Authors: Jamie Craig
Isaac held her eyes for only a moment before lifting his to Nathan’s. “That true?”
Nathan nodded. “The grenade blocked the front stairwell to the third floor. She wouldn’t have been able to get in that way. And the back stairs are a fire escape with the doors locked to the outside. She wouldn’t have been able to get to the third floor that way either. Tian was waiting in the one unlocked room on the third floor. If she were there before him, he would have seen her and killed her.”
He said it so matter-of-factly Remy wondered if it was an argument he had already resolved in his head. Was that why he’d been inclined to believe her?
It didn’t matter. The logic of Nathan’s assertions made Isaac pause.
“What about windows?”
Nathan shook his head. “The warehouse was secure, Isaac. I wouldn’t have followed Tian otherwise. But the windows in the room were blown out. All of them. Several minutes after the grenade exploded.”
She hadn’t known that. She had assumed the damage she’d seen was because of the explosion he had told her about.
“Let’s go.” Already, Isaac was moving, going back to the table and picking up the box of doughnuts. When he went to pocket the coin as well, Remy darted forward and snatched it away, retreating to put it back in the box they were using for safekeeping. Now that she was sure the coin was behind it all, the fewer people who handled it, the better. “You want me to believe you so badly, I want to see where her little time machine dropped her off. Then we’ll talk.”
* * *
By the time they walked around the rear of the abandoned warehouse, Isaac’s clenched jaw ached more than his shoulder. Just as Nathan had said, the front stairwell was blocked by debris. It would take someone much smaller than any of them to get through it, which meant, according to Nathan, there was only one other means of entry. With every step closer, Isaac felt his stomach tighten.
It was crazy. All of it. Girls showing up out of nowhere, pretending to be from the future, wearing clothes probably picked up at some cut-rate Hollywood costume shop, talking about magical coins capable of…what? He didn’t know. Nathan didn’t know. Remy sure as hell didn’t know. Yet, they both expected Isaac to accept it, to believe someone had shot Remy up with techno gadgetry as if it wasn’t like something off the SyFy Channel.
What bothered him more, though, was how reasonable Nathan was about the whole thing. He was giving Remy the benefit of the doubt when he had always been the first of them to be skeptical. Well, the first since Susanna. That entire debacle had opened Nathan’s eyes to the world. There hadn’t been a single person in five years—female or otherwise—who had managed to alter that.
Until now.
Remy stayed out of their way, letting the two men lead to the back of the building. When Nathan came to a stop outside the door, Isaac nearly collided with him, frowning as he glanced over his friend’s shoulder to see him test the steel door handle.
It didn’t even move.
“Damn it.” He glanced at Remy out of the corner of his eye, but it didn’t change the only conclusion he could draw. There was no way she could have entered this way.
“Do you want to bust the lock?” Nathan asked. “I have some tools in the trunk. And a small blow torch.”
“I hear a hard head might do the same thing.” Isaac snatched the offered car keys and whirled on his heel, marching back to the street to retrieve the tools. The answer had to be inside.
By the time they got the door open, the sun was high overhead and Isaac’s back was soaked with sweat. Stepping from the brilliant light of day into the murk of the warehouse was almost soothing, even if it was hotter than Hell itself inside.
“You want me to wait out here?” Remy’s eyes flashed in defiance. “I’d hate to contaminate the evidence.”
Isaac was tempted to tell her exactly where she could wait, but one glance at Nathan had him shaking his head.
“Better to keep an eye on you.” He swept an arm out, indicating Nathan should go first. “Lead the way.”
“Gladly.”
The trio moved slowly through the heat, Isaac bringing up the rear. The stairwell was thick with dust and stale air, and Nathan’s flashlight caught the motes whirling about as their footsteps disturbed them.
The door on the third floor hung open. Light filtered in through the filthy windows, while more clouds of dust danced around their heads.
