Bill was still hopping on one foot, trying to get undone from the wires.
“Look!” Rurik pointed toward the other house.
Bill hopped closer to the window nearest him and ended up falling, landing cheek first against the pane of glass. He peered out the window, his face smushed partially. “What am I looking at, Russia? Hey, when did Liberty Bell’s friends get back?”
Rurik’s breathing increased. He’d have heard and seen Isobel’s car had she returned. “They haven’t.”
Bill began to sink down the window, making a loud sound as his cheek rubbed against the glass. “Well, somebody sure in the hell is over there with her. She ain’t in ten places at once.”
“Rurik?” Auberi bellowed from the phone that was all but forgotten in Rurik’s hand. “What is it?”
Dropping the phone, Rurik covered the distance to Bill and let a claw extend from his finger. He slashed the man free from the wires that were binding him and then caught Bill before he’d have fallen.
Rurik twisted and ran for the door.
“Bye, Frenchie,” said Bill, hurrying out behind Rurik.
The men were down the stairs in record time.
Rurik caught a glimpse of Gus standing where Bill said he was—directly in front of the window, staring out at the street. There wasn’t time to figure out why.
Rurik was out of the safe house and sprinting across the street in no time flat. Much to his surprise, so was Bill. They made it to Liberty’s front door at the same time, which shouldn’t have happened.
Rurik was about to break the door down when Bill pushed in front of him and pounded on it instead. He then hurried behind Rurik, making it look as though Rurik had pounded on the door. “Cool your jets there, Commie. I don’t hear her screaming or anything and Gus isn’t shouting in my head that she’s in danger. How’s about we not scare the fucking shit out of her, okay? You already made such a great impression on her out of the gate. Want to really see if you drive home the psychopath vibe?”
Chapter Twenty
Liberty pulled an apple pie from the oven and turned to place it on one of the cooling racks on the counter, only to see there wasn’t space left. She didn’t want to put the hot pie on the bare countertop and glanced around for a trivet. Her nervous one-woman bake-a-thon had left the other spots in the kitchen filled with baked goods and ingredients.
She glanced at the drawer where they kept the trivets. With concentration, she tapped into the side of herself that she knew made her different. The drawer opened and a blue silicone trivet with white stars popped out quickly before floating directly over to the small free space on the counter.
Once the trivet was down, she placed the pie upon it and looked over at the open drawer. A small grin touched her lips as she continued to tap into what she normally saw as a curse. The drawer shut with ease, seemingly on its own.
“Okay, sometimes it’s not totally horrible,” she said to herself as she surveyed the fruits of her labor.
The newest pie brought the total to four, the cupcake total to two dozen, the cookie total to around three dozen, and the hours of overthinking her day to around five and counting. None of the baking had taken the edge off her built-up nervous energy over the day she’d had with Rurik.
She wasn’t entirely sure if she was nervous baking because of how embarrassed she was at her behavior around Rurik all day, or if it had been born out of sexual frustration. The only solutions she could see was to transfer colleges and relocate to never see Rurik again, or give in and jump his bones.
Jump him!
She groaned at the realization her hormones were complete hussies and if they were left in charge of the decision-making, she’d be pregnant before the week was up.
“No thanks,” she muttered, glancing at the stuffed bear on the counter, not far from where the pies were cooling. There it sat, mocking her, reminding her of how she’d basically stolen it from Rurik. To top it off, she’d not even thought to offer it to him after their time at the diner together.
Her new plan was to sneak baked goods and the bear across the street, put them on the porch, ring the doorbell, and run away like the coward she was. If she dared put herself in a position to kiss him again, clothes would fall off. She was sure of it.
Liberty wiped her hands on the apron she wore whenever she baked. It had been a gift from Isobel and Daisy a few Christmases back. It was basically a giant American flag made into an apron. They thought it was an amusing play on her name. It had matching potholders as well.
There was a hard rap on the front door that sounded almost frantic.
