“Am I in shit with Jonathan?” I asked River, and he arched an eyebrow at me.
“You should be. You’re lucky Caleb is a quick thinker and came up with some bullshit excuse for your instructors as to why you’re not in class,” he scolded, and I bit back a smile. Dammit, I knew he was mad, and he had every right to be, too. But angry River was so damn sexy.
“Speaking of,” Cole interjected, “Caleb and Austin have some explaining to do.”
Oh, this should be good.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to check the message. Given all five members of Alpha Team were here in the living room with me, it could only be Lucy or Vali.
Girl, you better get your butt to class fast! Lucy’s message pinged on my screen, and I frowned.
Why? What’s up? I thought Cal covered for me?
With the instructors, yeah. But J-dog just showed up to observe the lesson. Her message came back almost instantly, and I looked up at Caleb.
“Hey, what did you say to get me out of class?” I asked, and he shrugged.
“Just that you ate bad shellfish and were glued to the bathroom?” He grinned. “It was the first thing that came to mind on short notice!”
“Shit,” I swore, jumping up from my seat and tugging on a pair of flat, knee-high boots. “Jonathan is there to observe the lesson, and he’ll know that’s a lie. I need to get down there, fast.”
“I’ll come,” Austin—Austin, of all people—offered. He grabbed his own coat and followed me as I rushed from the apartment.
“You didn’t need to,” I muttered as the two of us hurried across the grounds to the training wing. “I’m sure one of the others could have come.”
“Wes needed to keep going on his research, and River and Cole are needed elsewhere. I got the impression you were pissed at my brother, so...” He raised an eyebrow at me, like he was challenging me to deny it. “Besides, your class is at the shooting range, and I need to check that you haven’t lost your edge.”
Arms folded, I scowled and muttered insults at him under my breath as I followed his lead through the training building and into the basement where the shooting range was set up.
“Kit, there you are!” Jonathan greeted me as Austin and I arrived into the little viewing room adjoining the range. “Instructor Green was just telling me that you were off sick?”
“Uh, misunderstanding,” I smiled. “Totally fine here and ready to shoot!”
Instructor Green gave me a wary look, but thankfully said nothing further on the subject as he handed me a weapon and ammo.
Austin snatched two pairs of earmuffs from the counter and ushered me through the door to the range itself, under Jonathan’s watchful gaze. As we made our way past the other recruits, more than a few of them gave me the eye, and I knew I wasn’t making any friends here.
“Here,” Austin murmured, directing me into a vacant bay with a hand on my lower back. “Get set up; get started. I’m going to check that Lucy hasn’t shot herself in the foot.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes, but he kind of had a good point. “I’ll be just fine on my own; go keep my bestie alive, please.”
With a cryptic sort of look, he snapped the earmuffs onto my head and stalked off in search of my rainbow-haired friend. Huffing to myself, frustrated at his hot and cold moods, I went through the motions of setting up my gun and target like it was second nature to me. After two months of daily practice with Austin prior to my kidnapping, it ought to be by now.
Closing my eyes briefly, I let my mind clear of all the crap that seemed to be clogging it up lately and just took a few calming breaths. When I was ready, I centered my stance and took aim.
When I was nearing the end of my box of ammo, I felt the soft brush of a familiar hand down my spine, and I unconsciously leaned back into it before noticing what I’d done.
“Not terrible,” Austin murmured as I leaned back away from his touch and pulled my earmuffs off.
“Not terrible?” I repeated, glaring at him. “Fuck you, Austin. That’s exceptional.” I hit the button for my target to return to me, and sure enough, every single one of my shots had hit the intended locations. Not a single shot had gone stray.
“Maybe this needs to be more challenging for you, then.” He smirked, yanking down my used target and replacing it with a fresh one. From his back pocket, he pulled out a black ink pen, which he used to sketch quick runes in each of the four corners of the paper. “This will double the distance to the target without freaking the rest of the class out.”
“Um…” I eyed it up nervously. The current distance I had set my target to was the maximum I’d ever attempted, but I sure as shit wasn’t backing down now. “Sure, fine. Don’t know what this will prove, but whatever.”
“Double your current target distance is farther than any other agent in Omega can shoot. Except me. We can both shoot at this target and see who is more accurate.” Excitement was dancing in his eyes, and he wasn’t even making an attempt to hide it.
“Fine.” I looked at him shrewdly. “But if I win, you spill the beans on everything you know about being an Ink Mage. And I mean everything.”
“And if I win?” His blazing eyes held mine, and I didn’t dare blink for fear of breaking whatever the hell was going on right now.
“You get the glory of beating me?” I suggested, and he snorted a laugh.
“No. If I win, you’re getting a tattoo. Of my choosing.” His lips twitched into a grin, and my jaw dropped.
“Um, that’s really permanent, Austin.” I pointed out the obvious, and his grin spread wider.
“Then you’d better not lose.” He snapped my earmuffs back on and hit the button to send the target back to the end of the range. This time when I sighted down my gun, I found he hadn’t been bullshitting about the distance. I could barely see the damn target, and I groaned inwardly. I was so screwed.
“Hold up,” he mouthed, tapping my hand, and I moved my earmuffs to hear him. “Just so we know whose bullet was whose.” He used his marker to sketch a rune on the barrel of my gun, then capped it and stepped back. “Proceed.”
Using my finger, I tipped my earmuff back into place and rearranged my stance, sighting down the barrel of my gun once more. Fuck.
“Actually, why don’t you do the honors first, seeing as this is your game?” I suggested. Stepping back and tipping my earmuffs off again, I handed the weapon over to the sexy, dark-haired Mage.
Shit, not sexy. I did not just think of Austin as sexy.
I blamed the twin thing. Caleb was undeniably sexy, so it stood to reason his identical twin would be too... right?
“Suit yourself, Princess,” Austin snickered, switching places with me, taking aim, and firing in less than the time it took for me to replace my hearing protection. “Your turn.” He was grinning broadly now as he handed the gun back to me, and my stomach sank.
Stupid Kit and your stupid need to make bets. How did you not see this was a set up?