THE RISK OF LOVE AND MAGIC by Patricia Rice

the pricey boutique surprised him. He’d thought women lived to shop.
    He’d been expecting enthusiasm and praise for his generous offer, he realized. Stupid of him. Nadine obviously had different priorities.
    Intrigued despite himself, he led the way to a quiet bench overlooking the ocean. Nadine seemed much more interested in the view than she had been in the boutique. Letting her pace back and forth, Magnus set up his phone and hot spot, and booked a rental car at the nearest outlet. Then he held out the laptop to his companion. “I’m calling a taxi. You have until it arrives.”
    Still wearing the army jacket against the early morning breeze, she flashed him the delighted smile he’d expected earlier, settled onto the bench, donned her black-framed glasses, and went to work with the proficiency of a well-programmed robot.
    The faster she worked, the more she frowned.
    Busy with his phone, Magnus didn’t disturb her. When the taxi arrived, he grabbed her elbow and towed her away while she continued to type with one hand.
    “You have officially lost your right to call me obsessive,” he declared after giving the driver the rental office address. “ADD much?”
    She offered an inelegant snort, checked the bars on his Wi-Fi, and shut the laptop. “They need a diagnosis of TMA, Too Much Attention. Vera hasn’t touched her social media in a week. She’s not responding to my IMs. Mail to her box is bouncing. She’s gone off the radar.”
    She spoke in a neutral voice that Magnus interpreted as trained to hide her fear. The damned general had turned her into the perfect military machine.
    “I don’t suppose it’s too much to hope that she’s another computer genius and that you can reach her by some mysterious internet connection?”
    Nadine shrugged. Despite the army jacket, he caught the movement. The army green made her long orange hair stand out even more. He wanted to stroke a curl to see if it was as soft and springy as it looked.
    “Vera knows what I’ve taught her,” Nadine replied, not noticing his fascination, “but no, she’s no expert. She hates technology. She’s a people person—and that’s what scares me.”
    “You think she made friends with the wrong person—one of the general’s minions maybe?” Magnus hated the twisting pain in his gut at the realization that he might not only have to bring down an old man, but find a young girl.
    “It’s a rough world out here. The wrong person doesn’t have to be a minion,” Nadine said sadly. “Don’t get me wrong. Vera isn’t stupid. Once she realized the level of our stepfather’s paranoia, she agreed to run when I told her. That was back when I could sneak in and use the office computers. She chose a college. We bought her a new identity and got her signed up.”
    “So much for avoiding illegality,” he pointed out.
    “Everything I do is illegal as far as I’m aware. I thought I had government clearance, but I didn’t, so why bother now?” She glared out the taxi window.
    “Back to Vera…”
    Nadine took a deep breath and continued. “She stole away without the general even realizing she was unhappy. She’s a great actress. She’s totally squeamish, but she even removed the microchip and hid her trail after she left. The general screamed bloody murder and sent his sons all over creation hunting for her, but until now, she’s successfully eluded them. I should have made her go back East, but I didn’t want her that far away,” she said with a hint of gloom.
    “Besides, for an actress, the best film and theater experience is in L.A.” Magnus rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to imagine two young girls outsmarting a military-trained general with an army of minions at his command. It didn’t compute well, but he’d seen Nadine in action. The general might have a point—her brain was a formidable weapon even if the rest of her was dandelion fluff.
    He rented a white sedan indistinguishable from any others on the