“Hey.” I blushed a little. I do that when a good-looking guy calls me beautiful. Especially now that every time I look in a mirror, I hardly recognize myself. Ironically, when your world comes completely unglued, it’s the paste of the everyday, meaningless little things that suddenly seem like real gems.

“You two know each other?” Christian looked baffled.

“We’ve run into each other a time or two,” I replied.

“They’re looking for you back at the office, Chris,” said the dreamy-eyed guy. “Elle wants to talk to you.”

“Can’t it wait?” said Christian impatiently.

He shrugged. “She didn’t seem to think so. Something about misappropriated funds or something. I told her I’m sure it’s just a bookkeeping error, but she’s on one.”

Christian rolled his eyes. “That woman is impossible. Will you tell her I’ll be there in five?”

“Sure, man.” His gaze cut to me. “Is this the boyfriend you meant?”

I shook my head.

“But you have one?”

“Dozens, remember?”

He laughed. “See you around, beautiful girl. Five minutes, Chris. You know how Elle gets about you.” Dragging a finger across his throat, he grinned and left.

Christian hurried to the door and shut it. “Okay, we’ve got to talk fast because I need this job for the time being and lately Elle seems to be looking for any reason to fire me. There’s something you need to see.” He opened his backpack and pulled out a leather notebook, tied with knotted cord. “My uncles sent me to Dublin for a reason, Mac. Well, several, but only one immediately concerns you. I’ve been watching your employer.”

“Barrons? Why?” What had he learned? Something that might help me sort through my own worries about who and what he was?

“My uncles are collectors. Everything they’ve been trying to collect for the past few years your employer has been going after, too. Some of it he’s gotten, some of it my uncles have gotten, and still other items have gone to a third party.” He withdrew a file from his notebook and handed me a magazine folded open to a page. “Is that Jericho Barrons?”

A brief glance was enough. “Yes.” He was nearly lost in the shadows, standing behind a group of men, but the flash had caught his face at just the right angle to bathe it starkly in light. Though the photo was grainy, there was no mistaking him. Barrons is unusual. He says his ancestry is Basque and Pict.

Criminals and barbarians, I’d mocked when he’d told me. He certainly looks the part.

“How old would you say he is?”

“In this picture?”

“No, now.”

“He’s thirty. I saw it on his driver’s license.” His birthday was coming up; on Halloween he’d be thirty-one.

“Look at the date on the magazine.”