The call had been short, barely a couple of minutes. He sighed, walking the sidewalk heading out of a section of town that had seen a better era. God she looked beautiful. He just wanted to see her for another few—wait, there it was again. That feeling. Like he was being followed.
He reached out with his feelings. A couple of halfbloods in the area a few blocks away—that was nothing new. New York had more than its fair share of awakened. All of them halfbloods; not another newblood like him in sight. Not that he’d seen anyway. There were a couple of street cops on foot. Nothing new there either. The typical nobody’s. He felt nothing nefarious—except. “Wait a second—” he mumbled under his breath. Liam ducked into a building alcove and vanished.
Appearing at the top of a four-story across the street he watched, crouched. He was being followed. At a safe distance; probably so they wouldn’t tingle his senses. But this guy got too close. He watched the plain-clothed agent talking to himself. Liam couldn’t make out his words because of the distance through the din of the traffic, and he wasn’t a lip-reader, but the nicely-dressed guy was clearly talking to someone; and now he had a frustrated look on his face.
Liam watched him now. Psionically cloaked, he moved from rooftop, to high ledge, to the windows of tall skyscrapers, hanging off the thick glass five stories above the street like a casually-dressed Spiderman.
Now he saw exactly what was going on—felt what was going on as well.
She walked a little too focused along the sidewalk, surrounded by a myriad of people, talking into her cellphone when suddenly someone was right in front of her.
“What do you want?” The much larger Liam stepped in front of her, her danger senses suddenly freaking out. She’d been totally oblivious to his superior talents at keeping himself cloaked and all but invisible. Now he’d startled her but good seeming to appear out of nowhere.
“OH! Jesus! Liam!” she half jumped, her phone fumbling from her grasp.
Liam plucked it out of the air and handed it back to her, watching her calm herself.
“You’re a little jittery for a fed.”
She clicked off the phone, grabbed his arm and pulled him into a building alcove and away from the sidewalk.
“Where the hell have you been?” Her face grew stormy.
“Trying to buy Tori’s freedom from that thug pirate, what the hell do you think I’ve been doing?”
“I got that. You should have called me.”
“I’m not part of your little gang, Monica. And I can’t stand your boss. I’m still really pissed that you sucked Tori into all of this.”
“The President’s not my boss, Liam. We don’t really have a boss.”
“That’s right. You’re all double agents. Playing both sides against the middle. And you called me stupid.”
“Well you’re damn lucky I am a double agent, otherwise I’d be filling you with bullet holes right now.”
“Huh?”
“You’re attracting the attention of the wrong people, Liam.”
“Oh, you mean my little heist?” He folded his arms with a snarky smirk.
“I don’t know how you did that, but you pissed-off the president but good. Anyone ever tell you about thieving in moderation? It attracts less attention.”
“I didn’t take that much. Jesus, the whole place is filled with the stuff. They wouldn’t miss it.”
“Well they did.”
“There’s gotta be a few trillion in that place. They can spare a few billion.”
“Those are really big numbers, Liam. They missed it. And now they’re after you. Again.”
“How do they know I did it? Could be anyone.”
“They don’t know, thankfully; not at the moment—but it won’t take them long to put two and two together from your previous escapades. The M.O. is practically identical. You’re about to be a really popular guy, with all the wrong people.”
“Then Tori and I will just disappear.”
“You just don’t ‘get her’, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s not like you. She’s responsible. She has a sense of duty to her people and to her country.”
“Yea, well, I lost all respect for the country when your asshole boss voted himself in for a third term and those bought-and-paid-for lackeys in Congress just let him get away with it.” Liam glared.
“All the more reason to have people on the inside of the regime.”
“Yea, that’s a good name for it.”
“I’m going to assume you don’t know where Roberts is holding Tori?”
“Good guess. If I knew that, his yacht would be playing Titanic right now.”
“We need to work together.”
“I work alone. I don’t need some halfblood slowing me down.”
“I won’t be slowing you down; I’ll be helping you, numbskull.”
“Oh, right; you’re a fed. I keep forgetting.” He rolled his eyes with the sarcastic quip.
“Listen, I’d like for you to be one of my team, but I really don’t care about you. It’s Tori I care about and I want her back, safe. We’re much more powerful working together than independently. Help me find Tori. We can work together for this one mission at least. Deal?” she held out her hand.
Liam considered her words pursing his lips. He wasn’t all that excited about what she was doing playing double agent; but she had some really deep resources, other people working under her, with money and weapons he didn’t have. He nodded. He knew she was right. He shook her hand.
“Deal. What do we do—how do we get Tori back?”
29
L iam looked out the window through the fine drapes of the high-rise luxury hotel she’d check them into. The street was more than thirty stories below. For the past few hours they had shared details on what had happened to each of them over the past few weeks. They’d also shared some feelings in their communication. Monica wasn’t just interested in Tori as an agent. The two of them had shared quite a lot of intimacy.
