Touching Silver by Jamie Craig Page B

erection.
    “Are you going to go all Gloria Steinem on me if I say yes?” he countered.
    “No. Well, not tonight. I’m too tired to argue with you.” She chewed on the tip of her thumb, her gaze sliding around the room. “And I don’t really feel like being alone.”
    “That’s good. I don’t really feel like leaving you alone.” Carefully, he stretched his arm across the back of the couch, his hand coming to rest next to her shoulder. “I’m out of practice. I’ve always worried about Nathan, mostly because he’s useless at taking care of himself. But it’s been a long time since I’ve had a partner to think bout.”
    Olivia shifted, turning to face him, her shoulder brushing against his thumb. “So, what exactly do Nathan and Remy hope to find in Argentina?”
    “More information on that coin she handed over to Gabriel last summer. Supposedly, that’s where it came from originally.” He snorted. “I’m not sure what more they’re going to find. It was a dumb story with a crap ending.”
    She smiled. “I like dumb stories with crap endings. How does this one go?”
    Though he knew how much it consumed Nathan, Isaac hadn’t given much thought to the actual story of the Silver Maiden since Remy had given the coin to Gabriel. He had to stop for a moment and think, focusing on the details.
    “According to the story, some slave hundreds of years ago wanted to buy her freedom. So she started keeping all these slivers of silver from the work they made her do and, at night, she worked on making these coins she thought would do the trick. The way she figured it, she’d get in touch with this cult who’d help her get free, but by the time she actually finished the coins, she was old and the cult was defunct.”
    “So there’s more than one coin? Not just the one Gabriel has?” Olivia leaned forward. “What happened to the slave?”
    “Yeah, there’s supposed to be two of them, but Remy only ever had the one. Oh, and listen to this. After all her hard work, the slave didn’t even get to have a peaceful death or anything. She got mauled and then eaten by some wild animal. You see what I mean about a crap ending?”
    She frowned. “That does sound like a pretty crappy ending. So what? They’re trying to find out why the coins are so valuable to Gabriel? Or some other connection to him?”
    Quicksand here. He had to tread lightly or risk getting pulled under by the insanity that was Remy’s life. He wasn’t sure yet if Olivia would throw him a branch or anything to help him get out again.
    “Gabriel let all of us walk last year to get just one of those coins. And nothing Nathan’s been able to turn up here in L.A. has been able to tell us why. Stacy mentioning the Silver Maiden means we’re missing something. So, yeah, he’s hoping he’ll find something more local that wouldn’t have made it up this far. Something we might be able to use.”
    “The eyes in the back of your head.”
    “More like my right arm.”
    “That’s one of the things I miss about working homicide. Having a regular partner. Don’t you miss working a case with somebody you trust?”
    “I am working a case with someone I trust.”
    “For now. But after we get Gabriel, you’re going to go back to your loner ways, aren’t you?”
    “That’s up to you.” Without looking away from her, Isaac caught a tendril of her hair, letting it slip over and through his fingers. Even wet, it shimmered in the light, and he succumbed to the urge to thread more of it over his hand. “If I thought I could get someone like you, it wouldn’t be so hard to convince me to have another partner again.”
    She glanced down at his hand without moving her head, like she would pull back, or push his hand away. But she didn’t. She allowed him to continue to caress and play with the drying strands. When she opened her mouth, her warm breath fluttered across the back of his thumb.
    “Isaac, when I said I don’t date colleagues, I meant to