by Mary Leo
“So, tell me again why you, and your cousins, Kasey, Rourke and Tommy stole the gold to begin with when you all knew about the curse?”
“We were kids. Besides, it was Tommy’s idea to look for the leprechaun’s gold in the first place. When we found it, after we crawled on our bellies to the top of the knoll right outside of the village, he told us he thought it would be funny to rob the little guy.”
In hindsight, Ronan wished he’d never agreed.
“You realize that ever since you boys took Adhamh’s gold our village has experienced years of financial ruin, it’s been shrouded in a thick mist, and for all intents and purposes, it really no longer exists.”
“If you believe in that kind of stuff … and not that the entire area of Ireland has been going through some rough times.”
But, reasoning with Cathy, even with all the facts, was pointless, and no matter how much he still wanted his arms around her and no matter how much he desperately wanted her in his bed, she simply would not accept logic. It was the rift between them that hadn’t changed a bit.
“Well, at least now the village and the residents will be able to recover. The curse will lift once the leprechaun counts his gold.”
Ronan’s heart skipped a beat. “Counts?”
She threw him a look as if he were daft. “Doesn’t everyone count their money?”
“Yeah, but how could he possibly know the exact number of coins he had?”
“Because it takes an exact amount for a leprechaun to get back to his world. Even one coin less and he’ll turn his wrath on the person who carries that missing coin.”
Ronan leaned on his elbows, his mind racing on various scenarios. Okay, so he, Rourke, and Kasey had taken a coin each. Certainly three missing coins wouldn’t make a difference.
Or would they, especially if that damn weird little guy actually believed they would?
“I can tell there’s something wrong. What is it? What aren’t you telling me?” Cathy asked, looking all sweet and pretty. He wanted to forget all this nonsense and make love to her more than he could ever admit. Tommy had been right—it had been far too long since he’d seen her, far too long since he’d looked into those emerald green eyes, or tangled his hands in her long scarlet hair.
He had it so bad he hurt.
“Are you dating anyone?” he asked.
“No. And don’t change the subject. You’re holding some information back. I can always tell.”
He leaned in closer. “Can I come home with you tonight?”
She sat back. “There’s no future in it.”
“Maybe we’re not meant for a future. Maybe we’re meant to make crazy love and find someone else to grow old with.”
She leaned back in, a twinkle caught her eye, and a wicked little smile lit up her already stunning face. His heart melted. “I couldn’t grow old with someone I didn’t want to make love with outside, under the stars on a patio table.”
The memory of her, almost completely naked, lying under him, a look of passion on her face as moonlight danced in her hair was too much for him. He quickly pushed the vision out of his head.
“It wasn’t even our patio table. Weren’t you taking care of a neighbor’s dog?”
“It was a cat, and we crashed through the table and almost killed their cat.”
Ronan chuckled remembering the frightened Calico kitten they’d had to coax down out of a maple tree. It took hours to get her to cooperate, and by then he and Cathy had made love three more times.
Things were looking up. He had her laughing over their past indiscretions. This had to be a good sign. “Didn’t we try to fix that table, but couldn’t so we ended up buying them a new one?”
She nodded. “The broken one now resides in my yard. I found someone to fix it.”
“Want to break it again?” He slid his hands across the table to take hers. She slapped them away.
“First tell me the truth. Do you have any of that gold?”
Ronan didn’t want to answer her, but he knew if he had any chance at getting her even close to a bed or on a table, he had to tell the truth. She could always see right through him.
“Okay! I took one measly coin, but I gave it away years ago.”
“Can you get it back? Who’d you give it to?”
“A friend who thought it might bring him good luck someday.”
“And where is this friend?”
“I don’t know. What does it matter? I told you the truth. Now can we go back to your place and break that table again?”
“You still don’t get it. We have to find that coin and return it before the leprechaun counts his gold, or something even more horrible will happen to our village or maybe even to you. Where does this friend live?”
She suddenly looked desperate, like a mom who wanted him to find her lost child. He’d seen that look many times before, but he never thought he’d see it on Cathy’s face.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? Tommy’s dead, our village is in ruins and your life or perhaps the life of your friend may be in danger. We need to retrieve that coin and deliver it to Adhamh. Plus, you need to call your cousins and tell them of the dangers of keeping the coins. I’m assuming they have some too.” Damn, it was like the woman could read his mind.
“The three of us took one coin each, while Tommy stuffed his pocket with gold. When you say deliver it, what exactly do you mean?”
“Bring it back to Ireland, of course. Besides, we need to go home for Tommy’s funeral. It’s only right.”
He sighed. The best decision here would be to just go with the whole Irish lore thing, no matter how ridiculous it sounded. Truth was, this was probably his last chance with Cathy and he would do anything not to screw it up. Even if it meant humoring her about curses and leprechauns.
“Naturally we’ll go home for the funeral. I wouldn’t consider not going. He’s family. I just have one request.”
“What’s that? And it better not have anything to do with my beliefs, because if it does, we have nothing further to discuss.”
He shook his head, and stared into her amazing eyes. “Can I kiss you?”
