by Jamie Craig
Olivia could do nothing but nod. She didn’t quite understand how they were going to accomplish her jumping through time, but once she was in 2000 she’d be able to find Remy. Remy might already be tracking Marisol, which would make her job much easier. She would do as Gabriel instructed. She would absolutely bring Marisol back to this time and place, but before she did, she’d make sure each one of those valuable girls were brought back to their proper time and placed out of Gabriel’s reach.
“It will take me some time to complete all the necessary preparations.” Gabriel slid closer, his arm going around her shoulders like a vise. Olivia stiffened, her breath lodging in her chest as Gabriel leaned closer. “I will let you rest.”
“Thank…thank you.”
“But make no mistake, Olivia. Once you return and Marisol is dealt with, my plans will continue.”
“I…”
“All of them. You belong to me.”
Olivia had quite a few things to say about that, but she saved her breath. Let him think whatever he wanted. Let him think she was meant to be his, that the two of them were meant to resurrect the Silver Maiden, that his goddess would begin her reign on Earth. He could think any crazy thing that made him happy, as long as it distracted him long enough for Olivia to find the means to crush him like a bug.
Remy knew one thing for sure about Marisol. When it came to keeping her shit straight, the bitch knew what she was doing.
Sitting cross-legged on the spare bed in her hotel room, Remy examined the contents of the purse she’d strewn out in front of her. There hadn’t been much; it wasn’t like she’d owned the clutch for months and never emptied it out. No empty gum wrappers, no emergency tampons, not even a Kleenex. What there was, however, gave her hope.
A silver key ring, with two identical keys on it. No markings, nothing to indicate what they might open. Not car keys, though, so that was a good sign.
A pristine business card with a single name across the front—George Hawkins—and a phone number printed neatly on the back.
A small, spiral-bound notepad with several pages filled. Everything was in Spanish, which meant Remy couldn’t read it.
Best of all was a cell phone. Marisol would probably get it disconnected, but that didn’t stop Remy from having the call history. If she gave it to Isaac, he might be able to figure out who and where Marisol had been in contact with.
That’s where Remy got stumped. Explaining this to Isaac would be a lot harder than coming up with a cover story about the warehouse. Too many people had seen her make a run for it from the restaurant. In the eyes of the law, she was a thief. Isaac’s eyes were another matter, but she wasn’t sure if his interest in her was enough to overcome what was sure to be disbelief about her story. Her other option was an anonymous tip, but that would get her shuffled to the bottom of his priorities. She had to be the one to present the evidence if she wanted it addressed swiftly.
The knock at the door startled her. Remy’s head snapped up, and her pulse quickened as she stared at the chain she kept on when she was in. Nobody but Isaac knew she was here. He would’ve called before just crashing, wouldn’t he?
Fuck, what if Marisol had pressed charges? Isaac would know it was Remy from the description.
Scrambling off the bed, she swept the purse’s contents into the top drawer of the nightstand, pulling the Bible on top of them to hide them. The clutch ended up shoved beneath the mattress. She took a deep breath and crept to the door, stopping without touching it to peer through the peephole.
At first, Remy didn’t recognize her visitor. Either because of the shadows obscuring half her face, or because her brain simply refused to register something so impossible. She lifted her hand to knock again, this time leaning into the light to give Remy a perfectly clear view of her bruised face.
“Remy? Are you in there?”
The use of her real name had her scrambling to slide the chain off and yank the door open. Without uttering a word, Remy reached out and grabbed Olivia’s wrist, pulling her inside.
“Finally, somebody who knows what the fuck is going on. Is Nate with you? Or Isaac? Jesus, you look like shit. Did the coin do that to you when you used it?” Her eyes widened. “Marisol, right? You had to fight to get away. I’m sorry, if I knew she’d dragged you back with her—”
Olivia started shaking her head as soon as the first words came out of Remy’s mouth. “I’m here alone.” She pulled free of Remy’s grip and sank onto the bed, sagging like a deflated balloon. “It wasn’t Marisol, it was Gabriel. He did this.”
Ice ran through Remy’s veins, freezing her in place. So this was what pure fear felt like. “Gabriel? So…the guys couldn’t stop him?”
Olivia covered her face with both hands and took a shaky breath. “No, we stopped him the day you disappeared. But apparently no prison can hold him.” She looked up again, exhaustion darkening her eyes. “He escaped. He was able to get the drop on us before we even knew he was out.”
“Us? You mean, you and Isaac, you and Nate, all three of you, what?” As awful as she knew it was, she wished in this one case, Nathan had stayed out of it and let Isaac and Olivia do their cop thing. Because if he hadn’t made it through with Olivia, what was the point of trying to get back home at all?
“Isaac remembered the statement you gave, which pointed us to the warehouse. Nathan and I went to investigate, and apparently Gabriel was doing his own investigation at the time. I don’t even know if Isaac realizes we’re missing yet.”
All the tension vanished at once from her body, and Remy slumped to the floor, sliding down the wall with a thump. “So how’d you get away?” She waved a disinterested hand at the room around them. “Because this is the last place I would’ve wished myself to.”
