by Tate James
“Well, isn't that interesting,” Dragomir purred, a sexy smirk on his lush, kissable lips.
Woah, what? No! Not sexy or kissable! Dangerous and sociopathic!
“I'll help you out with some answers,” he offered. “The transport company that handles all the new acquisitions for Onyx Auction would have kept you on an IV drip of fluids and sedatives. It's pretty common practice in human trafficking. Now tell me about these secret agent friends of yours. Are you romantically involved with one of them? Is that why you are so sure they will come to rescue you?”
Why was he so interested in the guys? He’d just told me that I had been gone for ten days! Ten days! Why weren't we focusing on that part? My mouth moved to form words, but my thoughts were conflicting and all that came out was a strangled squeak as I tried to change the subject back to how he knew so much about the ins and outs of slave trading. My head began pounding, and I rubbed my temple with a heavy hand.
“Just answer the question, Kit, and your head will feel better.” His velvet voice soothed me, and I lost my train of thought, so I frowned at him and tilted my head in question.
“Your friends. I asked if you were romantically involved,” he reminded me, and I smiled, thinking of my romantic involvement with the boys.
“With all of them?” I clarified, and he looked a little startled. “No, not all of them. Not with Wesley or Austin. Except for that one makeout session with Austin at the paintball park, but that was when I thought he was Caleb and he was just using me to win the game.” My mind wandered back to that makeout, and my body tingled at the memory of Austin's lips against mine, his strong hands cupping my thighs while he ground against my core with his rock hard…
“And what about this 'Caleb'? Are you involved with him?” Dragomir interrupted my reminiscing, and I was snapped back to the present.
“Hmm? Oh, uh, I guess? We haven't really done anything, though, so maybe I am just imagining our chemistry. Not like with River and Cole. I am definitely not imagining that.” I was rambling, badly, and I couldn't seem to shut it off. I picked up the glass of water on my tray table and took a long drink to try and regain my wits, but as I gulped I glanced up and caught a triumphant look on my companion's face.
“Why do you care, Dragomir?” I asked him back then giggled, “Hah, that rhymed.”
He cringed. “Don't call me that. My name is Vali.”
“Huh?” I asked, with all the intelligence of a drunk monkey. Why was my brain so foggy again?
“Long story. But please, just call me Vali.” He sighed with an angry twist to his mouth. “But this is about you, Kit. Tell me about why you don't consider yourself a 'normal' person and why drugs don't affect you the same way. Is there something more to you?”
I blinked several times, tightening my mouth in an effort not to reply. Even through my babbling word vomit, I knew I couldn't answer his question.
“Did you drug me?” I asked instead, finally putting two and two together, and he barked out a loud laugh. That absolute bastard!
“Why yes, I did. And you're absolutely right; it's not affecting you anywhere near as quickly as it should be. By my calculations, you should have been out cold a full five minutes ago, and yet here you are, still telling me all sorts of juicy secrets. It's a fun side effect of this particular drug. It works like a bit of a truth serum until you pass out.” His grin was full of smug self-satisfaction, and yet it didn't seem to prevent my mouth’s running away from me.
“You're really attractive,” I blurted. What. The. Hell.
“So I have been told.” The arrogant asshole. Who says shit like that? “Tell me more about why these drugs aren't affecting you, Kit.”
I clamped my jaw shut hard. I have kept my abilities secret for years; it would take more than a little dose of fuck-knows-what to make me spill my guts on that one. Folding my lead-like arms across my cashmere covered chest, I sat back and glared hard at my captor. Vali. I liked it; it suited him better than Dragomir or Românul.
He met my glare with his own thoughtful look, and we stayed locked like that for several moments before my vision started to blur and my eyelids felt like they were carrying extra weight with every blink.
“Wait.” A thought occurred to me. “I never told you my name. How do you know my name?”
Just my luck, whatever I had been drugged with was finally doing its job and I was sinking fast into unconsciousness. No response came from Vali except a deep chuckle and rustling of fabric before my chair was reclined flat underneath me.
“Sweet dreams, dragă,” he snickered, as though I had any choice about going to sleep. Bastard.
9
COLE
A sharp sting of pain lanced up my arm. My knuckle had just split open where it had connected with solid bone again. It didn’t seem to matter how often that same knuckle split open, it still stung like a bitch every time. Right in that moment though, I welcomed the pain. It helped focus my thoughts so I wasn’t being distracted by the groans of pain coming from the Ukrainian tied to the chair in front of me.
“Cole, mate, I don’t think he knows anything else,” my team leader murmured quietly in my ear when I stepped back to shake out my wrist. I clenched my jaw hard, not willing to accept that he may be right, and swung another solid punch into Sergei’s fat-thickened gut, knocking the air out of him and silencing his whining for a minute.
“He has to,” I muttered, dangerously quiet. My eyes took stock of the damage I had already done to the sack of filth in the chair, and I ran a quick mental list of the damage I could yet inflict before actually killing him. I wanted him to hurt, so much.
