The Vixen's Lead (Kit Davenport Book 1)

by Tate James

“…assuming it was her first kill.” I turned back in to catch the last part of Caleb’s sentence and snapped back to reality.

  “Repeat that,” I ordered, not willing to let my team know how badly I had been off in my own head when I should have been focusing on the mission debrief. Not that we could officially debrief without Cole—what was taking him so long?

  “I said, Kit might be pretty shaken up at the moment; she shot one of the guards to save me. I doubt she has ever actually killed someone before; her Fox jobs sounded all pretty innocuous, so she might need a bit of time to wrap her head around this.” Caleb delivered this information with the calm detachment we had all adopted for discussions around fatalities, but there was a line creasing his forehead and the corners of his mouth looked tight.

  “You’re worried about how she will be reacting.” I needed him to clarify. Despite my superior skill in reading subtle body language, my team was so highly trained in controlling their expressions that sometimes I found myself guessing incorrectly with them.

  He hesitated for a moment, flicking a glance at his brother. “Yes.”

  I nodded in understanding, watching Austin closely. He stared back at me, face carefully neutral, and I got nothing from him. He always had been the hardest to read, even harder than Cole, and ever since Kit had arrived into our lives, he’d seemed like more of a closed book than usual.

  “Let her take your bed tonight. We shouldn’t take too long on this debrief, so you can have some time with her,” I told him, and his tight shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit.

  “What, you’re all taking turns now, are you?” Austin sneered with a disgusted twist to his mouth, but I caught the quick flicker of hurt in his eyes before he dropped eye contact with me.

  “Austin,” I began, but Wesley, of all people, cut me off.

  “You need to stop, Aus. She’s not fucking Peyton, so just calm the hell down.” He glanced up from his laptop and must have seen the three of us looking at him in surprise because he blushed and cleared his throat. “I’m just saying, Kit is a nice person and she should be allowed to do whatever she wants. It’s not hurting anyone, and God knows it wouldn’t be the first time you guys have shared a girl.”

  “Caleb and I are twins, so it doesn’t count,” Austin muttered, but he was clearly backing down. It was so rare for Wesley to stand up to him that he, like the rest of us, generally dropped an argument when Wes got involved.

  Good for him; I was wondering when that kid would speak up. Wesley was easily my easiest team member to read, having considerably less field experience than the rest of us, and for weeks now I’d watched as he’d grown more and more annoyed at Austin’s attitude towards Kit. I might even go so far as to say he had a little bit of a crush on her.

  “Irrelevant. What Kit, or any of us, do behind closed doors is no concern of yours, Austin,” I told him, taking back control of the conversation. “Unless you’re also interested?” My suggestion hit the intended mark as his face flushed in outrage and he glared death at me. “No? Well then, you needn’t worry. Caleb and I have already discussed this in private and come to a gentleman’s agreement, so we shall leave it at that, yes?”

  “How very fucking British of you,” Austin quipped, “Now can we get back on task, here? This isn’t a knitting group.”

  I gave him a warning look, and he dipped his head in acknowledgement; he knew when he was pushing boundaries with me. “Caleb, please continue with what you were saying earlier regarding the patient you and Kit encountered.” I switched my attention to the other twin.

  “Ugh, yeah, that was beyond weird. He literally punched his bare fist straight through a man’s chest. Like, completely through. In one side and out the other.” He shook his head as though he could hardly believe it himself. “Wes, did you see it on the cameras? It was… fucking nuts, and then he just thanked Kit and shook her hand like they had just met at a party or some shit. Told her he would ‘be seeing her’ and totally ignored me standing there, like I didn’t exist.”

  “No, I didn’t see any of that, sorry. Lucy had your camera views at that point, and she mentioned seeing you guys speaking to someone, but he was standing directly below the camera so she couldn’t get a picture of him,” Wesley responded, much to my disappointment.

  That interaction, the way Caleb described it, was leaving a sick, churning feeling in my gut. It was more than simply knowing there was someone else with enhanced strength, it was the interest he seemed to show in our girl afterwards. The wild, primal part of me that I kept tightly caged was raging, screaming for this stranger’s blood. I took a deep, calming breath and tightened the cage. I am in control, not my emotions. It was a mantra I had to repeat on a daily basis, sometimes several times daily.

