7. T-i-a-l-a-g-g – Atticus
7
T-I-A-L-A-G-G
ATTICUS
I finish wiping down the training bench just as Sev shoves into the room, water bottle in hand, without a fucking gym towel.
His bulky black headphones blare music so loudly into his ears that I can hear it from across the space. It makes absolutely no sense to me how he can crack a safe in under a minute with eardrums constantly subjected to that sort of abuse.
“ Hey ,” I shout.
He glances up at me, pushing one side of his headphone back. “Two workouts in one morning? Going for a record, Atty?”
He knows it helps me think. He also knows I fucking hate it when he calls me that.
I chuck the damp paper towels into the trash. “Didn’t Eli tell you to take it easy for a few days?”
He had at least two cracked ribs and a mild concussion after losing the fight with Aurora’s rust bucket of a car last night.
“I am taking it easy,” he replies and pushes the headphone back into place, effectively cutting off the conversation and making me grit my teeth. There’s really no point in arguing about it.
With Sev, it’s like talking to a fucking brick wall once he’s set his mind to something.
I pull one of my extra towels from the neat stack on the counter, throwing it at his back when he sits down on the freshly cleaned training bench. He whirls on me with a glare, and I give him a pointed look that says, At least use the fucking towel , before leaving.
When I head to the kitchen for some water and a protein bar, Aurora’s already there, invading my space just as she’s been invading my every thought from the moment I laid eyes on her.
Usually when we have a woman in the house, there’s a signed contract involved and she’s free game for any of us to use and fuck whenever we want to during the agreed-upon dates. But we haven’t had one in a long time. Not since Eli lost interest.
Aurora fills a glass with water from the sink while her dog stands next to her, tail wagging, its tongue lolling out.
With a grimace, I try not to imagine how much fucking drool and pet dander is probably already coating the floors.
If this works out, it’ll be worth it , I remind myself.
And if it doesn’t, it’ll be easy enough to come up with some excuse to fire her.
The dog barks and Aurora spins in a snap, a flush staining her cheeks pink as she takes in my bare, sweat-coated arms and chest.
“ Shit . Hey.”
She collects herself and swallows. “I was just looking for one of you, actually.”
She backs away a step as I move to refill my water bottle from the proper faucet. “This one’s for drinking,” I tell her. “The other one’s for washing dishes.”
“Oh. What’s the difference?”
“This one’s alkaline. Filtered. With more minerals.”
She sips her tap water anyway, unbothered as I rake my gaze over her. She’s cleaned herself up. Her blonde hair hangs in damp, loose waves that leave wet patches on the baby blue shirt she wears, making the dark bra below it visible through the threadbare fabric. It’s impossible not to notice her curves in the little outfit, even if she is a little thin for my taste.
“What was it you needed?”
“Wi-Fi password?” She says it like a question, waving her battered iPhone at me. “There’s no cell service here.”
“It’s t-i-a-l-a-g-g.”
“ Uh , can you say that again?” she says with a wince. “A little slower.”
“Here. Let me do it.”
I take the phone from her fingers and punch in the letters.
Take It All Like a Good Girl.
The instant it’s in, her phone vibrates in my hand and a slew of notifications from someone called Jesse light up the screen. Aurora snatches the device back before I can read them.
She has no idea that just by connecting to the Wi-Fi, I’ll have access to anything and everything I want to look at or read on her phone with the click of a few keys in my office. My Linux Precision 7920 always takes it all.
“Looks like someone’s trying to get a hold of you.”
Her face pales as she shakily tucks the phone into her back pocket without checking any of the alerts. “I’ll call her back later.”
“Her?”
I eye the bruising over her collar. The cut on her cheek.
Her throat bobs as she casts her gaze away from me. “I was also wondering if there’s anywhere in particular you want me to start.”
I lift a brow.
In the light of day, her eyes are a lot more green than I thought. Bright and clear and bold, sort of like Seven’s except his are blue.
The shade of jade is…
“For work,” she explains, and I snap the fuck out of it.
Right. That part. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A plausible cover for keeping her here while I felt her out as potential bait and fleshed out my plan. Now, though, I wish I’d come up with something else.
Though there is one place in the house she could help with.
Eli’s studio is like a grotesque scab in my mind. It’s been festering there for literal years, but he’s forbidden me from touching it.
The new cleaning lady, though…
Eli will be pissed.
I shouldn’t.
“There’s an art studio,” I say, convincing myself that once it’s done, Eli will be grateful. The Band-Aid just needs to be ripped off. It’s been long enough.
“Do you remember where I told you Eli’s room was?”
She grimaces. “Sort of?”
“It’s on the main floor. From the entryway, you head left down the hall. There are only two doors past the library that way. Eli’s bedroom door is at the end. The other door to the left leads into his adjoining studio. You can find cleaning supplies in the cupboard under the stairs.”
“Anything else?”
I shake my head. “It’s a total wreck in there. If you can get it done, that’s enough for today.”
She nods and a whisper of a smile pulls at her lips. Like she’s excited about a mess. Who the fuck gets excited about messes?
This may go down in history as the worst idea I’ve ever had. If it does, the guys will never let me live it down. I sigh and rub at a knot aching in the base of my neck, my gaze falling back to the dog.
“What did you say its name was again?”
“Eleven, but I call her Ellie mostly.”
Aurora bends to give her dog a pat on the head, scattering a few strands of white fur onto the floor. “I meant to ask you, actually, are there any, like, animal traps or anything on the property? Poisonous plants, that sort of thing?”
I shake my head. “No. And most of the property is gated, so no predators usually, either.”
At least, not of the animal kind.
“Great. It’ll be easier to have her outside while I work.”
Music to my fucking ears.
“She won’t run off?”
“No. She never goes very far.”
Eleven stares at me like she somehow understands every word of this conversation and barks as if in agreement with what Aurora said.
Sev was right. She’s a smart dog.
As long as her training doesn’t extend to the scent detection of cadavers or explosives, we’ll be fine.
“Well, I guess I’ll go get started. Thanks,” she says. “For the Wi-Fi.”
When she walks away, I head straight for my office instead of the pantry or the shower. I make sure to pull the door shut behind me before leaning over my desk to wake the monitors.
“Let’s see who you are, Aurora Bellerose.”