35. The perfect camouflage – Atticus
35
THE PERFECT CAMOUFLAGE
ATTICUS
T hey should have been back four hours ago.
If they weren’t held up and got out when I fucking told them to, they would’ve been through that door by dinnertime. I stop pacing to grip the ledge above the fireplace, glaring at the mantle clock atop it as if, by sheer force of will, I can stop it from slicing away the seconds.
They just had to go to the art district. Had to try to pull off a fucking job in Paris without me. It’s been over a goddamned year since Eli’s done a job. A year , and they thought that now—with that girl—was a good time to take it up again?
Hot air pushes from my lungs, and my nostrils flare as if I could really breathe fire.
But Eli did it…
The voice in the back of my mind has the audacity to sound glad . We’ve been trying to get him back in the game for a while now, but he was never ready. Never willing.
Now, though, despite the shit timing and the even worse circumstances, he was ready.
You should’ve seen him , Sev said, and I wish I had. He’s been a ghost behind these walls for too long now. Here, but not here. Alive, but barely breathing.
It’s her .
I hate it, but I know it’s true.
Something about her being here is changing things, and even though I fucking hate change, if she can bring even an ounce of peace to Eli’s soul, I can’t stand in the way of that. But damn if it might absolutely ruin all my perfectly-laid plans.
The second hand on the old Breguet mantel clock just keeps fucking ticking. I remember when Sev stole it from that private gallery showing in London. I was so fucking angry. We were there for a Botticelli, and it was hard enough to pull off the job without security suddenly being on high alert because it appeared someone stole a four-million-dollar clock. To be fair, he didn’t know what it was worth.
Where Eli and I were only ever interested in the art—stealing it, collecting it, replicating it, and selling those replications to the highest bidder—Sev had the eyes of a goddamned pirate. Always hunting for treasures. Unable to say no to anything that gleamed gold or sparkled with diamonds or precious gemstones. His room is a testament to his sticky fingers. A veritable treasure trove of stolen goods and other souvenirs that would see him locked up for life.
Fuck. He better be okay. They had better all be okay.
Even her.
The second hand reaches the twelve, and the minute hand ticks into the next hour. 9:01 p.m.
If they aren’t here by ten, I’ll have to do something. I told our pilot to go dark, but there are ways I can reach him if I have to. At least to make sure they made it to the airstrip. If they didn’t, I’ll charter another flight, pick up their trail from the art district, and do whatever it takes to find them.
I can reach out to my contacts in the French police and the military and get?—
My phone chimes in my pocket, and I almost drop it in my haste to get it free. I jam the notification that says there’s movement at the front gate at the same time Ellie comes streaking into the living room, crashing into the front door with an excited yap. She jumps up, barking loudly.
“Ellie,” I hiss. “Ellie, hush .”
The fucking video app won’t load the feed on my phone. “Fuck.”
Ellie whines but does as I tell her. I flick off the lights, pull my gun, and plant myself next to the door, peering out onto the dark drive just as headlights jar across the window.
I blink into the brightness, keeping out of sight as I force my pulse to slow and steady, feeling hot power swelling in every muscle. I’m not sure it’s the Jeep.
Eli and Sev wouldn’t give up the location of this house for anything, but the girl would. She’d have been able to give Ambrose’s men enough to go on to find it. I never should’ve let them take her off the property.
Eleven whines again, and I give her a look, pointing at my side. She comes to sit next to me, but won’t stop tapping her paws, making tiny sounds of tortured anticipation in the back of her throat. “Quiet.”
Outside, a car door opens, then running feet take the stairs three at a time. I guide Ellie back into the shadows and square my stance in front of her, flicking off the safety. Breathe in.
Lights out, motherfucker.
The door chirps, and something in my chest crumples as the cabin’s security mechanism picks up Eli’s watch and unlocks automatically.
“Atticus?”
The door swings in, and Eleven almost knocks Eli over as she rushes past him out onto the drive.
“Shit,” he curses when he sees me, eyeing the gun in my hand, but I’m already lowering it. Already jerking him in for a rough hug that makes my fucking bones ache and the muscles in my back tense and burn.
“You fucking idiots,” I growl, but I can’t let go. I thought…
Jesus fucking Christ, I don’t even want to remember what I thought.
A muscle in my face twitches as I force myself to let him go, setting the gun down on the short table by the door to flick the lights back on and get a good look at him. My stomach sours as I take in the blood.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m alright.”
There doesn’t seem to be any on his skin, but it’s spattered over the collar of his jacket. On the shirt he’s wearing underneath. Gripping him by the elbow, I turn him around, searching for wounds.
“I said I’m all right,” he repeats, tugging his jacket free of my grip. “We’re okay.”
Just as he says it, Sev steps up into the house, setting a bag with a gold frame sticking out of it by the door.
There’s a fucking hole in his jacket.
