Brian reached out and ruffled Liam's dark hair. "If Sean won't have a story, then I'll tell it to you."

Liam grinned. "I love this story."

Sean cursed beneath his breath and slouched on the bed, determined not to listen to another ridiculous tale of imaginary ancestors.

"The king had put a bounty on the head of every wolf in Ireland," Brian continued, "and the bounty was enough to feed Ronan and his family for many years. But hunting wolves was a dangerous sport, especially for one so young. And with only a wooden club and a small dagger, Ronan would have to come face-to-face with a wolf in order to kill it-close enough to be killed himself."

"Wolves have really sharp teeth," Liam commented. "My teacher showed us a picture of one. They can kill a man."

"Now, Ronan had never gone to the dark forest and wasn't sure how to find the wolves. But he vowed to stay ink the woods until he found his prey and killed it-or was killed himself. Hunger and thirst tormented him from the start. Then he came upon a small quail with colorful green and yellow feathers and thought, Here is my dinner. But just as he was about to kill the quail with his dagger, the bird turned to him and spoke."

Liam spoke up in a high, wavering voice, "'Please,' she begged Ronan, 'spare my life and if you do, I will give you a magic acorn. The acorn will give you one wish, and I will give you a piece of advice.'"

Brian nodded. "That's right. And Ronan, always tenderhearted, couldn't bring himself to kill the quail. So he took the acorn and bent closer for the bird's advice. And what was it?"

"'These woods are full of magic,'" Liam said.

"So Ronan wished to have a bucketful of money, but nothing happened. 'I've made a bad deal,' Ronan said to himself as he headed deeper into the woods. He'd been fooled and all he had was a silly acorn in his pocket. Hours later, he still hadn't seen a wolf or found a bite to eat. But he came upon a huge black boar, rooting in a clearing near a beautiful crystal stream. Ronan's stomach growled and again he thought, Here is my dinner. He snuck up behind the boar and raised his club, but the boar turned and spoke. 'If you will let me live, I will give you a magic acorn and a bit of advice,' the boar said. But Ronan wasn't about to be duped again. He wasn't that stupid."

"Yes, he was," Liam said. "He took the acorn even though he was starving. And he got more advice. 'Everything is not as it appears ink the magic forest.' That's what the boar said. And that was good advice. Wait and see."

Sean groaned. "Do we have to? You both know how the story ends. Ronan meets the deer with antlers of gold and gets a third magic acorn and more advice. 'What you want and what you need are not always the same.' And then he meets a wolf and-"

"No," Brian interrupted. "This version is different."

"How?" Sean demanded.

"Ronan meets a… a beautiful druid princess dressed in… in a sparkling white gown, with a crown of emeralds covering her long, blond hair. Ronan had never seen a woman so beautiful and he was immediately captivated."

Liam frowned. "Wait. That's not how the story goes!"

"Yes, it is," Brian insisted, shushing his brother. "The druid princess saw that he possessed three magic acorns and, with three, he could have anything he wanted. She desired them for herself. So she bewitched Ronan and told him that she could offer him anything he wanted for each of the acorns. When she offered to trade him one of his magic acorns for a wonderful feast, Ronan quickly agreed. The moment she took the acorn, a delicious feast appeared before his eyes. Ronan tossed his dagger aside, for what would he need a dagger for if he had such food to eat? He reached for a shank of beef. But before he was allowed to touch the food, the princess offered him something more. A bow appeared, made of the finest silver, and a jeweled quiver full of arrows. Ronan gave her another acorn and quickly tossed his club away, for he could now hunt wolves with his new bow and arrows. But before he could touch the bow and quiver, the princess offered him one final trade. His last acorn for a beautiful steed with a fine leather saddle."

"Hey! Didn't you hear me calling?" Conor stood at the door, dressed in his Boston Police Department T-shirt and navy trousers. His hands were braced on his waist and, for a moment, Sean was taken by how different he looked-older, like a real adult. He wasn't just his pain-in-the-ass big brother anymore. In a few months, he'd be a cop. "Dinner is ready. Come on, it's getting cold."

He disappeared and Liam turned back to Brian. "Finish the story. It's just fishsticks and French fries."

Brian turned to Sean. "Do you want me to finish?"

"You might as well," Sean said, knowing that Liam would refuse to leave until he heard how the Mighty Quinn triumphed in the end.

