Revealing Silver (12 page)

He held it out to Nathan. “The recording of Maggie’s statement. Yours if you want it.”

Nathan took it from him, cradling it in the palm of his hand like it was made of something precious. If Olivia’s vision was accurate and Isaac’s memory trustworthy, then this could very well be a message from Remy.

“Do you have a tape player?” Even if he had one of his own, he couldn’t wait until he got back to his apartment to hear it.

“Yeah, I can scrounge one up around here somewhere. Go grab the interrogation room again before somebody else snatches it. I’ll be right there.”

Nathan was trembling by the time he reached the empty room, his fingers shaking when he clasped the doorknob. He knew regardless of what the cassette held, it wouldn’t get her back. Not unless she managed to work in step-by-step instructions to travel back in time. But regardless of what was on the tape, he wouldn’t have to live with the constant, nagging doubt that she hadn’t survived the jump.

It didn’t take as long as Nathan expected for Isaac to find a player. He set it in the center of the table and plugged it in, leaving Nathan to pop the cassette into the deck. With a deep breath, he pushed it closed and pressed Play.

“You’re going to record me?” Remy’s husky laugh filled the line. “Is there some secret fetish of yours I need to know about, Detective?”

Nathan jammed the Stop button so hard it hurt his finger. He curled his hand into a fist and took a deep breath. “How did you not remember her? Isaac, how could you not take one look and
remember
her?”

“Because it was ten years ago. Because the woman I met had red hair, a different name, and the first time I saw Remy at your place wearing one of your shirts and nothing else, I got a little wrapped up in who this knockout brunette was, especially when you two started going on about magical coins and time travel. You met her, too, Nathan. And you know her a lot better than I do. Why didn’t
you
remember her when she dropped in your lap, huh?”

Nathan didn’t answer because he didn’t have one. How could he explain why she didn’t make an impact on him ten years earlier? He remembered the night he brought her back to his apartment from the warehouse like it was yesterday. He’d
yearned
for her, his desire to touch her trumping every other consideration. He couldn’t believe that his younger self wouldn’t have the same reaction. But then, his younger self had probably believed she was a few minutes away from falling into Isaac’s bed.

He pushed Play again, and heard Isaac’s, “It’s not much of a secret if I use it openly, is it?”

“But I thought this was going to be anonymous.”

“It will be. The official written statement will only include your first name and whatever specific details you might include while we talk here. When everything’s transcribed, I keep the tape to protect my sources.” A chair scraped across the floor. “Trust me, Maggie. You’re doing the right thing here.”

“I know. It’s just complicated.”

“I’ll protect you.”

“I guess I pulled aces running into you, then, didn’t I?” A soft breath. “Those people I was telling you about back home? They’d be glad you’re helping me like this. Especially Nate. He worries too much.”

Nathan had to turn the tape off again. He needed her voice. He wanted to spend the rest of the night listening to the tape again and again until he identified every nuance in her husky words. It was so easy to imagine her sitting in a room like the one they were in, sitting across from a young vice detective who’d set aside his attraction in order to help.

“Isaac. I…” He exhaled slowly, willing his tumultuous emotions into something more manageable. But when he tried again, the words cracked. “Jesus. I’m sorry.”

Isaac nodded once, but his eyes were solemn, searching Nathan’s before he spoke. “I’m sorry I haven’t been as understanding about all this as I could’ve been. I know you love Remy. And I know I might not act like it, but I am grateful you two found each other. I’m not blind. I know how happy you were. I only stopped you from going after her because you’re the only family that matters to me. Which, yes, means I’m a selfish asshole.”

“You’re not. It’s just been so…hard. And I keep thinking. I can’t stop thinking if I hadn’t been there, you would have died. Parker…” Nathan looked away, unable to meet Isaac’s eyes. “But given the choice, even knowing what I know, I would have followed her. I would have left you…and you’ve never left me behind.”

“Remy saved you when I couldn’t. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that you’d want to hold on to that, no matter what the cost.”

“That’s not true. I would already be in the ground if it wasn’t for you.” Nathan swallowed. “I’m aware of that fact every day. I might not have been in the greatest place when I met Remy, but at least I was alive and sober.”

Isaac’s gaze fell to the recorder. “And now? Is Olivia right to be worried?”