Olivia laughed, though it was far from a pleasant sound. “I didn’t get away. Gabriel sent me here.”
“Why? Why didn’t he send Nate, too, then?”
“Because he’s going to kill Nathan, and Isaac, and possibly my family if I don’t bring Marisol back to him.”
Remy blinked. She’d dismissed Marisol’s explanations for everything as manipulation, but if Gabriel was after her now, maybe there was truth in there after all. “She said she was trying to stop him. That he’s completely cracked about this Silver Maiden.”
“He is completely cracked. But he’s also pretty fucking angry about the fact that she’s murdering the girls he’s worked so hard to find.”
Bit by bit, pieces were starting to make sense. It made Remy sick to think she’d been too late to help the girls when that was her sole purpose for being here, but at least Nathan was still alive. The trick would be to keep him that way.
“Do you know where the girls are?”
“No.” Olivia gestured down at her bloodstained clothes. “And I need to shower and change before we go looking for them.”
“I might have something that’ll help us.” Scrambling back to her feet, Remy retrieved the items out of the nightstand and dumped them next to Olivia. “I stole Marisol’s purse today when she tried recruiting me. All I know is they’re not at the warehouse.”
“Is there any Tylenol in that bag? We still have to go the warehouse anyway. If that’s where she’s stashing the bodies.”
Remy went into the bathroom, grabbing the first-aid supplies she’d been using for her leg. “Use whatever you need. If he wants Marisol, what do we need the bodies for?”
“We need to know how many there are, for starters. We’ve only found one in 2010, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more.”
“And that’s more important than saving Nate and Isaac? I don’t think so.”
“We’re only this situation because you thought it was important to save Stacy. So don’t get on my case because I want to see how many girls have been murdered and stashed away in a warehouse basement to be found later, alright?”
“Difference being, Stacy was still alive to save. If those girls are dead, what can we do for them?” The distinct
ion seemed clear to Remy. “Isaac’s going to check that warehouse out anyway. If they’re there, he’ll find them.”
“You don’t have to go to the warehouse if you think your time is better served doing something else.” Olivia popped several painkillers into her mouth, swallowing them dry. “Isaac’s not going to come around here, is he? It’s probably best if he doesn’t see me.”
“He shouldn’t. There’s no telling, though. How long did Gabriel give you?”
“I have to be back within twenty-four hours, but he showed me how to control where and when I end up. I could spend a year searching for Marisol and only a minute could pass from his point of view. Theoretically.”
That explained why Olivia wasn’t feeling the crunch. It didn’t make Remy feel any better, though. “So why don’t you go back and tell Isaac what’s going on? That way, nobody back home is in danger.”
“No. I’m not doing that again until I absolutely have to, and I don’t know how to find Isaac, anyway. But we can still get a message to him. We just need to figure out what it is and where to put it so we can be reasonably certain he’ll find it.”
Considering they’d already used what she’d put in her statement to get this far, Remy couldn’t doubt Olivia’s trust in the plan. Plus, she knew firsthand how much it hurt using the coin. If there was an alternative, she’d probably take it too.
“So Isaac doesn’t know Gabriel escaped at all?”
“I’m guessing he does. Before we left for the warehouse, he got an emergency page. I can’t think of what else it could be. But he may not know Gabriel grabbed us, and he definitely doesn’t know where Gabriel is hiding right now.”
Remy’s mind whirled. “That doesn’t mean you two won’t be his first priority. Especially after Nathan got snatched last summer. And when you two don’t answer your phones, he’ll know what’s up. Or at least, part of it.”
“Right. There was a struggle in the warehouse, and if Isaac checks there first, he’ll probably figure out what happened. The important thing is to tell him where Nathan and Gabriel are right now. So we need a safe place Isaac could access but won’t be disturbed in the next ten years.”
She snorted. “Yeah, that’s not hard at all. The man takes neat freak to a whole ’nother level.” Flopping back, she stared up at the ceiling, forcing her thoughts to focus on the problem at hand, not on the fact that Nathan was at Gabriel’s mercy again. Last time he walked away with dozens of scars. Would he even survive this encounter? “The other trick is getting him to find it at the right time too. So after he knows you’re gone, what’s the first thing he’d do?” That answer seemed obvious as soon as she uttered the question. “The coins. He’d worry about Gabriel having them.”
“With good reason, since he does have both of them. He’ll know to check my underwear drawer for my coin, but that’s not an option. Where does Nathan keep the other one?”
“His safety deposit box. Which Isaac knows about.” She grinned as she sat up. “Even better, he’s got full access. That’s how we got the coin to trade for Nathan last time Gabriel got grabby.”
“Do you have access to it?”
Remy shook her head. “I don’t even know if Nate has it yet, and I’ve only seen him the one time. But I could talk to this time’s Isaac, tell him I have something I need him to hold on to for me, under lock and key preferably. We’d find out quick enough whether the deposit box is an option.”
“Okay. While you call Isaac, I’ll write something out for him. After I get cleaned up and eat, we’ll start.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Buoyed with hope that an end might finally be in sight, Remy went to the phone, digging Isaac’s number out of her pocket. She hesitated when she went to dial, though, her eyes straying to Olivia. “Just so we’re clear, nothing happened between me and him, you know. Isaac told you that, right?”