“Geesh,” said Liberty, hurrying toward the living room. “Isobel, give me a—”
As she tossed open the door, her words died on her lips.
It wasn’t Isobel.
Rurik was standing there, facing her but glancing over his shoulder at a guilty-looking Bill.
“I wasn’t allowed to break the door down, but you could pound on it like that?” asked Rurik, his focus still on Bill, his voice coming out in a harsh whisper.
Break down the door?
When Bill saw her, he smiled wide. “Yes, because my way scared the crap out of her a lot less and clearly worked. The whole bit with you wanting to charge in like you were invading the country was a shit plan and you know it.”
“Invading the what?” asked Liberty.
Rurik’s head turned slowly back in her direction. When his gaze collided with hers, Liberty froze like a caught rabbit. Suddenly, the five-plus hours she’d spent trying to alleviate her anxiety over wanting to toss her legs open for the guy seemed to have been in vain. She was right back to feeling like she should beg him to make love to her. For the briefest of moments, she entertained doing just that.
“You’re in danger,” Rurik sputtered. “Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. I should go. Forget I was here.”
Bill shook his head and lowered it, bringing his hand to his forehead. “Tell me when it’s over. It’s like watching two virgins about to have a make-out session.”
Rurik cleared his throat. “Um, danger?”
“You already said that,” Bill stated evenly.
“The mole knows the plan,” blurted Rurik, making even less sense than before.
Liberty nodded slowly as if she was completely following along in the conversation. Then she cocked her head to one side, narrowing her gaze on Bill. “The who knows the what? I have no clue what he’s talking about.”
An amused smirk washed over Bill’s face. He waggled his brows at her. “Some super spy he is, huh?”
“Uh, right. A spy,” said Liberty, giving up on trying to understand what was happening. “Is this in addition to him being second-in-command to that team of badasses you mentioned?”
“Yep.” Bill leaned in a bit. “Would knowing he’s a super soldier make you want to do him faster? I’m only asking because my boy here seems a little tongue-tied when it comes to you, and if you could have seen what he was about to do when he was staring over here—”
“Stop helping,” barked Rurik.
Liberty used that moment to get her brain to do something other than its version of salivating at the sight of Rurik. “Danger? Go back to that. Why would I be in danger?”
He took a deep breath. “I saw movement in the windows—all the front-facing ones—at the same time. You are home alone. It couldn’t be you in all the rooms at one time.”
“It’s true. I seen it too, but he’s leaving out the part about Frenchie calling,” said Bill. “Sent the boy right into a dither. For a split second I thought the damn fool was going to go charging through your front door like a bear on spinach.”
“A bear on spinach?” she echoed.
“Liberty Bell, I like you and you seem smart enough,” said Bill. “But if you keep repeating everything I say, I’m gonna start to think otherwise.”
Rurik growled and twisted partially, rattling something off in Russian at Bill.
The older man smirked. “I�
��m not going to shut my mouth and I will keep helping. Clearly, you need all the help you can get. Gus has more sway with the ladies, and he hardly ever speaks out loud and isn’t one for eye contact. That right there should tell you all you need to know about how much your Russian suaveness is failing you right about now. Christ almighty, Sput-Rurik, if I wait for you to get around to finally telling the girl who she is to you, I’ll be dead from old age. You ran over here like your hair was on fire to get to her, thinking she was about to be murdered. You were more than worried about her. Tell her that.”
Liberty thought back to her time in the kitchen, when she’d tapped into her curse to get a trivet to place the pie upon, and cringed. Had she unknowingly caused other items in the house to float as well? It wasn’t as if she couldn’t do it, and she had been losing control of it all more and more at night. Had that crept over into her waking hours too?
“Gus? Where is he?” she blurted.
“He’s keeping watch for us,” said Bill before glancing at the house across the street. “He’s all set to man the getaway vehicle if we need to make a run for it.” The man’s expression said he was dead serious.
