The Viper's Nest (Kit Davenport #4)(43)

“All right, done,” I announced, wiping it off with a cloth and replacing the gun onto the bedside table.

Austin craned his neck to see, then slapped me on the leg so he could get up and look in the mirror. Caleb and I exchanged grins as Austin stood in front of his ensuite bathroom mirror for a really long time.

“Babe?” I called out in a sickly sweet and very sarcastic voice. “Do you love it?”

There were a few moments more of silence before he stalked back out of the bathroom to glare at the two of us, his underwear still pulled down under his seriously tight butt cheek.

“You were in on this too, huh?” he asked his twin, and Caleb snorted a laugh.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re on your own, Kitty Kat,” he chuckled, racing out of the room again and slamming the door behind him.

Austin levelled a glare on me, but I could already sense he wasn’t anywhere near as annoyed as I had aimed to make him.

“Property of Princess Kit?” he asked me, repeating the words now tattooed onto his ass. “With a little fox wearing a crown?”

“You wrote Austin in between my butterflies and didn’t think I noticed,” I retorted, and his eyebrows shot up with surprise. “I’d say we’re even now. Besides”—I smirked, grabbing him by the elastic waistband and pulling him down to me on the bed—“you are property of Princess Kit.”

Austin braced himself against the bed, his hands either side of me as he leaned in close enough to kiss. “I am no one’s property, baby girl. You’ll learn.”

He kissed me then, but I laughed against his mouth. If anyone would be learning... it’d be him.



When we eventually surfaced out from Austin’s room, I found the kitchen already cleaned up and a plate of fresh cinnamon-coffee cookies sitting on the table in front of the guys.

“Kitten, there you are,” River commented, looking up from where he’d been leaning over Wesley’s laptop screen. “Sit, please. We have something to discuss.”

“Uh, that doesn’t sound so good,” I muttered under my breath, pulling up a chair and tucking my leg up underneath me. Before coming into the kitchen, I’d ducked upstairs and dressed in my own clothes again, seeing as all of mine from earlier were still MIA.

“It’s... well, you’ll see.” River rolled his neck like he’d been craning over Wesley’s shoulder for too long already. “Go ahead, Wes.”

Glancing around the table, none of the other guys seemed remotely curious, other than Austin who clearly had as little clue what was going on as I did. Which made sense, as we’d been occupying each other all afternoon.

“Okay, so River and I have been doing a lot of reading and research and stuff into Omega Group and your dad,” he started, pushing his glasses up as they slipped forward. I smiled seeing him wearing them again. As much as I knew contacts were easier when we were constantly on the run or getting blown up or, well, making out, his glasses reminded me of when we’d first met.

“Yup, I know this.” I nodded my understanding.

“Right, well, one of my keyword searches of government databases brought up something that concerns you.” Wesley spun the computer around and pushed it across to me to read. A light frown pulled at my brows as I took the laptop and scanned the document in front of me.

“Oh,” I said when I finished and officially felt like my stomach was lodged in my throat. “I knew that doctor was up to no good.”

I pushed the computer away from me and dropped my face into my hands with a groan. Anxiety pooled in my belly like cold blood, and I was pretty sure I was getting a migraine... if that was even possible for Ban Dia.

“So, what I gather from that is that the psychotic little worm who took my blood then left me for dead at Gray’s hands is now conducting experiments on people using a serum made from my blood.” I waved a hand at the document on Wesley’s screen. No one spoke, but Wesley nodded. “So this is Dupree and the Blood Moon labs all over again?”

“Except,” Caleb pointed out as he munched on a coffee cookie. “This guy sounds like he’s succeeding. At least temporarily.”

He was right. I groaned again and bashed my head—lightly—on the table a couple of times before Cole put his hand between my forehead and the wood.

“Okay. So... what do we do?” I looked hopefully around at my guys. Surely they already had a genius plan in mind?

“About him?” River shrugged, “Nothing. He only managed to make off with one small vial of your blood, right?” I nodded. “Well then, hopefully it simply runs out soon. It sounds like this serum he made only lasts a few days, so I think we just let it run its course.”

“There’s something else,” Wesley informed me, and I sighed.

“Of course there is,” I lamented. “Hit me with it.”

His hand ran through his blond hair nervously, and he chewed the corner of his lip. “Director Pierre made contact with us. He wants to meet.”

“Huh?” I blurted, and Austin snickered.

“Very eloquent, Princess,” he mocked me, and I flipped him off before turning back to Wes.

“How?” I asked, sucking a breath in and collecting my thoughts before trying again. “I mean, how did he contact you? I thought we were totally secure on our network?”