“Watch your step,” Nathan warned as they picked their way down the corridor. He paused outside a door and pushed it open with his shoulder. “This is where I found Tian.” As they entered the room, Nathan pointed to a makeshift blockade of tables and boxes. “He was hiding behind there.” Then he turned to the right, pointing to the empty center of the room. “Remy was there.”
Shattered glass covered every available surface, the sunlight streaming in pale yellow stripes through the broken windows. Isaac stepped gingerly forward to the patch of floor Nathan indicated and crouched down to inspect it more closely.
“When did the windows break? Before or after you saw Remy?”
“It all happened fast. There were some explosions, and then it felt like a mild earthquake, and then the glass shattered, and there she was. I was too distracted by Tian to notice when she…arrived.”
Nathan’s choice of verbiage was what Isaac didn’t want to hear. Because Remy hadn’t arrived. She had only left. After the glass had already broken.
There wasn’t a large enough patch of floor bare of the shards that could indicate Remy was there before the windows had shattered. There were footsteps in the dust showing someone had fled from the spot Nathan had pointed out, but nothing leading up to it. By all appearances, the only way someone could have come to that spot was if they had dropped from above.
Isaac tilted his head back to look up. The smooth ceiling stretched above him.
“Thin air,” Nathan murmured over Isaac’s shoulder.
He was beginning to see that. Unbidden, his gaze slid sideways to Remy, but she stood, large-eyed and silent, watching them. Waiting.
His phone rang shrilly from his pocket, startling Isaac into straightening and pulling it out. He didn’t recognize the number on the display, but that didn’t mean a whole hell of a lot. “McGuire,” he snapped. “And this better be good.”
“It’s Ronnie, Detective McGuire. You asked me to call when I got something on that ID you gave me yesterday?”
Isaac calmed at the young man’s nervous voice, turning his back on Nathan and Remy. “Yeah? What do you have?”
“Oh, man, detective, this shit is incredible…”
As Ronnie descended into an almost unintelligible stream of technical geek-speak, Isaac rubbed at his eyes in a vain attempt to lessen his growing headache. He had expected to hear the funny-looking piece of plastic was a cheap knock-off of a Hollywood prop. He hadn’t anticipated the department’s best tech guy getting a hard-on for the microchip he’d peeled away from the holographic picture, and he hadn’t bargained on said tech guy calling in his buddies from some computer company Isaac didn’t recognize to help him figure out the technology it contained.
By the time he disconnected, Isaac decided it was better for his personal sanity to just accept Remy’s story and pray nobody from the station found out.
“So,” he said, shoving his phone back into his pocket as he looked back to Remy, “who do I put my money on for next year’s Super Bowl?”
* * *
Nathan knew Isaac needed some time to process everything and double-check his conclusion before he’d be ready to talk about it. He’d repeat all the doubts, re-ask his questions, and re-think the evidence until he was satisfied his conclusion had been the correct one. Nathan could be patient, but Remy kept sending worried glances Isaac’s way. The only time Isaac spoke was when he indicated he wanted to pick up his car.
Nathan was just relieved Isaac hadn’t had them both carted off to the madhouse. He’d expected his skepticism, his impatience, his annoyance. He had even expected Isaac to insist on seeing every piece of evidence with his own eyes, and he hadn’t been annoyed when Isaac demanded a tour of the warehouse.
But truth be told, he had never expected Isaac to believe Remy’s story.
Of course, after Ronnie’s report on the card, what choice did he have? Nathan wondered if they were messing up time somehow by selling the coins she had stolen, or letting geeky kids with computer fetishes look at her identification card. Allowing parts of the future to interact with the past always seemed like a pretty big mistake in the books he’d read and the movies he’d seen, but everything seemed to be fine now. Now being the operative word. Maybe he was messing up shit twenty years in the future and wouldn’t know it until then.
