by Tate James
“Shhh,” Caleb shushed me, eyes wide. “You’ll wake Wesley.” He pointed to the blond boy who was slumped over in an armchair, breathing deeply, and I smiled at how peaceful he looked.
“Late night?” I asked with a whisper, and Caleb just shrugged.
“I wouldn’t know; I just woke up myself. Has Cole come back in yet?” I shook my head. I had slept in Cole’s room again as he was still off on a job but hadn’t seen any sign of him in the brief time I had been awake.
“Guess that means you’ve got me for lessons today!” He grinned at me and handed me a huge cup of coffee, the sweetheart.
“Sweet.” I hummed into my coffee happily. “Knives, right? So cool.”
He snorted. “Not that cool, I’m sorry. You can’t learn how to fight with them until Cole teaches you how to fight without them first. So, until he gets back, I will be giving you more of a theory lesson. History, safety, cleaning… these are all the important things you need to know before you’re allowed to actually handle them.”
I gave him an exaggerated pout. “But Caleb, that sounds so boring! How will I learn unless I can get a feel for it physically?”
“Don’t you worry, Kitty Kat. I’ve got you covered.” He winked at me and disappeared for a minute, returning with a heavy looking case, which he placed on the table in front of me. As it turned out, he had a perfectly dull, wooden knife for me to handle until I was ready for the real ones. Not at all what I had meant, Caleb, and you know it.
For what felt like the next twenty hours, but was probably closer to four, I was drilled and grilled on all aspects of the delicate blades he placed on the table in front of me, without ever being allowed to actually touch them. Eventually he told me we could take a break for lunch and that when we came back he would teach me how to correctly hold them.
I gasped dramatically. “You mean, touch them? Surely not!” He rolled his eyes at my teasing and headed into the kitchen to make us sandwiches.
While we were eating, Cole arrived home and we filled him in on River’s training schedule. He agreed with Caleb that learning to actually fight with blades needed to come after I learned some basic combat, so he offered to take the next three days solid, seeing as he shouldn’t need to do another job so soon.
I frowned as a thought occurred to me. “I thought you were doing me?” They both looked at me with raised eyebrows at how suggestive the words sounded.
“I mean, I thought your ‘job’ was tracking down ‘The Fox,’” I clarified in order to sound less sexual or potentially conceited.
“We are,” Cole confirmed, answering my original question with a fierceness that made me quake a little in my seat. “But our company couldn’t justify simply sending us all out here on what could have been a wild goose chase, so we also have another mission in the area involving a possible human trafficking operation.”
I stared, wide-eyed. That was the most words I had heard him say in one sentence so far, and I could get used to the sound of his gravelly voice. We had human trafficking in this area? I couldn’t imagine it happening in Cascade Falls—there just weren’t enough people—so he was likely talking about Seattle, which was our nearest city.
“Right. So, that’s what you guys are working on now that you don’t have any foxes to hunt?” I teased them, and they smiled. Or rather, Caleb smiled and Cole twitched the corner of his lip up, which I was fairly sure was his version of a smile.
“Exactly,” he confirmed. “So we should thank you for cooperating; it means the twins can quit playing teenager and actually help on this case.”
I looked sharply at Caleb. “Wait, how old are you then?”
“Twenty-one.” He grinned. “My youthful glow allows me to pass for younger.”
I snorted a laugh. I’d known they looked way too hot—er old to be in high school.
“What about the rest of you?” I asked Cole, and he caught my gaze.
“Twenty-four for me, twenty-five for River, and twenty for Wesley,” he confessed, drumming his fingers on the counter.
“Wesley’s the baby,” Caleb joked. “Although I guess that’s technically you now.”
“That’s all right with you, isn’t it, Kit?” Cole was still watching me and practically purred my name. “Lucy did mention you liked older men.”
“What?” I spluttered, almost choking on my sandwich, as I had just taken a big bite. “When the hell did she say that?”
He grinned wolfishly. “At lunch when you went outside with your slimy friend. She had lots to say while you were gone.”
