by Jamie Craig
She masked her inner rejoicing with an uncertain nod. She had his attention, and he thought he was working to earn her trust. The details she doled out now would whet his appetite for more and maybe, just maybe, she could pull this cracked idea off.
“They were both Mexican, I think. One of them was really huge.” And not moving so good anymore. “I think he was called Cruz. They were both ’roided out. And they had these weird matching tattoos on their wrists. I almost asked if they were going steady, but it didn’t seem that funny in the circumstances.”
His lips thinned. “Those are gang marks. There’s been a lot of activity in that area. We’ve got three bodies from within two miles over the last month alone.”
“Bodies? From what? A turf war?”
“Yeah. There’s a new kid on the playground and nobody feels like playing nice. Whatever’s going on there, it’s serious. I mean, it was already serious but…”
“I know what you mean. This isn’t just about me anymore, right?”
“Right. You got a name for this guy?” She’d been debating this for the past two days and still didn’t have a concrete response. It was possible that another wealthy white guy named Parker was working with gang leaders in L.A. while running a prostitute ring. Possible enough that she could make a mistake that ruined everything? Her own future barely mattered, except when it intersected with Nathan’s. She couldn’t risk that point.
But Isaac’s reaction put her mind to rest. He knew the address of the warehouse, hadn’t been surprised to discover they wanted to pimp her out, and he’d clearly been surveying the area for a while. Plus, he was like a walking encyclopedia when it came to gang activity in L.A. She doubted this was information he didn’t already have.
“Holden. I think I heard somebody calling him Parker. That’s all I know about him. That, and I think it’s his warehouse they had me in.”
“That’ll be easy enough to check.” Navigating with one hand, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket and hit a number. The speedometer slowly crept higher as he held the phone to his ear. “Yeah, hey, can you run a check for me? I need to know ownership on a property.” He rattled off the address she’d given him without asking her to repeat it. “No, checking something out for a friend…I don’t know yet, that’s why I’m checking.” Glancing at Remy, he rolled his eyes as if they were coconspirators against whoever was asking the questions on the other end of the line. “I appreciate it. Thanks.” He slowed down again when he disconnected, his full attention back on the road. “It’ll take a bit, but I should have that information by morning.”
“Was that your partner?” she asked, fighting to keep her tone neutral.
“Nah, he had today off.”
Who did Isaac call when he couldn’t bother to look up his own information? He didn’t have a secretary, and there wasn’t anybody at the precinct who had nothing better to do but sit and wait around for his calls. Yet, he always got his answer. “Still recovering from the holiday, huh?”
“He spent an extra day with his parents.”
“And you got kicked out for bad behavior, I guess.”
“Me?” He put his hand over his heart. “Never. Unless you like the bad boys, then I can change my ways.”
“The bad boys are usually more exciting than cops,” Remy conceded.
“That just means you’ve never spent time with the right cops.”
“Like you and your partner?”
Isaac nodded. “Exactly. Maybe when all this blows over, I can show you. Besides, has any good ever come from liking the bad boys?”
Remy thought about a gruff voice, a long scar, and that perfect stubble that always left marks on her thighs. “Probably more than you think.”
Isaac’s open attraction still unsettled her, but she liked the easy camaraderie that came with it. It was a hint of the kind of friendship they might have had if things had been different. Perhaps if she’d met Nathan in a bar instead of falling through time. Or maybe it was how things could have been if Isaac didn’t view her as an enemy and prime competitor for Nathan’s attention. She liked their give-and-take. A lot. She’d miss it when she got home and Isaac was his typical annoying self.
They didn’t speak again. She passed the time by studying him from beneath her lashes, noting the subtle changes in his expression as he mulled his thoughts. Anger rippled over his face more than once. What was going on in there? She didn’t want to turn her life into a regular mantra of If Nathan were here, but if he had been with them, Isaac wouldn’t be quiet. He’d share each troubling thought, throwing it out there and waiting for Nathan to chuck it out or bat it back. The tension rose as the miles fell away, until Remy was gripping the armrest on her door. Shadows lurked in every deserted doorway, but the streets weren’t empty. Not exactly. Remy could sense the city’s other population. The one that only emerged when the streetlights blinked on. Isaac could probably feel them too. A van parked across the street from the warehouse caught her attention, and she grabbed Isaac’s arm.
“Pull over!”
The wheel jerked from the force of her grip, but he regained control, easing to the edge of the road. He killed the lights but left the engine running. “What?”
“Sshh!”
The double doors at the back of the van were thrown wide open, but it was too dark to see inside. A muscle-bound man—not Cruz—stood next to the doors, arms folded across his chest as he gazed up at the warehouse. At the end of the block, another truck idled before turning left. She couldn’t be absolutely certain, but she knew why the truck had been there. Fuck. She was too late. Either they were moving out, or Gabriel had managed to come through and finish whatever ritual it was he wanted the girls for.