“So you and Tori really did it, huh?” He turned back toward her watching her fingers dance over the keyboard of her Mac laptop while she sat lotus on one of the two beds in the room. Clad in nice yoga gear, she didn’t appear to like wearing bras. The white stretch tank top didn’t really hide her abs or her chest trying to bust out of the thing.
“Try to focus, Liam—” she typed. “Are those all of the drop locations for the gold you’ve been sending Roberts?”
“Yea. It’s different every time. So who started it, you or Tori?”
Monica sighed. “We both did. Are we going to talk about this all night?”
“I think it’s kind of sexy, actually.”
“You’re jealous.”
“A little—I think.” The truth was he didn’t really know what to think about the two of them doing it. Tori was his girlfriend, not his wife. He’d been awakened by another guy. Was he being hypocritical for feeling jealous about Tori sleeping with another woman? He stared at Monica. For a halfblood, she was gorgeous. He could see Tori sleeping with her. Their shared attraction didn’t help.
“You’re doing it again.” Monica looked up from her Mac.
“What?”
“Touching me. With your feelings.”
“Oh. Sorry.” He pulled back.
“Honestly, Liam, you’re going to need to rein in your empathy. You just broadcast like crazy without thinking.”
“So?”
“So the government is developing sensors that can pick up psionic activity.”
“Bullshit.”
“One more reason to keep your enemies closer. So you know what they’re up to.” She rapidly typed something out.
“Is that why you’re keeping me—closer?” He sat down on her bed, leaned in next to her and ran his lips along the side of her neck. She shivered, enjoying the near electric sensations for a few moments before pushing the shirtless newblood away. “I’m trying to focus here.”
“Then you
probably shouldn’t have gotten the two of us a room together.”
“I needed to find out what you know about Roberts. I’m adding it to my report.”
“Sure you did. You already know practically everything there is to know about the guy. Even the floor plans of his ship.” Liam waived his finger at her computer screen.
“We lost you once, Liam; we’re not losing you again.”
“We?” He moved in close to her again, letting their innate attraction just run wild. “Or you?”
“You don’t focus very well,” she let him kiss along her neck again.
“Oh, I’m plenty focused at the moment—trust me.”
She felt his feelings not just light on her, but move like an indescribable sensuous warmth all over her. She yipped a sudden short breath. The sudden allure of the newblood god was just like Tori’s. Liam folded her laptop closed and tossed it onto the other bed while the lights dimmed by themselves.
* * * * *
“It’s almost fifty degrees colder in there now. You’re going to killer her!” Mac complained.
“Better her than us. The new compressor’s doing its job. The crew’s not on edge anymore.”
“She’s barely responsive, Roy. What if she freezes to death in there?”
“Then it will be just one less Ra the world will have to deal with, won’t it?”
“You’re—killing her!” he raised his voice.
“What do you care, Mac? Seriously. She’s got you under her spell. That’s all this is—”
“So—what? What if she does?”
“Do you even hear what you are saying?” Roberts glared.
“Yea, I hear what I’m saying. For once in my life I have something I fucking care about!”
“She’s using you!” now Roberts raised his voice.
“So what? I’m not stupid. I know what she’s doing. I don’t care.”
“Just go prep to bring in the next shipment. That’s an order.”
“Fine! But if she dies, Roberts, I’m through. You got that? I’m done!”
“Mac—she’s not—”
“What the hell do you know? The only love you’ve ever had was money. We are not all like you!”
Mac stormed out of his stateroom, slamming the door.
30
O w. Jesus, Monica.” Liam groaned, lifting himself from the sheets and then slowly flopped back down between them onto his pillow. The blackout draperies pulled aside, early morning sunlight spilled in from the fine hotel room’s windows. The demigoddess was already up, showered, dressed, and feeding orders to the commanders spread throughout the city from her laptop. The smell of coffee lifted through the room from the tiny in-suite brewing station.
“Prince Charming finally awake?”
“Barely. You are not touching me, ever again.”
She smirked, taking a sip from her cup while zooming into the city from the live satellite link.
“You’re quite the stallion, Liam. I don’t think I’ve ever been with anyone quite so—well-endowed.”
“Yea, and its not gonna happen again either.”
“Aww,” she faux pouted, “did the big strong god get laid a little too hard last night?” She got up from the room’s table and stood at the foot of the bed watching him, enjoying every moment of his recovering torment. Liam wasn’t just well-hung, the guy was huge. He’d touched a G-spot deep within her she never knew she had. She—might have been a little over-enthusiastic with him last night.
“Laid? Is that what that was? I don’t think so. Savaged is more like it. Where did you learn to—”
“Youth. You guys think you know everything.”
“Not any more I don’t. Oooh.” His fingers very gently cradled a still very sore male and set of jewels.
“Your girlfriend said something similar after our first night as well. You’ll get used to it.” She turned and went back to her computer, leaning over the table while looking carefully at the screen.