“Is there cause for concern? Yes. I’ve been fighting those…urges every second for the past week, but I haven’t lost that battle.”

He hadn’t realized Isaac was holding his breath until he let it out at Nathan’s statement. “Good. That’s good.” He was almost smiling when he looked up again. “Take the tape. I know you want to. I’m going to go through the written statement and write up everything that might help us figure out how to get her back. Remy’s a smart girl. She must’ve left us some clues.”

Nathan had no doubt about that. He knew he could count on Remy to give them the information they needed. There were other potential ways to send them messages, and he would keep a careful eye out for them. But in the meantime, he was going to bury himself in the sound of her voice and the rhythm of her language. Sleep wouldn’t come that night, but the urge to find another bottle was sated. Nathan thought that was a fair price to pay.

As badly as he wanted to get to Olivia’s, Isaac made a detour back to his place first to shower and change his clothes. One early morning arrival a week looking like one of Tiberius’s chew toys was enough for him. The hot water and fresh shirt didn’t turn down the volume on his thoughts, but they did make it easier to tolerate the blast when he got back in the car. So did a shot of Mariah blaring from the speakers.

The sky was still dark when he pulled into the driveway, but a light gleamed behind the closed curtains in the living room. Olivia was already up. Part of him had hoped he would find her drowsy and only half-aware when she opened the door to him. He craved the feel of her taut body against his, the way she draped her bent knee over his thighs when she curled into his side, the tickle of her fingertips when she would stroke his shoulder as they drifted off. Too many nights lately had been spent hunched over his desk, and not enough in her bed. So much for the belief that getting involved with someone was supposed to mean less time working and more time playing.

Or maybe he was a fucking idiot workaholic who couldn’t handle the good thing he had now. He’d been unattached for a long time. Even he could acknowledge there had to be a reason for it.

Grabbing the file he’d brought with him from the station, he got out and jogged up to the front door. His breath feathered in front of his face, the cold turning his nose to ice. Daylight would warm the city up a bit, but as far as he was concerned, the chill was one more reason to wish he was already under the blankets with Olivia.

He used his key to let himself in, but he knew he couldn’t slip through the door quietly enough to surprise her. Tiberius immediately bounded through the house to greet him. Fortunately, he was too well-trained to let his enthusiasm take over, but he obviously wanted to put his massive paws on Isaac’s chest and lick his face in greeting.

“Another all-nighter?” Olivia asked. She was currently in Isaac’s favorite stage of her morning ritual, wearing nothing but her underwear and makeup.

“And here I thought I cleaned up pretty good.” He tossed the file onto the coffee table and crossed the room to stand in front of her. Tracing the satin line of her bra strap, he bent his head to brush a kiss down the side of her neck. “I don’t suppose you want to call in sick today.”

Olivia slid her arm over his shoulder, tilting her chin back, encouraging another kiss. “I desperately want to call in sick today. When this is over—if this is ever over—can we take a long vacation somewhere?”

“Absolutely.” His lips followed the contour of her throat, the tip of his tongue darting out to test the throb of her pulse point. It skipped faster when he touched it, and he bit back his groan. “Anyplace you want to go.”

“I don’t care, as long as we’re alone and it doesn’t have cell reception.” She stroked her fingers through his hair, the tension in his shoulders easing a bit as she caressed him. “I missed you last night.”

His arm stole around her waist, tugging her gently against him. “I missed you too. I know I should’ve called, but…” Though the last thing he wanted was to lose the scent of her freshly showered skin, he lifted his head so he could meet her eyes. “Nathan stopped by the station last night to see me.”

Olivia stiffened. “What did he want to see you about?”

“To pick my brain on what I remembered about Remy. He was sober too. I asked him about the drinking, and he admitted he’d been tempted but he said he hadn’t caved yet.” The image of Nathan on the other side of the table, the way he’d crumpled when Remy’s voice had come through the tinny speakers as a ghost from their past, filled his head. Isaac had felt about two inches tall at that point. If he’d only remembered about the statement sooner…“I want to believe him.”

He felt her sigh. “I know. I want to believe him too. But…what’s he doing with the booze I know he’s buying? Dumping it?”

“Are you sure he’s doing that?”

“Yes. The bottle I marked is long gone. I’ve marked two more and they both disappeared.”