Nathan decided not to think about everything he was probably destroying, shifting his attention to the story behind Remy’s coin. It had been a nice story. A little dire for his taste. He wasn’t sure what it had to do with time travel, though. If the legend was to be believed, the woman who created the coin hadn’t jumped backward seventy-five years. She’d turned into some sort of animal. Or she had died. Either way, she wasn’t moving through time.
So how did it apply to Remy?
Nathan wasn’t surprised when Isaac asked to be dropped off at the valet stand. “Did they pass the test?”
“All I ever ask is they treat me like any of their other customers.” Isaac pushed his door open and stepped out. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting a little respect.”
Nathan opened his door as well. “Wait here, yeah? I need to talk to him.” He followed Isaac to the stand. “You’re LAPD. You already get as much respect as you deserve.”
“Probably.” Isaac handed his parking stub to the valet and turned his back to the stand, folding his arms across his chest. “Make me feel better and tell me you didn’t know about Remy all along.”
“She told me yesterday morning. She said she didn’t want to lie to me. I didn’t really want to believe her at first either, but…I don’t know how else to explain everything.”
Isaac nodded. He seemed to be taking Nathan’s answers more in stride now, though Nathan wasn’t sure if it was because of the overwhelming physical evidence or because he was tired of arguing. After a moment of more contemplation, Isaac exhaled loudly and almost smiled.
“You’re fucking her, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
“And you do know you’re robbing the cradle, right? I mean, your new girlfriend hasn’t even been born yet.”
The joke was further proof Isaac was coming around. “Now I’ll have something to think over during those long winter nights.”
“You really think she’ll be around that long? If all this is true, she showed up without any warning. Who says she’s not going to leave the same way?”
Nathan looked down, unable to answer immediately. It wasn’t that the question hadn’t occurred to him before. He just didn’t want to think about it. It was easier to take things one step at a time. “I don’t know, Isaac. I really don’t. But what can I do?”
Isaac’s car appeared at the parking garage exit and pulled to a stop in front of them. “Get this bitch Kirsten off her back, for starters,” Isaac said, stepping around the front of the car to the driver’s side door. He took the keys from the valet, but paused before getting inside. “Maybe all we have to do to get rid of her is find her parents and keep them from dancing together at the senior prom. Less chance of getting shot again.”
“Isaac. If all of this is too crazy for you…if you don’t want to risk another trip to the hospital for some girl you don’t even know…I’ll understand.”
“And miss out on the grand finale? Not on your life.” Ducking his head, he started to get in the car, only to hesitate and look back up to Nathan. Isaac’s eyes were free of the earlier amusement, but the anger was gone as well. Only sincerity was left. “I won’t lie and tell you I trust her now. But I’ve got eyes. I can see she’s important to you. That means, whatever you want from me from this point on, you’ve got. No questions asked.”
Nathan wasn’t surprised by Isaac’s response. He was the one person on the planet Nathan could count on, regardless of the situation. There wasn’t anything to say except, “Thanks. Don’t let Kirsten get another piece of you.”
After dropping off Isaac, Nathan was too lost in his own thoughts to worry about conversation, though thankfully, Remy’s silence said she was preoccupied as well. At her tentative request, he drove them to the beach again, more than happy to follow her around the pier as she wandered amongst the throng. He bought her a pretzel and frozen lemonade, nachos and an ice cream cone. She accepted everything with a warm smile, but her eyes were a hundred miles away.
He let her lead the way, eventually ending up on the shore. There was a moment when she slipped off her shoes that he thought to warn her about the hot sand, but after a quick glance at the sun, Nathan changed his mind. It hung low on the horizon, orange streaks licking across the smooth surface of the water, and a cool breeze eased the earlier heat. There would be no danger of burned soles at this hour.
“You have got to be the most patient guy in the whole world,” Remy said out of the blue. Her voice was quiet, nearly drowned out by the distant roar of the waves, and her eyes still fixed someplace far away. “I’m the one all this shit is happening to, and I still only half believe it. You even stuck up for me with Isaac before you had half the proof you do now. You are an interesting man, Nathan Pierce.”
