by Tate James
“Not a chance in hell.” He chuckled at me before sliding into the driver’s seat while I pouted my way around to the passenger side.
I sank into the butter-soft leather seats and inhaled the new car smell. I needed to work my charms a little harder to get the keys to this some day. The sight of River’s sexy, grinning face behind the wheel of this incredible machine made my last pair of clean underwear damp.
We pulled out of the garage in a rumble and glided out onto the road, River navigated the tight corners with ease as I studied him. I knew so little about the man, and I’d all but moved in with him and the other members of the team. What I knew? He was the team leader to a group of secret operatives, drove a quarter-million dollar car, wore thousand dollar suit pants and custom made shirts with sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Beyond that, I knew nothing else.
“What?” he asked, noticing my attention on him.
“I know nothing about you,” I blurted out. “I’ve completely thrown caution to the wind, given you guys my deepest, darkest secrets, trusted you with information that could get me killed, and yet none of you have told me anything about yourselves. Except Wesley.”
“Wesley?” he asked, surprised. I didn’t blame him; the youngest team member was also the most introverted.
“Yeah, he told me about his brother and how he’d ended up with Omega Group.” I continued to take the opportunity while he watched the road to study his face. His permanent three-day growth of stubble was trimmed neatly, barely hiding the faint white scar on his upper lip. He flicked another glance over at me, catching me staring—again.
“Well, what do you want to know, love?” His tone was amused.
“Uh, how about... how did you join Omega?”
“Far less of a noble story than Wesley’s, I’m afraid,” he remarked dryly. “My parents were older when they had me—an accident I suspect, as they were never very affectionate towards me. When I was six my father decided I required too much hard work and had me enrolled in military school here in the States. I completed my schooling at the top of my class then enlisted. Two years later, I was approached by Omega Group, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“And the expensive car? The designer suits? Are they all just a part of your ‘cover’?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a half grin. “No, Kitten, they’re not my ‘cover.’ My parents died while I was in the army; they were very wealthy people, and I had no other living relatives. I simply happen to like the feeling of wearing suits and driving nice cars.”
I had to snort a little at his description of this luxurious machine as “nice.”
“As if you’re one to judge,” he teased me. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed your penchant for designer shoes.”
I huffed but changed the subject. “How did you come to work with these boys?”
“Cole and I have been best friends since we were kids. He had some shit happen when he was about twelve or so, which landed him in the same military school as me. When we graduated and I joined the army, he went on to do his semi-pro fighting career. After Omega approached me, they also approached him. Apparently they had been keeping tabs on us since some aptitude tests while we were in school. The twins joined around three years ago, right after school, and Wesley a year later. We were formed as an official team not long after Wesley passed recruitment but had been doing jobs with the twins since they joined. We don’t simply work together; we’re family. It’s what makes us one of the best teams at Omega.”
I considered what he’d said, then my curiosity ran away with my mouth. “What happened to Cole to land him in military school?”
River shook his head firmly, “That’s not my story to tell. I’m sure you’ll find some way of making him talk, though.”
I squirmed under his knowing look.
Then he continued, “And I’m sure Caleb will tell you national secrets if you ask nicely, so if you want their story, I would speak to him and not Austin.” This last suggestion was made with a healthy dose of amusement, and I whacked him in the arm.
“Yeah, yeah, hilarious. I think it’s pretty obvious Austin hates me.” I pretended to sulk, but my feelings were actually a bit hurt by his continued hostility toward me. I had genuinely thought that if he got to know me, we would be okay, but it just seemed like nothing I did had any effect on his dislike for me. I’d never been so inexplicably hated before, and it was getting under my skin.
“He doesn’t hate you,” River placated. “You just remind him of someone.”
“Let me guess, I’ll have to ask him myself if I want more information?” The question was rhetorical, and he shrugged less than helpfully as he pulled into the visitor parking bay in front of my CFA dorm.
I was slower than him to unbuckle my safety belt, and he was already opening my door for me before I even reached for the handle. Who said chivalry was dead?
Once I was out of the car, he placed his hand on my lower back as we walked into the old brick building.
“Speaking of my team,” he said, continuing our conversation as we walked, “I should probably warn you that as a rule we don’t keep any secrets from each other.”
I tensed at his words and almost tripped on the low step up into the building, catching myself just in time to avoid face-planting into the marble floor.
“Ummmm.” I was at a loss for words. Was this the part where he called me a slut and told me I was no longer welcome in their house? God damn it, why did I have to be attracted to more than one of them? Now look at what I’d done. Would it really have been that difficult not to act on impulse? Of course the answer to that was yes. Not acting on my desire for these men would have been like trying to hold a wild horse with dental floss. Impossible.
“Hey.” River tilted my face up to look at him. I realized I’d been lost to my inner monologue for longer than what was generally polite. “I’m just telling you in the interest of full disclosure so you don’t think we’re gossiping behind your back. That’s all.”
“That’s it?” I was dumbstruck. “You’re not... kicking me out of the clubhouse?”
