Touching Silver (24 page)

“Gone? What do you mean she’s gone? You can’t protect one fucking girl?”

Isaac ground his teeth at the furious tone of Remy’s voice. Only Nathan’s hand on her arm kept her from turning this into a physical altercation, and frankly, Isaac didn’t need her shit right now. He was already wound too tightly from the mess at the safe house. With Olivia blaming herself for Stacy’s abduction as well, it was all he could do to keep a level head.

“The department has made this a top priority,” he snapped. “We’re going to get her back.”

Remy’s eyes flashed. “The only reason she’s getting the treatment now is because Gabriel fragged two cops getting her out. Maybe they should’ve made this a
priority
while she was still safe.”

“I should have moved her to a new house this morning.” Olivia didn’t seem to be responding directly to Remy, so much as talking to herself. “But I got all caught up in finding Marisol…”

Nathan pulled Remy another step back, as if putting more space between her and Isaac would somehow diffuse the growing anger. “We need to focus on getting her back now. You can yell at Isaac later.”

“How the hell are we going to get her back? We don’t know where he took her. She could be anywhere.” She whipped around to face Nathan. “Any
when
.”

“Not yet.” Olivia looked up, her blue eyes wide in her ashen face. “He was
anointing
them. He’s not going to send her away as soon as he gets her. She’s not ready. Whatever he thinks he has to do, whatever ritual they have to go through, he’ll do it first.”

He had no idea how she’d reached that conclusion, but he wasn’t going to argue. Her connection to the coin, to this whole situation, defied any kind of reasoning he might be able to muster. Of course, time traveling defied reason, as well. And Nathan didn’t seem surprised by her statements at all.

“So that gives us a little time,” Isaac said. “Which means we need to all be on the same page. Olivia, tell Nathan what happened to you today.”

“Isaac, I don’t think that really matters.”

“It might,” Nathan said. “Did something happen when we were interviewing Stacy?”

Olivia sighed. “When she mentioned the lotions the first time, I smelled them. I mean, in my dream, or whatever it was. I smelled something green. When she said those words, I had some sort of olfactory flashback. I was still feeling a bit overwhelmed by that when she mentioned the scars. The more upset she got, the sicker I felt. My headache came back when we were on our way to see her. The blood…” She swallowed hard. “The blood was still fresh on the floor, so maybe my headache came back around the same time they took her.”

“Did you have those sorts of reactions around her before?” Nathan asked.

She shook her head. “No. I’ve had headaches the last few times I stopped to check on her, but I get headaches when I’m under stress.”

“But why would you think this has anything to do with Stacy?” Remy asked.

“She was in really bad shape the night you brought me to meet her,” Nathan said before Olivia answered Remy’s questions. “Did it make you sick then?”

Olivia shook her head. “No, it wasn’t until after…”

“It wasn’t until after the first vision, right?”

“Yeah.”

Isaac grimaced, trying not to lose his temper with the whole situation. He had never hated an inanimate object as much as he did the Silver Maiden. “It all comes back to that damn coin again. It did something to you.”

“Apparently. But what? I mean, do I have some sort of sympathetic psychic connection with her?” She rubbed her forehead. “Oh my God, I cannot believe that question came out of my mouth.”

“And if you
do
,” Nathan continued, “is it just with her, or is it with all the girls he took, or just the girls you had visions of?”

None of those options sounded good to Isaac. “You expect her to tune into Stacy or something? She’s not a crystal ball.”

Nathan shook his head. “Nobody’s suggesting she’s a crystal ball. But she, or the second coin, might have a connection to Stacy now. Something we can use. And it’s better than the nothing we’ve got to work with.”

Remy looked to Olivia. “How do you feel right now?”

Olivia took a deep breath. “It still hurts, but it was like earlier today, before Stacy was taken. More of a vague pain than anything.”

“So if there is some kind of connection, that means Stacy’s still okay,” Remy finished. “That gives us time.”

“Gabriel couldn’t have taken her far,” Isaac said. “He brought those girls to L.A. for a reason. If he’s sending them somewhere in time, he’s doing it local.”