“I don’t know.” It killed him to say it out loud. “But I think we found something that might help him get back on track.” Letting her go, he scooped up the file. “I took a statement from Remy. I even had the tape to prove it was her.”

Olivia’s eyes lit up. “What did she say? Is there anything remotely useful? Because I’m tired of banging my head against this wall.”

“I let Nathan take the tape, but I pulled the transcription of the statement and went through it with a fine-tooth comb. That’s why I was up all night.” He flipped it open, thumbing through the copies and notes he’d made until he found the street map he was looking for. He held it out for her to take. “Remy reported she’d been robbed and held against her will. She used some cover story about being new in town and trusting the wrong people. But she pinpointed this address as where she escaped from. That’s got to be where Gabriel was sending the girls.”

Olivia took the file, calmly looking it over, her eyes moving rapidly as she scanned through the pages. She didn’t make a sound while she read, and Isaac distracted himself with Tiberius, scratching behind the dog’s ear so he’d have something to do with his hands.

“Isaac.” Her smile was blinding. “This is brilliant.” She flung her arms around him and kissed him enthusiastically, leaving lipstick marks on his cheek and jaw. “You’re brilliant.”

He smiled because of how good she felt clinging to him half-naked, not because of any self-satisfaction about his so-called brilliance. He hadn’t actually done anything. Any rookie could take notes from a written statement. And getting the statement in the first place hadn’t been some grand scheme except a basic sense of duty and an overinflated ego convinced it could bag the hot chick once he saved the day for her. Olivia didn’t know most of that, though. Too bad he couldn’t hold her and celebrate for the next couple of days.

“It’s a good start. I pulled the records on the building and got contact information for the new owner so we can get permission to check it out today. If we’re lucky, Remy left us some more clues.”

“I’ll take anything we can get at this point. Nathan must have been relieved.”

Another slice of guilt to add to his guilt pie. “I haven’t actually talked to him about this yet. I came here first.”

“Do I need to talk to him about it, or…?”

“No. I can do it. I
want
to do it. He actually apologized to me last night, not that I actually did anything to deserve it, but I think it means he’ll be a little more open to me again.”

“He apologized for shutting you out?”

“I think that was part of it, yeah.” Sinking down into the corner of the couch, he leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “He felt guilty that even knowing what he knows now, he wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

“Isaac.” Olivia settled beside him and took his hand. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He snorted. “Neither do I.”

Working all night had been a blessing, because every time he hit a lull, his thoughts strayed back to that interrogation room and Remy’s disembodied voice hanging between them. He’d see Nathan’s face, and he’d see the relief and hope and love gleaming in his damp eyes, and he’d realize all over again it didn’t matter whether he thought he was right or not. People followed their hearts, regardless.

“If you could go back in time to that night you found the coin, knowing what you know now, would you still pick it up?”

“Yes. We would have never found Gabriel and Marisol without it, and we never would have saved Stacy. She could be dead right now, but she’s at home with her family. That’s worth it to me.”

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” Not that it made feel any better to be right, but at least in Olivia’s case, he understood her deep-rooted need to save as many people as she could was enough motivation to shoulder whatever trials the coins demanded. “Nathan said he’d still try to follow her. Like it was some deep, dark confession.”

“It probably felt like one to him. He’s struggling with a lot of guilt right now.”

“But he didn’t do anything.” He rubbed at his burning eyes with the heels of his hands, though it did nothing to staunch the flood of frustration coursing through him. “I’m the one who stopped him. I’m the one who didn’t remember Remy straight off. Hell, I didn’t even remember about the statement I took until Nathan started nitpicking about everything I could’ve talked to her about.”

“Hey.” Olivia caressed his cheek, her fingers light and soothing. “Listen, you did the right thing by stopping him. Remy isn’t hurt. She’s even helping us. Nathan might not have been that lucky. You did what any good friend, what any brother, would have done.”

Isaac shook his head. “He doesn’t see it that way. And I can’t even say I blame him. Remy’s the one who turned his life around. Why wouldn’t he try to hold on to that?”

“It’s not about that. He loves her whether she saved him or not. But he still wants to be the one to save her.”

He’d been so focused on how Nathan’s choice reflected on their friendship, or on how Remy had changed it, he hadn’t even considered it from the other angle. Which made him feel like an even bigger idiot. Selfish, stupid…the list went on and on.

