“No—you hold on ‘Mr. I’m-so-invincible’. I’m almost ten times your age, buster. I may not have all of your genetica, the abilities that make you a god, but I sure as hell know when to shut the fuck up and get the hell out of Dodge!”
Liam’s eyes were wide. She was damn near as old as Louis—and looked a helluva lot better in her underwear.
“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to cover for your pathetic excuse for an intellect, create diversions and manufacture delays so you could escape.” She poked her finger onto his broad chest.
Liam’s face fell chagrinned at the harsh words.
“You’re undisciplined, Liam. Unstable. And untrained.”
“I’m training.”
“You don’t act like it. Tori could likely kick your sorry ass all over Tampa at this point.”
“I—I didn’t know, Monica. I just had no—”
“Clue? Well now you do.” She folded her arms under her pert tank-top-covered breasts, looking stormy.
“I was just looking out for Tori.”
“More like yourself, you mean.”
“No, honestly. I’ve moved into the condo next to hers.”
“Really?” Now Monica’s face showed surprise. “You’re the new mystery guy who moved into ‘40B’?” The revelation had her half stunned.
“Yea.” He nodded. Pursing his lips. “I wanted to be there; protecting her; if she needs me.”
“That’s a little out of character for you, Sinclair.”
“I’m—not always a fast learner, Monica. Sometimes it takes me a while.”
“Well, you’d better start learning faster, Liam. You don’t have the luxury of being self-serving anymore.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We?” her brow lifted.
“You said you tried to trap me—to recruit me. Alright, I’m recruited, if it will help Tori. What do we do?”
“Fortuitously, that plan blew up. You got away—again. I already have a few teams spreading out looking for you. Which means you have some time here.”
“With Tori?”
“And to train. We need allies, Liam.”
“Then you don’t really work for that bastard in the White House, do you?”
“No. Of course not. He just thinks we work for him.”
“Who do you work for then?”
“You’ll meet him soon enough, I’m sure. His name is Mr. Harlan.”
12
S he opened the door half expecting to see Mrs. Whirley from unit C on her floor asking to borrow a cup of sugar, or some milk, or a few eggs. What the elderly widow really wanted was some company to talk to.
Tori’s eyes grew suddenly wide with surprise. Liam stood outside her door, a huge bouquet of beautiful roses laid across his arm.
“Hello, Angel.” He smiled, taking in her sight. God she was beautiful. Her hair pulled back into a long ponytail, she was comfortably dressed in faded light-blue jeans and a red fleece v-neck collared top that showed far too much of her chest. She was clearly not expecting company this evening.
“Liam—ah—” she stammered. It had been weeks and weeks since she’d last seen him in the passenger seat of her car.
“Mind if I come in?”
“Ah, sure but, the place is a wreck. I just got back from—”
“Langley. I know.”
“You know?”
“I—sort of moved in next door.”
“You did not!!” her eyes lit.
“I did. You want to see?”
“Sure!”
“Here,” he handed her the flowers. “These are for you.”
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“Yes I did.”
“Don’t, don’t go anywhere. Please.” She half pleaded.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’ll be right back!”
It was two minutes before she returned to her door, the scent of mint lifting from her lips. He didn’t wait. Their lips met in the open foyer. Both kissed ravenously. Her hands were already all over the back of his Levi’s, while his hands found her open v-neck.
“I missed you,” she kissed.
“Ahhh, I missed you too.”
* * * * *
“Now what are they doing?” One of the Special Forces approached Roberts and the others gathered around the iPad below decks.
“Still fucking.”
“Still? Jesus, they were fucking two hours ago.”
“She’s on her knees this time.”
The military-trained commander rolled his eyes. “When do we nab the kid?”
“Idiot. That’s no kid. That’s a god. We wait until he’s alone.”
“Yea, good luck,” he motioned toward the screen, “the way these two carry on. He’ll be pumping her all the way to Christmas.”
“Patience gentlemen,” Roberts calmed. “We’ve waited this long. Another week or two won’t matter.”
13
T ori could not remember ever feeling so relaxed in her life. She didn’t know what time it was as she drifted slowly awake feeling her hunky Liam pulling her closer and spooning warmly behind her.
Awake for only a few minutes himself now, he’d moved up next to her warm unclothed skin, drawing her body into his snuggled spoon. He knew it would probably wake her but it was already close to noon. Monica would be coming over soon and neither of them had done much of anything except sleep and—
Both heard the front door of Liam’s apartment open. Both felt her enter and then walk into his master bedroom.
“This is my surprised look.” Monica took a seat in one of the small room’s reading chairs.
Liam leaned up to look at her wearing a faint smile. “You’re not really surprised.” He flopped back down onto the fine pillow.
“Did you guys have fun last night?”
“What do you think?” Liam closed his eyes, smirking.
Tori stretched a loud yawn with Liam beside her, smoothing his hand over her taut tummy while she writhed.
“I have good news; for the both of you.”