A fierce look crossed his face, and he slipped his fingers into my hair, holding my head tightly. “You’re not going anywhere,” he stated and lowered his mouth to mine, nudging my lips apart and taking his time stroking my tongue with his. When we eventually separated, our breathing was ragged and my cheeks were flushed.
“I’m glad we cleared that up.” I exhaled, and he snorted a laugh, intertwining his fingers with mine and tugging me along the corridor to my room.
Stepping into my room seemed weird; it had been only a month since I was last here, but it seemed like a lifetime. I looked around at the familiar surroundings. The cheap, disposable-type cellphone sitting on my bed didn’t belong to me.
“River.” I pointed him towards it, and he moved in for a closer look.
“I take it this isn’t yours?” he clarified, already knowing the answer. He picked it up, turning it over in his hands, before pocketing it. “Grab your stuff; we can check the phone out when we get home.”
With a smile for the implication that their home was now my home too, I stuffed a suitcase full of clothes and shoes, sure to grab warmer things.
Finished, I looked over at River, who frowned at my spartan bedroom with its total lack of any personality. What can I say? Even though I’d lived here almost five years, it had always felt temporary, so I’d never truly moved in.
“Done?” he asked when he caught me looking at him. I nodded, and he picked up my bag for me. “Let’s go; we can get Wes to have a look at this phone for us.”
33
River called the team on our drive back to the house, but we still had to wait several hours for them all to get back from whatever they were off doing. Luckily, Wesley was already home when we got there, so he went to work on examining the phone while I paced the living room.
Eventually he declared there was not much to tell; it was a prepaid burner phone
, bought in cash and totally untraceable. There was only one number, labeled “CALL ME,” stored in the contacts, so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what it was there for. River insisted we wait for the rest of the team before making the call, but the waiting was driving me insane. I tried calling Lucy, but she didn’t answer. Wesley said she hadn’t gone home until early in the morning after I went to sleep, so she was probably still asleep, but she would be pissed to miss this development.
I attempted to distract myself by looking through the test subject files again, but if anything, it only served to make me more anxious, seeing the ageless face of Mr. Gregoric and the woman who could be my twin. Just when I felt like my head might explode, Caleb’s car pulled into the garage, closely followed by the rumble of Cole’s motorbike. Caleb must have been out on a job with his brother because they entered in from the garage together dressed identically, with their hair slicked back the same way and sporting matching eyebrow piercings.
The effect was eerie and a little overwhelming, but I could still pick them apart based on the way they looked at me. Caleb dropped onto the couch beside me, then pulled me onto his lap for a hug.
“I didn’t know you had a piercing,” I commented dumbly, fingering the eyebrow jewelry. How had I not noticed before?
He grinned and winked lasciviously. “What makes you think that’s the only one?”
“That’s enough,” Austin snapped. “I’m sure River didn’t call us off the job just so you two could eye fuck each other.”
“I didn’t,” River answered, his serious expression firmly in place as he held up the burner phone. “This was left on Kit’s bed at CFA. It has one number saved under ‘CALL ME,’ so I think it’s a fairly safe assumption that it might be related to last night’s mission.”
The team went silent as they absorbed the information.
“I take it Wesley has already checked it over?” Caleb spoke first. “Well then, it sounds like we need to make a call.”
River did a quick sweep around the room to ensure everyone was in agreement, then handed the phone to me. “Put it on speaker, then dial the number.”
I slid out of Caleb’s lap and tapped the call button, not knowing what—or who—I expected on the other end.
“Oh good!” the friendly, weathered voice of an older woman with a British accent answered. “You found the phone. I knew you would.”
“Um...” I frowned at the phone. Her cheery tone threw me completely.
“Now, Christina dear, I really must tell you I was most upset to see the mess you made of my little testing facility last night.” The grandmotherly voice continued; the woman was a nutcase.
“I’m... sorry?” I responded, baffled at how one was supposed to respond to a crazy person.
She clucked her tongue. “Never mind; what’s done is done. No use crying over spilled milk, now is there, dear?”
“Who the fuck are you?” I blurted out, my shock subsiding and my filter gone.
“Language!” she snapped sharply. “That is no way to speak to your elders. However, you’re right; I was terribly rude not to introduce myself, especially seeing as I know so much about you.” I glanced at River, but he motioned for me to keep going.
“Okay... so who the hell are you?”
An exasperated sigh greeted my demand. “My name, dear girl, is Claudette Dupree. You may call me Madam Dupree.”
“Sure thing, Dupree,” I sneered back at her, raising an eyebrow to the boys and tapping the documents on the coffee table containing the letter written to Dupree regarding the escaped patients. “So what the fuck do you want? Obviously something, or you would have left a fucking bomb instead of a shitty phone.”
Okay, now I was deliberately swearing to piss her off. I could almost hear her teeth grinding over the phone.
“I wanted to offer you a trade. Obviously you’re searching for information on your mother and her time here with us; I can offer you that information,” she told me in a slick, oily voice.
“My mother?” I blurted the words, surprised but not totally blindsided. It was a fairly logical assumption based on the similarity between subject 37 and myself.