"When Ronan saw the fine steed, he thought, I will catch many wolves with such a fine horse and I will collect many bounties and make my family rich. He pulled the last acorn from his pocket. But then Ronan hesitated. The acorns must have very powerful magic to be so valuable to the princess. The druid princess demanded the third acorn, her voice turning shrill and her face turning ugly with anger. Ronan suddenly remembered the advice he was given by the quail, the boar and the deer."

"The woods are full of magic, everything is not as it appears and what you want and what you need are not always the same," Liam repeated.

"'No!' Ronan cried, clutching the last acorn in his fist. In the blink of an eye, the feast, the quiver and bow and the fine horse disappeared, for they were an illusion. And the princess turned into a huge, vicious wolf, snarling and lunging toward him, trying to get him to drop the acorn. Ronan had thrown aside all his weapons and had no escape."

Even Sean wasn't sure how the story would end, for this was a completely different version of Ronan's tale from the one his father often told. In his father's tale, the wolf guarded a princess and Ronan killed the wolf and rescued the princess. Then he chastely returned her to her father and went on his way, because Mighty Quinns never fell in love.

Brian paused and waited, dragging out the moment.

"All right, what happened?" Sean finally asked.

"Well, Ronan gathered his courage, held the single acorn tightly in his fist and closed his eyes, wishing that the wolf would turn into a harmless animal, like a mouse or a rabbit. When the snarling and growling finally ceased, Ronan opened his eyes and in front of him was a beautiful golden wolf pelt, worth a fine bounty from the king. He carefully lifted it up and, to his surprise, an ugly toad jumped out. When the druid princess realized a magic acorn had been used to turn her into a toad, she hopped off into the woods, and Ronan headed for home, anxious to collect his bounty. And after that, there was always food on Ronan's table."

Sean couldn't help but laugh at the tale's ending. "That story doesn't even make sense. If Ronan was so smart, why didn't he just go home with the acorns and wish for something he really needed? And what did a princess need with magic acorns if she had a crown of emeralds? And if she had two acorns already, and Ronan had one, then she could have-"

"Aw, shut yer gob," Brian said, giving him a shove. "It's just a story. Who's gonna believe in magic acorns anyway?"

"It was a good story," Liam said, his voice full of appreciation. He scrambled off the bed. "And I know the moral. Never trust a woman, no matter how pretty she is. A Mighty Quinn can never fall in love." He ran to the bedroom door, then turned back. "Oh, yeah, and don't get too greedy when someone offers you really nice stuff." He ran out, shouting to Conor that he was starving.

Brian stood and Sean followed his lead. He did feel a little bit better. To hell with Colleen Kiley. Brian could have her, and good riddance. Besides, she really wasn't even that pretty. She had squinty eyes and she wore too much makeup, and when she laughed, she sounded like a hyena.

"One more thing," Brian said as they walked out of the bedroom.

"If you're going to ask if I'm taking Colleen Kiley to the dance you might as well say goodbye to your pretty teeth right now," Sean said, "’cause I'm gonna knock them through the back of your head."

Brian laughed. Then he held out his hand. "I thought you might be able to use these." He dropped three acorns into Sean's palm.

"What are these for?" Sean asked.

"I figured you could use them to turn Colleen Kiley into a toad. Or maybe a big old sewer rat." Brian pulled three more out of his pocket. "And if that's not enough, I've got three of my own to use." He slipped his arm around Sean's shoulders. "We Quinns gotta stick together, right?"

Sean smiled and nodded. No matter how much he fought with his brothers, he always knew he could depend on them. "Yeah, I guess we do," he murmured, shoving the acorns into his pocket.

Chapter 1

Sean Quinn sat slumped in the front seat of his battered Ford sedan. He'd found a parking space right down the street from the three-flat located in one of Cambridge's trendy neighborhoods, and he'd been watching the front door for almost two hours.

The case had come to him in a roundabout way, through a colleague he'd met while sitting in a bar one night. Bert Hinshaw was a hard-drinking, woman-chasing, sixty-year-old private investigator, a guy who had seen his share of crazy cases over the years. They had talked for hours, Sean learning from Bert's experience and Bert grateful to have someone to listen to his tales. A friendship developed and they now met regularly to chat-Bert doing most of the talking and Sean taking mental notes.