  My focus was broken by the sound of footsteps coming up from the basement gym, and my heart skipped like I was a bloody teenager with his first crush. Jesus man, get a grip.

  I tried to tell myself I was just anxious to make sure Kit was recovering okay from her injuries and adrenaline spike, but that wild part of me felt like it was laughing at the half-assed lie.

  “Cole. All okay?” I asked in a deliberately calm tone, maintaining my iron grip on my emotions, but my eyes darted behind the big man to look for Kit.

  “Yep. She’s gone for a shower,” he replied, having caught my glance and raising an eyebrow. Shit, that bastard is too perceptive.

  “How’s she doing?” Caleb asked, not even trying to hide his concern any more.

  Cole didn’t respond for a minute while he poured himself a glass of water in the kitchen then came back to join us, flopping himself down into an empty armchair. “Good.”

  “Good work out?” I inquired, dreading his response as I took in his lack of shirt and the sheen of sweat coating his illustrated chest.

  “Great work out,” he smirked back at me, with so much more amusement than I had seen from my best mate in years.

  “Bugger,” I cursed. The bastard. I knew I should have gone down to check on her instead of him. Still, I could never be jealous of Cole’s happiness, and for some reason I genuinely didn’t feel threatened by whatever had just gone on in the gym. I was confident in the connection I had with my Kitten.

  “Looks like you might need to discuss that gentleman’s agreement with Cole too, Alpha.” Austin snickered, clearly enjoying the extra drama despite his insistence that this wasn’t a knitting circle. I ground my teeth together to stop from snapping at him for calling me by my call-sign. I hated those stupid call-signs, but they were assigned by the director of Omega Group himself and we were not permitted to change them.

  I suspected the main reason I disliked mine, Alpha, was that the wild part of me responded to it so much, and it made me feel out of control. Not that I would admit that to my team, though. They all didn’t seem to mind their own, and not long after we had formed as a team, we had all incorporated them into tattoos.

  Cole seemed to be watching me as I thought about it. The huge black and green dragon curled over his shoulder and onto his chest represented his call-sign, Drake. Caleb, the Viper, had a black and gray, deadly-looking snake curled around his calf from ankle to knee. Austin’s Bengal was hiding between his other ink on his back; even Wesley had his Crow inked on his side. My own wolf, my Alpha, was thankfully on my back, so I didn’t need to constantly see it. I desperately wished I had used a less talented artist because fuck if those eyes didn’t look real.

  I sighed heavily and rubbed a hand across my tired eyes. The lids were beginning to feel like sandpaper because I kept putting myself on night shifts for our investigation with the human trafficking ring. It was a reckless move, and not one I would allow any of my team to make. Too little sleep can lead to stupid mistakes, so I enforced a strict schedule to avoid them pulling too many nights in a row. A rule I found myself breaking far too often lately. I knew why too; it was the lure of coming home knowing Kit had been in my bed all night.

  Fuck, I’m in trouble; what is this girl doing to m
e?

  “All right. Let’s debrief the mission quickly, and then Cole and I can speak about the personal developments of the night. I have no doubt Caleb is eager to get to bed.” I gave him a knowing look, and he winked back at me. Cheeky bugger.

  “Hang on, I just need my phone charger.” Austin hopped to his feet. “If I see the princess, I will tell her about the new room assignment.”

  “Be nice!” I yelled after him then turned to deal with Cole. “Mate, not now. We can discuss it later.”

  31

  Stepping out of the shower into the steamy bathroom, I kicked myself that, in my haste, I hadn’t grabbed any fresh clothes. Wrapped in a fluffy, white towel, I cracked the door open, popping my head out and checking that the coast was clear before darting down to the hall closet where I’d stored my bag of clothes. I pulled out a T-shirt and clean panties, then shut the door and found a scowling Austin on the other side of it, making me jump and let out a girly scream.

  “Christina,” he taunted, and the evil glint in his eye told me he knew he’d been sneaking up on me. Asshole.