“Oh?” Tori sat up letting the covers fall away from her front.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without clothes.” Monica looked at Tori’s well-endowed chest. Her pink nipples were cute.
“You should see her in her white bikini,” Liam grinned, his eyes still closed, feeling Tori next to him and smoothing his hand over her bare back.
“I have, Liam; we went to the beach a few times.”
“Close enough.” He grinned.
“It is not!” she slapped his pectoral lightly.
“I’ve heard that some of the gods don’t even wear clothes.” He added.
“That’s true, Liam.” Monica agreed. “But I haven’t met any of them yet and I don’t know that I ever will. That clan is very reclusive.”
Tori slipped from the sheets. Stretched again in front of both of them and then disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door. He felt Monica sigh softly. His empathy quietly linked with hers.
“Did—I just see what I think I saw?” He leaned up onto his elbows again, sensing her feelings.
“So?”
“I can feel what you’re feeling, Monica.”
“Liam, you’re both newbloods.”
“Meaning—?”
“You’re both attractive. Or hadn’t you noticed?”
“To each other—”
“To everyone.”
“Really? So you think Tori is—?”
“Sexy? You don’t pay attention very well.”
He frowned. “So I’ve been told.”
“I kissed your girlfriend, the other day, at the house.”
“You did?” Liam’s brows both lifted.
She nodded. “We made out, actually.”
“For how long?” He wasn’t so much angry as he was infatuated with her revelation.
“A few minutes; until she broke it off. She really respects you. For some odd reason.�
��
“Nice.” He grimaced at her sarcasm.
“She’s a nice girl, Liam. You don’t deserve her.”
“No. I don’t. That’s true.”
Both heard the shower cut on in the bathroom.
“What are you going to do?” Liam asked. “Are you going to keep making out with her?”
“If she wants to.”
“What if I don’t want you two making out?”
“What if she wants to, what are you going to say then?”
“Ah—I guess I don’t know.”
“This isn’t some monogamous Human culture you’re now stuck within, Liam. Attraction draws all kinds of families together. I’ve seen five and six parent families before.”
“SIX?”
She nodded. “Three and four are more common.”
“Weird.”
“Not weird when you’re saddled with the genetic attraction we have. Speaking of which, did you two use any protection last night?”
He flopped back onto the soft sheets grinning.
“I’ll assume that’s a ‘no’.”
“Relax. Gods don’t reproduce as often as Humans,” He countered.
“Obviously. But if you keep carrying on like this, you’re going to get her pregnant.”
“Why do you keep blaming me for this? She was fucking me half the night,” he countered.
“You’re both being irresponsible. You two need to be careful. I’m training a high-value agent and you’re going to send her to the maternity ward.”
Liam groaned. His thoughts of Tori last night flashed through his mind. Then he mused the thought of Tori and Monica making out. “You’re really that attracted to her?”
“I’m really that attracted to both of you.”
“You never said anything—”
“Professional decorum, Liam. It’s not wise to get involved with your co-workers, especially subordinates. Even if they are gods.”
14
R ising early in his apartment since Tori had been traveling with Monica, Liam hit the shower after a cup of coffee and a light breakfast. Slipping out of his briefs and pulling the knob, the dual shower heads sputtered cold water instead of warm.
“Great.” He grumbled. New building and already the plumbing was going haywire. Both shower heads finally shot cold onto his skin. But it wasn’t water. Something was hitting him from both sides, but whatever it was stung of bitter cold. He quickly tried the turn the knob off, but it was like it just spun freely in his hand. Whatever was coming out of the shower heads had dropped the temperature in the shower stall to something way below zero in a near instant of time. He needed to leave the stall, now! But he was moving far too slowly. Mere seconds under the freezing sprays had rendered him next to immobile. His danger senses rocketing off the charts, he sank slowly to the floor of the shower shivering uncontrollably. He—he couldn’t think straight; he couldn’t move. It was like he’d been stunned!
He didn’t know how much time had passed before he saw the big men entering his bathroom, dressed in thick winter parkas in the middle of summer.
* * * * *
Worry was written all over Tori’s face.
“He’s still not answering his phone?” Monica appeared concerned now.
Tori shook her head, lowering the phone from her ear after getting voice mail for the umpteenth time. “Maybe I should call Mrs. Whirley and ask her to knock on his door?”
“No. Don’t involve her. Something doesn’t feel right here.”
“I’m getting the same feeling.”
“We have agents in the area. I can get a couple of them to check out the apartment.” Monica picked up her phone.
“I would feel a lot better if you did that.”
* * * * *
A red-eye had brought both women back to Tampa. Both now stood in the master bathroom of Liam’s apartment, the plumbing now neatly exposed by other federal agents. Tori had seen what pluming looked like before, and nothing she was looking at was even remotely similar to anything she’d ever seen in the past.
