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 really? 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.

“Interesting,” I commented mildly. “And who were you gathering information on... exactly?” His gaze snapped up to meet mine, offering the confirmation I needed.

Crap, dammit.

“Mr. Gregoric, to be honest. Although it seems our intel was just a little off base...”

I snorted a laugh, relaxing a bit while Caleb frowned at me, clearly not seeing the funny side. I can see why they would have suspected him, though. Coincidently, he had shown up at the same time as I had returned to Cascade Falls with that damn ring. Not to mention his sharp-toothed smile and weird behavior in town. Man definitely gave me the creeps.

“All right, what gave me away?” I asked, dropping the pretense. Maybe, hopefully, I still stood a chance of him letting me go if I kept things friendly.

Actually, that isn’t a totally unreasonable idea, and would be a real kick in the face to Omega Group.

“Oh, I see we’re done playing innocent now?” Caleb smirked.

I shrugged. What’s the point? “If you had evidence, I wouldn’t still be sitting here. So you’ve obviously worked it out but based on rumor or hearsay, so I ask again, what gave me away? I know for a fact my tracks were covered impeccably well.”

“They were,” Wesley muttered, sounding confused. “I’d really like to ask you about how you managed a couple of your jobs...”

I mimed zipping my lips. “Trade secret.”

After giving Wesley an inscrutable look, Caleb rose and said, “The rest of the team will be back soon; I’m sure they will want to explain it themselves, if you can handle waiting a bit?”

“Sure,” Not like I didn’t already know more than they did, “In the meantime, do you have anything to eat? I’m starving and is that coffee I smell?” I grinned at Caleb and prayed he didn’t see the worry in my eyes. Come on Cal, it’s just me. Your friend. You want to help your friend, don’t you?

He watched me with suspicion for a moment before he sighed and stood up. “Fine, I’ll make you food but only because I know how crabby you get when you’re hungry. Wes just brewed fresh coffee, too.”

Hope flared in me as I saw him giving in to our flirty friendship rather than the whole criminal/superspy dynamic. The sooner I could convince him to let me go, the better.

“Thank fuck, I thought you would never offer. It was all I could smell when I came out here!” I groaned and followed him over to the kitchen as though pulled by a beautiful caffeinated magnet. Wesley watched me suspiciously but Caleb didn’t seem to notice. He pulled out a bowl and began mixing batter for pancakes. Have I mentioned lately how much I love him? Pancakes and coffee were breakfast heaven.

“So, where is your douchebag of a twin anyway?” I asked after downing my first cup. Wesley refilled it for me politely while Caleb poured pancake batter onto the griddle. The first sizzle had my stomach growling.

“He and the others are dealing with your would-be kidnappers.”

I paused, cup halfway to my mouth, and frowned at him.

“Sorry, what? You have them? I want to see them!” I exclaimed, slamming my cup back onto the counter and sloshing precious liquid out.

“Why?” Caleb glanced over to meet my gaze. “Do you know who sent them?”

“Of course not! That’s why I want to speak to them, to find out who the fuck tried to have me kidnapped! Isn’t that obvious?” I tried to hold my temper in check. Of course, they weren’t going to let me, their mark, interrogate prisoners but it wasn’t an easy concept to swallow.

He looked at me for a minute, as though weighing my words, then nodded. “Well in that case, we are working toward the same goal. We are considerably more qualified for interrogation than you, so just trust that we know what we’re doing.”

Just as I was about to irrationally lose my temper at a situation that couldn’t be changed, the front door banged open. Austin stalked in wearing a moody expression, followed by Cole from the gym, and… what the hell, the good Samaritan from the alleyway? If I were honest with myself, I wasn’t even surprised, really. It would have been way too much of a coincidence that all these beautiful, mysterious men would suddenly show up in my small town at the same time. Not to mention be so interested in me.

“I guess I should have seen this one a mile away,” I remarked. “River, I presume?” I addressed the mystery man, recalling the name of the twins’ “cousin” that they were living with. He answered with a sharp nod, all business. Had I completely imagined our heated encounter after Simon’s nutty behavior the night before? God, had it only been the night before? Felt like a million years ago.

“So, I take it you heard considerably more of Simon’s ranting than you let on? Nice of you to wait so long to intervene.” I rolled my eyes. I guess that explains what gave me away.

“I thought you said you had it under control?” he reminded me, his all-business façade dipping for a moment as a teasing look entered his mismatched, liquid gold eyes.

