Act of Surveillance: Paranormal Security and Intelligence® an Immortal Ops® World Novel (PSI-Ops/Immortal Ops Book 7)

by Mandy M. Roth

  Liberty glanced out the window of the diner—only to see the telecommunications van parked across the street. “Or they wanted a late lunch or early dinner.”

  “Say what?” asked Isobel.

  “I can see the van,” said Liberty. “It’s outside of the diner we’re at.”

  “Oh, maybe they’re totally following you,” said Isobel with a chuckle.

  “Ha. Ha.” Liberty rolled her eyes and smiled. “Funny.”

  “Hey, you don’t know that I’m wrong. My conspiracy theory carries weight since I can start fires with my mind.”

  Liberty tensed and shot a frantic look around the table, praying no one overheard the statement.

  Rurik was busy staring out the window, his focus on the telecommunications van.

  Bill shrugged. “Big deal. Sput-Rurik can turn into a bear. Gus can talk in people’s minds and knows some shit way before it happens. I know a vampire who is into really kinky sex. Duke is a big meanie and can turn into a wolf. I don’t know what that long-haired devil-worshiping-looking dude with the stupid name turns into.” He glanced at Gus and then nodded. “Right. Boomer. Panther. Got it, Gus, thanks.”

  Liberty sat there staring at the man as she held her phone.

  Bill continued. “Anyway, Boomer can turn into a panther. That’s cool. Better than a stupid bear. Damn Iron Curtain can’t even spit out proper shifters.”

  “If Daisy could hear him now,” said Isobel, laughing more. “She’d commit him on the spot.”

  “Leave him be. He has a colorful imagination,” argued Liberty, feeling protective of Bill.

  “If you say so, but most would say that about us if they heard us talking about what we can really do,” Isobel said, laughing more. It took her a few moments to collect herself enough to speak. “Oh, before I forget. You didn’t lock the front door.”

  Liberty paused, thinking about what she’d done when she’d left the house. “That’s odd. I could have sworn I did. I remember using my key to lock it and then tossing my keys in my bag—I think. Though I couldn’t find them when I got to the university. Sorry. Today has been a crazy day.”

  “Totally,” said Isobel. “I need to go. I have to focus on this. Don’t wait up for me. I have a date for tonight.”

  “With who?” asked Liberty.

  “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself. Your new boy toy drags his father around with him on dates,” said Isobel as she snorted and hung up.

  Liberty tucked her phone away. “Sorry. She’d have worried if I didn’t answer.”

  Rurik shifted his focus back to her. “She’s a good friend.”

  “She’s like a sister to me,” stated Liberty.

  “Boy toy?” asked Bill, nodding to Rurik. “Nice label there, Sput-Rurik.”

  Liberty sank down in the booth, wanting to fade away as she wondered how they’d been able to hear Isobel’s side of the conversation.

  Bill perked. “Are you ready to go? We need to get you home so you can start baking our pies.”

  “I’m sure she has better things to do than bake you pies,” said Rurik.

  Bill pointed to Liberty while he spoke to his son. “Gus says she’ll be overthinking the whole day and all the times her lips locked with yours, then she’s gonna stay up late baking.”

  His words hit a little too close to home. It was one thing for Isobel and Daisy to guess as much; it was an entirely different matter for a man she’d only just met to do so.

  Gus’s gaze found hers and for a second it felt as if he was seeing through her. He then went back to blowing bubbles in his milkshake leftovers.

  Could it be there was something more to both Gus and Bill?

  Gus picked then to blow extra hard through his straw, causing what was left of his milkshake to fly out and all over the front of him.

  Bill swiped his finger out and through some of it. He then stuck his finger in his mouth. “Yum.”

  The act stopped the wheels in her head from spinning out of control with the possibilities of either of the men being more than human.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Rurik watched the home across the street as darkness blanketed the area. Several of the home’s windows were open enough for a man Rurik’s size to easily fit through. It took all of him not to run over and close the windows before securing their locks and possibly installing bars to keep out intruders.

  The van from the phone company was back, though it was now parked in front of Liberty’s house. Earlier in the day, it had been farther down the street and had then appeared outside the diner while they’d been eating. It had bothered him then and continued to do so now.

  For the past hour he’d been watching the van, letting his imagination run wild with conspiracy theories. The saddest thing was knowing just how many conspiracies were rooted in truth.

  Sometimes the government perpetuated rumors and leaked footage or videos, focusing on the internet spots that theorists tended to frequent. The more the conspiracy junkies latched on to what others would see as crazy, the more likely the rest of the world was to think the information was nothing more than the talk of tabloids.

  The age-old sleight of hand trick worked well unless the government wasn’t the one doing the releasing of information. Then it was simply mass pandemonium with conspiracy theorists shouting from every platform they could and the government running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

  Such had been the case with the recent info dump on the internet about the Immortal Ops Program and its affiliates. The testing that had led to their creation, as well as The Corporation’s Asia Project, had been released to the public.

  While Rurik didn’t know a ton about the internet, or what the hell a blog actually was, he knew enough to know the techs at PSI had their hands full trying to contain the mess.

