11. Tempest #2
"Exactly," Rogue says. "That's what he wanted." Rogue clicks into the CCTV folder. There’s fifteen clips, each time is a Thursday, different cameras, all the same man. He has a dark jacket and baseball cap, his head down just enough to avoid a clean image.
"He knew where every camera was," Rogue says. The footage changes; there’s a coffee shop, a petrol station, outside Petals, the corner by the park, and the street outside Lilah's apartment.
He was always watching, but never lingering long enough to be remembered.
"He rotated his positions," I say.
Rogue nods. "No pattern. No routine anyone could pick up on."
"He knew what he was doing," Savage says.
"Yeah."
Rogue pauses the next clip. "This one's different."
It’s at the park, and Lilah's sitting on the bench she uses for lunch, a sandwich in one hand, her phone in the other.
She has no idea she's being watched. Webb's sitting twenty yards away with a takeaway coffee, he’s not looking at her, not directly, but he’s watching her in the reflection of the café window behind her. He’s professional and calculated.
I feel my jaw tighten.
Then Rogue zooms into the far side of the frame. "There."
I follow the cursor where a man stands near the park gates in a dark hoodie and a black baseball cap, most of his face hidden behind the trunk of a tree.
Ghost leans closer. "Can you sharpen it?"
"I've tried." Rogue switches between three different versions. "That's as good as it gets."
"He wasn't with Webb," Savage says.
"No," Rogue agrees.
"He was watching Webb."
Rogue nods. "Looks that way."
I don't take my eyes off the screen, the height, the build, the way he stands. I'd know it anywhere. I don't say his name, because I don't need to.
Ghost reaches the same conclusion a second later. "He never trusted Webb."
Savage folds his arms. "He was checking the work."
"Or checking Lilah for himself," I say.
The timestamp catches my eye: Three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, she sat in that park thinking she was just eating her lunch, but she wasn't alone, she just didn't know it.
I hear Lilah and Natalia before I even get the door closed, their voices carrying from the kitchen.
Natalia looks up first. "There he is."
Lilah turns at the sound of her voice and smiles, something in my chest settles as I lay eyes on her.
Sniper recognizes it before I have to say a word; he pushes away from the wall he'd been leaning against and looks at Natalia. "We're done here."
Natalia follows his gaze, then looks between Lilah and me, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "I think that's our cue."
"You don't have to leave," Lilah says.
Natalia laughs softly. "We really do." She squeezes Lilah's shoulder as she walks past. "I'll see you soon."
Jinx is already by the door, holding it open for them, and Sniper pauses beside me. "Quiet morning."
"Good."
Sniper gives me a nod. "See you at church."
"Yeah."
The three of them head out together and the apartment falls quiet again. Lilah waits until the door clicks shut before looking back at me. "How bad is it?"
I drop onto the chair opposite her. "Bad enough."
She nods. "I figured."
I tell her as much as I can, but not everything, just enough to understand what we’re dealing with. She doesn't interrupt once, and when I’m finished, she wraps both hands around her mug. "So he wasn't just following me."
"No."
She looks out of the window. "I hate that he's still making me think about Connecticut." I don't answer, because she isn't asking me to fix it; I doubt there’s even a way to do so. "I hate that he gets to do that."
"He doesn't," I tell her and she looks back at me. "He gets your attention, right now, not forever."
There’s a lull of silence, and I let her work out everything in her own head. "I missed you." The words catch me completely off guard, and she looks surprised she'd said them too. "I mean..." She laughs awkwardly. "You were only gone an hour."
A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. "I like that."
She frowns. "You do?"
I nod. "Means you really missed me."
She rolls her eyes, her cheeks pinking. "You're impossible."
"Probably, but Lilah." I hold her gaze. "I'm choosing you." Her smile softens. "That includes the awkward bits," I say quietly. "Don't ever think you've got to hide those from me."
She reaches across the table, her hand settles over mine. I turn mine over, thread my fingers through hers, and she smiles again. "I hoped you'd say that."
My phone vibrates against the table, breaking through the moment. I glance at the screen and see that it’s Rogue that’s calling. I answer straight away. "Yeah."
"We've got a problem."
My stomach clenches at the tightness in his voice. "What happened?"
"Webb's gone."
I look across the table at Lilah. "Gone how?"
"His apartment's empty, his car's gone, and the burner phone's dead. Everything's gone, he packed up."
I feel my brows rise. "Inside a two-hour window?"
“Yeah,” he says.
My jaw tightens. "He knew."
"He left because he knew we were coming," he says.
I lean back in my chair. "Someone warned him."
"We think so."
I take a steadying breath. "Find out who."
"I'm already on it,” he assures me "Tempest..."
He hesitates for a beat; the anger in his voice has me bracing. "What?"
"If somebody tipped Webb off..." He lets the thought hang between us. "We've got a bigger problem than Webb."
"I know,” I say through gritted teeth, but I’m talking to air, because the line’s gone dead. He ended the call.
I lower the phone and see that Lilah's watching me. "What happens now?"
I don't take my eyes off her. "Now..." I think about Webb and the two-hour head start he has, about the person who gave it to him, and my blood boils. "We start looking closer to home."