“Used to it?” Liam leaned up again, this time on one elbow while his other hand tried to keep his lengthy equipment from moving too much. “How many times did you guys do it?”
“Someone’s snooping around the drop point,” she informed.
“You’re changing the subject.”
“The subject, Liam, is where these thugs are taking the gold bars you stashed in that dumpster last night.”
He nodded. “Back to their yacht. Wherever it is.”
“And once we know their location—”
“—I can rescue, Tori.”
“I’ll rescue Tori. I’m not letting an untrained agent anywhere near that boat.”
“Yea, well I’m not your ‘agent’, remember?”
“We’re supposed to be working together,” she reminded him, her voice a little testy.
He groaned. “Your boss is a schmuck.”
“They’re politicians, Liam; they’re all schmucks. You just choose the biggest schmuck who can feed you the most information. They’re in the dumpster now; loading those electronics parts boxes you told me about into a van. I recognize some of these guys from Roberts’ crew files. How much is in there?”
“About a ton. He didn’t want the van to be overloaded.”
“How much of the balance of the twenty tons does he have now?”
“A little more than half.”
She stood up from her computer. “You took over fifty tons. What are you going to do with the rest?”
Liam relaxed back down onto his pillow, his hands behind his head now, his thick biceps resting on the pillow. “Buy Tori and I a small island somewhere. Maybe build her a castle. Have a few kids. Probably some dogs.”
“I’m serious.”
His met eyes with hers. “So am I.”
“I’m grooming her to be a superspy and you want to settle her down and make babies?”
He nodded.
“This is going to be an interesting conversation between the three of us.”
“Three of us? I’m not inviting you to our island, Monica. You’re already messing up my life as it is.”
She giggled softly.
“What’s so funny?”
“You. Tori and I are a package deal, Liam. Truth be told, the three of us are ridiculously attracted, in case you hadn’t figured that out after last night.”
* * * * *
“How are you feeling?” Mac snuggled up close to her in the corner on the floor of the small frozen cell, trying in vain to warm her up through his own thick mittens. Her skin had turned a light blue.
“So cold.” She shivered, her voice barely audible.
“You’ve got to hang on, Tori. Only a few more days.”
“I can’t, Mac. I can’t hold on anymore—I’m so cold.”
Her shivering quiet voice tore him up inside. He didn’t care anymore. Fuck Roberts, and the whole fucking crew. He opened his thick insulated jacket and drew her naked into it. God she was like a ice.
Tori felt his warmth. Felt his feelings. After a few minutes she stopped shivering. Slowly flowing blood within her began moving again, reinvigorating other areas of her body. She was regenerating again. But she knew he wouldn’t last long in here with her like this, drawing on his body’s own heat to warm her. She hoped it would be enough.
Roberts glared at the monitor watching the two of them; a couple of his original Seal team stood behind him. He loved Mac like a brother, but he wasn’t going to allow him to sabotage the mission or endanger the rest of the team.
“Keep an eye on him,” Roberts ordered. “Let the rest of the unit know what’s happening. If he makes any kind of move, you know what you have to do.”
Neither looked happy. But both men nodded.
* * * * *
“There’s nothing there, Commander.” Liam listened in on Monica’s video call with her field agent. “We follow it flawlessly all over town. The driver parks it back at the hotel and by the time we check it out, it’s empty. No gold.”
“Then the
y have to be off-loading it somehow, while they’re driving around town.”
“That’s the only explanation we could come up with as well. But how—? We have satellite covering the whole city.”
“We don’t see them when they go under the river,” she reminded.
“True, but you don’t just stop to unload a ton of gold in the middle of the Lincoln tunnel without someone noticing.”
“I agree. We need to figure this out, Clive. We don’t have that many more deliveries before we’re done. If the last drop goes out, we’ll never see Miss Evenson again.”
“Understood, Commander.”
She ended the call.
“That didn’t sound positive.” Liam worried.
“It’s not. We have to find out how they’re getting the gold offloaded from their van.”
“We only have two more shipments.” Liam didn’t look happy. “You need to let me tail them.”
“Not a chance. You’re not trained, Liam. They’ll notice an amateur tail the moment you start following them. These people are seasoned Special Ops. They can spot a tail a mile away.”
“I won’t be a mile away.”
“Then how are you going to follow them?”
“I follow lots of people, Monica. They don’t see me. I followed you. None of you saw me.”
“We were on foot, Liam. We’re talking about a moving vehicle that drives all over town. How are you going to keep up without them seeing you?”
“That’s my business.”
She sighed.
“We only have two more days. And you are running out of options.”
“Liam, there’s no time to train you; I can’t just—”
“I can do this, Monica. I stole the gold from a secure building without anyone seeing. I can follow a stupid van.”
Monica scowled. She was running out of options. More like it, she was already out of options. It was against her better judgment, but she nodded. “You have one day. Make the drop. Follow them. Learn what you can, but do not engage their people.”
Siren (Awakened Chronicles Book 1) Page 11
