22. Lennox
Lennox
V iv rubs her tummy in the passenger seat as I park a block away from our mark’s apartment. “Endless soup? What kind of angelic person came up with such a thing?” she sighs.
A soft chuckle leaves me at that. I’d taken her to dinner at a chain Italian restaurant and she loved the fact she could eat as much soup, salad, and breadsticks as her heart desired. “I’m not sure who came up with the idea, but they do have really good soup.”
“Mhmm,” Viv hums. “I think you need to carry me. Or maybe I’ll stay here and take a nap.”
“You’ve got a few minutes while I get the camera’s ready to install.” I pull out the little black rectangle, activating it before I start connecting the cameras and we make our way to the apartment.
“What’s that?” Viv asks, pointing toward the rectangle I’ve just gotten running.
“It’s a hotspot. It’s a pay as you go kind of thing.
We shouldn’t need more than a month of surveillance, and this way we can have wireless access to the cameras without them being discoverable on the mark’s network,” I explain as I begin connecting the cameras to the hotspot Wi-Fi.
I didn’t do it at home because I didn’t want any traces of the hotspot being active in our house.
“Ahh, that’s smart. Where are you going to hide that though? It’s pretty big.” Viv study’s the small rectangle.
I reach behind us and pull out a small black bag. “That’s what this is for.”
She opens the bag and rummages through the contents before frowning at me. “A drywall repair kit?”
Grinning, I nod my head. “Yep. I’ll put it in the wall and then patch it before we leave. The paint sample in there I had Z mix up, it matches the walls based on the guy’s social media posts.”
Viv blinks at me. “I can see you’ve done this a lot.”
I shrug. “Well the tech is what I’m good at. I’m no slouch in a fight, but I live for this kind of thing.” I put the last camera back into the case. “Let me just loop the security footage and we can head over there.”
Viv nods and watches me as I pull out my laptop. It doesn’t take me too long. They don’t have a great security system, there’s practically no firewall at all. “Jesus, a toddler could break into that system,” Viv huffs.
I raise my brows and shake my head. “I don’t see the point in a security system if they’re going to make it this easy to access.” Viv nods in agreement before I add, “Okay, we’re all set. We’ve got thirty minutes to get in and out. Should be plenty of time.”
Viv and I both get out of the car and close the door quietly.
We walk to the apartment building casually like we’re supposed to be here.
We don’t even see anyone as we make our way to the apartment.
Thankfully, it’s on the first floor, so we don’t have to worry about making noise on the stairs.
But I do make sure to check each door to be sure that nobody has a doorbell camera or a security camera of their own outside as we walk along.
When we get to the right door, Viv takes the initiative and picks the lock to let us in. Once we’re inside she gags. “It’s disgusting in here.”
My nose wrinkles at the smell of body odor and rotten food. The sink is full of dishes and we have to watch where we step because of the stuff on the floor. I find a clear spot to open up my case and get to work setting up each camera. “Find a good vantage point in the kitchen.”
Viv hums quietly to let me know she heard me, and as I’m setting up a second camera in the living room there’s a loud clatter from the kitchen.
My head snaps around, suddenly afraid that I’d been wrong and the mark has been here the whole time.
I feel light-headed from relief when I find Viv alone in the kitchen frowning down at a set of silver bowls she must have kicked on the ground.
A dark shadow shoots out of the darker hallway and practically dives into the empty bowls, a yowling sound escaping the cat when it realizes nobody has put any food down for it.
Viv grunts and glares down at the animal.
I don’t realize why until I walk into the kitchen and find that the cat has started clawing at Viv’s leg.
She doesn’t kick it away or anything, just crouches down to pull the cat off of her. “Are you hungry?” Her hand runs over the cat’s back as she frowns. “It’s way too skinny.”
I don’t really pay much attention as I continue installing the cameras throughout the kitchen. But when I move on to the hallways and bedroom to install more, I hear the sound of cabinets opening and closing softly. Viv’s voice can also be heard, soft and hushed, but I don’t catch the words.
She finds me in the bedroom, her eyes taking in the whole room before catching on the wall opposite me. “Bingo,” she says, walking toward the window that was left cracked open.
I finish setting up the camera I’m working on as I ask, “What are you doing?” Suddenly suspicious when I see she’s got gloves on.
“Nothing, just pushing out the corner of the screen here,” she says as she does just that.
“Why?” my voice is slow and deliberate as I ask.
