Touching Silver (20 page)

“Gabriel’s powerbase is a lot bigger now than it was back then too. The only way Parker stands a chance of getting in now is if something happens to knock Gabriel out of the way.” Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place, and Isaac rolled his eyes. “Like me arresting Gabriel for a half-dozen arsons. Damn it.”

“It’s a sleight of hand trick. You’re looking at Gabriel, while Gabriel’s looking at you. That’s pretty much what I’d expect from him.”

“Pretty much what you’d expect from who?” Remy asked, coming out of the bathroom.

“Parker,” Isaac replied. He began gathering the maps, tucking them into his bag. “I need to get back to the station and take a closer look at those arson reports. They might have unidentified prints or DNA we can cross-reference with Parker and his old gang.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to see if his deal included parole or stipulations. Like
don’t stalk police officers
or something. If he violated anything, his ass will be back in the slammer so fast his head will spin.” Nathan folded his arms over his chest, head tilting as he looked down on Isaac. “So are you going to see Olivia today?”

He kept his hands steady. “She’s supposed to call me later.” He tried to keep his voice neutral. “Did you get anything good from Stacy?”

“I spent most of the hour with her just trying to get her to forgive me for leaving. But I’m going back tomorrow morning. I promised her I’d bring something from Krispy Kreme.”

“Unsurprisingly, the girl thinks our Nate is aces.” Remy tucked her arm into Nathan’s, molding to his side with a grin. “Next thing I know, she’s going to be making a move on him and I’ll have to dogfight to keep him for myself.”

Isaac snorted. “Yeah, because his eyes
aren’t
permanently glued to your ass.”

“Nice as they are, it’s not his eyes I’m interested in.”

“And I am really not up for this conversation right now.” He stood, the bag in his hand, and met Nathan’s gaze. “I’ll keep you updated on what I find. And if I need any more help.”

He was halfway to the door when Remy’s voice brought him to a halt.

“That Olivia is all right.” When he glanced back, it shocked him to see the seriousness in her face. “Don’t fuck it up any more than you already have, Ike. You could do a lot worse.”

The fact that even Remy was calling him on his bad behavior deepened his embarrassment. Not that he’d ever tell her she was right. She’d never let him live it down. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

“And that’s stopped me since when?”

“Since never,” Nathan said. “But Isaac has control issues.” He looked up and caught Isaac’s eye, just as serious as Remy. “For what it’s worth,
Ike
, I agree with her.”

He let out his breath, slow and sure. “So noted,” he said, and gave them a perfunctory wave before walking out the door. He had a lot of stuff to do, even more to think about.

Including how he was going to make sure he didn’t do exactly what Remy and Nathan had warned him about.

Olivia almost talked herself out of calling Isaac back. She could justify it—she still had a shitload of paperwork to do and he still needed to find Parker. Neither of them had time to deal with each other. Once Isaac stopped Parker and she recovered the girls Gabriel kidnapped, and things went back to normal, she would have plenty of time to call him.

But if she put off calling him back by a day, a week, a month, she would never do it. She would keep finding reasons to avoid him. She would keep finding more work. She would think of excuses to avoid his department and his desk. Within six months, or maybe even less, they’d grow so far apart from each other neither would make the effort to reconnect.

She didn’t want that, so she made the call.

She told him to meet her at her favorite sandwich shop. She needed to eat, and going to one of his regular stops would give him too much of a home-field advantage. And maybe eating in a family establishment would stave off another fight.

Olivia saw him before he saw her. She paused at the door, studying him before he looked up. Her heart twisted. This was stupid. Their separation had lasted for less than twenty-four hours. It didn’t make sense to get all…silly…at the sight of him. Before she could analyze the reaction too closely, he noticed her and smiled tentatively. She crossed the small space to his table and sat in the chair across from him.

“Did you order anything?” she asked as a greeting.

“Just a coke. I’m not really that hungry.”

She frowned. “Are you okay?”

His mouth slanted. “I don’t eat all the time, you know. It only looks that way.”

“Oh, I know you don’t eat all the time. You just eat…enthusiastically. Did I keep you waiting long? I tried to get here sooner, but downtown traffic was a real bitch.” She was talking without actually saying anything—a clear sign of her nerves. Did he notice?

“Not long. But I would’ve waited longer if that’s what it took.”

She wanted to believe him. He certainly looked sincere. She’d never seen him so nervous before. “I’m glad you answered Nathan’s phone this morning.”

His smile bloomed. “Me too. Even if it took three pots of Nathan’s awful coffee to stay awake. ”

“Did you at least have something to show for all that caffeine?”

She was just trying to make conversation, but his gaze ducked, his amusement fading. “Ah. Work. Right. Forgot about the priorities for a second.” He toyed with the paper from his straw, tearing tiny pieces from one of the ends to litter the table like snow. “It’s just hard to look at you and not want to kiss you into next Sunday to say I’m sorry.”

“Kissing doesn’t make the issues go away.”

