Revealing Silver by Jamie Craig Read Free Book Online Page A

coins.”
    Another visible reaction, this one more pronounced as Isaac sat up straight against the back of the chair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Ask her.”
    “Haven’t you been listening to me? There’s no instruction manual. She knows as little as I do about the Silver Maiden.”
    He picked a bit of lint from his pants wondering, not for the first time, how McGuire and his posse managed to destroy all his plans. Well, it hadn’t been McGuire at all. Olivia Wright and her visions had been primarily responsible for his downfall, and she probably could have accomplished it without McGuire’s assistance. The coins had led Olivia right to him, but that had been his own fault. Despite his best efforts, Stacy had never accepted her role in the grander scheme of things. The coins had helped Olivia because she was born to protect the priestesses. They were dealing with an ancient power and relics from a forgotten age. He couldn’t exactly explain that, for all Stacy’s crying and hysterics, she’d never been in any actual danger . He would never hurt his girls—the Maiden’s girls.
    “Haven’t you been listening to me? I’m not telling you shit, and your girlfriend knows more than she’s let on.”
    “You’re lying. I was there the last time she picked up the coin. I was the one who had to hold on to her because seeing what you did to Stacy made her sick. Nothing you can say will convince me she went into that with full knowledge. Nothing.”
    Gabriel yawned, now thoroughly bored with the conversation. “That’s not what I said. And whether you believe me or not, it makes absolutely no difference to me.”
    Arms across the chest again. McGuire needed a new routine. This one had gotten stale years ago. “Kind of like you missing your cell block party makes no difference to me. I’ve got all night.”
    Gabriel dropped his head back to study the ceiling. When he got out, he was going to kill McGuire with his own two hands. Just because he was clearly too stupid to live. The good cops usually were, in his experience. The really smart ones always got along better on the other side of the law. Like McGuire’s old partner. What Nathan did as a bounty hunter could almost be called kidnapping, especially when he was pulling thugs on Isaac’s orders. It was a shame to think about what might have been if Susanna had done her job. Working with Parker had been one hell of an expensive mistake.
    “Well, if spending Christmas Eve with me makes you happy, who am I to complain?”
    Gabriel would happily serve as a bit of a distraction for the good detective. As long as McGuire was slamming his head against this particular wall, he wouldn’t be using the coins to get in Marisol’s way. This was exactly why Isaac made an excellent cop and a piss-poor tough guy. In the end, he actually gave a fuck. He had an infinite amount of power sitting in his sock drawer, and he was too stupid to let go of his feelings and seize the opportunity. As long as Isaac kept bellowing about the coins being dangerous, Gabriel would have the upper hand.

Chapter Four
    Some families enjoyed quiet, low-key Christmases with comforting traditions whose origins had long since been lost in the murky fog of time. Some families made Clark Griswald look like the love child of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch. Olivia’s parents had always been more of the latter. She watched Christmas Vacation with a twinge of longing—why couldn’t her own father take such a measured, reasonable view toward the holiday? She had amazing memories of Christmas mornings, and perhaps unnaturally inflated expectations of how the holiday should play out. It wasn’t Isaac’s fault she’d built the day up in her head, desperately clinging to any normality while everything else spun out of control.
    He showed up a little before eight, as he promised, but it was clear he hadn’t slept a wink. He wore a clean shirt—the one he kept at his desk—but he hadn’t