by Tate James
You’re taking this really well, Luce. I pointed out the obvious, a bit surprised by her lack of concern.
I figured it’d happen sooner or later. You know how good their agents are! Don’t worry, girl. I have a plan. She sent me a winking emoji, and I rolled my eyes again.
“What do you keep rolling your eyes at?” Caleb asked, jolting me from my text conversation. I looked around the living room and noticed River, Cole, and Austin had disappeared again, and Wesley was working on a laptop at the dining table.
“Huh? Um… just Lucy. Being Lucy.” I smiled an innocent smile, and he narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.
“Speaking of Lucy, does she have anything to do with your life of crime?” He cocked his head, skewering me with his intense green gaze.
“Ummmmm…” I stalled, quickly tapping out a message to her.
Do you want me to keep your part secret?
Her response, thankfully, came immediately, saving me further stalling on Caleb’s question.
Don’t you dare, you bitch! I want credit where credit’s due! Besides, all for one and one for all, right? If they’ve caught you they may as well catch me too. And don’t forget I have a plan! Send Caleb to come pick me up after school, ’kay? Got to go, class is starting. She signed off with kisses so she must be pretty confident in her plan.
She’s never steered me wrong yet, so better trust her on this.
“Yup, Lucy’s involved.” I answered Caleb’s question succinctly. “She wants you to go pick her up after class so she can be involved. Girl has just the worst case of FOMO.”
“What’s that?” Wesley frowned, coming over to join us.
“Fear Of Missing Out,” Caleb replied for me. “For a smart dude, you still need to get out more.” Wesley blushed adorably under Caleb’s teasing but nodded in agreement.
“So Lucy’s involved?” Caleb turned his attention back to me, and I held my palms up in surrender.
“She can tell you herself.” I shrugged and didn’t elaborate.
“Holy crap,” Caleb whispered after a brief pause, staring at the ceiling. “It makes so much more sense now. How you’ve been getting through security systems and remotely disarming door codes at the same time as physically accessing the areas. Lucy’s a fricking genius.” Wesley gave a fake cough, and Caleb added, “Not that you’re not too, bro. Just... a different skill set.”
Wesley huffed then asked me, “Hey, what happened to the tracker in that hideous yellow ring? That piece of nano-tech took me months to construct.”
Oops. I cringed as I admitted, “Uh, I might have dropped it in a glass of Coke.”
His face fell like I’d just told him I ran over his dog, and my stomach sank. Fuck, I feel awful now.
“I’m really sorry. I panicked when Lucy found it, and it seemed like the best thing to do at the time… In my defense, it did kill the signal, right?”
He nodded slightly with a sad puppy look on his face. “It’s okay. I expected something bad when the signal cut out so abruptly. I’m going to go work on these memos.” He waved my USB then slunk out of the room with a dejected slump to his shoulders. I kicked myself a little for ruining his hard work, even though it had been for my own safety.
“So you were investigating Mr. Gregoric, huh?” I turned to Caleb, changing the subject, and he laughed, hanging his head.
“Yes, we were, and it was so damn boring. He fit the profile to a T, and the fact that he arrived in Cascade Falls at the same time as the tracker…” He sighed. “I’ll have to give the company profilers shit for this one.”
“Aw, don’t be so hard on them. Lucy and I have actually left a couple of false witness statements over the years since we started. It was sort of just a coincidence that Mr. Gregoric matched our made-up Fox.” I yawned heavily and stretched out my stiff neck. I still wasn’t feeling one hundred percent, but it was mostly just exhaustion. “Shouldn’t you be leaving soon to go get Luce?”
“Trying to get rid of me? Not to worry, I just texted Austin and asked him to pick her up.”
I raised my brows at him. “Are you sure that’s the best idea?” Lucy held just as much affection for Austin as I did, so I was a bit concerned only one of them would make it back here alive.
“They’ll be fine. Don’t worry so much, Kitty Kat.” He laughed and ruffled my hair. I pulled away sharply.