She chuckled and threw him a sly little grin. “‘Tis I who’ll be kissin’ you when the coin is in me hand.”
So they had an agreement. Now all Ronan had to do was find that damn coin and his empty life would suddenly take on a new meaning.
He stood up. “Well, don’t just sit there. We have a coin to retrieve.”
* * *
Ronan spent that night on Cathy’s sofa, alone. He didn’t sleep much due to some animal or baby crying all night long. It drove him crazy. At one point he opened the back door to see where it was coming from. As soon as he stepped in the yard, the crying stopped.
Then when he went back to his sofa, the crying started up again. Peace finally came at daybreak. By then Ronan was so distraught he only caught a couple hours sleep and got up around eight in the morning.
As soon as he opened his eyes, while Cathy was still locked in her room, he called his Lieutenant asking to take some of his vacation time. For the first time since he’d joined the force he didn’t get a rash of excuses why he needed to wait for a better time. Apparently, his Lieutenant had heard about his cousin’s death and figured he’d want to escort the body back to Ireland.
“That’s the plan,” Ronan told him, having no idea who would be escorting the body.
“You go do what’s necessary. I’ll get someone to cover for you.”
“Thanks,” Ronan said and hung up, glad to know that at least if there was a family emergency he wouldn’t have to worry about getting the time off. He suspected if he just wanted to have fun, there would have been a completely different reaction. Ronan had eight weeks of vacation time on the books, and if he could figure out how to keep Cathy by his side, he intended to take every last hour as long as it involved her.
After he hung up with his Lieutenant, he called his cousin
Kasey, thinking he should, at the very least, mention the coin to him and what had happened to Tommy, but Kasey didn’t answer. He felt like a dolt leaving a message about a supposed magical coin, so he disconnected instead.
He’d spoken to Rourke not too long after Tommy’s death and the two of them had rehashed speculation on why their cousin had decided to bring the gold all the way to the states to sell it. And why now? They’d concluded that he might have felt safer exchanging it in the states, but they couldn’t be sure of anything until they returned to Ireland to put the puzzle together. In the meantime, Ronan worried about Rourke’s undercover entanglement with the Shaughnessy crime family. Rourke sometimes felt as if he was invulnerable to their madness, but those guys would just as soon kill you than question your actions. He’d warned his cousin to be careful, but Rourke wasn’t the careful type.
After the calls, he showered and dressed in the same clothes he’d worn the previous night. Then he thought about making a pot of strong coffee knowing how much Cathy liked her first cup while she was still in bed. When he gently knocked on her bedroom door to see if she was awake, she immediately invited him in. She was not only awake, but dressed and sitting on a chair knitting something small using pink and white yarn.
“Coffee?”
“Thanks, but I don’t drink it anymore. I’m a tea drinker now. Coffee was keeping me awake all night. Tea seems to relax me.” She put the knitting needles down. To Ronan they looked like nasty metal weapons that could kill someone if you plunged it into the right spot. He only hoped she didn’t start throwing knitting needles at him the next time they had a fight.
She stood up, grabbed an ornate tea pot and walked past him to the kitchen, her red hair swaying down her beautiful back. As she moved past him he caught the floral scent of her body wash and wished he had shared her shower that morning.
“Tea?” she asked from the kitchen.
“No thanks.”
Ronan followed her back to the kitchen. He needed that coffee and he craved something sweet. Unfortunately, all Cathy could offer him was plain Greek yogurt and frozen berries. “I’ll grab something later,” he told her as he followed her out of the house and they both got into his black SUV. At least he’d been able to find a dusty can of unopened coffee in the pantry, then dug out her old coffee maker from the back of a cupboard, used a paper towel for a filter, and managed to find a travel mug. He’d filled it with coffee, milk and three teaspoons of sugar and took it along. Cathy brought a metal, two-liter bottle filled with distilled water.
When they were finally on the road, Cathy asked, “Did you hear it last night?”
Ronan yawned then excused himself. “You heard it, too? Kept me up most of the night. Must have been a baby next door. “
She turned to him. “‘Twas a Banshee crying over Tommy’s murder.”
His instinct was to laugh, or at the very least give her the reasons why she was completely wrong. Instead he humored her and said, “So that’s what they sound like.”
“You’re making fun of me, Ronan Kelly, but I’m here to prove you wrong. You’ll see it my way as soon as you accept what’s as apparent as the beautiful nose on your face.”
“I’m not making fun of you. Really.”
“It doesn’t matter if you do or you don’t. We’re on our way to collect the leprechaun’s gold coin. That’s enough for me this morning.”
He threw her a quick little smirk, and continued up the street. Anything to get her to look at him again like she had that night they’d made love on the table. He’d tell her he believed in the Easter Bunny if that was what it took.
Finding his childhood friend, Paul Milton, was sure to be a challenge. Ronan had given him the coin as soon as he and his family had returned to the states after the family reunion. That had been almost fifteen years ago. There was no telling where Paul could have relocated after all this time or what might have happened to the coin.
The last address he had for Paul was his parents’ house in Bucktown, a neighborhood not far from Roscoe Village. The area had always been trendy, with restaurants, bars and boutiques scattered throughout the area with Holstein Park as its anchor.
