Chapter 56 The Sexiest Horse
THE SEXIEST HORSE
ELIJAH
"It's almost time," Atticus says as if I haven't been watching the clock for the last hour.
I take the seat in front of the laptop Atticus has set up for the lesson and wipe my damp palms against my jeans, knees bouncing.
Sev stands behind me, giving my shoulders a squeeze. "She'll be here, E. You'll see."
"We don't know that—" I shrug him off. I don't mean for it to sound so fucking accusing, but I can't help it. I'm going out of my fucking mind. "We don't even know where the hell she is."
Atticus's mouth twists. I know he takes full responsibility for that fact, but regardless of any fault, it remains that we don't know where she is. We haven't known since she stepped foot in this fucking country.
I know Atty's tried everything. I know that, but it doesn't fix the facts.
"I think I have it narrowed down to about ten properties," Atticus says in a flat monotone.
"It's not good enough."
My head feels light and hot, and my hand fucking hurts. I've had those night terrors every damn night since we got here, and the tendons in my right hand are so messed up I can't even hold a pen. I'm not sure I could shoot a gun with any accuracy, either, but I'll damn well try if it comes to that.
"She's been in contact, E." Sev's tone is cautious, and I hate it.
"We don't know that, either. What if it's not her?"
"We have no reason to believe that," Atticus snaps, as if he can make it true.
I laugh hollowly, dropping my head into my hands. "You haven't seen it."
Sev shifts in my peripheral. "Seen what?"
"You've seen my scars, Sev, but you weren't there. Neither of you were there. You don't know what can happen. You don't fucking know how he is—how he really is."
My stomach lurches, and I swallow back bile. It's all been coming back in such vivid clarity. I finally gave in and started drinking a fifth of whiskey every few hours to stay sane and settle my nerves enough to keep going.
But even that isn't going to be enough if she doesn't show up for this lesson. I can already sense it—that parasite inside of me that I've been so good at keeping contained since it blew up all over Aurora that day in my studio.
It's there now, lingering beneath the surface of my skin, itching for release.
They don't say anything else to try to comfort me. They know they can't. Nothing is going to make me feel better other than seeing she's okay with my own eyes.
Even that might not do it. I need to touch her. Hold her. See her smile.
A shuddering breath leaves me as I haul myself back up to sitting, looking at the clock on the laptop. Three minutes.
"E, I know you don't want to hear this right now," Atticus says. "But as far as we know, her laptop still isn't working—"
"Which is pretty fucking suspicious, isn't it?"
His jaw tightens.
"Yeah," Sev says, stretching out the word with a wince. "I think I'm with Eli on that one."
"Like I said," Atticus speaks as if he's repeating himself to a child instead of two grown men.
"It is possible Ambrose tampered with it, but that doesn't mean it was nefarious.
He keeps the location of his private home a secret.
He likely knows that if she uses that laptop, it's traceable. We aren't his only enemies, Eli."
Sev drags out a second chair and slams it down next to mine, falling into it as the last minute ticks down. At least I think he'll be on my side with what should come next. If my angel doesn't show, we're not sitting here another minute. We're going after her.
Atty said there were ten most likely suspects to be Ambrose's property. We can run through all ten in a night and have him dead and her back with us before dawn.
"If she doesn't show," Atticus adds. "I'm sure she'll text Céline or email Alfie to explain, and that email will come to me."
I grind my teeth and speak through them. "It's not good enough, Atty."
He finally sits in the chair to my right, and the three of us watch the screen, waiting for it to tell us she's ready to be let into the online video lesson.
Please.
Please, Angel.
The time ticks over to exactly 10:30, and I stop breathing. Her name still hasn't appeared on the screen. "Where is she?"
Atticus leans forward, brows drawn. "It's been three seconds, E. Give her a minute."
Sev has started flicking his hooked blade in circles next to his thigh. "She'll be here."
We wait.
And we fucking wait.
10:31.
10:32.
"Atty…"
If my leg bounces any harder, I'm liable to put a fucking hole in the floor.
Why isn't he saying anything?
Atty steeples his fingers in front of his lips, and for once, I see what he's been trying to hide from us. There's bleak terror in his abject stare, and he's pale. Has he always been that pale?
"Atty?"
His eyes spark. "There!"
I whip my head around and inhale shakily as I see Aurora's name appear on the screen. I'm up and reaching forward to answer the call in half a second, but Atticus stops me, jerking my hand back.
"Wait," he growls.
"What?"
"Let me run the incoming IP."
Precious seconds are cut away while my angel sits in the online waiting room and Atty does what Atty does best.
"Anything?" Sev asks, gruff.
"No, it's pinging all over the damn place. This definitely isn't her laptop. She's on something else. One sec."
He pushes himself into the narrow space between me and the laptop. "I'm adding an extra fail-safe…almost…there. Okay, and voice modulator activated…we're good."
As soon as he moves out of the way, I take over, answering the call.
"Hello," I say automatically, putting on the Spanish accent and leaning forward. Her video screen is still blank with only her name in the center of the screen. "Are you there?"