“Please…” The pathetic man sobbed through rapidly swelling eyes. “I swear, I’ve told you everything I know. I’m sorry.” He started up with a choked noise that seemed to be crying, but it just made me want to hurt him more. Filthy fucking human trafficker, dealing in the flesh of stolen girls. He deserved a lot worse.
“Cole, man. Ease up,” Caleb interjected as I was about to land another blow. Instead, I whirled on Caleb, my killer face securely in place, and I saw him visibly flinch.
“Cole! Step outside for a minute and catch a breath,” River commanded me in a tone that brooked no arguments, so I cracked my knuckles in anger and did as I was told.
I felt a bit bad for giving Caleb my killer face. It was the same face I had tried to use when I first met Kit, with the noble idea that maybe I could scare her off me, but for some goddamn reason, I couldn’t seem to make myself follow through.
Despite my best efforts to show her the death and destruction hiding behind my eyes, that damn girl just kept dragging me back in. I’d found myself deliberately seeking out her company, watching her when she spoke or moved, even flirting. Fuck, she made me care about her, and it wasn’t an emotion I knew how to handle.
The time spent training her in combat had been the longest weeks of my entire life—being so close to her, touching her and not acting on my primal desires when I wasn’t sure she was even interested. Until that night in the gym, after the break-in at Blood Moon, I had genuinely thought I hadn’t stood a chance. Fuck, how wrong I’d been.
When she initiated, when she made the first move, I was a total goner. River had joked afterwards that I was acting like a man in love, and although I had hit him to shut him up, a small part of me wondered if maybe he was right. Then again, he was hardly one to throw stones about being under my Vixen’s spell.
Huh, that had a nice sound to it… my Vixen.
I knew that she wasn’t solely mine; Caleb has been going nuts over her for months, and we all knew River had already staked his claim. Wesley watched her constantly like a lovesick puppy, not that she had ever noticed, poor guy. Hell, even Austin was falling for her, although he would rather cut off an arm than admit it, thanks to his fucking stupid hang-ups. That Peyton bitch had really pulled a number on him.
In all honesty, I didn’t mind the idea of sharing Kit with my team. I loved them all like brothers, be
tter than brothers, and with all the trouble she seemed to attract, it was not a bad thing to know she would always have someone around to protect her.
A stupid smile crept over my lips at the thought of what she would say if she heard that. Kit had a spine of steel, and despite her fun and flirty mask, she was sporting a shell almost as hard as my own. If she thought for even a second that we were all trying to protect her, I hated to think what stupid ass move she’d pull to prove us wrong.
I paced the dark, damp corridor a couple of times, trying to get a hold on my emotions before going back in there so that I didn’t accidentally end up killing that sweaty heap of garbage before getting my answers. Even though he deserved it. Director Pierre wouldn’t buy it as an accident though, not with my history. I couldn’t afford to be taken off active duty while my Vixen was still missing, so I needed to pull myself together.
Before I could barge back into the disused supply room where we were holding Sergei prisoner, my team filtered back out, and Austin silently handed me a rag to wipe the blood off my hands.
“We’re done.” River told me sternly, shutting the door tightly behind him and blocking it with his body.
“Like hell we are,” I snarled at him, “Move. He still hasn’t told us where she is.”
“No, mate. I am telling you, as your team leader, that we are done here. I’m satisfied that he has told us everything he knows. Wesley has just made the call to HQ to come and collect him for processing.” River didn’t often pull rank against me, and he knew I wouldn’t fight him on it in front of the team. I ground my teeth hard, the creak of it echoing into the tense silence as my fucking dickhead British best friend stared me down.
“Fine,” I growled. “One of these other leads had better turn something up soon though, or I’m coming back to bleed more answers out of that shithead.” I stabbed a finger towards the door behind River.
“With my full support,” River accepted, and from the corner of my eye I saw the other boys nod their agreement. “You forget, Cole, you’re not the only one who is worried. We all care about her. We all would do anything to get her back.”
Austin, the fuckwad, made a noise as though he disagreed, and Caleb punched him in the chest. No one was buying his crap any more, not after seeing his pity party when Kit went missing.
I nodded understanding at River’s sincerity, and I saw his sharp gaze check my hands. It always annoyed the crap out of me that he could read my tells so well. He had figured out years ago that when my thumbs released from the outside of my fists then I was no longer such a danger to those around me.
“I’m sure one of our leads will find our Kit soon,” Wesley contributed, looking a touch pale. He was not usually physically present for interrogations, but for some reason today he had insisted on coming along. I’d bet he hadn’t even noticed he just called her our Kit.
“We have all put the word out to our black market contacts, as have the rest of Omega Group. One of us will turn up her location sooner or later; it’s just the law of averages.” He tugged at his blond hair in a nervous tick. I grunted once more, leading the way back out of the abandoned warehouse we were in.
As I stalked through the building’s rubbish, I thought over Wesley’s words. He was right, of course; there was no way they could keep her hidden for long. My whole body thrummed with anticipation for what I would do to the people who had taken her when we found them. Because she may be our Kit, but she was my Vixen. And no one fucks with what’s mine.