“Don’t you Kitty Kat me, Caleb King. You’ve been lying to me since the day we met, and I’m supposed to just pretend that is okay? Uh-uh. I don’t think so.” I scowled at him to mask my own self-doubt. Had our whole friendship been an act for him? Fuck, I feel stupid right now.
“Oh really, Kit Davenport? I might point out I wasn’t the only one who was lying,” he countered, correctly.
Damn, he had a point.
“So where does that leave us?” I chewed my lip, nervous to hear his response. I had grown really close with him in the past weeks and had genuinely felt like we had known each other for years.
“Look.” He released a heavy sigh, running his hand across his face. “I know I didn’t tell you our real reason for being at CFA, but everything else, everything with us, it was all one hundred percent real. Wasn’t it for you?”
I nodded slowly, and a rush of relief washed over me, making my stomach flip happily.
“So now what?” I asked, and he yawned.
“Can we just chill for a bit? I was up half the night rescuing you from kidnappers, and I’m beat.” He pouted adorably and I laughed.
“Sure thing. I’m pretty tired myself.”
He flicked on the TV, but within minutes his gentle snores filled the room, and I took an indulgent moment, studying his handsome features while he dozed. It should be illegal to be that good looking. Ugh, these boys are going to fry my brain with all their sexiness. If my brain wasn’t already fried… I still needed to work out if I was imagining all the weird shit lately. I stifled a yawn of my own and rubbed my eyes. Just a short nap surely won’t hurt…
I was woken some time later when a loud car pulled into the driveway. A bouncing ball of blue hair came flying into the room and launched at me.
“What the fuck, Kit! You almost got kidnapped? And Simon hit you? I’m going to murder that motherfucker! Fuck! How could you not have called me? That was a dick move! You didn’t mention any of that in your messages earlier!”
I smiled at her colorful language and hugged her back.
“Aw, it’s okay Luce; I’m fine now.”
“No fucking shit. And now I hear Caleb and Dickface over there are part of some secret intelligence organization? I mean, that’s kinda cool, but what is with all the secrets these days?” she railed, sending Caleb a stern glare and flipping Austin off when he muttered something under his breath. I stifled a laugh at her act that she had no idea who Omega Group was. Not such a bad actress after all, Luce!
“That, I only just found out about. So don’t go blaming me for keeping secrets,” I defended myself and simultaneously threw Caleb under the Lucy-bus. Lucy grunted and then snapped her fingers in the air. She reached into her backpack and whipped out a slightly bent manila folder.
“I went by your room this morning looking for you, and this was stuffed under your door. I was going to give it to you in class, but obviously you weren’t there.” She handed the folder over to me, and curious, I opened it.
Inside was a small stack of papers and a handwritten note paper-clipped to the top of the pile, which read: This might help with what you’re searching for - N.
I flipped through the papers, including various blueprints and maps of somewhere called “Blood Moon Genetics Laboratory.” On one of the floor plans, there was a large red circle drawn around the room labeled “Records Storeroom.” While I looked through papers, Wesley had resurfaced and was trying to peer at them from over my shoulder. When I was done, he reached for the papers at the same time as Lucy did, and it was like a scene from The Quick and The Dead as they stared each other down.
Befo
re they decided on pistols at dawn, I split the pile in two and gave them each half. Both set up on the kitchen island with their laptops. Their quiet chatter faded to a hum in my mind as they communicated in tech jargon.
“Who is ‘N’?” Caleb frowned, looking at the note that accompanied the documents.
“I have no idea,” I murmured and took the note back to study the handwriting. “Lucy, could this have been one of your, er, contacts?”
“Could be.” She frowned. “It is sort of their style.” I seriously hoped it was one of her dark net friends just delivering information because otherwise this was another person of undetermined intentions who knows more about me than I do.
“River will want to know about this,” Austin announced and left the room while dialing on his cellphone.
