Once she reached the penthouse, she could feel herself starting to wilt, and if there was one thing she didn’t need, it was a setback. Even though she’d slept the entire flight, she did feel tired. Maybe she’d had the flu and not just a summer cold. Maybe a lot of things. She was on the mend now, and there was no reason for her to slack off. She closed her eyes for a moment as she remembered Myra once telling her to pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you, and in this case, her body was telling her it was time to call it a day.

The meet and greet over, Maggie looked around and announced she would see them all in the morning, but right now she needed to go to sleep. Hugs, well wishes, and a few jokes later, Cyrus escorted her to the door but not before her eagle eye zeroed in on Abner Tookus. Something is off, she thought the moment Abner’s eyes met hers. She wrestled with the strange expression on Abner’s face, one she’d never seen there in all the years she’d known him, and they went way, way back. Maggie felt she knew Abner better than his wife, Isabelle, knew him.

Damn it, what was that strange expression? It came to her only when she stepped out of the elevator onto the floor where her room was located. Fear, that’s what it is. Pure, unadulterated fear. She started to shake and whirled around to step back into the elevator, but it was already going down. Abner didn’t know the meaning of the word fear as far as his hacking abilities went. Plus, he had his backup guru in Philonias Needlemeyer. So where was the fear coming from? No answer found its way to her tired brain. Tomorrow was another day.

Maggie dumped her bags, stripped down, then crawled into the king-size bed without washing her face or brushing her teeth. She was asleep within seconds.

* * *

Maggie cracked one eyelid, saw the blood-red numbers 4:00 on her travel clock, and groaned. She could sleep for three more hours if she wanted to. She quickly calculated that she’d fallen asleep around nine-thirty Vegas time, which means twelve-thirty back East. Not enough sleep. Or was it? She squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly as she willed herself back to sleep. When she next opened her eyes the little clock said that it was nine o’clock.

It was definitely time to get up.

An hour later, with a robust room service breakfast and a shower under her belt, Maggie was ready to go. As in go. With that thought in mind, Maggie barreled out of the room and hit the penthouse apartment in record time.