“You thought I didn’t know you were Bridget’s daughter? The resemblance is uncanny; I even thought for a moment you were her when I saw you on the cameras.” The woman scoffed a little at the idea, and I had to bite back the thousand questions clamoring for answers. The last thing I needed was to show she had the upper hand. Holy crap my mother has a name!
“Let’s cut to the chase shall we?” she continued briskly. “We both want answers. I’m offering you the answers you want, if in exchange, you willingly participate in a few tests at my facility.”
Cole and River shook their heads immediately, but I ignored them. This was my call. And I wanted as much information as I could get.
“What sort of tests?” I asked, and the hesitance in my voice wasn’t an act. The guys around me wore differing levels of panic. Even Austin looked grim and gave me a death stare along with a sharp headshake.
“Oh, nothing too invasive.” Dupree laughed. “I’m just interested to see what traits Bridget might have passed on to you. It would mostly just be questions. An interview you might say.”
River’s beautiful green-gold left eye was twitching, and his jaw looked like it was clenched hard enough to break something. I strongly suspected he might have a brain aneurism if I kept ignoring them. I needed to wrap the conversation up.
“I’ll think about it,” I said, and his teeth made a loud grinding noise.
“You have twenty four hours,” she responded, apparently scenting weakness and demanding control. “Call back on this number and let me know your choice. But Christina, dear, I recommend making the right choice.” The line disconnected.
The phone was snatched out of my grip before I could even open my mouth to speak, and I glared hard at Caleb who was holding it in his fist.
“What the fuck do you mean, you’ll think about it?” he demanded. “The answer is no. There is no thinking about it required here!”
“Over my dead fucking body,” Cole swore.
“For once, I’m with these dickheads. You can’t accept that shit, Christina.” Since when did Austin give a shit what happened to me?
“Woah, woah!” I yelled over their stubborn declarations. “Just back the hell up! If you’re not capable of talking this through with me rationally, then we won’t talk at all and I will decide for myself.”
“There will be no decision, Vixen,” Cole roared menacingly. “You didn’t see what we saw in those labs.”
“Ah, I beg your pardon?” Yep, looked like my high horse had come out to play. “I saw a man punch his fist through another man’s chest! I’m sure it wasn’t worse than that.”
“Trust me, Kitten, it was,” River said quietly. “We saw some of the test subjects, and I promise you, they were not there for ‘interviews.’ We didn’t want to say anything last night—you had enough on your plate with the pictures in the files—but it was bad. Really bad.”
“They’re right,” Wesley piped up, the traitor. “It’s why Lucy started opening all the doors. We only caught a tiny bit on camera, but it was enough to say you can’t willingly go there.”
I studied their stubborn faces; not one of them seemed willing to consider any sort of compromise, and my temper flared. “I’m not an idiot, I know it’s probably a trap. I just think that we can--”
“No. We are not even entertaining this as a possibility. This is way outside of the assignment we came here to do, and I am sorry, Kit, but I am putting my foot down.” River’s tone held no room for negotiation.
“Well. Thank you all for your opinions.” I seethed, and inside I was a boiling mess of anger. “I will take them under advisement while I consider the best course of action for me. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go and think of some way I might meet Dupree halfway on her offer.” I stood and started out of the room, then hesitated. I didn’t
really have my own space in their house.
“Take my room,” Cole rumbled. “I’ll leave you alone.”
Not responding, I continued to his room and closed the door firmly. Lying on his bed, I stared at the ceiling as though it held the answers I needed.
At some point, a tentative knock on the door jarred me from my thoughts. The door opened just a tiny crack to allow the sound through.
“Kit? It’s me… ah I mean Wesley.” I rolled my eyes—as if I didn’t know his voice. “I just wanted to check if you’re coming out for dinner? You must be hungry…”
“No!” I yelled back. The last thing I wanted to do was sit around and play nice with a bunch of misogynistic assholes. How dare they tell me what I can and can’t do? I wasn’t stupid enough to just waltz into the bad guys lair thinking we would have tea, but they wouldn’t even discuss how we could have used this opportunity.
I heard Wesley murmur something unintelligible, and then he knocked again a short while later.
“Hey, Kit? It’s just me again… Wesley… I figured you would still get hungry at some point, so I made you a sandwich. I’ll just um… leave it here.” There was a pause, and I heard the plate tap against the door as he set it down. “So um… night!”
I retrieved the sandwich and smiled at how thoughtful he was. The sandwich was crammed with three types of cheese and had been zapped in the microwave to melt it all. Delicious.
Hours later, I still hadn’t come up with a solution. If what the boys stated was true, and I couldn’t see why they’d lie, then nothing Dupree said could be trusted. Which meant I would need to come up with a foolproof plan to ensure my own safety and have some sort of extraction plan in place in case shit hit the fan in a big way.
I changed into one of Cole’s massive shirts with the intention of sleeping. After more lying there staring at the ceiling for an eternity, I gave up and began pacing again. The boys’ reluctance to give specifics on what they’d seen left my mind going wild. I could imagine all sorts of horrible things. When you grew up the way I had, you could imagine evil a lot more easily than good.
