I wait until the messages all vanish and the screen goes dark enough to show my pale reflection.
28
THE MODIGLIANI JOB
ELIJAH
Ihover over Atticus's shoulder, watching as Aurora leaves her apartment with her laundry basket in tow. There's no audio on this feed, but I can see her explaining to Ellie that she'll be back soon before she locks up the door behind her.
"Do you think they'll follow her?" I ask not for the first time, and Atticus only grunts in a reply that I read as,We're about to find out, E.
Seven digs into his Chinese takeout noodles with his feet propped up on the table behind us. The scraping sound of his chopsticks in the little white box is grating on my last fucking nerve. How can he eat right now?
When I turn to give him a hard look, his dark brows go up innocently. "What?" he asks around a mouthful of noodles. "Did they follow her?"
I shake my head and look back to the screen. I should be glad at least one of us is able to enjoy Atty's sudden acceptance of MSGs, but honestly, it just pisses me off. Must be nice to be able to be so infuriatingly calm all the damn time.
Not that I haven't seen him lose it. I have. But Seven losing it requires a total loss of control over a situation. As long as hefeels he has even a mite of control, he's chill as fuck. I should be grateful. The last time he was properly worked up, at least twenty people were systematically dismembered, and their teeth and jawbones still decorate his walls.
"There." I point at the screen as if Atticus can't see what's right in front of him. We watch as the black SUV pulls out from its parking space, following Aurora at a long distance. "Damn it."
Atty flicks to another street view where we can see her get on the bus, and watch the dark SUV trail in its wake as it pulls away from the curb with Aurora finding a seat inside.
"What do we do?"
"Wait," Atticus says in a low tone.
I take a steadying breath, not realizing how much I've fucked up my hand gripping the back of his seat, until the bus shows up on the single camera feed Atty set up outside. It deposits Aurora half a block from the laundromat, and we watch her make her way inside. I only release the seat when the driver of the SUV, seemingly satisfied that she's only doing laundry and going to be stuck here a while, keeps on driving.
I sag as we listen to her start the machine outside, all of us in some kind of stasis mode as we knock to let her know she's in the clear and wait for her. Sev puts down his noodles and drops his feet from the table. He now watches the door expectantly, rubbing his palms together between his knees. Atticus has swiveled around in his chair, but continues to watch the outdoor feed from his phone.
Aurora tentatively pushes the door open, but doesn't step inside right away. Her cheeks are red from the cold outside, and her eyes are wide as they take each of us in.
Atticus puts a finger to his lips and plucks a device from its foam bed in his toy case, flicking a switch on the side until a tiny light glows red. He rises and sets it in the middle of the table.
We've only had to use the silencer once before, and I'm so fucking glad he was smart enough to bring it.
"It's safe," he says, nodding to Aurora. "You can talk."
"I think I was followed," she says in a voice that's barely a whisper.
"You were." I pull her into the room and shut the door behind her, brushing my thumb over her knuckles. They're so cold. Does she not have any gloves?
"But they drove off. Right, Atty?" Sev presses.
Atticus taps a few keys, double-checking before he replies, "Yeah, they're gone. The motion detector will pick them up if they come back."
Aurora visibly relaxes, but only a fraction as she takes a seat at the table. "I think he's added a second person, too."
Atty nods. "Yes, and we have reason to believe one of them is using a device to listen in to your apartment."
"Céline—"
"She's already been warned," I reassure her. "And I doubt they'll be listening in to your dog walker, anyway."
"This is crazy."
"We knew he'd be cautious," Sev puts in, swallowing his last bite of noodles and then leaning over to discard the empty takeout box. "Even more so once he knew you were his kid. This was all expected."
