by Jamie Craig
“Did something happen after we spoke last night?”
Running his hand over his hair left it standing up on end, and for once Isaac didn’t automatically smooth it back into place. “We had a fight. About what happened. I said some things, and then she said some things, and then after we were both saying things, I walked away. I didn’t even go back to get my stuff from her place last night. I just stayed at the station and then showered at the gym before coming over here.”
“Do you remember what you said to her?”
“No. I don’t know. It wasn’t…” He sighed in exasperation and leaned back in the couch. “She tried telling me I would’ve been distracted from Gabriel’s case if I was also investigating all the stalker stuff. So I told her no, that the only distraction I’ve had lately was her, and—”
“Wait, you said what to her? Isaac, I know it’s been a long time since you tried your hand at this whole relationship thing, but you must have known that wasn’t a good idea.”
“Yeah, well, somehow that didn’t stop me from digging the hole I was standing in a little deeper anyway.”
“I guess that means you didn’t immediately apologize and recognize the error of your ways. What else did you say?”
Isaac grimaced, closing his eyes. “I think I might’ve said something along the lines that she couldn’t take care of herself as good as I could.”
Nathan stared. He knew Isaac had some old-fashioned views about men and women and gender roles, but he also knew his buddy wasn’t stupid. On the other hand, in Isaac’s view he was better at taking care of everybody than they were at taking care of themselves.
“Why?”
“You mean other than the fact she’s a single woman in a dangerous profession, works by herself, lives by herself, and has no idea how the gang world really works?” He opened his eyes and regarded Nathan steadily, though there was no disguising how bleak his expression really was. “If something happened to her when I could’ve done something to protect her, I’d never forgive myself, Nathan. I’m not going to apologize for wanting her safe.”
“Wanting her safe is a perfectly noble goal.” He couldn’t scold Isaac for the impulse, not when he devoted so much time and energy to protecting Remy. If ever there was a woman who didn’t need protection, it was her. “Especially since you’ve seen how bad things can be. But Isaac, Parker isn’t targeting her. He’s targeting you. This isn’t like five years ago when he focused on me.”
“Look, I know she’s worried about me. She’s made it perfectly clear since we found Sonny and Cher how she felt. And if I’d known then it was Parker we were dealing with, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. I would’ve known how serious it was then. But damn it, she didn’t even ask if she could go digging around in my past. The first I heard about what she’d done was your call last night.”
“Digging around in your past? Everything she pulled was a matter of public record. Look.” The envelope he had found in his mailbox the previous day was still sitting on the coffee table. “I told her to look up people who might have a grudge against you. She wisely pulled the names of people you arrested who had recently been released or paroled. That’s all.” He pushed the list into Isaac’s hands. “I would have done it if I was around.”
Isaac’s frown deepened as he scanned over the sheet of paper with the names. “When did you…” His mouth thinned, and the eyes he turned to Nathan were hard. “The other night. When you called. I thought that was about her vision of Remy.”
“We did talk about her vision of Remy. But then talk turned to you, and I indicated I would be awfully put out if somebody killed you while I was gone. I can’t imagine why, since you’re being a bit of prick. She promised she wouldn’t let that happen.”
“I’m not a prick.”
“Well, no.” Nathan smiled. “Not when you’re asleep. And you’re usually less prickish when you’re eating.”
Isaac’s mouth twitched, and he shook his head as he turned back to the maps strewn in front of them. “None of this matters anyway. I went too far last night. I’m sure Olivia thinks I’m a sexist asshole and wants less than nothing to do with me by now, so talking about it isn’t going to do any good. Let’s just find Parker. The sooner this stops, the sooner I can sleep again.”
He wished he could offer Isaac reassurance, but he didn’t know Olivia. Maybe the fight had been a deal-breaker. Maybe she wasn’t the sort to give a guy the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t even know how far they had gone besides sex. Did they like each other when they weren’t in bed? There was a good chance he would never know any of the answers.
But he liked to think that anybody who knew Isaac, really knew him, would see him for the caring, loyal, funny person he was. A person worthy of a second chance.
“Right. Let me get that coffee. It’ll be just like old times.”
Olivia debated all morning whether she should call and schedule another appointment with the locksmith. On the one hand, she didn’t believe Isaac would do anything inappropriate with her key. On the other, she wasn’t comfortable knowing her spare key was out in the world, out of her control, where anybody could get a hold of it. Asking for the key back would mean talking to Isaac, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
It took most of the previous night to reassure her family they were safe. She lied to them. She wasn’t happy about it, but it seemed like the best option. Her mom wanted her to stay overnight, but the last thing Olivia wanted was to go back into her room. Not even to make sure Isaac had picked up his wallet. She didn’t want to go back to her own bed, either. That didn’t leave many options.
So she begged off, insisting she needed to take Tiberius home. Once there, she tried to distract herself by giving him a bath. A long, thorough bath that left the dog annoyed and shivering. She rewarded him with his favorite treat—canned food with raw eggs and bacon mixed in—and then curled up on the couch with him and told herself she wasn’t going to cry over Isaac McGuire.
And she hadn’t.