“Bull shit you’re all right. What the hell happened?”
I reach over and jerk the side open, finding a bandaged wound in Sev’s shoulder. “You were shot?”
I immediately look for other injuries, but he seems to have none. He’s pale, though. Too pale.
“I’m good, Atty.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze. “We’re all good.”
“You were fucking shot, Sev,” I repeat, scrubbing my hands over my face. If that bullet was just a few inches lower. A few more to the left.
God fucking dammit.
“It went through. It’s fine.”
“It’s… fine ?”
The air is hot in my lungs.
“ What . Happened ?”
They share a look.
“Someone better start talking.”
So help me, if one of Ambrose’s men saw Aurora and got away, this whole thing will have been for absolutely nothing, and I’ll have no one to blame but my own damn self for bringing in an outsider.
I hear Eleven before I see her. She pants happily as she chases Aurora into the house.
The girl who’s been nothing but trouble since I brought her here stops short when she sees me, and I’m surprised at what I feel when our eyes meet. I’m not sure what to call it.
Is it relief ?
I remind myself that she’s part of a plan and decide that’s where the relief comes from. If something happened to her, we wouldn’t have this golden opportunity to get our vengeance. To take back what was stolen from us.
I clear my throat, unable to keep my gaze from tracing the lines of her. She doesn’t appear to be injured, but there’s something different about her. The Aurora that just walked through this door is somehow not the same one who walked out of it yesterday.
I suppose being party to a major crime and witnessing what I can guess is at least a few more murders will do that to a girl.
But then why does she look… alive? Like she’s glowing from the inside. She even offers me a tentative, close-lipped smile as she brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. It’s dark, I realize. She must’ve had Céline color it for her.
It looks good. A little too good.
Even all messed up like it is now, with what looks like dried blood sticking some pieces together in the front. The shirt and jeans must be new. They reek of luxury, and the way they hug her curves should be a sin.
And I really need to stop looking.
“Um, hey,” she says, and I realize the seconds have turned into a minute, and I haven’t managed to drag my eyes from her.
I push the door shut behind them and turn my attention back to Eli and Sev. “Would anyone mind telling me what the fuck you were thinking?”
“Can we do this in the kitchen?” Sev asks, but he’s already kicked his boots off and is headed that way. “Ro’s starving, and so am I, honestly. Did you make dinner?”
Did. I. Make. Dinner?
I’m going to throttle him.
Eleven jumps up for more pets from Aurora, and she laughs, scratching her around the ears. “I know, girl. I missed you, too.”
She jumps down and comes straight to me, wagging her tail with a whine, looking at Aurora and back at me as if to say, Look, she’s back. I told you she’d be back.
I’ve never met an animal more expressive or smart than this fucking dog. It’s almost unnerving. “I know,” I tell her. “I see that she’s back.”
Eleven lets out a bark and races into the kitchen after Sev, and I remember she left her new stuffed chicken down the hall in my office. She barely put the fucking thing down since I gave it to her. Aurora follows her dog, and I watch her go, not understanding where the rage went. It was hot and tight in my veins a few seconds ago.
“Come on,” Eli says, moving to follow them. “We’ll talk in the kitchen.”
“Send Aurora to bed. We need to talk, just us.”
Eli pauses, and his shoulders go up. Down. He sighs.
My teeth clench.
“No,” he says. “She stays.”
The sound of my teeth grinding is loud in my ears as I stalk after him into the kitchen where Sev is already making a mess on the island, pulling out the fresh jars of pickled things I bought to replace the ones he broke, crackers, the honey pepper jelly he made last month, and a couple bricks of cheese.
“Like the new fridge,” he says around a mouthful of smoked Gouda. “It’s bigger than the last one.”
He carves a slice of the Gouda from the brick and passes it to Aurora, who stacks it onto a cracker with some of the pepper honey and shoves it in her mouth with a pickled pepper.
She makes a face at how good the cheese is, and I refrain from saying that I bought it specifically to make my smoked bacon mac and cheese, only because I am still not sure where I misplaced all the frustration I felt five fucking minutes ago.
They’re home. Alive . Safe enough to piss me off by making a mess in my spotless kitchen and eating my expensive-ass cheese like it’s generic-brand cheddar.
“Glad you like it,” I tell Sev. “It’s the Lexus of refrigerators. Cost you over ten grand. Paid extra for same-day delivery.”
He chokes on his cheese, but he doesn’t really care how much I took from his account to replace the old one. And he’ll actually be impressed that I took the initiative to find the most expensive refrigerator known to man just to try to teach him a lesson.
“For that price, it better do the grocery shopping, too.”
I don’t tell him that it does automatically notify me when we’re low on staple items, but only because I am the only person in this house who would appreciate that function, and who gives a fuck about the new fridge right now?
