Pouring herself a glass of wine, she sat down at the table and began making a list. There was a lot of work to do in order to get the compound livable. Unlike some of the others, she had money saved to get her through this. Many of them were stacked up like sardines in shared living spaces they could ill afford. They had to be her first priority.
She took a deep breath and called the number on her phone from earlier. It seemed to ring forever before he finally answered. Just the sound of his voice made her breathless, her heart pounding in her chest again.
“I’ll take your money,” she said when he answered.
“Why the change of heart?” Ronan asked.
“I had to think of other people and not just my dislike for you.”
“You really know how to charm a guy,” he teased.
“I’m not trying to charm you, and I don’t owe you anything for this. You aren’t doing me any favors; you are just giving us back what is rightfully ours.”
“Of course. Stop by my hotel tonight, and I’ll get you squared up with wherever the money needs to go. Say six?”
“Six is fine.”
“I trust you remember where my room is?”
Maeve bristled at this but didn’t take the bait.
“Aye. See you at six, Alpha.”
“See you then, Omega,” he replied.
His tone was mocking, and it annoyed her, but it wasn’t worth getting in a tiff over. Underneath it all, she felt that same tug toward him, and that annoyed her too. None of this was going how she’d imagined it would. She’d intended to seduce him, to get close to him and find out the things she needed to know in order to take him and his family down.
Instead, she found that after only one night with him, she was intrigued. He was her age and was the Alpha of his clan, unusual for someone who was the youngest of four brothers. How had it come to skip the three of them and land on him? Why was he here alone to reestablish their clan? There was so much that didn’t make sense to her.
The real question was how much of it really mattered for her purposes and how much of it was just curiosity.
CHAPTER TEN
Ronan
Ronan wasn’t sure why he’d invited Maeve to his room for the exchange of funds. He told himself it was for privacy purposes, but then he ordered up a meal for the two of them. Was he a victim of his own inability to put her out of his thoughts? It seemed like she filled every waking thought and most of his dreams.
He’d not meant to imprint on her, but he understood now that he had done just that. There was no way to undo what had been done, so he’d just have to cope with the fallout from his actions. He steeled himself for her arrival, determining to look like the fierce Alpha he could be when he needed to do so.
A knock on the door was all it took to wash away every caution. Instead, he found himself opening the door to a positively radiant Maeve and stammering at her like a foolish schoolboy.
“C-c-come in,” he said, clearing his throat as if a catch had caused his momentary lack of speech.
“Thanks,” she replied. “I trust you have everything ready?”
He noted how she paused and stayed near the door. She’d no intention of staying any longer than necessary, but her hair was pulled up into a sexy loose bun, and she was wearing a low cut, form-fitting dress as if going out. Why had she come here looking like that?
“Well, no. I need to get some information, actually,” he said, pulling himself back together.
It dawned on him that none of this was for him. She obviously had a date or some sort of event to get to, and that was the explanation for her rather disarming appearance.
“Like what?”
“It’s not exactly a fiver I’m handing you. I’ll need to make a bank transfer.”
“Bank transfer? You’re kidding me, right?”
“No. I don’t think I’m kidding you.”
“You’re seriously going to wire me illegal money from a United States bank?”
“Well, I have a bank here in Ireland, for starters. Secondly, it’s not illegal money.”
“I thought you were giving me back what belonged to the Maguire clan. I can assure you that none of it was gotten by legal means.”
“I can’t speak to how it was obtained. What I can tell you is that it is clean now.”
“I don’t have a bank account.”
“Okay. Then, tomorrow, let’s go take care of that.”
“I don’t want to take care of that. I don’t want the money in the bank.”
“So, you expect me just to go pull all this money out in cash and hand it to you in a box or bag or something? This isn’t a backstreet drug deal, Maeve.”