by Tate James
“Huh?” I asked, having totally forgotten the question. Smooth, Kit. Real smooth. His throaty chuckle vibrated through my body as he leaned in closer and brushed his satiny lips against my ear, then more firmly over my pulse point. The muscles along my spine quivered as a surge of adrenaline rushed through me, leaving me a pathetic, panting mess.
“Why did your friend just refer to you as ‘Foxy Girl’?” the delectable stranger questioned against my skin in his panty-dropping voice, and I melted a little more. Not enough to lose my brain entirely, though it was getting close.
“Because of my hair color, obviously.” Only a half-lie, since it was how I first got the name.
He pulled back from my neck and gave me an assessing look. His eyes flicked from my hair to my face, and then he seemed to take his time memorizing my features. He ran his rough thumb across my lower lip, and I tried not to moan, still riding high on the hormone rush.
“How curious.” he muttered, then abruptly pulled back, leaving an ice cold void where his body had been.
“Be seeing you around, Fox.” He winked one stunning golden eye, then strode his fine ass out of the alley without so much as a backward glance, leaving me gaping after him.
What the hell just happened? My mind felt like scrambled eggs, all awash with shock and betrayal and frustration. Not to mention the confusion at how uncharacteristically docile I had just gone under the sexy British stranger’s hands. I lifted my fingers to touch where his thumb had caressed my lip, and I froze, a cold spike of fear jolting through me. The split in my lip had completely healed, and I would be willing to bet the bruising under my eye was totally gone now too.
Fuck.
13
Absolutely shattered, I hid in my room back at school. The weird events of the day, from lunch with Cole, Simon’s reappearance, Caleb’s drop by and his tenderness—then the insanity of Simon in the alleyway—what the hell had happened to him? Then the Good Samaritan in the alley, he took my breath away.
Exhausted, I fell face-first into my pillow. I wanted to just go to sleep and escape it all. If I did, however, I wouldn’t be very comfortable. Flopping onto my back, I unlaced the boots one by one before kicking them off the end of the bed. The jeans took some actual effort to wiggle out of, and then I let them hit the floor.
Everything else could stay. I quickly tapped out a message to Lucy, letting her know I was back and would explain when I saw her in class the next day, then sent a briefer one to Caleb as promised. Within seconds I was fast asleep.
Jolting upright—a minute later or an hour? I had no idea—I looked around my dark room. What had woken me? Fatigue warred with grogginess, so I hadn’t been asleep for too long, but I was a light sleeper, so something must have made an out-of-place noise.
A subtle scratch and click in the near silence—someone was working at picking the lock on my door. Adrenaline flooded my system, chasing away the sleepiness.
Come on, Kit, think. What are the options?
I could head out the window. Regardless of my enhanced speed, this moment spent being indecisive had eliminated that as an option. A tumbler had already clicked; one more and the door would be open. It was my room, and I was awake, that gave me the element of surprise.
Positioning myself to the side of the door, I waited. Seconds later, the last tumblers surrendered. The door opened slowly, admitting a large man in a ski mask.
I launched a swift upper cut to the intruder’s jaw, intending to knock him out. He went down, but the three behind him surged forward. Dammit! I danced backward, delivering several more hard punches, but even as a second man went down, two more landed on me. I had to spend more time blocking their blows than hitting them.
A crash into the back of my head sent me to the floor. Smart-asses tried to pin me, but before I could respond, one of my arms was wrenched behind my back. Zip-tied.
Dammit.
Slamming my head back, I struck one of them in the face. I didn’t get to enjoy the satisfying crunch of bone and his snarled swear words before something sharp pierced my thigh and my body went ridged. The last thing I heard before succumbing to the blackout was one of them saying, “The package is secure.”
Wesley
The large screen showed twelve boxes of static flickering a few times, and then one by one the static boxes were replaced with live camera feeds showing various views of Cascade Falls Academy.
“All right, boys,” I muttered into my Bluetooth headset, leaning back in my office chair and running my hand through my shaggy blond hair, “We are up and running on cameras one through ten. How are we going with eleven and twelve?”
“On it now,” Cole responded. “Should be done in a couple of minutes if Austin quits his crying.” The snickering laughs of my team, everyone except Austin, could be heard on the open line.
“Shut the fuck up, Cole,” Austin grumbled. “I still think River’s wrong. There’s no way—no way—that simpering idiot is the thief we’re looking for.”
“Aus, don’t be such an asshole,” Caleb snarled down the line, “You clearly don’t know her at all, so don’t go making assumptions.”
“Obviously, neither do you,” he sneered in reply to his twin, and Caleb said nothing. Austin had a point; Caleb had been spending all his free time with the girl for the past two and a half weeks and hadn’t once suspected she was our mark.
“Children. Cut it out,” River, our team leader, snapped at them. “I don’t think any of us were expecting The Fox to be a teenage girl. Let’s get these cameras set up, and hopefully we can get the evidence we need.”
I coughed to cover a laugh at hearing the twins chastised. They should have known it was her. Her name was Kit, for fuck’s sake. Surely I wasn’t the only one who knew a kit was a baby fox? Then again, maybe I was. I sometimes forgot that my mind stores all kinds of random knowledge. Aside from that clue, though, we were way off base with the profile we’d been working off for the identity of “The Fox.”
