"Would he shoot us?" Georgie shifted in his seat.
"Not very likely," she assured him. "His store is a front. Nobody buys metal detectors. The only way he can stay in business is to make money off people like us. If he shoots someone, what would happen?"
"People would go to Peter instead," Georgie said.
"That's right. If we're smart, we can get Max to come down on the fee. Anything below a third is good. So, we're going to sit here in our truck for a bit more, as if we're deciding what to do, and then we'll go inside and haggle. No matter how loud or stupid Max gets, keep calm."
"Okay," Georgie promised.
Rose dug in her pocket and pulled out a rumpled piece of paper.
Jack joined me for the morning exercise. We'll be back before lunch.
Declan
She had awakened to find this piece of paper on the table. She was a light sleeper, but Declan moved like a wolf, and nobody could hear Jack when he didn't want to be heard. They had snuck out of the house like two thieves in the night.
Rose frowned at the note. When he was tiny, Jack used to run off into the woods. Left to his own devices, he'd be gone for days, and so Rose kept some of his fur and hair and claw and nail clippings so she could find him. She had done a quick scrying spell, but it had a short range, and Jack was nowhere within two miles from the house. That meant Declan had taken him into the wilderness of the Wood.
Her initial impulse was to run after them, but Rose stopped herself. First, she had no idea where they had gone. Second, her kitchen was empty - they literally had nothing to eat. The last of the cereal was gone. Georgie had finished it. He was still hungry, and she was hungry as well. Georgie couldn't go too long without a snack, not with the drain his magic placed on his body. She could spend a couple of hours searching for Jack, or she could go and get some money and buy food. So she had borrowed four dollars from Grandmother - it nearly killed her to do it - put a gallon of gas into the truck, and drove out to see Max Taylor.
It irritated her that she hadn't woken up in time to stop Declan. Logically, she had nothing to worry about. Declan had sworn not to harm the boys. Jack was a changeling just like Declan's friend, and the emotion she had glimpsed behind Declan's blueblood facade felt genuine to her. He had saved Jack once; it made no sense that he would put him into any sort of danger. Besides, the safest place in the Edge now was by Declan's side.
She kept herself from panicking through logic, but worry ate at her. Jack was gone. They'd probably gone deep into the Wood. Why? They didn't tell her, and there was nothing she could do about it, not without making some major magic happen.
Inside the store, Max started rearranging things on his desk. "See? He's getting antsy. Let's go."
Rose popped the doors open, and together she and Georgie stepped into the shop.
Max sat behind the glass counter. "What do you got?"
Rose showed him the doubloon. He reached for it, but she shook her head. "You can see it from right here."
Max squinted. "A hundred bucks," he said.
She closed her fist over the doubloon and nodded to Georgie. "Let's go to Peter."
"That damn pirate won't give you more," Max growled.
Rose gave him a withering look. "The coin is exactly one-half ounce of gold. Right now a half-ounce U.S. Gold Eagle is trading for four hundred and fifty-seven dollars and forty-seven cents and a half-ounce Maple Leaf is going for four hundred and sixty-four dollars and ninety-four cents."
"How did you know that?"
"I went to the library and looked it up on the Internet. Peter charges a flat forty-five percent, so I should get at least two hundred and fifty dollars for each of my coins."
Max's beady eyes shone. "Coins?"
"Coins. As in more than one."
"How many do you have?"
She shrugged. "Three for now. There will be more."
"Nine hundred and fourteen dollars for the whole thing," Max offered.
"That's a third. I don't think so. I might go as low as twelve hundred."
"Nine fifty."
"Eleven seventy-five."
"You won't get a better price . . ."
She shrugged. "I can always take it to a jeweler in the city. It's an hour's drive."
Max reached under the counter. By the time he'd pulled out a Glock and put it on the glass, Rose's gun pointed at his head.
"That's a .22," Max sneered. "It will bounce from wet laundry."
"I can shoot you three times before you squeeze off one shot. You think my bullets will bounce off Max's face, Georgie?"
George didn't miss a beat. "If they don't, we can take him into the Edge and I'll raise him."
Max blinked. Rose smiled at him.
"One thousand twenty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents!" Max said.
A twenty-five percent fee. "Done."
She didn't put away the gun until they peeled out of the parking lot.
"You did very well," she told Georgie.
Georgie smiled in the rearview mirror.
Tiny sharp needles prickled Rose's hands, a belated reaction to the adrenaline rush. It finally sank in - she had a month's worth of money.
"What would you like to eat?"
"Whatever I want?"
"Whatever you want."
"French fries," Georgie said. "And chicken nuggets. And then maybe shrimp."
Shrimp would have to wait till home, but nuggets and fries she could manage. Rose made a left into the McDonald's drive-through.
ROSE took her gaze off the road for a second to steal a glance at the white Wal-Mart bags in the passenger seat. She'd bought beef, and chicken, and shrimp for Georgie. She managed to snag a couple of packs of country-style pork ribs on sale. She'd gotten potatoes. And cheese. And the tomatoes she liked. And apples for Jack. And eggs, and butter, and milk, and cereal . . . The truck was full of bags. She was too paranoid to put them into the truck bed. Who knew what might happen? They could fall out or fly off.
She had enough groceries for a month, and all of her bills were paid. It was a most wonderful feeling. She would go home and spend an hour putting it all up, separating the meat into dinner-sized portions, wrapping it in plastic wrap, and putting it all into her freezer. Rose grinned. No worry about the food. For a month.
"Rose?" Georgie asked.
"Hmm?"
"Why don't you like Declan?"
Now there was a loaded question. She wanted to tell him the truth, without mincing her words, but both he and Jack were smitten with Declan. Looking at him from the boys' perspective, Declan was the very definition of cool. They were two boys raised by women. Enter Declan, who had swords and magic, who was strong and manly, and who stood up to her, something neither of them could do. It's little wonder they wanted to be like him.