  Wasn’t exactly working out for them or anything.

  He had to wonder if The Corporation was behind the major data leak. They didn’t seem entirely opposed to the idea of humans knowing supernaturals were real. If they were against it, they had a funny way of showing as much, especially since they’d been known to launch attacks in the view of the public.

  That was only one of the reasons Rurik found he couldn’t stop watching the van across the street. A piece of him worried that The Corporation was behind the van being in the vicinity of Liberty so much.

  As Rurik continued to watch the house, he realized the movement he’d caught was nothing more than a curtain blowing—no doubt caused by one of the many fans he could see from his vantage point.

  The safehouse lacked anything in the way of centralized air but had a number of small window air conditioning units. He wasn’t a fan of them even though he preferred cold weather, especially considering where he’d been born and raised.

  Rurik glanced over at the unit he’d removed from the very window he was standing before. It was sitting off in the far corner of the bedroom now.

  When he’d gotten back from eating with Liberty, Rurik had tasked Bill with helping him set up surveillance equipment.

  Within two short minutes of having Bill lend a hand, Rurik had chased the man off, unable to deal with his endless storytelling combined with his nonstop questions about every bit of gear they’d brought. It hadn’t helped any that Bill continued to point out how wrong it was to spy on Liberty since they’d become fast friends with her.

  Rurik knew as much.

  He didn’t want to carry out the task, but it was his mission. And it was hardly the first time in his life he’d been forced to go against his better judgment. Though he’d thought those days were long behind him—left in Russia, along with his sordid past.

  There was a lot he’d change if given the opportunity. Had he stood up against those in charge back then, he’d not be here now. He’d be dead but with a clear conscience.

  Pavel came to mind once more, and Rurik gave up trying to figure out why the man had plagued his thoughts all day. It wasn’t as though he went through his dai
ly life paying any mind to the man at all, let alone fixate on him or think he smelled him.

  Something was off.

  Rurik couldn’t put his finger on it though. All he knew was that Pavel had gone from an afterthought to someone he couldn’t get out of his head.

  Their past was littered with issues. The last time he’d thought of Pavel this much had been twenty years ago today—when he’d smelled the man’s scent on Little Paw, near the wounds on her face.

  His nostrils flared thinking back on it all.

  If he ever did come face-to-face with his old friend, he’d rip his fucking face off and see how he liked it. Then he’d snap the man’s neck.

  He growled.

  He took a few deep breaths to get hold of himself before he inadvertently did something like shift forms then and there. The bedroom was decent sized but nowhere near big enough to accommodate an extra-large brown bear.

  There were still a couple of hours before midnight, meaning today was still his birthday. While it was a day that he normally gave little in the way of thought to, he couldn’t help but view meeting Liberty as the best gift ever. His day with her had started shakily but ended perfectly. Well, almost perfectly.

  It would have been better if Bill and Gus wouldn’t have done their version of matchmaking and chaperoning.

  He adjusted the parabolic microphone. It looked like something out of an old science fiction movie rather than a top-end piece of technology issued by a clandestine government agency.

  Since Rurik had been forced to sit through more than one training session revolving around the equipment, he could attest to the fact it was more than capable of doing its job—listening in from a distance.

  The ill-fitting headphones did nothing to dispel his theory that technology was of the devil and only complicated mankind, rather than helped it. If the damned things continued to get wound up in his hair, all while pinching his ears, he was going to return them to PSI in pieces.

  While his hearing was off the charts in comparison to a human’s, zeroing in on what was happening within the dwelling across the street was a bit out of his capabilities. In fully shifted form, he’d hear much more, but even as a bear, he’d only pick up on someone shouting or yelling within Liberty’s house.

  At the thought of that happening, his bear stirred.

  Rurik’s concern for the young woman as well as his inability to stop thinking about her was worrisome. He had a job to do—one that involved spying on her—but he was close to telling his higher-ups to go fuck themselves.

  She wasn’t a threat.

  Neither were her friends.

  Isobel was still on her date. Daisy was at the conference. Liberty was home alone, and Rurik had to keep fighting the urge to go to her, to take her in his arms and ravish her.

  Focus.

  He moved his head side to side, as if the motion would somehow dislodge the endless loop of thoughts centering around Liberty from his head.

  It didn’t work.

  All it did manage to do was make the already uncomfortable headset get caught in his hair more.

  “Fucking things,” he muttered, doing his best to unwind them from his hair while resisting the urge to crush them.

  He aimed the dish toward one of the many front-facing windows and glanced down as he focused, trying to sort out the sounds coming through the headset. After a few seconds he managed to do just that. The first thing he heard was all the fans. The next was a blender or mixer of some sort. Over the loud noise he could faintly hear Liberty humming a lighthearted tune.

  His cock took notice and did its best to point in the direction of the house as well. It’s like the appendage understood exactly where the object of his desire was located. Had it been free from his jeans it would have been at full mast. Before today, it had been a while since that had happened.

  A long while.

  Oddly, sex had been a major part of his life at one point and then it had just fallen off his list of priorities or needs. It was evident the need was back and with a vengeance. Though he didn’t want to fill the void with just anyone as his bed partner. He wanted one woman and one woman only.