“Rico told me Gabriel’s been divesting himself of his property,” Olivia said. “He made it sound like he was selling everything he could. It’d be easy enough to find out what real estate he still owns.”

“Right,” Nathan said. “I can get those records faxed over here. We can compare a list of his previously known properties to what’s been sold and narrow down his possible location.”

“What about when you saw the girls? You saw me in the Silver Maiden’s temple. Where’d you see them?”

Olivia closed her eyes. “It was someplace…dark. I mean, darker than the city. Some place in the hills. Some place far enough away from Los Angeles to be quiet but the lights…I mean, the sky was still orange. No stars. So it couldn’t have been that far away. The house was big. There were numbers.” Her eyes fluttered open and it was Isaac she addressed, not Remy. “I don’t remember what they were, though. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay.” He rested a careful hand on her shoulder and squeezed. A house in the hills was still far more than they’d started out with. “Then we’ll work the real estate angle—”

“If she saw Stacy when she was holding the coin…” Remy wasn’t letting her go. “Maybe it’ll happen again. We might get some new details that way.”

Olivia actually went several shades whiter at the suggestion. “I’ll go get the coin while you guys work on real estate. It couldn’t hurt to have more details.”

“No.” Forgetting about the others, Isaac grasped her other shoulder, forcing her to look at him. “You’re already not feeling well, and the past two times you’ve had visions, you’ve either passed out or almost passed out. I need you alert if we’re going to stop Gabriel. We don’t need to take the chance with the coin.”

“What if I see something that saves her? Isaac, it was
my
job to protect her. Not yours, not the department’s.
Mine
. And now she’s gone, and if she’s half as scared as she was in my earlier vision…If I can do something that’ll help you find her and save her, then I don’t have a choice.”

Short of tying her to a chair, he wasn’t going to be able to stop her or change her mind. But the idea of her handling the coin when he wasn’t around terrified him. Nobody could deny the physical effect it had on her. Anything could happen.

“Take Remy with you then.” Now it was Nathan’s turn to look alarmed. “And neither one of you touches that coin with your bare skin. Get it back here, and then and only then are we going to try this.”

“I won’t touch it,” Olivia promised. She rested her hand on Isaac’s arm and squeezed it gently. “Just worry about finding that address. We’ll be back before you even miss us.”

Without thought, he cupped the back of her head and drew her into a kiss. He kept it short, almost chaste, but he needed her to know how much she meant to him. He had nothing else to give to help her get through the next few hours.

That, and pulling as many strings as possible at the station to get Gabriel de los Rios cornered once and for all.

Olivia smiled at him, but it just served to highlight the obvious pain in her eyes. She left without speaking, Remy hurrying after her. Isaac resisted the urge to follow her down to the parking lot, just to keep his eye on her for as long as possible.

“I don’t think it would have hurt to tell her you love her, Isaac,” Nathan observed, once the door closed behind them.

His head whipped around. “What? You’re crazy. I don’t love Olivia.”

Nathan snorted. “Right, and I’m only mildly attracted to Remy. It’s all over your face.”

“That’s worry you’re seeing.”

“No, it’s not. There’s worry
on
your face, but that’s not all I’m seeing. Do you realize you never once looked away from her, except when you were yelling at Remy?”

He frowned. No, he hadn’t realized. “She’s been through a lot of crap the past few days,” he said, trying to justify. “Some of which is my fault. Remember? According to you, I’m a prick.”

“And she obviously forgave you for it. Are you living in denial land because you’re worried she won’t return your feelings?”

“She already—”

Isaac stopped before he said too much. What happened in the bedroom stayed in the bedroom as far as he was concerned. Olivia hadn’t repeated her declaration since he’d tried to talk her out of it, but it wasn’t because she’d changed her mind. She hadn’t wanted things to change.

Except hadn’t they already? Nathan had already pointed out the obvious. Isaac didn’t pay attention to much else when Olivia was in the room. And he had wished Olivia was there as soon as he got the news about Marisol, because he wanted to tell her right away. Hell, he’d sought her out before even calling Nathan. That said something. It said a lot.

“You don’t think it’s too soon?” he asked instead. “Forget you and Remy, because you two are just freaks of nature. This is me we’re talking about. Since when do you know me to fall for someone as fast as this?”

