Chapter 31 Ten Thousand Tiny Dicks – Atticus
TEN THOUSAND TINY DICKS
ATTICUS
Ishove through the creaky rear door of the laundromat, throwing my hood back as soon as I'm inside.
It's fucking cold out there tonight, and having to head straight from the airstrip all the way back to Boone running on almost zero sleep wasn't exactly enjoyable, but I'm still riding the high from the heist, so I'm oddly unbothered.
As always, the twenty-four-hour establishment is completely dead at nearly eight in the evening on a Wednesday night.
If we'd bought this thing to make money, we'd be bankrupt by now.
The only couple of people who come in are this one homeless guy who sits inside to get out of the cold late at night, and a lady who only brings blankets to wash once a week, probably because they don't fit in her machine at home.
Unlocking the office, I step in and flick the light on, tossing my secret pack of French cigarettes on the table and my jacket onto the back of a chair at the table.
I pause halfway through pushing the loose hair from my face, noticing the new decor.
The word congrats! is on the wall, its letters made of printer paper cutouts taped to the gray paint. I snort. So, that's what she was doing in here?
Cute.
But I know better than to think it's for me. It's for them. The ones she told to be careful.
The ones she cares what happens to.
And, of course, she knew we'd pull it off. I knew, too. Although part of me feels it was almost too easy. Ambrose wouldn't have made a play for the painting until today when it would've been moved, but I told the guys he was likely already scouting it out.
And if he saw us…
I took extra precautions because of it. Planting Eli as a temp replacement guard wasn't fucking easy, and making Sev sit in those rafters for six hours wasn't anyone's idea of a good time, but the extra work paid off.
We got the Modigliani before that motherfucker and made it home without incident. Like old times.
Barely any hiccups.
A text pings on my phone in the group chat with the guys.
It's Eli checking to see if I made it and everything's all clear.
I haven't double-checked the footage yet, but I snap them a pic of their message on the wall and send it, following up with a text telling him I'll send an update ASAP and to get some sleep.
I was able to review some camera footage from outside Aurora's apartment from the laptop I brought, but I'm prepared to settle in and go through it all from the moment we left until now. Just in case. Ambrose has already upped his presence from one vehicle to two. From watching to also listening.
If he gets paranoid enough, the next step is watching her where he can't see.
Listening when she's in places that can't be reached by a parabolic microphone used from a car outside.
But that would require them to enter her apartment.
And after a sped-up scan of the footage, I am confident he hasn't gone so far.
With any luck, he won't.
Even this, the watching and listening, is a bit more than I expected right off the bat, but we had no idea what to expect when that test came back positive. Now, we know.
And it's good he's taking this—her—seriously.
I catch sight of something in the camera outside, not on the monitor where I'm clicking through motion detections, watching clips, but on the other monitor, the one that shows a live feed from the front of the building.
"What are you doing here?" I ask aloud as I watch Aurora walk Ellie into the front of the building and push away from the desk, turning around to stand as she enters the office.
"Oh, good, it's you," she says. The four most unexpected words that could possibly come out of her mouth.
Ellie freaks out when she sees me, pulling mercilessly on her lead until Aurora lets her go and she scrabbles across the office, coming not to jump on me, but to sit prettily, wagging her tail, patiently waiting for pets like I taught her.
I smile and bend, giving her a good scratch as she nuzzles in close for her version of a hug, tucking her icy wet nose into the crook of my arm. Fuck, I missed her.
"Such a good girl, Eleven."
I press a kiss to the top of her head before I even realize I've done it, and blame the endorphins still flooding my system from the Matisse.
I clear my throat, and peer behind me to see if she had company on her travels in the exterior camera feed.
"We weren't supposed to meet until tomorrow."
Aurora shivers, tugging her hat off as she leans against the wall, red-cheeked and bright-eyed from the cold outside. "I walked the whole way. They don't follow anymore when I take Ellie out, remember?"
"You're sure?"
She nods. "I wasn't followed. Check if you want."
So I do, with one hand still buried in Eleven's fur, I tap a few keys to bring up the street view outside Aurora's apartment and see the two dark SUVs still parked there.
"Good," I grunt. "But you should get back quick. This is a long walk. They'll be suspicious."
"At least let a girl warm up first," she scoffs, rubbing some warmth back into her arms through her black jacket. Is she being weird? Did she just laugh a little? Smile at me?
What is this?
I frown and pull out the new bone I got for Ellie last week and give it to her, rising back to my feet as she trots around the room to find a spot to lay down and gnaw on it. She eyes the cot and then me.
"Go on then," I say, knowing I'll regret it later when there's dirt and wet spots all over the covers, but I can't be bothered to care right now.
I cross my arms over my chest once she's settled. "Want to tell me why you're here?"
It's got to be for something she needs that the other guys can't give her, since she was glad it was me here tonight. Maybe there's something wrong with her silencer? Or maybe there's something she's worried about and doesn't want to tell the others?
The options are slim, but my mind races through them anyway because I don't want to be disappointed when she inevitably says this isn't what I want it to be.