Nathan didn’t know why he had been compelled to defend her, and her ridiculous claims, to Isaac. Except…he believed her and her ridiculous claims.
“Some would say interesting. I’m sure others would say foolish.” Nathan paused. How could he explain that more than he wanted to trust her, he wanted to trust himself? He wanted to have faith in his own feelings, in what his senses and his gut told him.
“Well, not me.”
Her pacing wasn’t even, stopping and starting as she dug her toes into the sand or kicked away a shell from her path. Still, Nathan matched her strides, content at the moment to watch.
“What did you think of the Silver Maiden story?”
Nathan shrugged. “It was intriguing. I suppose I expected the punch line to be something about disappearing in a big flashing light, only to show up, I don’t know, a hundred years in the future. What did you think of it?”
Stopping as a wave rolled onto the sand, Remy curled her feet into the surf as she contemplated his question. “It hit a little too close to home,” she confessed.
He frowned, comparing the details of the story to what he knew of her life. “The overall theme of the work?”
Her affirmation would have been lost if it wasn’t for the shallow dip of her head. When she began walking again, Nathan resumed his place at her side.
“You know the last thing I remember thinking before showing up in the warehouse here?” Her head was high, eyes soft with memory. “That it could be over. All the running. All the hiding. That I could find the one place I could call home. Funny, huh, thinking about what the Silver Maiden wanted?”
“Not so funny. I mean, isn’t that what everybody wants at some point? I suppose maybe it’s that basic desire that…makes it work, somehow. What’s funny is, why a warehouse in Culver City? Because when I think of home, I tend to think of someplace not quite so disgusting.”
“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure that out ever since I realized what had happened to me.” Her gaze drifted toward the ocean again. “I’ve never even been to California before. How could I wish for someplace I’ve never seen?”
Nathan bent to pick up a small shell. He rolled it through his fingers, watching the dying light catch the subtle pinks and greens. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Remy studying the seashell with curiosity.
“I don’t know what it’s like seventy-five years from now, but doesn’t everybody secretly want to live in California?” Nathan asked, pressing the shell into her hand. “What’s not to love? I mean, besides the rampant crime, pollution, earthquakes, mudslides and wildfires?”
Her mouth curved into a half smile as she traced the shell’s delicate lines. “Don’t forget the shoot-outs and attempted kidnappings. Those make a girl feel welcome.”
Nathan returned her smile. “At least you missed the grenades.” He nodded toward a distant outcropping of rocks. It was a bit difficult to see against the setting sun, but there were a handful of sea lions catching the last rays of sunshine. “But it’s not all bad, right?”
He looked down, catching her fingers with his.
She wasn’t looking at the sea lions in the distance. Instead, her luminous eyes were upturned toward his. The moment their fingers made contact, her grip tightened, her skin sticky from the sweets she’d consumed on the pier. “No. It’s not all bad.”
They had only walked a few more feet before she tugged him to another halt. Without letting go, she positioned herself to stand directly in front of him, blocking him from going any farther. “Do you think you’re foolish for believing me?”
“I don’t think I can spend the rest of my life doubting everybody, everything,” Nathan said, unable to meet her eyes. When Isaac had relented, it felt like he had been validated, and with that, came a sense of relief. They couldn’t both be wrong again, could they? “I don’t think I’m foolish, and I hope I’m not making another mistake.”
“You’re not. I promise you.”
Gently, Nathan stepped around Remy, tugging at her hand to begin walking again. “Judging from the story and what you told me, I think the Silver Maiden might be a one-way pass.” His feet slipped in the wet sand as the water crept higher up the beach. “Though Kirsten might have the second coin. That’s probably how she followed you. Which means she must think there’s a way to get back.”
“But I don’t want to go back.”
“I didn’t mean to suggest you would.”