She was dressed and out of the house before five, unable to stand another moment there, and the debate started. She didn’t have to see Isaac to get her key back in a confrontation she didn’t want…But changing out all the locks seemed like over-kill. Her mind returned to the question again and again, like it was the most important issue in her life.
But it wasn’t the most important issue in her life. Stacy Montenegro took precedence over the lock question, and she needed to figure out how the information Nathan and Remy obtained would help her find the other missing girls.
Which meant talking to Nathan. Would Nathan even talk to her? Did his friendship with Isaac trump her investigation?
You’re an idiot for getting involved. If this hurts the investigation, you’ll never be able to forgive yourself.
That thought, more than anything, spurred her into finding Nathan’s number and calling him. She needed to know what he knew, and she had promised Stacy she could talk to Nathan again. She had two perfectly good reasons to call Nathan that had nothing to do with Isaac.
She did not expect Isaac to answer Nathan’s cell.
“Hello?” His voice was gruff, much like it had been that first morning they’d met for breakfast. He hadn’t slept. She wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or not.
She hung up the phone before she could think, like hearing his voice triggered an automatic reflex.
Five seconds passed where all she did was stare at her phone. Sighing, she shook her head. “Okay, that was just stupid.” She braced herself and re-dialed the number.
This time when he answered, annoyance colored his tone. Understandable.
“Hello?”
Olivia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Good morning, Detective.” So far, so good. She sounded professional, even if she didn’t feel it. “Is Mr. Pierce there? I need to speak to him about Stacy Montenegro.”
Silence flooded the line. It lasted long enough for her to pull the phone away from her ear and
look at the display in order to make sure she was still connected.
“He’s in the bathroom. He’ll be out in a second.” Isaac paused. “How’s Tiberius?”
“He’s fine.” She paused before adding in a softer tone, “Probably wondering why I gave him a forty minute bath and stuffed him with food when we got home.”
She heard him exhale. Or maybe sigh. “And your parents? Have they got power back?”
“Yes. Dad found about a million candles in the basement and he convinced everybody they were going to have an old-fashioned Christmas.” That was more information than he needed. He had walked away from her. “They got the power back this morning.”
“Good, good, that’s good. I asked them to put a rush on the work order, but I wasn’t sure…” His voice trailed off, and then he coughed, obviously clearing his throat. “Look, thank you for the work you did putting the list together for Nathan. I don’t know if anybody said anything to you, but the DNA was a match to Parker. I’m here with Nathan, going over his old haunts, trying to figure out where he might be this time around.”
She frowned. Isaac said the name like it was one she should know. She recognized it from the list, but she hadn’t had time to delve into the full story of each convict. It was a fairly long list, after all.
“Oh well, that’s good. Do you know why he’s pulling a Robert Bardo?”
He paused. “I thought I told you about him. The one who sent Susanna after Nathan?”
“No. You never told me that part.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, I thought I had. He’s bad news all around.” He sighed. “Hearing it could be him last night really fucked with my head.”
Olivia blinked. Was he offering an apology? A justification? Just stating a fact? It didn’t really matter. She wasn’t sure she could forgive some of the things he had said. She spent her whole life trying to prove she could take care of herself, and she finally had everything she wanted. A good home in a good neighborhood, a satisfying career, friends, her dog. She didn’t need to start all over again to prove the same thing to him.
“I hope you can find him,” she said neutrally. She almost offered to help. Most of her job was about finding people who had spent several years trying to avoid capture. “At least you probably know him as well as he knows you.”
“Thank God for small mercies,” he joked, and then, “Olivia…” A door opened in the background, and he immediately cleared his throat. “Nathan’s out. Here he is.”
Olivia didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye before Nathan took the phone. “Olivia? I guess you’re on a first name basis again?”
“Not really. I was hoping I could speak to you today about the Silver Maiden. And maybe you could come and talk to Stacy. She’s still asking about you.”
“Yeah, no problem. I’m a little tied up right now…”
“I know. Look, I know Parker is a real threat, even if Isaac doesn’t. I don’t want to take you away from that, but…”
“This is important too. I know. Remy is sleeping off her jet lag. Can we meet later this morning? Maybe around eleven?”
“Yes,” she said quickly, thankful he wasn’t going to tell her to fuck off. “Can you come by the station? Stacy is at a safe house right now. We can drive there from here.”
“Sounds good. Do you want to speak to Isaac again?”
“I don’t know if…”
“Sure, you can. He’s right here.”
She braced herself against the sound of Isaac’s voice. “Hey.” It was different this time, almost hopeful. “Did you want something?”
“My key.” She winced. “That came out wrong. Never mind.”
“So…you don’t want your key back?”
“I can just call the locksmith. I mean, we don’t know how Parker got a hold of your keys when he got into your apartment.”
His soft breath was almost tangible through the line. “I don’t want you to go through all that hassle if you don’t have to. If you want the key, Olivia, you know it’s yours.”
It shouldn’t matter, but she wanted to know anyway. “Do you want to give it back?”