I rolled my eyes. Either he was lying to wind me up, or he wasn’t and Lucy had blabbed way too much info about my sex life or current lack thereof. Either way, not much I could do about it now, and I wasn’t about to walk into a trap here trying to guess what she might have said, so I just narrowed my eyes at him and made a humming noise like I couldn’t care less. He held my gaze, and there was a wickedly amused glint in his. Crap, she really had blabbed. I was going to have to kill her. On the upside though, these small moments of emotion cracking through his terrifying façade were helping me become less afraid of him with every interaction.
I was saved from this awkward turn of conversation when Austin walked into the kitchen. Never thought Austin’d save me, but nonetheless I’d take the wins where I could get them.
“I’m heading out to do some groundwork on this case,” he announced to the boys. “Christina’s shooting lessons will have to wait, or one of you can do it.”
“Ummm, sitting right here,” I pointed out, waving a hand in his face. He simply scowled at me like I was something gross on his shoe before he stalked out of the house.
“What the fuck is his problem with me?” I asked, offended. I swore he was getting worse every day.
Cole and Caleb exchanged a long look, then Caleb offered, “He has issues.”
“No shit,” I retorted, but let it go as they obviously didn’t intend to elaborate. “Come on; let’s go play with sharp things!”
I led the way back to the living room where we had been having our lesson, and Caleb yelled behind me, “They’re not toys!”
17
Over the next week we fell into a comfortable rhythm of school during the day, then studying with Lucy for an hour or two, then back to the house and alternating training between Cole and Caleb. My time with Caleb was slow-going. I definitely had no natural skill with knives, but my lessons in combat with Cole went exceptionally well, despite me still getting occasional chills when his cold, emotionless mask slipped into place while demonstrating a move.
Some big development happened in their other case that kept Wesley, Austin, and River fairly busy. We scarcely saw any of them, so I continued sleeping in River’s room most nights while he was out. That in itself was a bit odd, as I hadn’t seen him for days. Yet I knew he must have been in and slept during the day because each time I returned to his room, the bed was tightly made with precise corners and the pillow smelled of fresh soap and pine trees. Against my better judgment, my trust for these men was slowly growing, despite the cloud of secrets surrounding each and every one of them.
In the early evening a week since my failed kidnapping, I was sitting on the porch swing, wrapped in a blanket against the cold and awaiting my weekly catch-up call with Jonathan. The last time I had spoken to him was before heading out to meet Simon, and I felt like I had aged a year in that time. The screen of my phone lit up with his familiar face, and I smiled, answering the call.
“Hi Dad,” I teased and was rewarded with a chuckle down the line.
“Kit, don’t. It’s weird, like me calling you daughter.” He snorted, humor underneath his words. I wrinkled my nose, despite knowing he couldn’t see me.
“Yeah, that is weird. So how’re things?” I decided to keep the topics light; he didn’t need to hear about all the strange shit going on with me lately. Jonathan had an insanely high-pressured job, so I always hesitated before dumping my crap at his doorstep as well, despite
his continued encouragement that it was okay to do so. Telling him now that I was seeing things like teachers eyes changing species or waitresses shooting sparks wasn’t going to help his stress level. The kidnapping attempt and my current living situation, I was definitely not going to mention.
“Things are good here. I have a feeling we might be picking up some valuable new employees soon, so I’m excited. How is school? Are you still on track for your early graduation?”
I chuckled. Not exactly early, more like late. Lucy and I were technically a year behind because we’d had such a rough start to our schooling. But we’d caught up really fast and were on track to graduate half way through our current academic year. Not that Lucy couldn’t have already graduated two years ago. It was painfully obvious she was staying just to keep me company, which gave me the guilts every time I thought about it. She was nothing if not stubborn though, and despite numerous arguments on the subject, she was determined to stick with me.
“Yeah, should be. I had a day off last week with the flu”—attempted kidnapping is similar to the flu, right?—“but didn’t miss much, and Lucy’s being a gem to study with me every night after school.”