“Does anything make them go away?”

The million dollar question. “I don’t know. You don’t trust me to take care of myself. I don’t think you realize what a big deal that is for me.”

He bristled and sat up straight. “I told you—”

“I know what you said. But what you did, what you
do
, doesn’t exactly jibe with that.” She reached across the table and fidgeted with some of the paper he discarded. “We spend a lot of hours listening to people tell us what they want us to believe. You can’t blame me for being a little wary here.”

“You did not just equate me with one of your collars.”

His hard tone meant he was finally starting to listen to her. “I don’t think you’ve ever lied to me, no. Do I think you were angry enough last night to say things you might not normally? Oh, hell yeah.”

“I said I was sorry about that.”

“No, actually you never did. You tried taking it back, which isn’t the same thing at all.” Shoving the wrapper aside, she leaned forward, hoping he’d see how serious she was. “I broke all my rules for you, because I thought it was worth it. Because I thought
you
were worth it. I need to know I wasn’t wrong, so if you can’t convince me of that, I will walk out of here right now and not look back.”

Her blood pounded in her ears. It hadn’t occurred to her until that very second that this could be it. But if Isaac couldn’t make her understand, how could she in all good faith give them another chance? She was too old for games, and too independent to pretend his words hadn’t cut.

The longer he stared at her, the more she thought that was it. So much for apologies or big speeches. So much for second chances. The latter was the real disappointment. Because she wanted to be convinced. She wouldn’t have come if she didn’t.

“We would be here until next Sunday if I tried to dissect everything that went wrong last night.” Gone was the anger, the joking. This was Isaac stripped down, eyes darker than normal in their solemnity. “I won’t apologize for wanting to protect you. I can’t. That really would make a liar out of me. But I can apologize for being so damn condescending about it. And I am. Sorry, I mean. I was too angry to be reasonable.”

“We were both angry.”

“You were justified. He came to your parents’ house.”

“And you were kind of being a jerk.”

“One of my many expertises.”

“So maybe I should just get used to it?”

“I didn’t say that.” His hand splayed across the tabletop. “The truth is…you’re right. I tend to be a little more traditional than not. And a lot of the women I’ve known fall into the same kind of roles.”

“Do you really think that? Or is it possible you’re projecting what you want onto them?”

He shrugged. “Probably a little of both. But some of them definitely couldn’t take care of themselves if you armed them with a nuclear weapon and all they had to do was push a button.”

“I can think of a few men who fall in that category too.”

A glimmer of a smile. “I’ll bet. But you know what? You don’t. I’ve known that almost from the start. You’re in a class of your own. The world is full of people who put on these faces and pretend to care, or pretend to be willing to work hard, or pretend whatever it’s going to take to get what they want, but it’s all a big sham. You’re not like that. You’re the real deal, and I’ve let you down almost every step of the way. Honestly? I don’t know how to convince you, or even if you’re not better off if I don’t. All I can say is I’ll try and be better. Because I know you’re worth it.”

Olivia traced Isaac’s finger with her nail, barely touching him. She didn’t want to admit it, but he’d knocked her for a loop when he walked away from her, and he did it again just now. She could’ve given the lecture about how she’d been taking care of herself for the past fifteen years, and she got along just fine without him, and if he disappeared tomorrow, she’d still get along just fine. She might want somebody to watch her back, but she didn’t need to be saved. It would have been a great lecture. But she watched his face as he spoke. She listened to his voice. Sincerity was there, in his words, in his eyes. He may have been acting like one, but he wasn’t actually a jerk.

If he had been, Tiberius and her mother would have seen right through him.

She closed her fingers over his. “You can start by cooking me breakfast tomorrow morning.”

The fresh light sparking in his eyes happened in a blink. One moment, he regarded her with that same bleak solemnity. The next, hope burned in the brown depths fixed on her. “Are you sure? If you need more time, it’s yours. Or, you know, if you need me to stand outside your window with
In Your Eyes
blaring on a boom box, you can have that too.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m not sure that’ll work for you. For one thing, you don’t have the naked vulnerability of a young John Cusack.” She leaned forward. “Of course I’m sure. If I didn’t want this to work, I wouldn’t be sitting here at all.”

Isaac tilted his hand back to entwine his fingers with hers. “Good. Because I don’t have a boom box either. And buying off the neighbors to keep them from calling it in as a disturbance gets expensive.” His thumb brushed over her palm, soft and shivery. “If we’re going to get busted for making too much noise, I want it to be for a hell of a better reason than my Peter Gabriel’s too loud.”

“Right,” Olivia agreed. “It should be something good, like your Whitney Houston is too loud.”

“That’s impossible. There is no too loud for Whitney.”

“My neighbors would disagree, but they’re all Philistines.”

His smile spread and warmed, and he sat up in order to reach for her other hand. “Are we back to being partners again too? Because I need you that way, just as much as this.”

“Yes, we are. I still think working together is our best shot at getting Gabriel.”