“So that he won’t be suspicious when his cat isn’t here when he gets back,” she says simply as she evaluates the gap she just made between the window and the screen.
“You can’t steal his cat,” I tell her firmly.
She turns furious eyes on me. “Yes I can. He doesn’t deserve to have a cat. The bastard doesn’t even have any food for the thing. I’m taking it home with me.”
My eyes narrow on her. “A pet is a group decision.”
She huffs. “Fine. If they say no I’ll figure something else out.”
My eyes narrow more, but I don’t say anything as I hurry up to finish the cameras.
I’ve got a suspicion that her ‘figuring something else out’ means a different place to live with her new feline friend.
I’m not a cat person, but I know none of the guys will tell Viv no and I don’t want to be the only one to make an issue out of it.
As long as the cat leaves me alone, we’ll be fine.
When I finish patching the wall, I find Viv waiting with her new friend tucked into her jacket.
She winces every few steps as we head back to the car, and I’m pretty sure the cat is attacking her if the growls I keep hearing are anything to go by.
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face.
Not at the fact she’s being hurt, but the fact she’s letting this cat attack her over and over again just to get it out of a bad situation.
If it were me, I would have waited for us to finish the job before anonymously dropping the cat off at a no kill shelter.
Whereas Viv has decided that it is her responsibility to make sure the cat has a good life just because she found it in a bad condition.
How this is the same girl who castrated a football player and single handedly killed two guys last year, I have no idea.
Inside the car, Viv manages to detach the cat from her chest. With her hoodie unzipped I can see the thin scratch marks over her chest, and I don’t even want to see what it looks like under her shirt. “You need to put some ointment on those when we get home.”
She looks down at the marks with a wince. “Probably a good idea.”
Zane might actually vote against the cat just because it hurt Viv. “Can you pull in here?” Viv asks before I can pass a small shopping center.
I don’t even have to ask why she wants to go as I pull in and see the pet store at the end of the long building. I park and turn the car off. When I go to get out, Viv lays her hand on my arm. “Would you mind staying with him? I don’t want him to get lonely.”
I sit back in my seat. “Sure, no problem.”
Viv grins at me, and I let my head fall back against the headrest when she closes the door behind her.
I am being relegated to cat sitting duty already.
Something brushes against the back of my arm and I look down to find the cat sniffing me.
It sneezes, snot and who knows what else spraying across the back of my arm.
Then the little fucker decides to hiss at me.
I barely even looked at the thing and now it’s hunched in the corner of my back seat randomly hissing at me.
After an hour of me and the cat sitting in the car, its attitude doesn’t improve.
It’s ability to hiss continuously without any breaks is actually pretty impressive, but irritating at the same time.
I’m about ready to throw it out of the window by the time Viv pushes a cart out to the car. I blink at it.
Yeah… We’re keeping the cat. She bought a fucking cat tree. As she gets closer, I realize it’s not a tree. The box says it’s a cat condo and the thing looks like it’s going to be about as tall as Viv is, so I get out of the car and help her load it up into the trunk.
“How’s the little guy?” Viv asks as I heft the condo in.
“He’s been hissing at me since you left. I think he hates me,” I tell her.
She huffs. “He can probably sense that you don’t like him either.”
I close the trunk after she puts the last bag in. “It’s not that I don’t like him. I’ve just never been a cat person. We have Zane we have to keep alive. I don’t need another needy creature.”
The laugh that leaves Viv brings a smile to my face.
I love being able to make her laugh like that.
When we get back into the car, the cat quiets down with Viv back.
The little asshole is just trying to make me look like a liar at this point.
As I drive back toward the house, he slowly makes his way over the console and into Viv’s lap, and the little demon gives me the side eye any time Viv talks to or touches me.
I’m sure he will attack if I ever make a move in his presence.
I park the car and load my arms up while Viv carries him into the house.
After lugging bags and an entire cat condo up the stairs to Viv’s apartment, I’m out of breath.
This cat is damn lucky I love her or he would be without at least half the stuff she bought him.
Once she’s got food and water set out and has prepared a litter box for him, I grab her hand before she can get distracted by anything else.
As I tug her to the door, the cat starts to growl at me, but he’s too busy eating the little bit of food Viv put down for him to attack. “You need to get those scratches cleaned up before they get infected.”
Viv sighs. “Okay. I’ll be back soon baby,” she coos in a soft voice to him.
I never even considered that my night might end with me jealous of a cat. How the hell has the night gotten so off the rails?