“But you said…” Her voice trailed off, and he glanced out of the corner of his eye to see her shaking her head. “Never mind. I’ve been thinking too much today. I guess I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“No, I was just thinking about the nature of the coins. She needs the one in your possession to get back. We might be able to use that.” Nathan noted her shoulders were still tense, and despite her dismissive words, he thought she was upset. “Why? What did you think I meant?”
It took a long time for the answer to come. “That this was the nice-guy way for you to say you were done with me, which, you know, would be understandable.” She turned her head away from him, but what captured her attention, he had no idea. “I mean, no harm, no foul, right?”
“After I spent the entire morning trying to convince Isaac you weren’t crazy?” When she didn’t respond to his light question, he pulled her around to face him. “What have you been thinking too much about today?”
The solemnity in her eyes was unsettling. He was accustomed to seeing her playful or aroused or even angry. He wasn’t sure what to make of this.
“You,” Remy admitted. “Freedom. Why it is a wish for someplace safe, someplace just for me, would land me in a dingy warehouse practically at your feet.” Her lashes lowered. When she spoke again, her voice was so low, her words so rushed, he had to strain to hear her. “And maybe the Silver Maiden knew what she was doing when she brought me here.”
Nathan thought he knew what she meant, but he couldn’t ask her directly. Couldn’t say the words himself. So, he settled on the simple question. “Why?”
Her head snapped back up again, and this time, the light in her face burned with unexpected fervor. “Because I don’t do this. I don’t meet strangers and hand my life over to them with a big red bow and say, ‘Here. Do whatever you want. I trust you not to fuck me up.’ And yet, there you are. I look at you, and I think, everything is okay because I’m with you. That the world makes sense. That I make sense. I think there’s no place else I want to be.” She twisted her hand away and took a step back. “Do you know how scary that is?”
Nathan knew how scared he was at that moment. He could accept her showing up in the middle of the warehouse, injured, with no explanation. He could accept the fact he wanted her from the minute he first touched her. He could accept the fact she was from the year 2084 and grew up in a street gang in Washington fucking D.C. But he didn’t know what to do with this.
“Me. You think she sent you to me? But, Remy, I’m not those things. I’m not safe. You’ve nearly been kidnapped and murdered because of me, because of my life. I’m not…” She was moving away from him, and he knew she had misunderstood. He wasn’t trying to push her away, but he thought she needed to understand. “I’m not anything.”
Everything about her blazed. “Guess what, Nate? People were trying to kill or hurt me long before you came into the picture. The only difference now is that I feel like it’s okay if I well and truly fight back. So don’t tell me you’re nothing.” She turned and began marching back up to the pier.
But why me?
he wanted to shout after her.
Goddammit, why me?
If the Silver Maiden had the power to send her into the past and across the country, it had the power to send her anywhere in the world at any time. There were far, far better men than him. Better women, too. Better choices all around. Hell, why not drop her off at Isaac’s feet? Isaac would have warmed to her eventually, and taken care of her.
But he wouldn’t have loved her.
“Remy, wait,” he called, hurrying to catch up, but she didn’t pause or acknowledge him. “Remy.” Nathan caught her elbow and pulled her against him. Her eyes were flashing when she looked up at him, but she didn’t resist when he lowered his mouth to hers.
Her palms flattened against his chest, ready to push him away at a moment’s notice. But the pressure of his lips to hers, the heat exchanged in spite of the cooling night air, melted Remy’s body to Nathan’s, and he forgot everything but the familiar dance of her kiss, coiling the fingers of his free hand in the thick tresses of her hair.
“You’re not nothing,” she breathed when he tore away. “Not to me.”
Nathan pressed his lips against her forehead. “Well, if some mystical coin forged centuries ago with tears and blood says we’re meant to be, who am I to disagree?”
Her laughter chased off even more of his confusion. “Oh, sure. Make me sound more cracked than I already do.”