“Whoever did this, didn’t leave so much as a thumbprint,” the agent began. “We were able to reverse engineer what happened. These tall silver canisters contain, or contained rather, the highly compressed components for a tri-phase chemical super-cooling agent. Room temperature storage. No need to run any kind of refrigeration. The first two components are pre-mixed here,” he pointed to a place where the pipes connected to a small silver box. “Then it’s injected with the final component just before it leaves the shower head. Boom! Instant Arctic. Pretty ingenious. In our tests, from the residual compounds, it reached negative thirty almost instantly. And they were using a lot more of this cooling agent than we were. My guess is this whole room probably dropped to well below zero in a matter of seconds. Whomever was in here, likely died instantly. They’d have been frozen solid.”
Monica just nodded quietly. “Clean this all up, Banes. Quietly. I want this place swept clean; like it never happened.”
The agent nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Tori followed Monica out of the apartment and into the elevator. “Tell me that’s not true. About Liam.”
“He’s not dead, Tori. Frost bitten maybe, but not dead.”
“Who could do this?!”
“You mean who would do this?”
Tori’s mind worked like lightning. “Detective Roberts?”
“That would be my guess.”
“I thought he was suspended from his job?”
“He never actually worked for Tampa PD, Tori. He’s actually a bounty hunter. He was just using the department for muscle. I’m betting he still has a contract to deliver Sinclair to Treasury.”
“The Seven? But they’ll kill him!”
“Exactly.”
“We have to rescue him!”
“That’s going to be easier said than done, Tori. He’s been taken. God only knows where by now.”
“How will they turn him over to them?”
“They won’t at first.”
“Why not—?”
* * * * *
“WHERE’S THE MONEY?!” The cold brass knuckles that had been fitted over the big man’s thick glove hit Liam hard across the face, again, adding to the growing bruise and tickle of blood that froze almost instantly down his cheek. The heavy blow hurt, but not enough to make him call out. The guy hit like a girl.
“Go to hell.” Liam glared at the big man. On the other side of the wall he could hear others talking.
“Maybe the room’s not cold enough?” one of the men watched their comrade on a TV monitor. He was still trying to beat the hell out of the young god who’d been cuffed naked to a metal chair in the small freezer room they’d rigged in the lower holds aboard ship.
“It’s not getting any colder. I have it running at full right now,” said another.
“Well maybe you should be using a goddamned baseball bat instead of the brass?”
“Maybe we should just put a few holes in him first, then see—”
“No—” Roberts countered. “Put the weapon away, Johnson. We damn near killed him with the freezer trap, I’m not gonna risk that again.”
The XO then pointed at the screen. “If we can’t get the room any colder than it is, then he’s going to be a lot tougher than we thought.”
“So how do we get him to cough up the location of the money?” another asked.
Roberts moved his fingers over his chin. “The girl.”
“Oh, right, she’s just as tough as he is.”
“Probably. But not in there she won’t be.” Roberts assured.
“Maybe we put some holes in her then?”
“I’ll put a hole in her,” another chuckled. “While he watches.”
“Not in there you won’t. Your dick wouldn’t last ten seconds in there.”
“I’ll fuck her with your dick then.”
“Knock it off.” Roberts ordered again. “One way or the other, we’ll get them to talk. Tru
st me.”
15
B oth goddesses had been up late the night before. It hadn’t taken Monica long to discover that Roberts was still working unofficially with the Reserve Board, and Treasury hadn’t officially dismissed him from the case.
Monica was still thinking about where Roberts might have taken Liam as her mind drifted awake, a long-haired brunette snuggled next to her under the soft, warm sheets.
She sighed, looking at Tori, softly stroking her very long thick hair. Monica could feel she was waking up, slowly. She smelled really nice in the morning. Who was she kidding? These newbloods smelled really nice—period.
It was breaking professional decorum. Neither of them should have been within miles of each other, but Monica was pretty sure Tori was a target now. Roberts had Liam, but it had been days and he’d still not delivered him to the Secret Service. Something was amiss. Somehow, Liam hadn’t delivered the whereabouts of the money. That had to be the only reason Roberts was holding out. That was a good thing.
Tori had been rooming with Monica at her beach house for several days now. The goddess was powerful, but she was still inexperienced against someone like Roberts. Tori needed a seasoned bodyguard. Perhaps it was only a matter of time. She felt Tori move softly against her skin again in a sleepy snuggle.
The two of them had burned the midnight oil researching clues found in Liam’s apartment. They’d not made much progress and the research was becoming a monotony of dead-ends. With Tori leaning over her shoulder, she’d felt her lips caressing her neck.
“I love the way you smell—”
“Hmmm,” Monica drank in the sensation of Tori’s full pout gliding over the skin of her neck. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to shut down the newblood goddess, but now she felt Tori’s feelings light over her own. It was a new feeling for her. Monica had never felt anything so—alluring. The goddess’ own feelings were mingling with hers—she could easily feel what Tori was feeling …
That was last night—just a few hours ago. She could still feel Tori’s empathy entwined within her own. Tori was waking—slowly—into the late morning.
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