Biting my tongue, I avoided revealing my lack of retort by freshening up my coffee.

Shit, not good. This guy looks like he’ll be way harder to talk around than Caleb.

“You’ve already met the twins of course, and I assume Caleb had the decency to introduce Wesley?” River continued smoothly. “And this is Cole Bennett, the last member of our team.”

“We’ve met,” I stated, meeting Cole’s steel gaze then quickly looking away, still unbelievably unnerved by the wild danger living in his eyes.

All four guys turned to look at Cole with surprise on their faces, and he gave them an unapologetic look.

“We had pizza,” he deadpanned. Then, when they continued to stare at him, he shrugged. “What? I didn’t think it relevant.”

River shook his head in disbelief and pointed sharply at Cole then both twins as he said, “The three of you are on punishment detail for a week for having our mark literally under your noses and not working it out. Now, Christina—”

“Kit,” I interrupted. Austin snorted. Asshole.

“Kit then, can you tell me who those men were that tried to kidnap you last night?” River certainly didn’t beat around the bush.

I frowned at him. “I thought you would tell me. Haven’t you interrogated them?”

“We did.” He grimaced. “Unfortunately they were equipped with cyanide capsules, and as soon as they realized we were experienced in interrogation, they took their own lives. Which begs the question, what have you gotten mixed up in that hired goons would rather die than squeal on their employer?”

Stunned, I didn’t answer. What the hell had I gotten myself mixed up in? Kidnapping; that wasn’t too unexpected from the people we stole from. But hired mercenaries willing to die rather than be questioned? That was insane. I shook my head.

“I swear I have no idea who they were. How do I know they’re not something to do with you lot? Seems like an awfully big coincidence that they show up within weeks of all of you!” Yes, I was grasping at straws here but I’d always maintained that the best defense was a good offense. I stood a much better chance of wiggling my way out of this if I feigned ignorance as to who their employer was.

River stared me down, his face impassive, “And what about your friend from the bar? Seemed like he had a vendetta. He even hinted that something bad was heading your way. You don’t find that coincidental?”

My shoulders sagged, and I propped my elbows on the kitchen counter. He was absolutely right. Simon turning up here out of the blue and railing on about some big secret that he needed to “warn” me about only hours before someone attempted to kidnap me? Jesus, I thought it was bad enough he’d tried to force himself on me, but now this? Nauseated, I clapped a hand over my mouth.

“Kitty Kat, are you okay?” Caleb appeared at my side and rubbed circles against my back. Sucking in a few deep breaths and leaning into his comforting warmth, I got my shit together. As much as I knew that things were different between us now, we had grown really close lately. I wasn’t ready to give up that closeness just yet and it seemed, neither was he.

“He’s right. This must be connected to Simon.” Dammit, Simon. “I have a feeling I know what this is about.”

I pulled away from Caleb and refilled my coffee cup. The caffeine helped with the headache. Retreating from the kitchen, I curled up in the corner of the big couch. I waited until the guys all followed me and found seats before I started talking again. River’s jaw clenched, as though he would prefer to give the orders rather than let me usurp his authority. Tempting as it was, I didn’t stall a bit longer just to piss him off. Definitely a control freak, that one.

“Last weekend I had a job which required procuring some files from a secure server in an office building,” I began, but I didn’t make it far before Austin interrupted with a derisive snort.

“Steal. You stole files from a secure server. Let’s call a spade a spade here.” He sneered, and it took a lot to resist the urge to punch him in his arrogant face.

“As I was saying, one of the files wasn’t the financial records I’d been contracted to retrieve.” I kept Luce out of it, for now “It was a series of memos referring to some illegal human genetics trials with unwilling test subjects.” Several brows rose, but the other guys said nothing even though they looked thoughtful.

“So why kidnap you?” River pushed.

I imagined it had something to do with my own possible ties to those Frankenstein projects, but I wasn’t ready to let these boys in on that little tidbit just yet, so I pasted on my best wide-eyed innocent look and shrugged.

“I don’t know. Maybe because I took the file for myself and deleted the originals?” Yes, good thinking on your feet, Kit. Sounds plausible.

“And what do you intend to do with this stolen file?” River continued to run the conversation, giving me a fair idea of why he was their team leader. The guys seemed natural in how they deferred to him in this situation, listening silently and trusting him to take charge.