Eli slides onto the stool at the island, smiling broadly at Aurora when she passes him a spicy pickled bean.
Something happened.
Something more than what left blood on their clothes. I can see it. There’s a comfort between him and her that wasn’t there before. An ease that should only come from knowing someone a hell of a lot longer than he’s known her .
I look to Sev, who raises a brow at me, then back to Eli.
“Do I have to drag it out of you?” I snap, finding that misplaced rage exactly where I left it, right in the pit of my stomach. “What happened?”
“It was Ambrose’s men,” Eli confirms with another heavy sigh.
“Fuck.”
“We handled it,” Sev adds.
My fists clench.
“They’re all dead.”
“All of them? You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
He says it easily, with that lazy grin that the bastard has practically trademarked, and there she is next to him, munching another cheese pickle cracker monstrosity like he’s telling me the square root of pi instead of admitting to multiple murders.
The first one I could understand. Jesse hurt her. I’m sure there was some part of her that wanted him gone. A part of her that felt protected by what Sev did. But this?
She was cool with this ? Cool with art theft? Did they tell her they were in France illegally, too? Are we sharing all the trade secrets now?
The sense of betrayal twisting in my chest is ugly and dark. They didn’t ask me. They didn’t clear this with me. They didn’t involve me in it at all. They ran a whole job, albeit a small one, with this girl.
This stranger who is eating all my fucking cheese.
“You should know,” Seven adds, indicating Eli with the brick of cheese still in his hand. “She saved Eli’s life.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
It takes me longer than it should to understand what he’s telling me. Aurora casts her gaze away from me, awkwardly shrugging as she sets down the cracker she was about to deface with a mixture of pepper honey and pickle.
“It’s true,” Eli answers, reaching over to put his hand on her thigh and squeeze. “One of Ambrose’s men had the jump on me. If Sev hadn’t given her a gun?—”
“You what ?”
“Shut up. And listen ,” Sev hisses.
I clamp my jaw shut, nostrils flaring, as I force myself to let Elijah finish and disregard the fact that Sev gave an inexperienced girl, who we don’t fucking know, a live weapon.
“He had the jump on me,” Elijah repeated. “And I think it’s safe to say Ambrose doesn’t want me back. Not alive, anyway. The guy leveled his gun on me and said some shit about Ambrose sending his regards…I thought I was fucking dead.”
He lets out a shaky breath and I feel it rattle in my own lungs.
Then he laughs. “But then the gun goes off and I open my eyes and…I was still alive. Ambrose’s guy falls away with a hole in his head, and there she is. My guardian angel.”
My lips part, but no words come out. I try, but I can’t find them.
Aurora took a life for him?
When I look at her again, really look , I see something I failed to before, and guilt hollows my gut.
She protected him.
I’m supposed to protect them. It’s my job. I promised Eli’s mom before she passed. I swore I would do whatever it took. No matter what. I swore it .
I wasn’t there last night to do my job, but she was.
“Is that true?” I ask her, and it’s not that I don’t believe it. Sev and Eli wouldn’t lie to me.
I want to see her face when she replies because I need to know why. She doesn’t even know us. Not really. This girl has no idea what Ambrose did to us. Why him and every single one of his followers deserve nothing but nine millimeters of lead and a shallow grave.
Her throat bobs as she looks up and nods.
“Why?”
Her brow furrows.
“Because it felt like the right thing.”
I detect no lie in her words. Though there is an uncertainty in her eyes, and I’m not sure what it means. But I’m going to find out.
Not right now, but soon.
I want to know exactly what makes this girl tick. No. I need to know because I get the feeling she can either be our perfect weapon…or a fucking time bomb if not handled correctly.
I go around the kitchen island and pull her into a hug before I can think better of it.
She lets out a little gasp, and I ignore the fact that she’s either too stunned or still too put off by me to return the hug.
She smells like Eli’s favorite cologne and sex, and now I know why he isn’t catatonic from his confrontation with Ambrose’s men. I guess I can thank her for that, too. I would if I didn’t think that getting into bed with our Trojan horse was an absolutely terrible fucking idea.
“Thank you,” I tell her seriously as I pull away. “Thank you for saving him.”
Aurora blinks up at me, still stiff and confused. “Um. Yeah. You’re welcome.”
Could it be possible that I was completely wrong about her? When I peer into her eyes, I find a sharpness there I never noticed before. Or had I ever really looked?
I thought Aurora Bellerose was a pawn to be placed and moved. Sacrificed to our advantage if necessary.
Could that have been a camouflage?
Was she really something else underneath the weak-seeming, sweet exterior all along? Something stronger and able to make a lot more moves than one?
“Look at us all getting along,” Sev says, freeing me from the hostage situation of Aurora’s suddenly unwavering stare.
I step back and clear my throat as he takes another bite of Gouda right off the damned brick. “Isn’t this nice?”