"Oh, I wanted to give these back," she says, digging in her pocket for the bugs, pinhole camera, and tracer I forced on her as part of the deal with agreeing to go on the heist.
Right. She wanted to make sure she handed them back to me directly. Reinforcing her stubbornness about my protection protocols.
That's okay, though. Fair play. And I'm not letting anything fuck with my mood tonight. I haven't felt this good in…well, actually, I know exactly when I last felt this good, but I'm not going to let myself think about that right now.
Aurora comes to drop the devices into my hand, and I almost argue that she should keep them.
Almost, but I stop myself. Now isn't the time.
But we will have to revisit this option if Ambrose gets any more hands-on with his surveillance of her.
And I will not take no for an answer if her safety is on the line.
She can be mad at me all she wants. It's like Eli said, if I have to be the villain, then I'll be the fucking villain.
I will never feel what I felt that night at the edge of that bypass again. Not if there's any way to stop it. Even one she doesn't like.
"You could've brought them tomorrow."
"I wanted them gone tonight."
I grunt and go to put them back in the case, but when I open it, an explosion of color erupts from inside. Ellie barks, and I instantly whirl to shield Aurora from the blast, my stomach dropping, but she's already out of its radius, petting Ellie to calm her down and…snorting.
Little bits of metallic confetti rain down, falling like helicopter seeds from a maple tree, spinning and swirling. About a hundred of the little things are stuck to my black sweater, and I pluck one from the fabric, finding a tiny golden dick.
Aurora's snorts turn into a full-on belly laugh that echoes in the room.
I look down at the floor. At my desk. There have to be tens of thousands of micro penises coating every fucking surface.
There's no doubting it this time. This part of her 'congrats' is definitely for me and only me.
When I turn to face her, she's struggling to stop laughing long enough to blow through a dollar store party horn she's pulled from her pocket, but the sounds come out stilted when she fails to control herself long enough to blow into the fucking thing.
The combination of the sad sound and her face, all red and alight from laughter, makes me clench my teeth, but it's not rage in my chest that I'm trying to hold back.
"Oh, you think this is funny?" I ask, almost unable to keep the smile from my face. Her laugh is completely infectious.
She wipes at a tear as it runs down her cheek. "Funny?" she asks between laughs. "It's fucking priceless."
I purse my lips and nod, examining the mess. And yeah, this shit is going to suck to clean up. It's stuck in between the keys of my keyboard, for fuck's sake, but…
Aurora's expression shifts as I stalk toward her, crowding her against the wall.
Not touching her. I won't touch her. But when the laughter starts to die in her throat, and she looks up at me with those threatening jade eyes, I remember what it was like to have her like this—against the record shelves. Aching for me to touch her.
"So this is payback?" I ask, and a knot forms between her brows at something she sees in my eyes.
"Ha!" she sneers. "As if."
"Then what? Trying to get my attention?"
Did she not like me pulling away? Giving her space?
I smirk, and she looks like she wants to slap it right off my face. I hope she tries.
"No. And it would take at least fifty pounds of dickfetti before we're even close to even."
Her eyes drop to my mouth. My blood heats to a fucking boil, and it's almost impossible to rein myself in, but I do. I told myself I wouldn't touch her. Not unless she asked me to. And she isn't asking. Not with her words. Not how I need her to.
I lean closer, instead, so my mouth is barely an inch from hers. "Bring it on, Trouble."
She shoves me back, hard, and I do her the service of allowing her to think my backward step is actually due to her strength, but she's knocked the laugh from my chest. The one I'd been holding in.
Aurora looks at me like I'm deranged as a low chuckle leaves my lips, and I shake my head. Fuck, man, I forgot what it was like. What it could be like.
Before Florence passed…
Before Ambrose took everything and broke us…
I didn't think I'd ever get this back.
"You win this round, Trouble. Now get out of here before I make you stay and help me clean this fucking mess."
She looks at me like she'd like to see me try, pissed off that I'm not more pissed off, her hands clenched into fists. When she doesn't go right away, I cock my head at her, narrow my eyes, half a grin still intact on my face that I can't seem to erase.
"Come on, Ellie," she says finally, and I feel a little bad for taking the wind from her sails. Maybe I should've acted more upset. That was her goal, after all.
She scoops up Ellie's lead and is out of the room in five seconds flat.
"Have a nice walk!" I call after her.
"Yeah, have fun cleaning up, dick," she calls back, and I think Sev's right.
This is progress.
And I know that tonight, when I picture her face while I fuck my own hand, it'll be that moment when her eyes fell to my lips that I'll see.
Not the memory of her naked on my bed or how it felt to be between her thighs.
Just that one second where she let her guard down.
That one instant when she wanted me back.
I can work with that.
When I turn around to grab my cigarettes, my palm connects with an empty table.
"The fuck?"
I stoop to look under it, around it.
She didn't…
I would've noticed.
Rushing to the monitors, I watch as she lights one of my French cigarettes up in full view of the camera outside. Aurora dramatically exhales a cloud of white into the night, smirking as she walks out of the frame.