“That’s good to hear. Hey, sorry to cut this call short, kiddo; I have someone calling on the other line. You’ll be home for Thanksgiving, though, right? I’m planning a party at the townhouse.” Our “home” was Jonathan’s absurdly over-the-top four-story townhouse in New York’s Upper East Side. Neither of us spent enough time there for it to actually feel like home, but it was where we spent the holidays together.
“You bet! I love your parties. Speak next week,” I confirmed.
“You know it. Try and stay out of trouble, yes? Love you, kid.” His voice held a warmth that I doubted many people would ever hear from him.
“Love you too, Jonathan!” I grinned and ended the call. I sat for a minute before heading back inside, turning the events of the past week over in my mind. Ever since that damn ring with the tracker, everything had been going bat shit crazy, first with the memo alluding to my own talents, then with Simon’s craziness, the failed kidnapping, moving in with the guys…
Although in fairness, things had been slowly sliding into crazy town ever since my eighteenth birthday when I’d started seeing things that couldn’t possibly be real, like Mr. Gregoric’s eye shift or the waitress shooting sparks. I was still pretty sure the fish bowl at school had spontaneously exploded too, but there was just zero explanation for any of these things. Unless I wasn’t actually going insane and the supernatural did exist? It really wouldn’t be such a stretch to imagine, considering my own abilities… Ugh, this is giving me a migraine.
I had been making sure on the nights I wasn’t training with Cole to spend some time on the treadmill, just in case my adrenaline decided to spike, but so far so good. My growing unease, now that I was thinking over all the weird shit of late, suggested I would be wise to spend the time before dinner in the gym.
Just in case.
By the weekend, I was getting really anxious about our lack of progress with the blueprints left by the mysterious “N” so was having a bit of a mental pity party when I came out for breakfast.
“We found the location of the testing facility,” Wesley said casually while munching through a bowl of cereal. I dropped the piece of toast I was buttering and stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
He blushed and avoided eye contact with me while he pushed his glasses up his nose. “It’s about three hours north of here, in the middle of pretty much nowhere. There’s only one road in and out, so it will look pretty suspicious if we just drive straight up to the gates. Lucy and I think the best way in will be to park at a rest stop on the main highway and hike the rest of the way up through the forest.”
I was pleased to hear Lucy had been playing nice and even more pleased to hear we finally had an idea for where this mysterious records room was located.
“That’s awesome news; thank you Wesley.” I smiled at him, and he blushed pink.
“Looks like we should go hiking today!” Caleb sang, probably as excited for the change of scenery as I was.
“There’s a waterfall maybe about five miles from here if you want to go check that out?” I suggested, and he nodded eagerly.
“I’m in,” Cole grunted. “Wes?”
Wesley shook his head vehemently. “Count me out, guys. I have work to do.” He finished the last of his cereal before he headed to his room.
“Looks like it’s just us three musketeers again.” Caleb set his dishes in the sink and headed toward his room to get dressed, slapping my ass playfully on the way past. “Hurry up and get dressed, Kitty Kat. We want to get there and back during daylight!”
“Yeah, you’re going to want to make it a quick one,” Wesley told me, looking at his laptop. “Forecast is for rain and high winds later this afternoon, but not until four, so you should have plenty of time if those two don’t fuck around too much.”
“Got it. There and back.” I finished off my coffee and went to change.
The three of us set a brisk pace, which didn’t allow for much conversation, but as we came within a few hundred yards of the falls, I sped up a bit until I was right behind Caleb.
“Race you to the end!” I called out to him as I bypassed him and jogged up the trail, aware of his pursuit hot on my heels. I dialed back my speed to a more believable level but still beat him there by an easy margin.
When he arrived, panting and gasping, I stood on a rock overlooking the deep pool at the base of a majestically cascading waterfall. He joined me, staring down at the clear water.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I remarked, watching him stare down at the water as he murmured in agreement. “It’s deep too. Often in summer we would come out here to go swimming so don’t worry; there aren’t any submerged rocks or anything.”