Remy froze. Was Gabriel there? Had he pulled his own Back to the Future stunt after she took her trip? If he did, that could mean only one thing. Olivia and Isaac had failed and they could all be dead. Up to that point, she’d assumed they’d succeeded simply because she couldn’t imagine any other outcome. They had surprise, skill, and determination on their side. They had Nathan on their side. If Gabriel had managed to continue the ritual anyway, there was only one explanation that made sense.
Her heart solidified in her chest, heavy and frozen behind her ribs. It didn’t beat. She couldn’t breathe. Were they dead? Had she escaped a more horrible fate when she jumped to 2000? Had the coin saved her life a second time? What was the point without Nathan? If she did find her way back to Christmas 2010 only to discover her friends were dead and her reason for living was gone, what the fuck would she do?
“Maggie?” His voice was low, unthreatening, but he sounded as tense as she felt. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth for once. She was lost, and her plan didn’t mean shit.
“Is it something you see? Do you know those people?”
“I don’t know. It’s too dark.”
“Are you having a recurrence or a flashback? We can get help if you need it.”
Remy shook her head. “No, trust me. There’s nobody who can help. Except maybe you.”
“I’m doing my best. Do you think they’ll know you? Is that why you didn’t want me getting closer?”
“They might.”
He didn’t move for nearly a minute. None of them did. The burly man watched the warehouse and they watched him. He straightened abruptly, his spine stiffening. “Who’s that?”
Remy jerked her head around to see the woman Isaac referred to. She marched up to the man with angry gestures, her quick-fire Spanish a loud jumble of sound. She looked as stunning as the last time Remy saw her, with her dark hair sleeked back into a low ponytail, and her tall, voluptuous form a riot of curves beneath a sweater and tight-fitting jeans.
“Fuck.”
“I take it that’s a yes.”
“Fuck.”
“Can I call it in now?”
Marisol glanced around as she spoke, pausing when she looked in their direction. Remy immediately ducked down
out of view, though they were too far away for Marisol to see much of anything.
“Right.” Sarcasm dripped from every drawn-out syllable. “A friend of yours?”
Remy gave up the pretense of flirting to glare at him. “Is she still watching us?”
He glanced up. “Yes.”
“Get us out of here.”
“Is she the one who set you up with Parker?”
God bless him. “Yes. She is very bad news. You’re armed, right?”
His jaw locked, and he shoved the stick into first gear, turning the wheel to do a U-turn in the middle of the street. As far as retreats, it wasn’t the most subtle, but at least it didn’t take them past Marisol and run the risk of being ID’d.
She waited until she saw the lights of the 7-Eleven go by before sitting up again. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Alarm began to pulse inside her. “Why?”
“Because I’m not done with you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you and I are going to have a little chat.”
The alarm exploded into thunder. “At the station?”
Frowning, he cut a look at her out of the corner of his eye. “Of course not.”
“Then where are we going?”
“My place.”
Chapter Eight
“You can’t use the coin again. It’s too dangerous.”
Olivia sat back, crossing one leg over the other. “That’s Isaac’s line.”
“Well, Isaac isn’t here, so I’ll say it for him. It’s far too dangerous.”
“That’s not the tune you were singing yesterday. It’s never too dangerous when I’m trying to help you. What’s the difference now?”
“The difference is that you should only use the coins if you have to.”
“What do we know about them?” There had to be something useful. A detective like Nathan would know where to find information. “Take me through it again.”
Nathan rubbed the back of his neck, his long legs carrying him from one side of the apartment to the other as he considered her question. He didn’t look any better today. Perhaps she’d been hoping for too much. The vision should have been enough to nudge Nathan back to his actual life, but it hadn’t been. His grief and anger was still too much for him to process, and now she feared showing him Remy was more cruel than kind. He didn’t need the reminder that she was entirely out of his grasp and alone.
Well, not entirely alone. She did have Isaac to keep her company. Not that Olivia was going to allow herself to be bitter about it. But why had Remy gone to Isaac in the first place? She hoped the same question wasn’t plaguing Nathan. She hoped it was just the by-product of the uncertainty of a new relationship. Remy wouldn’t sleep around on Nathan. Especially with his best friend.
“We know the coins can be used to travel through time. Both of them, because Kirsten used your coin to do the same thing.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how.”
“Do you think it was a ritual like Marisol and Gabriel used?”
Nathan stopped, tapping his chin thoughtfully while he considered her question. “I don’t know. It must have been. It’s a shame she died when she did. She could have told us so much. Eventually.”
“So we know that my coin, as you say, doesn’t only give visions. It can be used to move through time too. Why two coins? Why not just one? And yes, I know the folklore behind it, but I think Isaac has the right idea of just seeing it as a story.”
“Let me get the notes I made in Argentina.” Olivia noticed a new lift in his step as he walked away. He’d been a cop for years, long enough for it to become second nature. The excitement of the hunt could awaken old instincts. Being out of the game wouldn’t change anything. “Cora, our guide in Argentina, didn’t think it was an allegory.”
“That doesn’t mean anything, Nathan. She might know more about it than anybody else, but if she’s a believer, that’s going to have an impact on how she sees it. She’s never conducted any sort of scientific analysis of the coins or tried to have them dated.”