“Do we trust that this info is legitimate? What if it’s a trap to lure you in since their kidnapping attempt failed?” Caleb frowned, and I had to admit he had a point. Then again, what other choices did I have? I desperately wanted to know what gave me these abilities, and this was the only lead I had to go on.
“Leave that to us!” Lucy called out. “We will verify all these documents before we act on anything.”
“She means,” Wesley corrected, “Leave that to me. There’s no way in hell I’m letting Lucy anywhere near our company databases.”
Lucy rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath that I didn’t catch but Wesley blushed red again.
Caleb and I joined them and attempted to help with looking through the documents but kept getting glared at by the pair of super-geniuses, so eventually we gave up. It seemed like Lucy and Wesley were having an unspoken race to see who could piece together the clues fastest.
Caleb and I watched two movies before Lucy let out a loud yawn, stretching and cracking her neck dramatically. Wesley’s bespeckled face popped up from his own screen, and he announced he was going to make coffee. We had already ordered in Chinese for dinner earlier in the evening and it was getting late, but my love for coffee knew no time limits, and I eagerly hopped up to join Wesley and Lucy in the kitchen.
Waiting for the coffee to brew, Wesley turned to my pixie-like friend with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Why do you do it?” He asked her with interest. “You clearly have a lot of talent for this work, so why are you using your skills to commit crimes?” I froze, not liking where this conversation was heading.
“None of your fucking business,” Lucy snapped, her earlier contented expression slamming closed. I mentally begged Wesley to let it go, but he seemed to lack the social experience needed to understand when best to back down. Rather, her refusal to explain seemed to fire him up. It appeared as though Lucy was being an unreasonable hot-head, and she was, but Wesley didn’t realize that he had just hit on a really sore subject.
“No, I want to know why you and Kit choose to be the bad guys in this world,” he pushed, a stubborn set to his jaw. “You both have the potential to do a lot of good, and yet you squander your gifts committing crime, and for what? Money? Surely that can’t be it. I mean, even just based on the school you’re attending, it’s pretty obvious you aren’t exactly poor. So help me understand why you would want to steal priceless items from innocent people?”
His hands shook a little, and his cheeks were stained with mottled color as he asked these questions, which made me wonder if there was more going on here than we knew. Regardless, he didn’t realize the hornet’s nest he’d just kicked with those words. I knew my best friend well enough to know she wasn’t going to back down, so was praying Wesley would.
“Innocent people?” Lucy hissed, slamming her hand down on the countertop, and Wesley jumped. Still, the foolish boy didn’t know when to stop.
“Yes.” He stuck to his guns. “Innocent people. What have they ever done to deserve you stealing from them, other than being rich? As far as I’m aware, being wealthy isn’t a crime.”
Lucy flicked her outraged gaze to me, and I gave her a tiny headshake. Her lips tightened, and she slammed her laptop closed before shoving it roughly into her bag along with her half of the documents.
“Kit, I’m going back to the dorms. I’ll keep working on this from there, but I will not sit here and listen to this bullshit.” She slung her bag over her shoulder and then spun back to Wesley, poking her angry finger in his face. “And as for you, fuckface, I advise you keep your fucked up opinions to yourself until you know the whole story. How do you know for sure that this Omega Group you work for is actually doing good? For all you know, you’re all criminals yourselves.”
His face turned red at her accusation, but he didn’t get a chance to retaliate before she stormed out of the house. Austin has just come back in and caught the end of the argument, so he groaned and picked up his keys again, telling us he would take Lucy home.
Wesley and Caleb both stared at me with confused and shocked expressions on their faces in the aftermath of hurricane Lucy, but I was too tired to get into this with them, so I just shook my head and muttered, “Story for another day.” I lifted my coffee for another sip but yawned loudly. Caffeine never seemed to keep me awake.
“Where am I sleeping?” I asked the boys, and a sly, sexy grin spread across Caleb’s face. I had no doubt he was about to offer his bed, with him in it, which was more tempting that I cared to admit.