His own parents’ house was only two blocks from the park, a real lure for every kid within two miles. Ronan pulled up to the curb, parked and turned off the ignition.
Two minutes later Cathy stood next to him as he knocked on the wooden door of what was sure to be a dead end. He really hadn’t thought of a plan B yet, but was hoping whoever answered the door might lead them in the right direction.
No answer.
“Sometimes it’s best to ring the doorbell,” Cathy said as she pushed on the tiny white button. Ronan could hear the chimes through the door. She laid on if for about a half-minute. “That should get their attention.”
The door swung open, as if the person doing the opening was angry. Ronan recognized an older Paul right off. “It better be mighty important to ring my bell like that.”
He gazed over at Cathy, then at Ronan, no recognition on his face.
“I’ll say it’s important, you son of a bitch. Remember me?”
Paul’s face immediately lit up. “Well, look at what the cat dragged in.” He looked like the same guy Ronan remembered, thick black hair that was always a tangle of curls, baby blue eyes, and a grin that still looked as if it could give Tom Cruz a run for his money.
“Is that any way to greet an old friend?”
The two men hugged, slapping each other’s backs. When they finally parted, Paul invited Ronan and Cathy to come inside.
As soon as they walked inside, Ronan introduced Cathy to Paul who gave her a big tight welcome hug. Paul had always been a friendly guy.
“I’d heard you’d gotten married. This must be the lassie.” He gave her a quick once-over, nothing weird, just a glance. “And a mighty fine one at that.”
“We’re not—” Ronan started to say, but Cathy interrupted him. “—going to be able to stay for long. Sorry, but next time we’ll plan something. Dinner or lunch or something.”
“That would be fine. The wife would love to meet you both. But what the hell brings you to my doorstep after all this time? Wait. You’re a cop, right? This isn’t anything official is it?”
“Why? You do something I should be aware of?”
“Not unless you count my five-year-old daughter walking out with a bag of stickers the other day from the A&P.”
“You have a kid?”
“Three—two boys and a girl. Couldn’t be happier. They’re with their grandmom right now. Triplets, and it’s all because of you, my old friend. Never would have happened if you hadn’t given me that lucky coin. Have a seat. Can I get you anything? Soda? Coffee? Tea?”
The living room was painted a warm blue that kind of matched Paul’s eyes. With tan comfortable furniture and a big, plush rocking chair in the corner of the room nestled next to the fireplace. A pang of jealousy swept through Ronan. Paul seemed to have everything going for him, including a family.
“Tea would be nice,” Cathy said, as she made herself comfortable in the rocker that faced the front windows. “So, tell us more how that coin was lucky for you.” She glanced over at Ronan who sat on the sofa with an I told you so look on her face.
“Let me put the kettle on, and I’ll be right back.”
When Paul left the room, Cathy said, “I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.”
Ronan smiled back at her, biting his tongue to keep from saying anything negative.
Chapter Three
“Becky and I wanted kids almost more than life itself. We tried everything, even in vitro. Nothing worked. The doctors finally told us there was nothing more they could do and we should adopt. Which would have been fine, really, but my Becky had her heart set on getting pregnant. Then, one day while I was going through the old boxes in the basement, trying to clean out some of my old trophies and junk from when I was a kid, the leprechaun’s coin rolled out across the floor in almost a co
mplete circle. It was like some kind of miracle or something. I’d completely forgotten that you’d given it to me. At first, I didn’t know what it was. The glow was almost blinding, and I’m here to say there was no sunlight coming in through those tiny street windows. Only the light from the bare bulbs overhead.
“So I watched it roll around, not really able to take my eyes off it. Then that coin did a funny thing and spun on itself—like a top or something—all the while getting closer to my feet. It finally stopped next to my right foot. When I could finally see that it was that old gold coin you’d given me, I knew right then and there, this was my lucky day. That night, Becky and me, well you know, we’d been so down about the whole baby thing that we’d more or less given up on sex. But that night I knew it would be different. I knew absolutely that if we made love, my Becky would get pregnant. And sure enough, the next thing I knew we were having not one baby, but three babies! Can you imagine? We knew there was a risk of multiple births with in vitro. Never in a million years did we think it could happen without it. It was the coin, ya know?”
“Ah, the luck of the Irish,” Cathy said, thinking the coin was even more powerful than she’d first imagined it to be.
“And to think none of this could have ever been possible without your magic coin. I owe you a mountain of gratitude, Ronan. Been trying to contact you for years. Could never quite pin you down. Ever since you moved out of the neighborhood, you and your cousins have been impossible to find. So, was that your cousin Tommy on the news last night? I wasn’t sure.”
“Yes.”
“So the leprechaun really got him?”
“The dirty beast,” Cathy said before Ronan had a chance to answer. She didn’t want to hear his logic, just as she was sure Paul didn’t want to either.
“I heard the witness said something about a bag of gold Tommy was trying to exchange at the Chicago Gold Exchange. My mom told me once that one leprechaun’s coin will bring you luck as long as the leprechaun doesn’t find you first, but more than one and you risk his wrath. I would think Tommy would have known this,” Paul said.