Revealing Silver (21 page)

That didn’t sound right to Nathan. What had he ever done to deserve her?

“You’re not hurt?” He pushed her hair out of her face and cupped her cheek. “You’re okay?”

“Nothing a good hot shower won’t fix.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Olivia’s got it worse.”

He hadn’t even seen Isaac go to her, but there he was, on the floor with Olivia pulled tight against his chest. Tiberius was trying to get in on the act, too, his big paws planted in Olivia’s lap as he tried to lick her face.

Remy laughed. “It must be love. He’s letting her bleed all over him.”

“We should probably leave those two alone.” Nathan bent his knees and slid his arm under her legs, lifting her off the floor. “And I’ll check for myself if you’re okay.”

Remy cradled against his chest, her lips skimming along the skin of his neck. “I want Christmas. Can we do that? Just you and me.”

“You can have whatever you want, sweetheart. After I’ve finished my full—” he kissed her hair, “—and thorough inspection.”

“Wait a sec.” Twisting in his arms, she loosed one arm to reach behind her. Her hand came free with a small book that she tossed toward Olivia. “Hey, Ike, catch.”

His reflexes were swift. “What’s this?”

“Some of Marisol’s bedtime stories. My Spanish sucks. You two might enjoy it more.”

“Thanks.” Isaac shoved it in his jacket pocket without sparing it a second glance. “Anybody have a problem if I tie Gabriel up and throw him in the cellar for now?”

Nathan adjusted his hold on Remy. “I think you could probably leave him there on the floor. When are we leaving?”

Isaac pulled his attention from Olivia to glance at Gabriel’s prone figure. “When I’m sure Olivia’s okay.”

Nathan nodded. That should give him plenty of time to convince himself body and soul that Remy was really with him once again.

Questions would have to wait. In the face of tending to Olivia, Isaac could let them wait indefinitely.

While Nathan and Remy took over one of the bedrooms—and surprisingly enough, it was actually easy to curb the impulse to tell them it was about time they got a room—Isaac took over everywhere else. Gabriel got locked downstairs, cuffed to one of the support beams once Isaac made sure his leg had stopped bleeding. He laid Olivia gently out on the couch and left Tiberius half-on, half-off her midsection as he went back to the kitchen to scrounge up some real food for them. Midway through cracking eggs for omelettes, he remembered to call Stotko and give him an update.

By the time he’d hung up, he’d bought them another day.

A day he hadn’t been convinced he’d even want during the interminable ride down here. Not if it meant losing both Nathan and Olivia.

Focusing on practical matters like food and bandages kept him from dwelling on the terror that had plagued him since stepping into the warehouse. But once the eggs were done, and the coffee was poured, and he’d found the first-aid kit in the bathroom, the excuses to distract him were gone. He placed the cups on the tray, took one look at the entrance to the living room, and sank into the nearest chair to bury his head in his hands.

He’d nearly lost them. Both of them. Because he was too stubborn and single-minded to believe in his worth to them.

His hands shook where he threaded them through his hair, gripping his skull harder to stop the shaking. He’d raced against the clock to get to the safe house on time, each minute passing by creeping closer and closer to Olivia’s deadline. He’d done everything he could to keep positive scenarios in his head during the drive, but it didn’t always work. Yes, Olivia was resourceful. Yes, she was excellent at her job. Yes, she wanted to save the girls with her entire being, but they both knew that sometimes, the world didn’t play fair. Sometimes, bad things happened to good people.

Sometimes, the good guys lost.

Those moments, the dark ones at the bottom of his fears that refused to go away no matter how much he tried to ignore them, those were the ones wearing down his confidence, like water dripping against a rock, that constant, soft assault the rock didn’t realize was happening until it was too late. He’d done so much over the years to blockade the way from getting trampled again. He’d worked overtime—literally—and he’d kept things casual with almost everybody who entered his life. Nathan was the sole exception to that, especially after the whole Susanna debacle.

It shamed him to admit it, but it felt good to be the center of someone’s universe. To be needed. Then Remy came along, and all the rules changed yet again.

In some ways, falling in love with Olivia had been inevitable. She was the smartest, most beautiful, independent woman he’d ever met. Once he accepted it, throwing himself into what he thought a relationship was supposed to be was simple.

Except he had everything completely backward. And because of how much he’d had wrong, he’d almost lost her.

He wouldn’t let that happen again.

Taking a deep breath, he rolled his neck once before standing and picking up the tray. He even managed to have a smile on his face by the time he walked into the living room.

“Caffeine, protein, and sugar, my three favorite food groups,” he announced.

Olivia opened her eyes, the corners of her mouth lifting at the sight of him. “They’re the only food groups, right?”

