The next morning before school, I was in the kitchen having coffee with Caleb when River joined us, leaning against the counter with his arms folded.

“Kit, we need to organize some training for you,” he announced. “If you intend to participate in this investigation, then I need to know you can hold your own if necessary. Cole mentioned seeing you at the gym; do you already have any fight training?”

I shook my head, chewing my lip. “None. I only took up boxing as a… er… stress reliever.”

River sighed, and a heavy frown creased his brow. “Maybe you should just leave it to us.”

Outraged, I opened my mouth to protest, but Caleb paused the imminent argument by placing a hand on my shoulder.

“River, I’m sure we can train her. She must have some skills from all those Fox jobs,” he reasoned, and River raised an eyebrow at me.

“I do.” I nodded. “And I am a really fast learner.”

“Fine. But I reserve the right to pull the plug if I don’t think you’re up to scratch,” he told me in a no-compromise tone.

“Deal,” I agreed quickly, before he could change his mind. “So when do we start?”

“Tomorrow. You three have school today, so we can start on the weekend then continue in the evenings during the week.” River nodded a greeting to Austin, who had just joined us in the kitchen.

“You’re not seriously still making us attend that school, are you River?” he grumbled, yawning and pouring himself a coffee.

“I am,” River confirmed. “Kit needs around-the-clock protective detail until we can deal with whoever tried to kidnap her. I have already called the Headmaster this morning and moved the two of you into all of her and Lucy’s classes. I expect you to keep an eye on Lucy too, just in case they go for her.” Austin surprisingly didn’t argue, so River turned back to me. “The best way for you to learn will be to train with the best. Cole will teach you combat, Caleb will educate you on blades, and Austin will teach you to shoot.”

“Couldn’t Caleb just teach me both blades and guns at the same time?” I asked, screwing my face up. Honestly, I would rather shoot myself in the foot than learn from Austin. Caleb coughed over a laugh, and Austin murmured something under his breath that sounded like he agreed, but River gave us all a sharp look. The twins noticeably snapped to attention, shoulders pulling back and their faces serious. I was shocked to find I was also sitting a bit straighter in my seat.

“Austin will be teaching you to shoot because he is our team’s best marksman and because he will not disobey a direct order. Will he?” River barked at us, and Austin looked suitably chastised for his childish behavior.

“No, sir,” he responded, and River turned his attention to me.

“Understood,” I whispered, feeling a bit chastised myself. River cocked an eyebrow at me, as though expecting something more, and then I added, “...sir?”

He nodded briefly then turned away but not before I caught the small smile on his lips and heated look in his golden eyes. “Good. I’m glad that is settled. Now get to school or you’ll be late.”

I woke up Saturday morning with a flutter of excitement in my belly. I was going to learn some real skills today! The day before at school had dragged, first because I now had to deal with Austin in all of my classes, and second because I ended up with detention for skipping school the day prior. I couldn’t even argue seeing as sorry, I was recovering from a kidnapping probably wouldn’t have been a believable excuse.

I tried to rein in my excitement as I skipped out to the kitchen and sang, “Good morning!”

“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!”