It was difficult to imagine Gus driving anything, let alone a getaway vehicle. She caught sight of slight movement from the front bay window of the demon house and tensed.
“You all right, Liberty Bell?” asked Bill, following her gaze.
Gus appeared in the window, staring directly at the telecommunications van that was now parked in front of the house on Liberty’s side of the street. Maybe that meant they were finally going to get the internet and lack of cell service fixed.
She touched her upper chest gently, running her finger over the American flag apron’s top edge. A small laugh came from her. “Just glad to see Gus and not glowing orange demon eyes.”
“Demon eyes?” asked Rurik.
She snorted. “Long story, but it boils down to Isobel and I thinking your house is totally inhabited by a demon. Daisy thinks we’re nuts, but since she’s always looking for signs of mental illness in others, we don’t really let her have a vote on the matter.”
Bill schooled his expression. “Gus told me all about the orange-eyed demon on our way here.”
“You didn’t tell me anything about any demon,” said Rurik to Bill.
“I would have but you hog-tied me and put that damn ball gag in my mouth,” snapped Bill with a huff. “I was a little too worried about taking a piss than everything Gus was shouting in my head the whole way here. You try remembering what all he says. I wish my brain had a built-in tape recorder. Hey, is that something you all have invented but just ain’t sharing the tech just yet?”
Rurik fixated on his father. “Can you please go back to the house? Gus should have you close by.”
“He’s not a child, son.” Bill stepped forward quickly, putting a hand on Rurik’s upper arm, all while facing Liberty. “Is-it-a-belt still on her hot date? It is hot, right? Have you heard? Nothing worse than a lukewarm date. Not that I have many of those. I’m kind of a chick magnet. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
Rurik’s brows shot up so quickly that Liberty had to fight to keep from laughing.
She didn’t want to hurt Bill’s feelings. “Hard not to notice.”
Bill nodded. “I know. We all have our crosses to bear.”
She grinned.
“So, your friend, how’s her date going?” he asked. “She call you or anything yet?”
His tone was easy and light but something in his gaze said there was more to the line of questions than he was letting on.
“She’s not back yet, so I’m guessing the date is going well,” admitted Liberty. “She’ll more than likely be back come sunup.”
Bill took his hand from Rurik’s arm and scratched his beard-covered cheek. “Walks of shame are the worst. Had my fair share in my life. You?”
Rurik was suddenly all ears, staring at her. “Well, have you?”
“Have I what?” She felt as though she needed a decoder ring to follow the conversation with Rurik and his father. Linear discussions didn’t seem to be either of their strong suits.
“Had a lot of walks of shame?” asked Rurik, a tightness showing around his eyes as his lips set in a thin line.
Liberty remained calm despite wanting to pull an Isobel and give the man the finger. “That really isn’t any of your business.”
Bill patted Rurik’s back. “That would be a yes, Red Army. She’s had them. Sucks knowing someone else beat you to the prize but hey, look at it this way, once you marry her, you’ll be the only one getting the present.”
“Stop or he might think you’re serious,” said Liberty with a snort.
Rurik cleared his throat and then jutted out his chin more. “Are you saying you wouldn’t want me as a husband?”
She rubbed her temple. “Are you high?”
“I’m always high, Liberty Bell,” inserted Bill before thumbing back in the direction of his house. “Got some good shit over there. Want me to go get it? I’ll share it with you. Not with Sput-Rurik though. He can’t touch my stash.”
“No. I’m good. Thanks for the offer though,” she said, wondering just how many laws the older man broke daily. She looked at Rurik. “Did you really come over here because you thought I was in danger, only to then be pissy that I’ve had some walks of shame in my past?”
“Yes,” he said with a jerk of his head before Bill patted him more on the back. Rurik licked his lips and squared his shoulders. “No. I would never.”
For as irritated as she was with him, she couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd he was being. “Liar.”
