Chapter 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 he feels 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."
"And planned for," Atticus adds, rechecking the cameras both at Aurora's apartment and outside here.
We can see Céline leaving the apartment with Ellie in tow for another walk.
And the one who followed her here seems to be gone, at least for the moment.
"At least we know they don't plan to idle outside the laundromat while you do your washing. That saves us some headache."
"You sleep okay, Ro?" Sev asks in a low tone as Atticus checks a few more things.
My angel fights a smirk as she nods. "Yeah. I slept great, actually."
Sev looks pleased with himself, and once again, I feel like I'm missing something, but it's not that hard to connect the dots. Sev went out last night. I figured he was blowing off some steam in the way he used to and might come home with a handful of new teeth for his walls, but now I think…
Sev notices my jealous look and gives me a shrug as if to say, No one was stopping you, but I shake my head anyway. I won't blow his cover to Atty, but he needs to be more careful. We all do. Especially now that Ambrose is both watching and listening.
"Okay," Atticus says, spinning from the monitors. "Could you tell us about the call?"
Aurora squirms a little in her chair, and Sev hooks his fingers beneath the seat and drags her over to him, draping an arm around her shoulders.
"Yeah," he says, almost playfully. "Tell us what that fucker said."
I drop into the seat facing them, steeling myself for the replay.
"He said it was a ninety-nine point nine percent match," Aurora begins. "He seemed legitimately surprised—definitely a bit choked up about it."
I can't help the slight sound of disgust that rumbles in the back of my throat.
She swallows and continues. "He said he would need to speak to his lawyers about it, but that he wanted to meet with me first to figure out how we want to move forward, basically. Oh, and he said not to tell anyone. That the media would have a field day, blah, blah, blah."
"That's good," I say, relief ratcheting down my spine. "We thought he would want to keep it quiet and that definitely works better for us."
This is really going to work, isn't it?
She nods solemnly, then perks up. "Oh! And he was at the airport. I could hear the pilot over the speaker in the background. He said he had some business overseas, which is why he couldn't meet until next weekend. And I heard the pilot say they'd be in Nice before dinnertime."
The smallest grin pulls at one edge of Atticus's mouth, and I know we all feel like we've struck gold.
Of course, the intel could be useless, but it's straight from the horse's fucking mouth. Business in Nice, France.
Atticus drops his head to hide his grin, but we can see his shoulders shake with a deep, but quiet laugh of anticipation. When he lifts his head, he rubs his hands down his beard, eyes practically glimmering as he looks at Aurora.
"Damn," he says. "Day one as Ambrose's daughter, and you've already got intel?"
"We should cross-reference with any intel we already have involving Nice," I say.
"And check if there are any exhibits or major players who will be in that area this week," Sev offers.
Atticus swivels back around in his chair, hands flying over the keyboard. "On it."
My angel preens quietly at her success, and I know she's relieved to have been useful already.
"So, what do I do now?" she asks as Sev hands her a Chinese takeout box and a pair of chopsticks. "
"Act natural," I tell her. "Go about your regular daily routine. Hang out with your friend, what's her name?"
"Maisie."
"Right, Maisie. Spend time with her, do normal college girl stuff. What about that other guy? The one who came to your door with a binder a while back?"
She lifts a brow at me. "Bailey?"
"Yeah, you hanging out with him, too?"
Aurora's lips quirk up a bit on one side. "Why, Elijah? You jealous?"
Sev snorts.
My face pinches. "Should I be?"
"No, but it's cute that you are. And I mean, he did ask me out."
"Oh, we know," Atticus says without turning around.
"Gave you his number and everything," I add.
"You know, maybe you should go out with him," Atticus suggests. "It would be the normal college thing to do."
"No," Sev and I say at the same time, and Aurora laughs.
"If I wanted a decoy boyfriend he wouldn't even be in the running," she says with a shudder. "Something about him…he gives me a bad vibe."
Atty and Sev share a look. One that says they're amused that some jock at college gives her bad vibes and yet she's comfortable sitting among thieves and murderers.
She pats Sev's thigh. "Don't worry, I'm not looking to add to my reverse harem."
"We're a…reverse harem, now?"
She gives him a coy look. "I don't make the rules. That's what BookTok calls it. Or, I guess this is just a menage?"
I wince as my gaze slides to Atticus.
The man in question stiffens, and I think I should change the subject. I clear my throat. "I, uh, I think you will actually have to start teaching English for your virtual classes, though, right, Atty? Since Ambrose's people are listening now?"
"Don't call me that," he barks. "But yes. You will. Cameras can stay off during the lessons, but from now on, there will actually be someone on the other end."
I raise my hand. "I'm fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish. With Atticus's voice modulator, we should be able to make it sound legit."
Her brows rise. "Wait, so, I'll be teaching you English?"
I nod. "Yep. Twice a week, Angel. And I wouldn't mind if you turned your camera on. In fact, I think watching your mouth move might help with my pronunciation."
She shakes her head at me. "Four languages. I'm impressed."
"Five if you count reading music."
"Show-off," Sev scoffs.