  The one he was eavesdropping on.

  I’m an asshole.

  With his head still tilted downward, Rurik did his best to ignore the continued sound of the kitchen appliance in order to focus fully on the humming.

  He wasn’t proud of the fact he was turned on by what sounded a lot like the national anthem, but it was what it was, and his dick didn’t much care one way or another. It simply wanted the person doing the humming.

  Another pang of guilt moved through him at the idea he was violating Liberty’s privacy even with as turned on as he was. Part of the conflict came from his unnatural pull to her. There was something there, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on about her. It was as if he’d known her all her life and had been just waiting for their paths to cross once more.

  That was absurd.

  He’d never met her before his current mission. Forgetting her would have been impossible. He’d remember her and the taste of her lips long after this assignment was over. When she was nothing more than a footnote in a report that he’d no doubt run behind on filing with the home office.

  He closed his eyes, already mourning the loss of her in his immediate orbit when it had yet to even occur. The idea of never seeing her again jarred him, leaving him yanking off the headset and tossing it onto the bed near him. He put the microphone down a little gentler but not by much. He didn’t care how expensive the equipment was.

  Rurik pulled a hand over his face as his stomach tightened. Briefly, he feared he’d be physically ill, yet he couldn’t understand why the thought of being away from Liberty would cause such a reaction in him.

  The smallest of niggles started in the back of his head and then things began to line up for him. It was as if his brain had finally deemed him worthy of seeing the information he’d been soaking in the entire day.

  The unnatural pull to her.

  The instant attraction.

  The inability to get her out of his mind.

  The fact that his cock was locked in on her location as if it were ready for a missile strike.

  The insane way he’d reacted when he’d gotten the note from Bill informing him Liberty was in danger.

  Rurik’s eyes widened as a line of Russian came flooding from his mouth.

  He’d seen a number of his brothers-in-arms meet their mates in recent weeks. Each one had seemingly lost their minds upon meeting the women they’d been destined for—their mates.

  His gaze snapped up, his attention going directly to one of the windows across the street. Could he be on to something? Was he showing the same signs of mating insanity?

  No.

  If Liberty was his mate, he’d know, right? He’d have the urge to claim her.

  As the notion entered his mind, the bear in him made itself known, causing his gums to burn with a pending shift, as if his teeth were totally on board with the idea of sinking into her tender flesh while he drove himself into her.

  “Fuck,” he spat, taking a large step back as he swung his arm out wildly, hitting the equipment he’d tossed onto the bed that was beside him.

  The parabolic microphone went flying across the room where it then struck the wall, breaking into several pieces. The sight of the mess on the floor helped to calm him marginally, but the uneasy feeling that he might be on to something as far as Liberty being someone important to him lingered.

  “Do your job,” he said in a harsh whisper. “Maintain focus and complete the mission at hand.”

  The words did little to help him concentrate. He’d always been an obedient soldier. He’d always followed orders, but the urge to pack the equipment away and refuse to gather intel on Liberty and her friends was so strong that he nearly gave in.

  There was no fucking way Liberty was working with the enemy. It didn’t matter that additional information about her possible involvem
ent in the disappearance of two scientists had come to light and been emailed to Rurik. It didn’t matter that her roommate Isobel was also on PSI’s watch list. Rurik refused to believe for one second that Liberty was with The Corporation.

  The supposed proof of it all was on his phone, which was on the side table, buzzing yet again.

  It had been doing a lot of that all afternoon.

  So far Auberi had tried to reach him numerous times, as had Garth, Blaise, and even Duke of all people.

  Rurik hadn’t answered.

  He didn’t want to hear what they had to say about the mission. He just wanted to watch the house in hopes of catching a glimpse of Liberty once again.

  Reaching down, he adjusted his cock in his jeans. If he didn’t figure out a way to control himself around the woman, he’d be walking around with a nonstop erection.

  Closing his eyes, he pictured himself kissing her once again, tasting her sweet lips before this time going further and running his hands up and under her wet T-shirt. The fantasy did nothing to lessen his hard-on. It only served to make matters worse. The man was half tempted to unzip and choke the kuritsa, as Bill would say.

  Giving in, Rurik undid the button of his jeans and slid his hand in, rubbing the length of himself. With his eyes still shut, Rurik drew together a mental image of Liberty. She was still in the wet T-shirt in his fantasy, standing there, looking at him with a mix of need and aggravation in her chocolate-brown eyes.

  He groaned as pleasure began to build with the simple act of stroking the length of his cock. If touching himself while thinking of her felt this good, he could only guess at what wonders awaited him should he ever experience the feel of her lips wrapped around his shaft, or what it would be like to ram into her pussy. He could taste her lips on his and knew what it was like to kiss her.

  He pumped his cock with one hand as he lifted the other, putting his palm to the window to steady himself. With his gaze now locked on the house across the street, but his mind filled with images of Liberty, Rurik sped his pace, focusing on the top portion of his cock. His ball sac tightened as his body teetered on the edge of culmination.