“Maybe you
should
be the one to give the file to Nathan. You guys don’t need me.”

“Isaac. That’s not true. If you had any…” She covered his fingers, squeezing them briefly. “It’s not true.”

“Really? You’re the only one who can use the coins. And Nathan can get all the information from the statement I did. I didn’t even end up helping Remy ten years ago. She just left…” His voice faded away as he realized what he’d said.
She just left.
A lost opportunity. He’d had no lingering fears about her safety, or he would’ve followed up. That could only mean he’d believed she was all right. He hoped. He’d hate to think he was an even bigger asshole for writing her off just because he’d never gotten anywhere with her.

“So then maybe you did help her. And I need you. I need your help. I thought…well, I thought I could do this on my own. I’m used to working on my own and I didn’t think this would be any different, but it is.”

This time when he looked at her, he hesitated. She’d been putting her makeup on, but now that he was paying attention and not lost in his little pity party, he saw the shadows she hadn’t quite hidden beneath her eyes. A line at the corner of her mouth was more pronounced, too, as if held taut for too long to properly smooth out when she was relaxed. The way her steady gaze fixed on him drew him closer, and he settled his hand on her knee.

“Whatever you want from me, you can have it. But I don’t know what else I can do.”

“I tried to use the coin again yesterday. Only, instead of buckling in for the ride, I tried to control it.”

He stiffened. “You what?” But the guilt in her eyes said he hadn’t misheard her. “What is it with these damn coins that turns off the common sense valve in all the smartest people I know? Why would you do that without having me there for you?”

“And what would you have said if I told you? You would have tried to stop me, and Isaac, this coin…it’s our key to getting Remy back. But it could be worth so much more.”

“
You’re
worth more than that.” The sudden image of walking in and finding her passed out on the floor, or worse, sent a tremor through him. He had to pull his hand away, clenching it into a fist for a moment to make it stop. “If you’d told me you would do it whether I was here or not, I would’ve come over to make sure you were all right, no matter how I felt about it. I thought you knew that.”

“I do.” Olivia sighed. “And as soon as I did it, I realized my mistake. Nothing happened. I was fine and everything was…well, I think it worked. But I knew you should have been there.”

He didn’t completely believe her claim that nothing had happened. Something always came up. But that wasn’t nearly as important as, “Why do you think it worked?”

“I was trying to see Stacy, because I knew exactly where she was and…and I had Nathan there to take notes on her behavior. So I could compare. I didn’t quite get to her, but I…the vision started with you and Remy, but I couldn’t tell exactly when. You were talking about something, but I couldn’t tell what. It’s like a dream, you know? You never remember the witty banter. But I moved away and found Nathan. It was…it was kind of an amazing experience.”

His mind reeled at her words, trying to grab on to the portion he found the most upsetting. She’d called Nathan instead of him. She’d watched him and Remy together. Her euphoria about a modicum of success, of newfound power, shone through every word. The more she spoke, the more insignificant and awkward he felt, no matter how much she might protest that she’d needed them there. She hadn’t. She’d had Nathan.

She trusted Nathan more. He’d assumed she’d tried using the coins on her own, but he’d been wrong. She called the one person who she knew might actually be of some help to her.

“Congratulations.” The word choked in his throat. “Sounds like a step in the right direction.”

“I need to try again. Today. The sooner I get a handle on this, the better.”

He couldn’t help it. “What time is Nathan getting here?”

Olivia’s flinch was so slight, he’d have missed it if he didn’t know to watch for the familiar tightening around her eyes. “Well, he’ll probably be here in about an hour.”

An hour. And Isaac wasn’t hearing about it until now. He would have found out about it after the fact—again—regardless of how much of a mistake she thought it was to exclude him the day before.

“It’s a good way to keep an eye out and make sure he’s not drinking.” Keeping his tone neutral didn’t actually make him feel better. Neither did rising from the couch. “Make sure he sees everything in the file, will you, please? I’m not walking through today like it’s the Day of the Dead for nothing.”

Olivia rose as well. “Stay, Isaac. Please. I’ll make you breakfast.”

Her offer kept his feet planted, though his pride screamed at him to make a run for it. “You’re not even dressed.”

“It’ll only take me a few seconds to put on some clothes. Or I can get dressed after breakfast, but in that case, there won’t be bacon.”