"Oh, just a sec." Her voice comes through a little choppy, but it's her. It has to be her.
Sev claps a hand on my back, and I drop my head at the immense sensation of relief that runs through me like a damn river.
"Let me see if I can get the—there. Can you see me, Alfie?"
The screen shifts and distorts, bringing through a glitchy video feed that assembles itself into a mostly clear image of my angel.
Sev grabs me and shakes me as if he can't even fucking help himself as he stands up from his chair and presses his hands to his head, giving it a shake. But I don't have time to wonder what dark place he's trying to get himself free of, I need to hear her tell us she's okay.
"Yes, I see you," I say, swallowing back the emotion in my voice and hoping the voice modulator will erase the worst of it.
The image pixelates every time she moves, but her smile is clear. She looks okay. She looks good. Unharmed.
"I'm sorry I'm late," she says. "My laptop isn't working, so I had to use a different one. God, it's so glitchy. Is it bad on your end, too?"
"A little. It's okay."
She sighs. "Sorry about that, I'm a little far from home at the moment, but I'll be back home soon so we can have our regular lessons."
Atticus mutes our mic as she continues to explain. "That must mean she has her confirmed return travel plans."
We all collectively sigh at that.
Two more days.
We can do this. She can do this.
I move to unmute and tell her not to worry about any of it and encourage her to continue the lesson, but Atty stops me, pointing at a spot over her shoulder. "Look."
Even though I have no desire to look away from her face, I see what he's pointing at.
It's a fucking window. My angel has set herself up to do this video call in front of a window. One that shows a dark coastline bathed in moonlight.
"That's my smart fucking girl," he says. He's already recording this video, but he takes a couple of seconds to snap some screenshots, which he then moves to a neighboring monitor to analyze as I continue the call.
"Sound like you having a fun trip," I say in broken English, which she's quick to correct. This is how the lessons usually go. Conversational with her pausing to correct the mistakes I make in my replies and explaining those corrections.
She's legitimately a good instructor.
"And yes," she replies to my statement after having me repeat it with the proper grammar. "It's definitely been an adventure."
"Why you travel?"
My angel flawlessly corrects my 'bad' English and replies, explaining how she's recently reconnected with family she didn't know she had.
"It's been really great spending time here," she says. "I feel like I know so much more about him now."
The way she says it makes us all share a look. Does this mean…
"She fucking got the data," Sev mouths, and his lips split into a shit-eating grin.
Atticus can barely contain himself as he paces back and forth a few times, bursting with latent energy.
I have to focus hard to continue the conversation with her, giving them both a stern look that says to shut up and stop distracting me.
The video freezes and glitches the whole way through the lesson, and sometimes I need her to repeat herself several times for us to keep going with the lesson.
At one point, she tried to move the laptop to show me her room, but as soon as she did, the whole video pixelated and froze, and we weren't able to get it back for a few minutes.
I do my best to let her lead the conversation, in case she needs to set something up to covertly pass along intel woven into the conversation.
But so far, I haven't picked up on anything that seemed out of place.
Save for maybe a random Segway into old cartoons.
She mentioned Tom and Jerry as well as the Road Runner ones.
That can't be random.
When the time ticks up to 11:30, and I know we have to hang up, my stomach twists.
Aurora starts to wind down the lesson, explaining that I'll see her again in less than a week with a better connection. She's supposed to land back on US soil a few hours before our lesson. She jokes that maybe I can turn my video on for once. She's curious to see what I look like.
I know it's her way of saying she can't wait to see us.
"Maybe," I allow. "I think about it."
"I'll think about it," she corrects, and I repeat her words.
"See you very soon. Have a safe trip."
"I will!" She smiles, and I know it's for me. "It really has been an adventure, but I'm excited to go home."
"Goodbye, Aurora."
"Bye."
The video feed cuts, and I sit back heavily in my chair. A contrasting sensation of being heavy and light—exhausted and somehow also brimming with nervous energy—makes my hands clench and shake on my thighs.
"She did it," Sev says, biting his lip, gaze distant. "I mean, I knew she would, but fuck…"
Atticus shares a rare smile with Sev, and I nod.
"I'm sorry," I mutter. "I've been—"
"Don't be," Atty interrupts. "We were all wound tight. This is all great news, and I'm going to start analyzing the video for anything she said that might've been more than lesson material and see if I can get that image of the coastline clearer, but we do not let our guards down."
At his words, the unstable thing in my core solidifies. He's right. And I'm glad he said it.
My angel looked good, safe, but she's still there for two more days.
"Now's not the time to celebrate," Atty says, sitting and pulling himself in to start waking up all the monitors. "Save that for when she's home."
"Fuck that," Sev snipes playfully, bringing in the whiskey and three glasses. "She deserves to be celebrated now."
"Sev, I need my head clear."
"One drink, Daddicus." Sev pours a modest amount into each cup. "It won't kill you."
Then he lifts his own in a toast none of us can refuse. "To Aurora. The baddest, sexiest Trojan horse who ever lived."
I chuckle as I clink my glass to his and Atty's.
"To Aurora."
My avenging angel.