10
KIT
I woke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright and staring around me in panic and confusion. Where the fuck was I now? Definitely no longer on the absurdly luxurious aircraft, as I was halfway drowned by a heavy feather comforter and surrounded by pillows in a king-size bed. I crawled out of the cozy nest and raked a hand through my wild hair. It was bone dry, whereas it had been still dripping wet when I had succumbed to drugged sleep on the plane, so more than several hours must have passed while I was out.
Padding over to the bedroom window, I tried to work out where the hell I might be. The scenery was barren and rocky, but with no snow, so we must have flown south from… wherever.
This isn't off to a good start; we could literally be anywhere in the world.
It was daylight, so there were no lights to indicate a city might be nearby, and the room I was in seemed to be directly above a sheer cliff face overlooking a sandy valley. My perusal of the possible routes down the cliff was interrupted by a polite knock on the bedroom door, which piqued my curiosity. Vali didn't exactly strike me as the type to knock politely.
I crossed the room in my bare feet and cracked the door open to peer out.
“Uh, yes?” I eyed the girl on the other side with suspicion. From what I could see of her, she was around my age, with rich, chocolate brown hair perfectly styled into an elaborate updo.
“Hi!” She beamed at me with far too much enthusiasm for my current predicament. “I brought you food! Can I come in?” She held up the tray she was holding to emphasize her statement, and I caught a whiff of something delicious.
“You can come in, but I am not stupid enough to eat drugged food again.” I scowled at her but opened the door a little wider to let her in. She laughed as though I had just made a joke and breezed past me on deadly looking stiletto heels.
After she’d placed the tray down on a small table beside some armchairs, she spun to face me, and I inspected her shrewdly. She was, in short, stunning. Her face was perfectly doll-like, with huge gray-blue eyes and high, angular cheekbones. Her slim figure was showcased in a formfitting dress that looked designer, and her delicate neck was draped with a blinding diamond necklace.
“The food isn't drugged,” she told me, rolling her eyes as though I was simply being overly dramatic. “Trust me, I was watching Cook prepare it for you. Besides, what else are you going to do, starve to death?”
Ugh, she had a point. I didn't want to run the risk of being drugged again in such a short period of time, though. Who knew how much my body could really bounce back from?
I sat cautiously in one of the chairs and peered longingly at the food she had provided.
“So, I know you had a bit of an, umm, unconventional first meeting with Vali, but he wanted me to come and see if you were doing okay…” She twisted her hands and chewed her lower lip, looking genuinely concerned for my well-being.
“I was drugged, kidnapped, transported to another country, drugged again, sold at auction, covered in blood, then drugged again. Would you be doing okay? Under those circumstances?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at her, and she had the grace to flush in embarrassment. Saying it all out loud like that made me wonder why I was doing okay. Surely I should be crying in a corner somewhere? Ever since Vali had touched me when taking off my collar, I had felt weirdly… safe? That sounded insane, but it was what it was.
“Ah yes, I did hear about Gheorghe. Believe me, that is no great loss.” The hard look in her eyes and bitterness to her voice suggested she'd had her own run-ins with the dead man. I wondered if this girl had anything to do with Gheorghe’s first indiscretion that Vali had mentioned.
“So, who are you?” It wasn’t the most polite I had ever been, but it could have been a whole lot worse.
“Oh of course, gosh, sorry, where are my manners?” She laughed nervously and patted at her immaculate hair. “I'm Elena.” She held out one of her delicate hands for me to shake, which I did with caution.
“I guess I should say thank you for letting me borrow these clothes, but you didn't seem particularly surprised to hear I am here against my will. Does that mean you won't help me escape?” I glowered at her while trying not to look at the steaming food in front of me.
“Escape?” she squeaked out. “Please don't try to escape! I know everyone seems really nice around here, but they're not. They’re really not. And they don't hold back on punishments, so please just, ah, just stay here. I'm sure if you give it a little time, Vali will com
e to his senses and let you go… God knows why he hasn’t already…” The last part was muttered under her breath, and I just barely heard it.
I snorted a sarcastic laugh at her. “Nice? I was just purchased in a slave auction and then a man was shot dead in front of me.”
Her gaze ducked away from mine as she found an interesting spot on the carpet before she replied to me. “Well, yes, you could say that was all a bit, umm, not-nice? But it could have been a lot worse. No one has actually harmed you, have they? I can't imagine any of the other slaves who were bought at that auction would have been treated anywhere near so nicely. Not to mention gone unmolested for so long.”
Damn, this girl had a point. Why had I been treated differently? It still didn't make it okay to hold someone captive, though.
“Well, anyway. I just came to bring you the food and say hi.” She looked disappointed that I obviously hadn't given her the greeting she was looking for.
“Why? Who are you anyway? His mistress? Another slave?” I narrowed my eyes at her again, this time taking in her expensive outfit with a more critical eye, and her face flamed red.
“No-no!” she stuttered out. “I am definitely not his mistress! What would even give you that idea?” Her panicked disagreement combined with lack of eye contact made me think she most likely considered herself a girlfriend rather than a mistress. Poor girl.
“Uh-huh,” I responded sarcastically.