“Not to mention Parker. Because I think I’ve figured out how we’re going to do that, and kill two assholes with one stone.”

She had pointedly not mentioned Parker. It seemed wiser to avoid the volatile subject while they were still in the early phases of their reconciliation. But Isaac piqued her interest, and she was ready to jump back in with both feet.

“How? Are they related?”

“That’s what it looks like. After we got the confirmation the DNA was Parker’s, I pulled up all the gang activity since October, and then took maps of all his old haunts over to Nathan’s to work on this morning. Know what I found? All his old spots are now Gabriel’s, and the areas of the highest occurrences of violence since October were all Parker’s. He’s trying to get his territory back. Only
he
knows that if I saw him on the streets again, he’d be my number one priority. So he figured out he’s got to get me looking in a different direction.” He tapped the table to make his point. “He aimed me at Gabriel. With the arsons. Those never sounded like Gabriel’s work to me, especially leaving behind a body for me to find.”

“It makes sense he’d try to play you and Gabriel off each other. No matter who loses the game, he’s a winner. But why kill the fish?”

“Like I thought earlier. To throw me off my game. He’d know about my fish. Hell, I’ve had fish as pets since I was a kid. So to see them like that…” He stopped, his gazing sliding sideways. Within seconds, his face grew thunderous. “That son of a bitch. I should have known from the start it was him.”

“Because he hates fish?”

“Because he pretty much slit their throats. That’s what his little protégé Susanna did to Nathan. He’s always had a thing for knives. And he’s been slashing everything else too. My tires, the power at your parents’ house, my T-shirt—”

“Your T-shirt?” She held up her hand. “Wait. When was this?”

Isaac grimaced and gestured in dismissal. “Couple weeks ago. I pulled my favorite T-shirt out of the dryer and it was torn to shreds. But it was old, from when I was at the academy, and I’d put it in with my jeans, so I just figured the zipper or something got caught on it and ripped it up.”

She blinked. “A zipper is not going to do the same thing to a T-shirt that a knife is. You of all people should have known that.”

“Because it makes sense for someone to let themselves into my house—without my knowing, I might add—get into my dryer, cut up one old, ratty T-shirt, and then walk out without leaving a trace?” He grimaced and shook his head at how ridiculous that sounded. “I wrote it off as an accident. There wasn’t any reason for me to look at the shirt closely, except to say, ‘Oops, it’s torn, let’s throw it away.’”

She couldn’t fault him for his response. She wouldn’t immediately think of a knife-wielding maniac either. She could, and did, fault him for his response to the rest of it, though.

“So what are we going to do about it now? If Gabriel knew Parker was trying to move in on his territories, Parker would be murdered and dumped by now. You saw what Gabriel did to Tomas. He doesn’t fuck around. So does he just not know?”

“I think so,” he said. “And you’re right, if he did find out, he’d be all over Parker in a heartbeat.” He leaned closer. “What do you think of the idea of getting a message to Gabriel that says as much?”

“I think that would definitely make our lives a little easier. How do you suggest we do that? Because Gabriel hasn’t been returning my calls.”

His gaze was unwavering. “I was wondering about Rico, actually. He’s got to have connections with the gang still. And it’s not like he has to deliver the message personally. Do you think we could get him to do it?”

“Only if I promise to return the favor somehow. After Gabriel targeted his church, he’s not too interested in helping out. I’m going to owe him.”

“If we nail Gabriel with this, we’ll have a lot of leeway from the station. He can probably get anything he wants.”

She nodded. “I’ll get in contact with him today. I should be able to work out a deal with him.”

Tucking her hand into his, Isaac stroked the side of her thumb, long, slow caresses that reminded her of being stretched out underneath him, his body sliding up and down along hers as he drowned her in kisses. “You get all the credit for nailing Parker for this and the arsons, you know. You had your eye on the ball this whole time. The stalking, the research. Not to mention opening the door on finally collaring Gabriel. You ever get tired of Siberia, make sure your first stop is my department. I could use a partner like you full-time.”

A lump suddenly formed in her throat, and she looked away quickly, knowing Isaac would be able to see the emotion in her eyes. She didn’t know if he meant it as a real offer, but the fact he would say it—and say it so casually—said more about his true feelings than all of his speeches. “I might take you up on that some day. After I solve all my cases in Siberia. At the rate I’m going, it should only take another…twenty, twenty-five years, tops.”

He grinned. “Keep me on as your favorite consultant, and we might be able to chop five or so years off that.”

“You know what I find most attractive about you? Your modesty.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that
is
me being modest. I wanted to say ten, but I thought that sounded like bragging.”

“Are we still talking about years?” Olivia asked with a smirk. She squeezed his hand and stood up. “I’ve got to order lunch. What do you want?”

He twisted in his chair to look up at the menu mounted over the counter. “Turkey Reuben, double cheese, fries and a pickle,” he said, and then smiled. “I seem to have gotten my appetite back.”