His blue gaze twinkled with mischief. “He’s right. When I marry you, this won’t be such a sore point for me. I’ll know you’re mine.”
“When you do what?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip.
“Did I mention danger?” he asked.
“Smooth.” She laughed again.
Bill flashed a wide smile. “He tries. Cut him some slack. He likes you. A lot. I’m not one to sing Sput-Rurik’s praises or anything, but the boy normally has more sense than he’s shown with you. From the second he saw you, he’s been operating with his head screwed on backward and his Russian chicken standing tall, if you catch my drift.”
Rurik growled again.
Bill leaned in toward Liberty and lowered his voice. “Word to the wise, make him wash his hands before he touches anything. He and his chicken were having a moment not long back.”
It took her a second to catch up to what he was saying. When she did, her gaze instantly snapped to Rurik’s groin and her face heated.
Bill laughed. “We’re just here to make sure you’re all right. We don’t want no evil physical therapist to murder you or nothing.”
“I’m… I’m…” She dragged her gaze up Rurik slowly to his face. “An evil what?”
The slightest of grins appeared on his handsome face. “If you step onto the porch and wait with Bill, I will check your home to be sure all is well.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said, easing closer to him. “I’m the only one here.”
He reached for her hand but stopped just short of making contact, his gaze never leaving hers. “I want to know you are safe. I need to know.”
“I am,” she replied, her hand finding his. “But if it will make you feel better, you’re welcome to come in and look around to be sure.”
He held her hand in much the same fashion he had before she’d kissed him in his driveway. “It will.”
She stared at his lips but managed to control herself this time. It was harder than it should have been. “Um, come in. Please.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” said Bill, darting past her.
Rurik dipped his head and for a second, Liberty thought he’d be the one kissing her. He paused and then groaned, looking past her. “He was to wait out here with you.”
Liberty smiled, her free hand going to Rurik’s chest. “Your father is fin
e. He can’t hurt anything.”
“Get to know him better,” said the Russian. “You will change your mind about that. He’s basically a human wrecking ball.”
“Hey, Commie!” shouted Bill from what sounded like the kitchen. “Marry her this instant! Liberty Bell really can bake. She’s a keeper! I can’t wait until she’s my daughter-in-law. You need to smell these cookies. Hey, Liberty Bell, the weed I mentioned would be so good in this stuff. Think you can make me some brownies with it? You said apple pie is your specialty. I bet my weed is good in that too.”
Rurik sighed, his hand still around hers.
Liberty laughed mellifluously. “He’s harmless and kind of adorable. You’re lucky to have him in your life.”
His expression said he didn’t quite agree.
Rurik licked his lower lip. “About Bill. He’s not my—”
“These are delicious!” shouted Bill. “Russia, you gotta come try one!”
“Shit,” said Rurik, rushing around Liberty and into the house. “Do not touch anything, old man!”
“Too late. I done ate four cookies already,” said Bill.
Liberty chuckled and hurried behind Rurik as he entered the kitchen area.
He went for Bill at once, and she touched his back, instantly feeling how rock-hard it was—just like the rest of him seemed to be.
He froze.
Bill grabbed another cookie from the cooling rack and shoved it in his mouth. “So good,” he mumbled.
Rurik stiffened. “Bill, enough.”
Liberty slid her hand slightly higher on his back, easing closer to him. “He’s fine. I promise. I was going to put all of this in a basket and put it on your porch later as an ‘I’m sorry.’”
Rurik glanced over his shoulder at her. “Sorry? For what?”
She blushed more. “How I was all day around you.”
“What do you mean?” asked Rurik.
“She’s been wanting to tear your clothes off, son,” said Bill.
Liberty groaned. The man wasn’t exactly wrong or anything.
Rurik’s gaze heated and snapped instantly to her lips. “Yes. Tear my clothes off.”
Act of Surveillance: Paranormal Security and Intelligence® an Immortal Ops® World Novel (PSI-Ops/Immortal Ops Book 7) Page 19