He frowned at me, confused. “Why would I worry about—?” His silly question was cut short as I shoved him into the water. He surfaced spluttering and gasping, swearing revenge at me, so I guessed it must be pretty cold. I had only ever been swimming here in summer, but even then it hadn’t been particularly warm. I laughed, but my enjoyment was cut short when two strong bands of steel wrapped around my waist and sent me flying through the air. I plummeted into the icy pool alongside Caleb.
“Holy mother-fucking shit fuck ass and balls, that’s cold!” I shivered, coughing out water and shoving my wet hair out of my eyes while treading water. Seconds later, there was a loud whoop from above as Cole cannonballed into the water.
“You two are weak!” he yelled. “It’s not that cold!” He began a lazy stroke over to the waterfall then dove underneath it.
I was shivering hard when Caleb swam over to me, and his warm arms snaked around my waist.
“You deserved to get thrown in. Call it karma in the form of that giant weapon of a man.” He chuckled in my ear.
I spun in his arms and scooped my hand across the surface of the water. I swiped up a sheet of water to splash him in the face, but he ducked, swimming backwards away from me. The immediate rush of freezing water that filled the void where his body had been caused my shivering to kick up a notch, and I whimpered, reaching out and clinging on like a little spider monkey.
“S-s-so c-c-cold,” I stuttered out, smooshing my face into the side of his neck. “Keep me warm, hot stuff.” His chest vibrated with a soft laugh, but he obliged, running his hands up my back and beginning to rub firm circles along my spine with his strong fingers. I puffed out a soft breath as my muscles softened under his touch and my body melted into his. He lowered his face to the curve of my neck and feathered a kiss across my cool skin. My skin pebbled as he pressed his lips more firmly. I let out an involuntary moan when his hot tongue flickered over the pulse point, and I arched my back, pushing my hips more firmly into his. He hardened against me. Breath catching in my throat, I lifted my head from his shoulder and tilted my face toward his.
“Kitty Kat...” he whispere
d, a hair’s breadth from my lips. “You’re turning blue.” It took a second for his words to sink through the foggy haze of my arousal. Then, he was swimming us to the edge of the pool and calling out for Cole.
The big man swam over and hopped out beside us without a word. His sharp gaze darted all over me, pausing on my face where my teeth were chattering hard and I could imagine my lips were a little blue. I had that type of skin. It seemed our brief flash of playfulness was already gone, and he was back to being a serious, scary bastard.
He nodded sharply at Caleb and rumbled, “Let’s move.”
“We need to get you home and warmed up before you get hypothermia,” Caleb told me, and I growled in indignation at being treated like a damsel in distress.
“I’m fine. You’re both just as cold as me.”
They both gave me an odd look, and Caleb explained, “Kitty Kat... we’ve both spent a fair bit of time training to withstand extreme temperatures.”
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Damn logical men. I was still grumbling about the interruption to what could have turned into a very heated moment. Out of the water, my shivering seemed to climb in intensity and my teeth chattered loudly.
“Yeah, fair enough. Let’s move.” I acquiesced and followed Cole back up to the trail, where he set an accelerated pace to get us back. With impeccable timing, dark rain clouds started rolling in, and within minutes we were getting pelted with rain.
“At least we couldn’t really get any wetter!” Caleb joked from his place behind me on the trail.
“Didn’t Wesley mention high winds too?” Cole asked back, and Caleb groaned.
“S-so long as there’s no th-thunder,” I muttered from behind my chattering teeth. Caleb increased his speed to walk beside me on the narrow trail and squeezed my hand reassuringly.
18
After that, the wind picked up and my hands started to go numb. By the time we reached the house, even the boys were shivering. Whose stupid idea was it to go swimming fully clothed in October? Oh yeah, mine. Bad idea, Kit. My hands were shaking so badly I fumbled the handle three times before Cole reached past me and opened it. We spilled into the kitchen in a cold, wet puddle, and Wesley looked up in surprise from the stove where he had started dinner.