“Since never. But if it’s right, it’s right, whether it’s a week or a year. I’ve decided, when it comes to this sort of thing, saying
can’t
doesn’t make a lot of sense. Lots of things can’t happen, but they do.” Nathan leaned against the arm of the couch, pulling his cell out of his pocket. “All I know is, we’re going to face Gabriel tonight. The last time we did, we had something he wanted, and he was willing to make a deal. This time, we have nothing to offer except the coin we don’t want him to know we have, and we’re definitely going to be outnumbered. There’s a greater than zero chance that not all of us will walk away from this confrontation. You shouldn’t have unfinished business between you two.”

In the old days, before Susanna, Nathan had had volumes to say on Isaac’s love life, or lack thereof. He hadn’t been this forthright in years, and the fact he chose to do it now, over Olivia, made Isaac take it seriously. He didn’t want to consider something going wrong with busting Gabriel. He didn’t want to consider anything bad happening to Olivia at all. But it was a distinct possibility. And Olivia probably believed she cared more about him than he did her. She didn’t know he had been so struck by her confession the night before that his first instinct had been to shower her in kisses and never let her go.

Never let her go.

As Nathan made the call for the property records, Isaac glanced at the door.

Maybe it wasn’t just worry Nathan had seen.

Olivia assiduously avoided touching the coin with her bare skin. She wore a thick pair of leather gloves, used a rag to grip the coin, and then wrapped it in a thick sweater to transport it. Remy watched with sharp eyes as she went through her careful ritual, but she didn’t speak. Her reserve surprised Olivia. The other woman had been chatty every other time they had a few moments together, but now she didn’t seem to have anything to say.

Olivia didn’t blame her. She had obviously been angry with Isaac, but everybody in Nathan’s apartment knew it wasn’t Isaac who had the responsibility to keep Stacy safe. Remy might have been addressing Isaac, but each barb found its home in Olivia’s chest.

The whole trip took almost forty-five minutes. Olivia cursed the traffic trapping them on the freeway, but not with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. She wasn’t eager to get back to Nathan’s. She wasn’t eager to hold the coin again. She knew it was cowardly, and she knew she’d hold the damned coin for the rest of the night if that’s what it took, but she didn’t want to.

Isaac and Nathan were hunched over the table when they returned, papers spread out between the two of them.

“Did we miss anything good?” Olivia said.

Isaac was the first to rise. “We’ve got a few more on the list to go through. So far, nothing Gabriel has held onto comes close to being a house in the hills.” He stopped in front of her, but when he went to touch her arm, he checked the motion at the last moment so that his fingertips only grazed her. “Are you okay?”

No, I’m scared. And my eyes are throbbing. And I’m not sure how I’m going to live with myself if anything happens to her
.

“I’m good.” Olivia held up her folded sweater. “I wanted something thicker than a plastic bag between me and it.” She looked around, her gaze landing on the couch. “Maybe I should start by laying down this time.”

He didn’t move from where he blocked her path. His eyes probed hers, warmth and concern radiating from the dark depths. “Do you want to do this privately?” he murmured. “I’m sure Nathan wouldn’t mind if we went in the other room and you laid down in there.”

“That would probably improve my chances of not hitting the floor,” Olivia said.

“Please.” Nathan gestured at the hallway. “If it’s more comfortable for you.”

Isaac took her by the hand and led her to the bedroom. It was warm and welcoming, which didn’t surprise Olivia in the least. She had a feeling Nathan and Remy spent a lot of time there.

“You can still back out of this. There’s still a chance we’ll find this the old-fashioned way. You know, the one rooted in this world, not the Marty McFly one.”

Olivia forced a wan smile. “I know there’s still a chance. But we’ve already lost too much time. Even if I only save us five minutes, that’s five minutes that could make a huge difference for Stacy.”

She sat on the edge of the large bed and began to unfold her sweater. The coin was impossibly bright against the dark material. The first time she saw it, buried in the ashes, she’d wondered if anybody else would notice it glowing. Now she looked up to Isaac. “I think it’s ready to tell me something.”

His frown deepened. “Why do you say that? It still just looks like an old coin to me.”