“I bet you a hundred that you’re wrong on this, River,” Austin grunted, not willing to give it up so easily. “She doesn’t have it in her to pull the jobs we’ve seen.”
“Done,” the Brit accepted. We all knew he would; River was never one to back down from a wager, especially when he knew he was right—and I suspected he would be walking away a hundred dollars richer tonight.
The last two cameras flickered online, and I started clicking through them all, one by one, to ensure they worked correctly. Camera five showed movement, and I enlarged it to watch more closely. It was three in the morning; there should be no one moving around other than my team, and the people on this feed were definitely not my team.
“Aus, you are soon to be a hundred dollars poorer because we have suspicious movement on camera five. Four masked men currently picking the lock on Kit’s bedroom door,” I warned them.
“Locations?” River barked, and everyone reported their positions. “Austin, Cole. You’re closest. Head toward the window in case they take that exit, and Caleb and I will take the main entrance.”
Confirmations flowed over the line. I watched the security cameras as the team ducked into and out of feeds, while keeping one eye on the cameras showing Kit’s door and window.
“Window,” I updated them. “It just opened, and I can see a gloved hand on the sill.”
Austin and Cole darted across the lawn visible on camera three. They were moving fast, but they were still a decent distance out.
“Yep, coming out the window. Four guys, and one of them carrying the girl over his shoulder. She looks unconscious.”
Caleb cursed at the update.
Austin and Cole raced into view on camera nine and immediately pounced on the masked men. A combination of surprise and their superior training helped the pair to swiftly disable and subdue Kit’s four assailants. The boys quickly zip-tied their hands and feet, and then Cole bent to check on Kit where she had been dropped during the violent exchange.
“She okay?�
� I asked hesitantly when he didn’t immediately report her status. Cole still didn’t answer, taking a few more seconds to check her over.
“Think so.” I should have known better than to expect him to elaborate. Cole was never one to waste words. River and Caleb arrived on camera view and checked the bound intruders.
“Cole, take the girl back to our house and get Wesley to look her over. We will take care of these four,” River assigned, and we all confirmed again.
Holy fuck, that was unexpected! When River had told us he’d found our mark, it had sounded too easy, so I really should have seen something like this coming. It was a shame we hadn’t thought to put cameras around the student dorms earlier, but by all witness accounts, as well as the profiler report, The Fox should have been much older and male.
I hope she’s okay… they probably sedated her. I trusted River and the boys to get information out of the goons as to what they might have used, just in case she needed an antidote.
14
Kit
Rolling over, I moaned and buried my head in my pillow, which oddly smelled exactly like Caleb. All vanilla and cinnamon like some sort of giant cookie. Why was my head pounding so hard? What the hell had I done last night? The last time I’d woken up this bad, I’d had a hard night on tequila, but that didn’t seem right.
Awareness rushed in, and I froze. Masked men. Attacked. Where was I? Who were they? Slowly, I cracked open my eyelids to assess the situation—definitely not in my room anymore. I didn’t seem to be restrained in any way, but to be certain, I moved my wrists. Opening my eyes more, I glanced around the room. For all appearances, it was an unexceptional bedroom. Designed tastefully with stained wood furniture and complimentary colors, but totally devoid of any personal effects that I could see. More importantly, though, I was alone.
What the hell is going on? Who forcefully kidnapped someone only to put them into a super comfortable, cloudlike queen size bed that smelled really weirdly similar to Caleb, then didn’t stick around or tie their prisoner up?
I sat up, then hissed as a wave of dizziness washed over me and a sharp headache started throbbing. I hated headaches.
I was still dressed in what I’d gone to bed in, so I thanked fate that I had fallen asleep in my sloppy hoody. On my bottom half, I was in nothing but tiny bikini briefs. I made the effort to get out of the bed. I needed to know where I was and what was going on.
Padding over to the dresser against the wall, I pulled open the top drawer and found a pair of men’s track pants, which I pulled on and immediately felt less vulnerable. The door to the side of the dresser opened smoothly, revealing a compact bathroom. Thank God! My bladder wanted to cry with relief. At least my kidnappers weren’t making me pee in a bucket or something barbaric like that. Always nice to get the civilized kidnappers. Not that I had ever been kidnapped before, but things could always be worse.
Always.
Finished, I washed my hands then returned to the bedroom. There were two more doors to try. One of them led to a closet full of men’s clothes, so the other must be the way out. I slowly rotated the handle, expecting to find it locked, but it turned easily and glided open silently.
Okay, these were either the worst kidnappers in history, or something else was going on here. I looked around the bedroom once more, noticing a CFA tie draped over the mirror and a graphic print T-shirt crumpled on the floor that I’d seen Caleb wearing recently. All clues pointed to the room belonging to Caleb. How the hell did that happen?
Was he one of the masked intruders? Why would he do that to me? They hadn’t been at all afraid of inflicting damage while taking me from my room last night. What a dick! I could have been really badly injured, and they had no way to know I healed easily. Was this his idea of potentially the worst practical joke in history?