Hooking his foot behind the leg of the ottoman, he dragged it over the few feet to sit next to the couch. The tray went on top of it, and he perched on the edge of the sofa, his hip nudging against hers, to smile down at her.

“There wasn’t much in the kitchen, but I think it’s pretty palatable.” He waved a hand at the waiting food. “Coffee, a Spanish omelette, and cinnamon toast, extra butter.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything as much as that omelette. I need it in my mouth.” Olivia sat up, moving slowly and heavily favoring her right hip. He waited until she was settled before handing her the plate. “You’re an angel.”

“I called Stotko and gave him an update.” His gaze locked on the abrasions on her knuckles as she curled her fingers around the fork. Had that happened in 2000? When Gabriel grabbed her? Something else he could only hypothesize about because he was too afraid to ask and get the details? Part of him was afraid if he found out Gabriel was the cause, he’d forget about taking the man in alive. Another part didn’t care. “Did you want to check in?”

“No. I don’t have the energy to talk to anybody who isn’t my boyfriend.”

“I talked to your dad like you asked. I can call him while you eat if you want. Let him know everything’s okay.”

“Thank you.” Olivia absently handed a piece of bacon to Tiberius, holding it under his nose until he snapped it up. “And thank you for bringing him. I hoped you would.”

“Are you kidding? He missed his best girl.” He couldn’t hold back anymore. He reached out and skimmed his fingers along the scrape on her jaw. “So did I.”

She turned into his touch, her breath catching as his thumb brushed her lip. “The Silver Maiden…it’s all over now. Finished.”

“I hope so. Gabriel got his wish, it looked like.”

“Yes. I can’t believe he was right the whole time. That crazy son of a bitch.” She caught his hand, holding it against her face, fingers folding together. “But maybe that’s what happens when you have perfect faith in something. It makes the impossible happen.”

His eyes ducked, unable to meet hers when she gazed at him with such trust. Guilt was a bitter pill, because while she’d apparently had faith in him, he hadn’t had enough in what they had.

“That was a pretty brilliant move, sending me the letter. Your idea or Remy’s?”

“She told me about the safety deposit box. Given how our lives turned into an episode of
Doctor Who
, we probably should have agreed on a way to communicate in case of this eventuality. But somehow a contingency plan for time travel never entered my mind.”

“I’m not sure any of us have been thinking at our best for the past ten days.” Since she hadn’t actually eaten anything yet, he picked up a piece of bacon and held it to her lips to nibble at. “But one thing I have figured out, whatever happens with those coins from now on, however you need to use them, I’ll support your decision, two hundred percent. It’s like learning anything new, right? It takes practice. Patience. You managed this without a problem. Next time will be easier.”

“God, that’s so sweet, I almost wish the coin still worked. When I said it was all over, I meant
everything
. The coins are just coins now.”

His head jerked up. “What? How did that happen?” He snorted. “Did Remy break them for good this time?”

She chuckled. “No, nobody broke anything. But the Silver Maiden sent Remy to 2010 so she could stop Gabriel and Marisol. I think given my proximity to the situation, I was recruited to help. She sent me the visions when I needed them, and now I don’t need them anymore. The girls are safe and Marisol is dead. I don’t think Gabriel will be bothering anybody anymore.”

“But what about this Keeper business? I thought that was a big deal.”

She shifted her weight and fished the coin from her pocket, turning her palm upward so he could see it resting on her fingers. “Position terminated due to redundancy, I guess. I’m just Olivia again.”

While his nerves jumped at the possibility of getting her disentangled from this Silver Maiden stuff for good, he tried not to look too excited about the prospect. After all, even as confusing as she had found it, he knew having the power to help those girls had given Olivia hope.

“There’s no such thing as just Olivia. Are you okay with all this?”

“I wish I could have figured out a way to use it once. But…I saw what the Silver Maiden’s power can do to a person. Marisol was scary crazy. I want life to go back to normal.”

Everything he’d wanted. No crazy coins, no more disappearing girls. So why wasn’t he more excited?

Because he hadn’t respected Olivia’s choice when she’d made the conscious decision to play the hand she’d been dealt. He’d tried to get her to throw the game, and then turned into a five-year-old when he had to go along with it.

He pulled his hand back, giving her space to eat as well as space to be mad in case she didn’t like what he was about to say. “Normal sounds great. But…I owe you some apologies first.”

Olivia paused between bites. “Apologies for what?”

Time to bite the bullet. “For trying to tell you what to do with the coin. It wasn’t mine, it wasn’t my risk to take. And even when I told you I was okay with it, I wasn’t. Not really.”