Olivia’s smile was tired and small, but genuine. “I never thought anything did, Remy.”
“Good. Because if he remembered it different, I’d have to kick his ass.” She turned back to the phone. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”
Olivia stood, and Remy noticed her limp for the first time as she crossed to the small bathroom. “I hope that’s still true.”
Her cryptic comment went unexplained as she shut the door behind her. Remy frowned for a moment, wondering what she’d missed in the time she’d been gone. Nathan helping Olivia instead of Isaac? Isaac being out of the loop enough for him not to even know they’d been snatched? And here she’d been, chatting him up when she would’ve much preferred dealing with Nathan.
Sometimes, the world was a bizarre place. She only hoped they finally had the means to fix it.
Chapter Sixteen
His fingers itched to get on with it, but Isaac waited until the bank clerk left him alone in the private room before opening the lid on the deposit box. As much as he hated those damn coins, the Silver Maiden was his only bargaining chip when it came to Gabriel. Once he had Nathan’s, he’d get Olivia’s, and then check in to see if the techs had picked up any hint of where Gabriel might’ve taken them. He hadn’t stuck around the scene for the worker interrogations, but something might pop up in any of those too.
Something had to. Losing them was not an option. He’d made enough mistakes with Olivia already. He refused to let this one be the way things ended.
The box was only a third full. Isaac rifled through the papers on top, watching and listening carefully for the coin to slip free. When that didn’t happen, he tipped the box over onto the table and spread everything out.
No coin.
He stared at the mess he’d made. The coin had to be here. Nathan kept it under lock and key. They’d even had an argument after the mess with Gabriel last summer about whether or not Nathan should get a box in a new bank in a new part of the city, just in case this one had been compromised. In spite of Isaac’s protestations, though, Nathan had been adamant that such a measure wasn’t necessary. This was where he kept anything valuable.
That could only mean he’d taken the coin.
“Damn it!” Isaac stalked away from the table, running his hand over his hair as he tried to think. With emotions running so high over the past week, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Nathan would take the coin home. It was what brought Remy to him, after all. He needed that link. But just once, Isaac wished he would think a little more rationally when it came to Remy. Sometimes it felt like Nathan had lost his common sense when she landed into his life.
He went back to the table and began sorting through each item. Maybe he’d missed it. It could’ve gotten lodged in the flap of an envelope, or maybe it was in one of the envelopes themselves. He set aside a stack of fake IDs—didn’t see those—as well as a small ring case that had belonged to Nathan’s mother. The first two envelopes were inconsequential, their contents pertaining to past bounties, but the third stopped Isaac dead in his tracks.
It was a plain white, letter-sized envelope with a date and initials written across the front. December 27, 2000, I.M. The significance rested not in the fact that it came from the same time period Remy had been sent to, nor the fact that those could very well be his initials.
It looked like Olivia’s handwriting.
Heedless of Nathan’s privacy, he tore it open. A single page was inside.
Isaac,
I hope this letter actually reaches you. By the time you find it, it may be too late. It may be too soon. Here are the facts I think will help you: Gabriel took us from the warehouse soon after our arrival. I would say it was no later than nine o’clock on December 28, 2010. He transported us across the Mexican border in a white semitruck with CA license plate 7SVR182. I’m sorry I can’t tell you the precise town, but we didn’t stop until it was nearly dark, and I’m pretty sure we’re on the coast. Maybe no farther south than Nueva Odisea (I tried to measure it on an atlas I picked up at the gas station). He’s holding Nathan in exchange for my cooperation. The last I saw hi
m, he had superficial injuries only.
Gabriel believes he’s been betrayed by Marisol. He claims she’s killing the girls, and he had no intention of ever killing them because he wants to resurrect the Silver Maiden. To that end, he’s used the coins to send me back to 2000. I’ve found Remy, and we’re preparing to go after Marisol, free the girls, and if all goes as planned, return to Gabriel’s hideout by 9 p.m. on December 29. Gabriel informed me if I failed to return with Marisol, he will kill Nathan. I believe him.
Please contact my parents and tell them they need to get out of the city. He’s threatened them, as well. If possible, have them take Tiberius, too. I’d rather he not be alone in case something happens to me. If I don’t make it back, my parents know what to do with all my affairs.
I wish I could go to you right now. It kills me that I know where you live, I know where you work, I know you’re so close and I can’t go to you. I know you would help me, even though this younger version of you has no idea who I am. There’s nobody else I want more right now. I know Remy will have my back, and I’m sure I can outsmart and outfight Marisol, but honestly, Isaac, I’m terrified. I have no idea what I’m doing or what we’re going to face. If I can find her, there’s nothing to say I can bring her back to Gabriel. And even if I do, there’s nothing saying he’ll stick to his end of the bargain and let me go. But I’m going to try. I’m going to do everything I can to make sure nobody gets hurt, and I’m going to believe from this moment forward that when I “leap” back to 2010, you’ll be the Al to my Sam. Waiting for me.