Boiling with indignation, I stormed out of the bedroom and down the hallway, intent on finding my so-called friend and demanding answers.
Angry, I strode out into a large, open-plan living-dining area with a kitchen set on the far side. A huge marble island separated it from the rest of the space. The décor was that of a mountain lodge, all exposed wood and soft furnishings in earth tones. It looked like it had been fully designed as a show home rather than by people who actually lived in the space.
“Caleb!” I shouted, after spotting his back poking out from behind the open fridge door. “What the fuck is going on?”
The fridge door slammed shut with a jerk, and the man spun around to face me.
This guy was young, maybe my age, and much slimmer than the twins, although his frame was hard to make out since he wore an oversized, crumpled flannel shirt over a white T-shirt with what looked like a coffee stain down the front. His hair was blonde and shaggy but in more of a “forgot to cut it” way rather than a style, and he sported square, black framed glasses
“You’re... not Caleb,” I said, pointing out the obvious. I’m not entirely sure how I had mistaken him for my solidly built friend. He pushed his glasses nervously up his nose as his green eyes darted to something behind me.
“Kitty Kat!” Caleb exhaled against my ear before sweeping me up in broad arms and twirling me around. The force sent a painful spike into my brain. I smacked him in the arm until he let me down, then clutched my head and groaned.
“Shit, sorry babe, I wasn’t thinking,” he apologized as he led me over to the couch and eased me down to sit. “Are you okay?”
Before I could answer, a glass of water was pressed into my hand, and then a palm holding two white pills appeared. I looked up at the jittery blond guy, and he gave me a tight smile.
“Aspirin,” he explained. “For your head. You were jabbed with a pretty run-of-the-mill tranquilizer, but it leaves a bit of dizziness and a headache the day afterwards.”
“Thanks.” I said on reflex and warily accepted the pills. I really needed the aspirin. “Now, one of you needs to explain what the fuck is going on here. Why did you kidnap me in the middle of the night while wearing ski masks? Is this some sort of joke? Because if it is, I’m not laughing. And what the fuck were you thinking tranquilizing me? Even if it was ‘run-of-the-mill,’ it’s so incredibly not safe to do shit like that!” I yelled, beyond pissed off at the whole damn thing. Of course I knew it wasn’t a joke, they were clearly with one of the groups hunting The Fox. I wasn’t going to volunteer up any more information than I needed to, though. It seemed like denial was my best tactic until I knew where we stood. They may not yet know it’s me.
Caleb grinned. “Stop giving us that look, Kitty Kat. You’re not scary.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, growing more incensed by the second, and the other boy made a strangled noise in his throat.
“Agree to disagree, Cal,” he muttered under his breath, then retreated to the kitchen.
I returned my attention my so-called friend. “Start talking.”
“Okay,” he said, puffing out a sigh and running his hands over his face. He looked exhausted. “So, I think obviously it wasn’t us who kidnapped you. My jokes are way funnier than that. Luckily for you, Wesley,” he said, gesturing towards glasses-guy before continuing, “happened to notice those guys breaking into your room, and alerted us in time to ride in on our white stallions to save you.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate, but he seemed to think that summed it all up.
“Can’t believe I have to ask the obvious questions here. How did Wesley happen to see this going on in the girls dorms at God knows what time of morning when I am ninety percent sure he’s not a student? No offense, Wesley, you don’t look like the type who would be paying a late night visit to anyone’s bedroom.” My assumption of his character proved correct when his face flamed red.
“Ahhhhhhh....” Caleb stalled, clearly trying to think of a plausible lie. “Wesley works in IT and surveillance and was doing a routine update of the CFA security system?” Was that a statement or a question?
Fine. I decided to play along. “Oh, rea
lly? How fortunate for me. Tell me, where were these cameras that showed my room? Because I’ve checked the locations of all the security points, and none are near enough to even see that hallway, let alone my specific door.”
“Well....” He looked over my head at Wesley for help.
“And when you say ‘us’ who are you talking about?” I continued before he offered another weak excuse. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe Austin came to my rescue?”
“Actually,” Wesley piped up helpfully from the kitchen, “he did!”
I raised an eyebrow at Caleb, and he ran a hand over the longer middle section of his hair, causing it to stand on end.
“Okay, so Austin and I aren’t technically students at CFA...” he began, and I got the feeling he was finally telling the truth. Sitting back, I motioned for him to continue. Caleb narrowed his eyes at me as if to remind me I wasn’t in charge here.
“We work for a company called Omega and we’re here on a job. Of sorts. To... find someone... Austin and I were enrolled as students to gather information...” He spoke slowly, as though choosing words carefully, but I had a feeling about where this was headed. That goddamn bloody tracker. I might be able to play ignorant for a bit longer, but chances were, my cover was already blown wide open based on the way Caleb currently avoided eye contact.
Fuck, he probably hates me now if he has worked out I’m a criminal. My heart sank a little but I reinforced my emotional walls, putting on my cool, calm confident act. Hearing they worked for Omega Group helped with the calm part. They were the only “good guys” currently hunting The Fox so this was definitely the best of a bad situation.