“Take my bed,” Cole rumbled from behind me. I tried not to jump and casually turned to look at him. He was in the process of pulling on a T-shirt, and I caught a glimpse of chiseled abs and more ink before his steely gaze locked on me. “I’m heading out on a job now so won’t be home until late tomorrow.”
Wesley nodded in agreement. “Actually, that’s likely to be the case for at least one of us most nights, so there should always be a bed free if you don’t mind playing musical pillows?”
“Fine by me,” I said. “I can sleep pretty much anywhere, so I’m good!”
“Second door on the left,” Cole rumbled, jerking his head towards the hallway. “You’re welcome to sleep naked.” He winked one of his danger-filled eyes at me then headed out to the garage, leaving me gaping in shock.
“Did he just make a joke?” I stage whispered to Caleb, who was standing closest to me.
He snickered then said, “I don’t think he was joking.”
“I’m not sure what scares me more...” I mumbled as I dragged my ass down the hall to Cole’s room.
16
The next morning before school, I was in the kitchen having coffee with Caleb when River joined us, leaning against the counter with his arms folded.
“Kit, we need to organize some training for you,” he announced. “If you intend to participate in this investigation, then I need to know you can hold your own if necessary. Cole mentioned seeing you at the gym; do you already have any fight training?”
I shook my head, chewing my lip. “None. I only took up boxing as a… er… stress reliever.”
River sighed, and a heavy frown creased his brow. “Maybe you should just leave it to us.”
Outraged, I opened my mouth to protest, but Caleb paused the imminent argument by placing a hand on my shoulder.
“River, I’m sure we can train her. She must have some skills from all those Fox jobs,” he reasoned, and River raised an eyebrow at me.
“I do.” I nodded. “And I am a really fast learner.”
“Fine. But I reserve the right to pull the plug if I don’t think you’re up to scratch,” he told me in a no-compromise tone.
“Deal,” I agreed quickly, before he could change his mind. “So when do we start?”
“Tomorrow. You three have school today, so we can start on the weekend then continue in the evenings during the week.” River nodded a greeting to Austin, who had just joined us in the kitchen.
“You’re not seriously still making us attend that school, are you River?” he grumbled, yawning and pouring himself a coffee.
“I am,” River confirmed. “Kit needs around-the-c
lock protective detail until we can deal with whoever tried to kidnap her. I have already called the Headmaster this morning and moved the two of you into all of her and Lucy’s classes. I expect you to keep an eye on Lucy too, just in case they go for her.” Austin surprisingly didn’t argue, so River turned back to me. “The best way for you to learn will be to train with the best. Cole will teach you combat, Caleb will educate you on blades, and Austin will teach you to shoot.”
“Couldn’t Caleb just teach me both blades and guns at the same time?” I asked, screwing my face up. Honestly, I would rather shoot myself in the foot than learn from Austin. Caleb coughed over a laugh, and Austin murmured something under his breath that sounded like he agreed, but River gave us all a sharp look. The twins noticeably snapped to attention, shoulders pulling back and their faces serious. I was shocked to find I was also sitting a bit straighter in my seat.
“Austin will be teaching you to shoot because he is our team’s best marksman and because he will not disobey a direct order. Will he?” River barked at us, and Austin looked suitably chastised for his childish behavior.
“No, sir,” he responded, and River turned his attention to me.
“Understood,” I whispered, feeling a bit chastised myself. River cocked an eyebrow at me, as though expecting something more, and then I added, “...sir?”
He nodded briefly then turned away but not before I caught the small smile on his lips and heated look in his golden eyes. “Good. I’m glad that is settled. Now get to school or you’ll be late.”
I woke up Saturday morning with a flutter of excitement in my belly. I was going to learn some real skills today! The day before at school had dragged, first because I now had to deal with Austin in all of my classes, and second because I ended up with detention for skipping school the day prior. I couldn’t even argue seeing as sorry, I was recovering from a kidnapping probably wouldn’t have been a believable excuse.
I tried to rein in my excitement as I skipped out to the kitchen and sang, “Good morning!”
