I don’t know. I’ve been searching my brain all night,” Sara answered.
Michael narrowed his eyes in thought. “I still think it’s suspicious that both Ramsey and Caldwell just happen to show up after that manuscript was bought. Could either of them have gotten hold of your keys? Did you leave your purse unguarded around either of them?
“No. I can see why you’d suspect Alan after yesterday’s mess, but I really think it’s just an ego thing with him to try and seduce me. He tried the same thing with Morgan. And, not that I likehim, but he’s never even mentioned the manuscript. He may not even know we have it.”
“Then that leaves Ramsey.”
“Michael, you can’t seriously think Lucas would try to kill me!”
“Well, he’s conveniently called out of town, asks me to be sure to keep you safe, and then I’m called out of town. Who knows who planned the car incident? Maybe Ramsey didn’t leave after all. Maybe he hung around and wanted to make sure that anyone who had real knowledge of the transcript didn’t live to talk about it.”
She stared at him. “I won’t believe that. Mr. Smith still has the original.”
Michael shrugged. “And it’s in Middle Gaelic. So who can translate? Professor MacDonald is dead. You were supposed to be. He could lead Smith on while he searches for the Hallows. You know whoever holds them has ultimate power.” He leaned closer. “Ramsey had your keys when he drove you home from that lunch. Did he give them to you as soon as you got back?”
Sara started and felt her face flush. “No, he forgot. He brought them back after you took him home.”
A look of anger crossed the warlock’s face, but he masked it. “So he could have had time to make a copy before he got them back?”
“Michael, no. I don’t—”
“He would have had the time, though?” Michael’s voice was hard. ‘Yes or no?”
She felt tears brim her eyes. The man had been big and broad-shouldered.But I would have sensed it if it had been Lucas, wouldn’t I? Oh, Goddess, he wouldn’t harm me, would he?
“Yes or no, Sara? Could Ramsey have had a copy of your key?”