“No, God no.” It came out in a rush, like he’d been holding it in, just waiting for the reason to release it. “Last night was hell. I spent most of it trying to figure out what went wrong, and all I came up with was how much I missed you, and how much I fucked up. Hate me as much as you want, but please, Olivia, if nothing else, I don’t want you to think I don’t respect you. Or that I believe you can’t take care of yourself. I know you can. You’re the most capable woman I’ve ever met. You’re definitely the only one I ever trusted. I don’t…I’m just…just believe me, okay?”
Olivia frowned. The speech was almost enough, except for one minor detail. She was the only woman he’d ever trusted? She had no desire to be the exception to whatever deep-seated issues he had with women. But she wanted to be generous with him. She desperately wanted to not think the worst.
“Isaac…do you have a problem trusting women or are you just paranoid in general?”
He snorted. “You’re the one who saw my record. It’s got nothing to do with the fact that you’re a woman. I don’t trust just anybody. Didn’t,” he corrected.
She took a deep breath. “Isaac, you really hurt my feelings last night. I’m not even sure what I did to make you so angry. And then you just walked away.”
“I know. But I didn’t know everything then that I do now, and my head…well, I told you what a mess my head was. Let me make it up to you. Whatever you want.”
“I…I don’t know, Isaac. Maybe we can meet tonight after I finish up here.”
The catch in his voice was audible. “Why don’t you call me when you’re done with Stacy? We can wing it from there.”
She smiled. He was giving her control, letting her be the one to call the next move. For Isaac, that was huge. “I can do that.”
She disconnected the call and sat back in her chair, chewing the bottom of her lip thoughtfully. If it were anybody else, she might have just written him off. But it wasn’t anybody else. It was Isaac, and he was already under her skin.
Chapter Nineteen
Until she saw Olivia waiting for them at the station, Remy wasn’t sure why Nathan brought her along. She wouldn’t be talking to Stacy, and frankly she didn’t want to. She was still reeling from hearing the voices at the temple, and the last thing she wanted—as much as she wanted to help the missing girls—was to face what she feared might be part of the source.
But then she saw the careful scrutiny in Olivia’s gaze when they greeted each other again. Nathan had told her about the visions, and how Olivia had found the other side of the Silver Maiden. Remy wanted to see it so badly, she had to bite her tongue from blurting out the request when she shook Olivia’s hand. She confessed as much to Nathan when they were in the Mustang on the way to the safe house. He merely smiled and covered her hand with his. She could tell his thoughts were elsewhere, mainly on Isaac.
Another reason to talk to Olivia.
She waited until Nathan had gone upstairs to Stacy’s bedroom.
“Does it flap you seeing me now?”
Olivia furrowed her brow. “No?”
Remy grinned. “You don’t know what the fuck I’m saying, do you?”
“I’m not familiar with the lingo, no.”
She slouched in the overstuffed chair, picking at her nails. “I forget that still, you know? Been here for six months now, and I’ll be settling at the store or something like that, and I’ll say something I think is royal, and people look at me like I’m cracked. And Nate gets it all now, so I forget not everybody does.”
Olivia crossed one leg over the other, resting her hands on her knee. “I lived in Europe for a year. Sometimes I’d get frustrated because not everybody understood American idioms, even if they spoke fluently. Maybe it’s a bit like that.”
“Maybe.”
She liked this woman. Her first impressions of Olivia blurred, the sudden r
eminder of the Silver Maiden taking precedence. They hadn’t had time for girl talk, and they both understood that. But the fact that she was sitting here, treating Remy with respect even knowing what she knew, meant something. She wasn’t trying to make Remy prove anything. That was valuable, in and of itself.
“What I asked earlier…Nathan told me what happened with you and your half of the Silver Maiden. I was just curious if seeing me now was different than seeing me before.”
“It’s a little strange,” Olivia admitted. “I feel like I know you better because…well, I didn’t mention this to Isaac or Nathan, but it seemed like I could feel what you were feeling.” She grimaced. “That isn’t quite right. It’s hard to explain. And I’m feeling a bit…tired this afternoon.”
Remy nodded. “Parker sallying off like that was a tough blow for Nathan when he found out. Isaac too. That part of their life was supposed to be over and here it comes back. I just hope I’ve got hardware when we see Parker next time. After what he’s done to the guys…” She stopped. Talking about wanting to kill a man in cold blood was probably one of the stupider things she could have started talking about to a cop.
Olivia either didn’t notice or chose to ignore it. “I guess finding out he was released really rattled Isaac. If I had known who he was before last night, I might have ordered Tiberius to attack sooner.”
“Isaac or Parker?”
Olivia snorted. “Parker. Though I was tempted to send Tiberius after Isaac last night too.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t have blamed you. Sometimes when Isaac gets going, he can be a real ass.”
“Yeah. A real ass.” She looked up the stairs to Stacy’s closed bedroom door. “So he gets like that with you and Nathan?”
Nathan had only given her sketchy facts about the fight between Isaac and Olivia, which meant only one thing. Isaac had said or done something capable of truly pissing Remy off. Nathan protected Isaac. His shielding tendencies were a fact of life she’d long ago accepted as a part of their relationship.