“I...” plan on using it to find out who I am. Being careful with how much I was sharing, I said, “I was planning on investigating further. They’re killing people in these experiments, and it can’t be allowed to continue. It’s what any decent person would do.” Except we had already hit a dead end… they didn’t need to know that, either.

He watched me for a minute, as if pondering my half-truth, making me sweat.

“How do you plan to do that?” River asked finally.

It was a good question; aside from Lucy’s connection in the dark net, we really had no further plan of attack in mind. Not that I was going to admit that to this group of specially trained field operatives. They were definitely going to make this difficult. Maybe I could deflect with questions of my own?

“Perhaps you should be telling me a little more about why I should trust the five of you? How the hell do I know you’re not the bad guys here?” Yes, Kit. Good deflection.

River dipped his head to me. “Fair enough. I can understand your concern. My team and I are agents with the Omega Group, a private intelligence firm which is often contracted by various government factions as well as civilians requiring assistance. Have you ever heard of us?”

I maintained my poker face. They certainly weren’t expecting me to have heard of them—I could tell by their relaxed expressions—so I tactfully didn't contradict their assumptions.

“River,” Austin snapped, “Why are you explaining anything to her? She’s a criminal. It’s our job to take her in to OG headquarters and be done with it.”

River cast a warning look at Austin, who shut up and glowered at me with his arms folded over his chest.

“My reasons are not up for discussion at this point in time, we can speak later if you disagree.” River turned back to me to continue his explanation. “No, I didn’t think you would have heard of us. Well, it’s safe to say we are the good guys. I would offer to give you references, but then everyone would know we had found the infamous Fox, and you’d be staring down a very, very long prison sentence. Is that what you want?”

Well this sounds hopeful… Could he seriously be considering letting me escape? Why? I was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I took a leap of faith, praying it would work out. If it did, it would be well worth the gamble, given both mine and Lucy’s futures were at stake.

“Very well. In answer to your earlier question, I don’t have a specific plan as of yet. I was kind of counting on the memos I found to contain some clues as to a starting point or some sort of lead.” I shrugged. It was mostly true; that was exactly what I had been counting on. I just omitted the part where Lucy was sending off for outside help.

None of the guys commented, though River continued to study me with his unnatural eyes. Unnerved, I glanced away, and my gaze landed on Cole. He looked so furious I suddenly wanted to be in another room.

“All right, here’s what’s going to happen,” River announced, breaking the tension. “You’re going to give Wesley this file so he can examine it for further leads. From there, my team will investigate. You will stay out of it; however, I think in the interest of your own safety you need to remain here under our watch for a while. You can still attend classes during the day. We already have Caleb and Austin enrolled, so they can keep you safe. But you’ll return here at night. Your dorm has proved how easy it is to infiltrate.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off with a slice of his hand.

“Let me make this perfectly clear to you, Kit. We were sent here to find and detain an internationally wanted thief-for-hire, and it seems to me that we have found our mark. As it currently stands, we don’t have the evidence necessary to detain you, however, I have absolutely no qualms about making my team stick to you like glue for as long as it takes to find that evidence. Now, either that means we find it and take you in, or you keep your pretty little nose clean and hang up your fox fur coat, so to speak. We still win because you will no longer be procuring items that don’t belong to you. Or you can play nice, let us protect you until we are sure the threat against you is cleared, then I will give you a fair head start to change locations before we begin hunting you again.”

Shock held me captive for a moment. “Sorry, this makes no sense. Why are you so willing to help me? I thought your job was to haul me in, not help me escape? Is this part of the game?”

“What game?” He tilted his head and gave me an intense look.

“Nothing,” I backtracked, in case I had this all wrong, “Never mind.” He seriously was offering me a chance to make my escape if I cooperated in the interim. Seemed like a no-brainer. They may not have any evidence on me yet, but they knew who I was and it wouldn’t be all that hard to connect Lucy, which made the decision easy. While I was willing to gamble on my own future, I wasn’t willing to gamble on hers. I had to take any and all opportunities presented in order to wiggle out of this mess, regardless of their motivations.

I nodded slowly. “Very well. I want to be involved in the investigation, though. I think you and I both know I have skills that will be useful.”

Lips compressed, he studied me for another beat then gave a sharp nod. “Done. Caleb, take Kit to gather some clothes and retrieve this file for Wesley.” He stood, then adjusted his rolled up shirtsleeves “Cole and Austin, we have some bodies to dispose of. Let’s move.”

With that, the three of them swept out of the house, and I was left with Caleb and Wesley once more.