“You mean to say you hated the whole situation but you were willing to grin and bear it anyway?”

He frowned. She made it sound better than he thought it should. “I wasn’t exactly grinning. Especially when you needed Nathan more than you needed me.”

“That was never true. Not for a second.” She reached for his hand. “Why would you think that?”

“Because I found out about everything after the fact. Because you called him to help you with your experiments.”

“You just told me how much you hated the coin and what I was doing with it.”

“I know. I
know
. And I realize you thought you were making it easier for me. That’s why I was trying so hard to let it all go. But…” He sighed. He was going to have to admit all of it. “I felt useless. Like I’ve felt useless for most of the past six months. And that’s not your problem. It’s mine.”

“Six months? Since Remy’s arrival?” Olivia arched her eyebrow. “I’m not a rebound, am I?”

He was quick to reply. “No, God, no, not like you’re thinking. It’s…first, Nathan needed me, and then he didn’t. And that took some getting used to, I’ll admit. And then you came along, and I’m not saying you needed me, because we’ve already been down that road, but…” He grimaced. “This is all coming out wrong. Which probably shouldn’t surprise me as much as it does since the only thing that’s been clear to me for the past two days is how much I can’t lose you.”

Olivia pulled him toward her, urging him to slide off the ottoman and kneel at her side. Their mouths were even then, and she touched her brow to his. “I may not always need you, Isaac. My life was going fine before you, after all. But I
want
you in my life, at my side, and watching my back. That’s not ever going to change.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, but it didn’t work to contain the emotion swelling through him at her words. Relief, love, fear that he was going to fuck this up somehow. His arm slid around her waist, fingers slipping beneath her shirt to caress the small of her back. His hands were shaking again. Good thing he didn’t have to worry about shooting anybody else.

“I’ve been so scared. Forget you needing me. I need you. I love you.”

“I love you too.” She grinned. “And I knew you were my Al.”

An unexpected laugh caught in his throat. “I’m taller. And better-looking.”

“True. But not as good-looking as Scott Bakula.”

He jerked back with a mock-frown, but couldn’t hold it in the light of her twinkling eyes. “I know I’ve got a lot to figure out. And I’ve got to stop expecting the worst, because that’s not fair to you. But I’m going to try. I want you to know that. I have to, because losing you, losing this, isn’t an option.”

“I promise I won’t let you do anything dumb enough to lose me. Now I think you should kiss me.”

“You’re the boss, boss.”

Gently, he slid his hand beneath her hair and around the back of her neck, careful not to touch any of the broken patches of skin. His head tilted, a scant inch to allow their lips to join, hers already warm and parted. She tasted smoky sweet, the caress as soft as it was sure. It felt like it had been months since he’d been able to kiss her like this, and maybe, in some ways, it really had been a lifetime. She’d experienced things he could never know, gone places only she and Remy would ever share.

And he was surprisingly okay with that. Because the important thing was…she came back to him. She did what she had to, and then, when the time was right, returned to his side, the place he wanted her, the place she said she wanted to be.

When Remy collapsed on top of him, her limbs trembling, her skin sleek with sweat, Nathan locked his arms around her. She didn’t seem inclined to go anywhere, but he wasn’t taking that chance. He held her in silence, her heart thrumming against his chest and her breath warm on his neck with each shiver and sigh. Her hair tickled his shoulder, and his cock was still half-hard in her slick heat. The raw emotion kindling in his chest needed an outlet, but all he could do was bury his face in the crook of her neck to breathe her in, absorbing the scent and taste of her while he forced everything back under control.

“I think I remember you now. Seeing your hair…I remember meeting you. I remember how much I wanted you then and how frustrating it was that Isaac met you first.”

Her lips moved against him, etching silent declarations he felt deeper than his skin. “When I went to Smokey’s that first night…I was disappointed Isaac was the one who showed. But then, when he made us go back to your place when we saw Marisol and you got home early from your parents’ place…I was kind of glad. It was easier to pretend around him than you.” Her breath caught, and for several seconds, he only heard the sound of his own blood rushing through his veins. “Seeing you so young and so happy hurt. A lot.”

“I’m happier with you than I ever was then. I’m afraid I kind of…fell apart without you. While you were trying to figure out how to get home, I was being an asshole to Isaac and worrying Olivia to distraction.”

“What happened?”

“I thought you were dead. Or as good as dead. Gabriel refused to provide any helpful information. We had the coins but no way of knowing how they worked. I thought I’d never see you again and it almost destroyed me. Olivia thought I was drinking. I never had a drink, but…you ever hear the phrase dry drunk? It’s a condition where you return to all the destructive ways of thinking and behaving, except without the booze.”