Free Crimes Against Magic by Steve McHugh

Thinks a lot of you. I think she may have a crush on you."
    "She's sixteen, and I'm..." I didn't know how to finish that sentence. "Older. Too old for any girl that age. I don't think you have a lot to worry about."
    Diane shook her head. "That's not why I mentioned it. I just wanted to see your reaction."
    I drank the rest of my tea. "Why?" 
    "I have a favour to ask." She raised her hand to stop my objections. "I know we've barely ever spoken. And I know you hate that Phil comes over, but you do care for my daughter. And she's who matters."
    I motioned for her to continue. 
    "If anything should happen, anything that leaves me unable to care for my daughter, I want you to look after her."
    I sat, mouth agape, like an idiot for an indeterminable amount of time. "Is this to do with Phil?"
    Diane shook her head. "Phil is a moron. Unfortunately he's a moron I have to deal with on a monthly basis."
    "Why are you paying him off? What does he have on you?"
    "Let's both hope that you never have to find out, Mr Garrett... Nate." Diane drained her tea and placed the cup back on the coffee table. "So will you do it? Will you take care of Dani if anything happens to me?"
    I still wasn't sure how to respond. How would I look after a sixteen-year-old girl? How would I maintain my life, a criminal life at that? And more importantly, how in the world would I be able to keep the fact that I'm not human from her? All of these questions rattled around my brain. Every piece of common sense told me to say no and then shove Diane out of my penthouse as fast as possible. As much as I liked Dani, I was pretty certain that my life didn't need the added complication of a teenager. "Yes," I said. "If you're unable to look after her, she will always find a place here until she is ready to go out on her own."
    Diane stood and kissed me on the cheek. "Thank you." 
    "No need to thank me." I felt slightly conflicted about whether I was still meant to despise her, as we walked to my front door. "I'm sure nothing will happen to you. Just get rid of that asshole."
    Diane smiled sadly. "If only it were that easy." And then she left.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
     
     
    True to her word, Holly sent me all the information I needed to do the job. I spent the next few days pouring over building blueprints alongside the previous few months’ timesheets for everyone who worked there. 
    Patterns formed pretty quickly. Every Thursday and Friday my target worked from midday to midnight. The majority of the staff left between five and six, with a few stragglers going up to nine or ten. But for those last few hours the entire population of the building consisted of half a dozen cleaners and Daniel Hayes.
    The big problem would be acquiring the laptop without him knowing, or at least without him trying to stop me. With too many things that could change during the op, I decided it would be best to come up with a plan on the fly for getting the computer.
    All I knew was that I wasn't going to take it by force. I don't like to do violence when on a job. I’ve always thought it sloppy and unprofessional to hurt people just to make your life a little easier. If you can't finish the job without hurting anyone, then you're not good enough to be doing it in the first place. Although, yes, it does help that I can use magic to incapacitate without causing permanent damage.
    Dani's mum's request still hung in my mind. I wondered if she'd told her daughter what we'd spoken about. Probably not, Dani would have said something if she had. Or more accurately, yelled something at her mum and I'd have heard.
    I'd seen Dani a few times in the hallway, and each time she'd nodded hello and kept walking. Maybe what I'd done to Phil had frightened her. If that was the case I would be sorry, but it had needed doing. I was disturbed by how I'd felt during the fighting. Or at least I felt like I should have been disturbed. My concern was that it didn't really bother me at all. 
    The