  “What?” I snapped, grabbing my towel a bit tighter to ensure I wasn’t flashing anything. His eyes narrowed, and he sniffed in my direction, a frown creasing his beautiful face. “What do you want, Austin?” I repeated, uncomfortable standing here with him while wearing nothing but a towel.

  “Caleb sent me to tell you to sleep in his room tonight. We’ll all be in debriefing for hours yet to explain this fuck-up of a mission.” He wore an irritated look, as though it was all my fault he’d had to kill people tonight, and it was. I nodded tightly, sure that if I spoke, I’d say something bitchy.

  “Oh, ah, that’s okay. Cole said to take his room.” I waited for him to leave, but he continued glaring at me.

  “Why?” he challenged.

  “Why… what?” Not entirely sure what he was asking, I played dumb.

  “Why did Cole tell you to take his room? We’re all home tonight, and he physically can’t sleep if anyone else is in the room.” He narrowed his eyes, and inexplicably I found myself not wanting to admit to him what had just gone down in the gym.

  “No reason…” I croaked, and he gave me a triumphant look.

  “Well then, take Caleb’s room.” He paused a moment longer, his gaze lingering on my neck. “I guess you don’t heal everything, then.” He smirked then brushed past me to return to the living room. After his weird remark, I lifted a hand to my neck. Oh, Cole’s vicious bite. Sure enough, I could feel the indent of teeth and a raised, puffy bruise. I couldn’t help grinning at the reminder.

  After gathering my dirty clothes from the bathroom, I retreated to Caleb’s room to get ready for bed. At the last minute, I swapped my sleepshirt for the T-shirt Cole had loaned me. His was soft and baggy and smelled like him, like campfire embers.

  It was almost dawn by the time I crawled into Caleb’s cloud-like bed, and I fell asleep almost before my head had even reached the pillow. I woke from a nightmare to a room flooded with bright sunlight.

  Caleb must have come to bed after their debrief because he curled tightly around me, his face against my shoulder. He patted my face with his free hand as he shushed me. My nightmare must have woken him, too.

  “Shhhhhh Kitty Kat, back to sleep,” he mumbled, and I had to stifle a giggle.

  “Caleb,” I whispered as he continued stroking my face. “Caleb!” I prodded him when he didn’t respond to my first call.

  “What?” he mumbled as he lifted his head, looking confused and sleep-tousled.

  “You were patting my face,” I answered, smiling at his confusion.

  He raised an eyebrow, unapologetic. “You were having a nightmare. It seemed right.”

  I chuckled at his logic and snuggled in closer, as the air outside the blankets was freezing. He tucked his face back into the crook of my neck, breathing deeply, and then paused.

  “Why does your hair smell like my brother?”

  “Oops, I guess that’s who owned the tasty-smelling shampoo. Mine had run out.” Damn. Of course it was Austin’s one that I would use.

  Caleb snickered quietly. “Oh, he’s going to kill you when he finds out! That stuff costs him megabucks. And is this Cole’s T-shirt?” He slid his warm hand under the garment in question, clasping my waist.

  “Um, I think Austin already knows.” Maybe that explained his weird sniffing. “And Cole’s T-shirt is comfy...” I didn’t want to admit he had torn mine in half.

  “Mm hmm?” He murmured, his lips against the bite mark on my neck. “Sure that’s the only reason?” The tip of his tongue traced the edges of the bruise gently, and I shivered in pleasure. Damn obvious erogenous zones.

  “Shh, Caleb. Back to sleep,” I huffed, snuggling tighter and shutting down the conversation. He chuckled, but tightened his grip on me and within minutes was breathing deeply. To my disappointment, sleep was harder-won for myself as my brain started churning over the events of the night once more. One face kept flashing in my mind, over and over. The girl who looked like me. Who was she?

  32

  I woke slowly, refreshed, content, and alone in the cloud bed. Caleb must have woken before me, then turned on a heater. The room was toasty warm. I spent a few minutes just lying in the bed and enjoying the luxury. Caleb’s thoughtfulness never failed to make me feel good. Fucking hell, how had I suddenly gone from zero romance to three impossibly hard to resist men all inexplicably interested in me? Everything about our situation had the potential to go really sour, even though I had the feeling they all knew what was going on. Good things like this never lasted, not with me. Maybe I should make the most of it while I could. Life turned on a dime— mine did anyway. So why borrow more trouble?