Nathan grunted in acknowledgment, his eyes scanning over the notebook where he’d recorded their interview. “Okay, so the analogy she used was a magnet.”
“The coins are magnetic?”
“The coins are the poles. The priestesses’ faith is the magnet. It brings all their individual abilities together to create something more. That’s why Gabriel was trying so hard to collect eight girls. To bring together the eight bloodlines.”
“And Marisol was the eighth. But if Remy could use the coin to have her fondest wish granted, then that means she must be one of the bloodlines herself.”
“Yes, that’s a reasonable assumption.”
“Marisol must know she used the coin. Because Gabriel knew. Which means she’s unlikely to hurt Remy. She’s too rare.”
“We don’t know if Marisol can think that far ahead.”
“Unless she was the brains behind Gabriel’s operation.” Olivia shrugged. “After all, she’s not the one sitting in jail right now. But how do the coins actually work?”
“She said the coven of priestesses was the true source of the coins’ power. I think she meant they were responding to power that already existed inside of them. Something that was passed down from generation to generation.”
“That’s why I think the story you heard is bunk. Some poor slave happens to make coins out of pure silver, with the right magical powers to respond to eight unrelated women? I’m not sure they even have silver mines in that area of Argentina. Are you?”
“There aren’t any currently, no.”
“And what are the magical powers? How is it working?”
“Cora said faith. That even the walls of dimensions can’t stand up to true desire.”
This was gobbledy-gook, all the more irritating because it was gobbledy-gook ruining her life. “If you want it enough, you can make it real?”
“That seems to be the idea.”
“Except the coin isn’t granting my wishes. It’s just giving me visions.”
“You’re not a priestess.”
“No, but I have some sort of sympathetic bond with them.”
“And you can look into the past, present, or future. However the coin affects time, it seems to apply to you too.”
“Yeah.” Olivia licked her lips. This was the right time to explain her idea, as ridiculous as it still sounded in her own head. If she had the luxury of more time, she’d wait a little bit longer and work out the finer details until it developed into an actual plan. “I want to control it.”
“Control the coin?”
“Yes.”
“What makes you think it’s possible?”
“Marisol and Gabriel controlled their coin enough to send the girls to a specific time and place. They didn’t even need to be touching the coin at the time. Remy’s was still on the altar when Marisol sent herself back in time. If they could use it for evil, I should be able to use mine for good, right?”
Nathan joined her on the couch. “I’ve seen you hold that coin. There’s a reason this whole thing freaks Isaac out.”
“Why? What happens?” She’d been curious since the first time, but not enough to ask Isaac about it. “I thought I passed out?”
“You do pass out, but that’s not the alarming thing. You…change. You look like somebody else. Or something else. Like you’re channeling another person. It’s hard to explain.”
She swallowed her alarm. “I look like somebody else? Who?”
“Like I said, it’s hard to explain. Your face goes slack, and your eyes are dilated. It’s really eerie.”
“Why didn’t Isaac mention this?”
“Maybe he didn’t want to upset you?”
“Or himself,” she added under her breath. He was sure risk-averse for a cop in the LAPD’s special gang unit.
“It doesn’t look like a pleasant experience.”
“
It’s not. But I can’t wash my hands of everything now because it makes me uncomfortable. Marisol knows what she’s doing. Gabriel knows what’s going on. We’re trying to stop them and we’re too goddamned scared to actually use the one thing we’ve got. And don’t tell me it’s too dangerous. We can’t waste time waiting for knowledge to strike like lightning.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything like that.” Nathan shoved his fingers through his hair, resting his head on his hands. He was going to help her because he knew they didn’t have any other choice. He was going to help her even if he had misgivings, even if Isaac wouldn’t approve, even if it put them both at risk for death—or worse. Because helping her was the only way to get Remy back. “Have you always been this fearless?”
“I used to be scared of heights.”
“Used to be? Not anymore?”
“Nope.”
“What happened? Did you wake up one morning and say, ‘Right, that’s it. I’m done worrying about tall buildings’?”
“Something like that. I heard about immersion therapy, so I took skydiving lessons and jumped out of a plane.”
“Did it work?”
“Yes. I’m still not entirely comfortable on the tops of tall buildings, but it’s more of a twinge than a full panic attack.”
“Does Isaac know about that?”
“We haven’t gotten to the point of exchanging notes on skydiving experiences.”
“I doubt Isaac will ever get to that point. He’s not one to talk about his fears or listen to stories about the woman he loves jumping from a plane.”
Olivia snorted. “No kidding. So you’re going to help me?”
“Yes. Though I suppose I should find out exactly what you’re planning before I agree to anything.”
“Right now, my plan is pretty basic and not that risky. Each time I’ve touched the coin, I’ve had a vision of Remy, unless there was something else I needed to see. Like where Gabriel was performing the last rite. He also implied my destiny was to protect the girls. But if Cora is right about how the coins work, it’s their key to open up the dimensions and my crystal ball. It’s a tool, Nathan. I should be able to use it.”