He shared her smile. “That’s an impressive feat.” Nathan kissed her again, playfully biting at her bottom lip. When she pulled her mouth away from his, he nipped his way down her neck, tasting the moisture and salt from the ocean on her skin. She laughingly fought off his attack, twisting out of his arms.
Nathan caught her again, now sliding his lips along her skin to ease away the light scrapes from his teeth. “But regardless of the crazy reason, I’m happy you’re here.”
Remy sighed, softening in his embrace. “Me, too.”
Neither noticed the sun slipping below the horizon as they found each other’s mouth again.
* * *
Gabriel gestured for another drink, leaning across the bar to watch the waitress as she sauntered over. She smiled, her eyes twinkling as she set another round in front of them. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
“No problem.”
“She sure is easy on the eyes,” Gabriel commented, his gaze still trained on her as she walked away.
“Yeah, real easy,” Tian murmured.
Gabriel lifted his beer. “What’s wrong with you? Do you have money on the Angels game or something?”
“Look, I thought we were here to talk about business,” Tian said, squeezing the lemon into his drink.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. It had been nothing but business since he arrived in Los Angeles. Sometimes, he just wanted to go to a bar and have a beer. “We have plenty of time to talk about business.”
“No.” At Gabriel’s raised eyebrow, Tian glanced away. “Look, we don’t have a lot of time. That’s the point.”
Gabriel took a long swallow, regarding Tian’s pinched face. He was a smart young man, and Gabriel liked doing business with him, but he was so uptight. The men at the end of the bar moaned, a long, tortured sound.
“Well, I hope you didn’t have money on the Yankees.”
“No,” Tian said tightly. “I don’t have any money on the goddamned Yankees.”
Gabriel rolled a pretzel through his fingers. He could string Tian along for hours if he wanted to. Days, even. Tian would hate it, resent Gabriel, and not make a secret of it, but he’d go along with the game. And that was the interesting part. Tian didn’t play well with others. He was accustomed to being the head dog, and that’s how he liked it. So why was he rolling over now? And how could Gabriel stop himself from kicking the other man’s exposed stomach?
He popped the pretzel in his mouth and chased it with a gulp of beer. “Okay, why don’t you tell me what we’re doing here?”
Tian straightened, clearly relieved to be getting to business. “There’s this bounty hunter, been on my tail ever since I jumped bail. He’s good. And he’s persistent. When he was just playing with me, you know, I didn’t mind. But the other night, he killed a few of my boys. That shit ain’t right.”
Gabriel shrugged. “I’m sure they were great guys, but I’m not sure why I should care.”
Tian’s eyes flashed, a hint of his infamous temper rising to the surface again. Gabriel thought it was rather remarkable he was able to keep his true face so well hidden. Beneath the intelligent mask he wore, a dark asp lurked.
“Because I’m paying you to care,” Tian answered with measured calmness.
“My concern comes at a heavy price. What makes you think you can buy it?”
“You will care,” Tian countered. “You’ll care a lot when Nathan Pierce is coming after you. He’s not just some guy, Gabriel. He’s powerful. He’s got a lot of friends in important places.”
Gabriel cocked his eyebrow. “He’s a bounty hunter. I don’t have a bounty on my head.”
“He hasn’t always been a bounty hunter.” Tian leaned forward. “Look, you’ve got big plans here in L.A. I know you’re not just here for the grenades. He’s on the streets. All the time. I might kill him, but if he gets me first, it’ll just be a matter of time before he starts coming after you.”
“You make him sound like the boogeyman,” Gabriel said with an easy smile.
“No, he’s a guy who doesn’t give a fuck. About anything.”
With a shake of his head, Gabriel slid his gaze away from Tian and back to the television in the corner, only to stop midway when he saw Salvador weaving his way through the crowd. He frowned. Sal wasn’t supposed to be here. He had left him back at the house to keep an eye on things there. What was he doing disobeying orders?