  Ugh, speaking of trouble.

  The events of the night before came flooding back, and I groaned, burying my face in the pillow but unable to hide from my own thoughts. Reluctantly, I peeled back the blankets and climbed out of bed. Quickly darting out into the cold hallway, I grabbed fresh clothes from the closet before getting dressed.

  In the kitchen, only Cole sat at the counter, finishing off a cup of coffee and reading something on his phone.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked, grabbing my own giant cup from the cabinet. It was one that had appeared shortly after I started staying here and was about three times the size of the normal mugs, so I knew without a doubt it was for me. The words “Kit’s Koffee Kup” printed on the side of it helped.

  “Here and there,” he replied, locking his screen before setting his empty cup in the sink. “I have to head out now, too, but River is around the house this afternoon.”

  “Huh? What time is it?” I took a long sip of the fresh coffee then moaned in pleasure. So good.

  Cole watched me for a moment with a heated expression. I was starting to appreciate that his eyes, so capable of such intense coldness, were also capable of the opposite, and right now they set me on fire.

  “Three.” He responded, prowling closer and boxing me in with his palms on the counter to either side of me.

  I spluttered a little on my coffee. Shit, I had slept for going on ten hours! My mouth gaped open stupidly, and Cole took the opportunity to seal his lips to mine in a blisteringly hot kiss, then pulled away. With a sultry smirk, he dragged his thumb over the mark on my neck.

  “I have to head out. Stay out of trouble, and I’ll catch you later, Vixen.” The nickname sent tingles through me, and I struggled not to drool watching him walk away.

  I was still standing there when River entered and swiped the cup out of my hand, helping himself to my coffee. My coffee. That was a sure fire way to snap me out of a daze.

  “Woah, what the hell are you doing?” I snatched my cup back after he had already pilfered several mouthfuls. “You’re likely to lose a hand pulling a crazy stunt like that!”

  He grinned before stealing a kiss, tasting like stolen coffee.

  “Tastes better when it’s yours, love.” He winked, and I wondered if we w
ere still talking about the coffee. I blushed and cleared my throat, hunting for a change of subject.

  “What’s the plan today? Apparently it’s already afternoon, but I’m not sure I believe that...”

  He laughed, pulling out some food from the fridge, and I tried to remember if I’d ever seen him so jovial before. It was a good look on him too, his easy smile lifting the small scar near his lip, which I couldn’t stop staring at, and setting his golden eyes dancing.

  “Cole mentioned you were in need of some more clothes, so I thought I’d run you back to your dorm room?” I spat coffee, remembering why I needed new clothes. Panties in particular. Bastards.

  “Sounds good,” I muttered, eyeing the sandwich River assembled. He had already put in three different types of cheese that I could see, and my stomach growled loudly. Some holy deity must have been smiling down on me because after he pressed on the top of the sandwich, he handed the whole thing to me.

  “Fuck, I think I love you.” I groaned, eyeing up the cheese-filled masterpiece. River made an odd noise, and I frowned at him. “I’m talking to the sandwich, you narcissist.”

  “Sure you were, love.” He chuckled, taking advantage of my full hands to swipe another sip of my coffee, the dick.

  “Hurry up and eat that, and we can go,” he told me, taking another deliberate sip, and I abandoned all manners to stuff the rest of the sandwich in my mouth and snatch my cup back.

  “Such a lady.” He sighed, then grabbed his keys off the hook near the door. “Come on then, let’s go.”

  Grumbling at his implication that I wasn’t a lady, I downed the remaining coffee before jogging after him into the garage, which I’d yet to explore.

  River clicked his key fob, and a sleek, gunmetal gray Aston Martin Vantage made a sexy beep as it unlocked. My eyes grew bigger as I stared at the gorgeous beast and gave River my very best puppy-dog look.

  “Can I drive? Please? Please?” I was bouncing on my toes and whining like a two-year-old, but I didn’t care. I bet that machine was a dream to drive.