Page 44 of Atlas

Wizard has a sort of geeky look about him. He rocks a set of heavy framed glasses, though whether he needs them or not is a mystery. I think he just likes the look. They’re probably not even prescription. I didn’t come up with that theory, but no one is willing to try and wrangle them away. Wizard is tall and thin, but he’s also wiry with muscle and probably has some serious martial arts training. He’d likely snap anyone’s arm in half if they reached over to his face.

It’s been a few days of a packed clubhouse and though everyone has been good about it, especially my family, I know that everyone is impatient to have things back to normal. Agatha would like to return to her house. Willa is raring to get back to the store. My parents can only call in sick to work for so many days, and Georgia would really like to get back to Seattle, though she’s having a far better time hanging out with the old ladies and their kids than she thought she would.

“I just wanted to put it out there that if you need some help with security sometime, I’d be happy to uh- to get in your way and probably drive you insane with a thousand questions.”

Wizard is a great guy, he truly is, but even at the best of times, and that means the times when he’s not overworked and stressed to the max, he can be touchy.

It seems today that he’s in a good mood. Or maybe he just likes me. He’s never snapped at me once, but he’s taken other guy’s heads clean off.

“I appreciate a good distraction every now and then. You did a great job setting up the cameras as Agatha’s.”

“Just so I’m clear…” I’m embarrassed to ask, but there’s no way I can give Willa that surprise I promised if I don’t know where all the cameras in her place are. I’d never let another person see her naked, especially not naked, tied up, with me doing filthy things to her. “At Willa’s, in the back room, there’s only one camera?”

“Yeah.” Wizard runs his hand over the key in the ignition. It looks as though he’s debating turning on the truck for music. We’ve been sitting in silence for a while.

“I’ve been thinking about setting up a few more there too. Just to be sure, with all this shit going down.”

“Sounds good. I can show you how to do that.”

“Thank you. I know you’re busy.”

“It’s my job in the club. Plus, if you want to help out, being in the field would be a great way to do that. Better than sitting watching screens, but also because I can’t be in twelve places at once.”

I feel slightly guilty about the deception, but it’s also the truth. I’m not going to leave an inch of Willa’s space unattended. I won’t be able to sleep worrying about her. I’m already planning on asking Tyrant later tonight if I can spend the next few weeks there keeping guard at night.

Ostensibly.

And not so ostensibly.

Wizard strokes the keys again. Not to turn the truck on, but because he’snervous. We’re all on edge. But this guy running behind doesn’t help.

“Do you think it’s weird when he called in that he used a scrambler?”

“Nah. I expected something like that. Just like I knew they’d call from a burner. Anything else would be stupid.”

“Something about this feels off,” I mutter, stroking the butt end of the 9mm that I have resting on my knee.

“This whole thing is weird as fuck.”

“Doesn’t it feel too easy?”

“Only because we’re making it easy for this guy. It could have gone much worse. We didn’t have to give that money back.”

We separated it up between all four vehicles so that if anything went down or went sideways, we could scatter in different directions and the fucker would have to track us all down.

I hope it doesn’t come to that.

And I hope this guy comes alone.

Because it just rained all day, there’s no trail of dust to announce the vehicle that approaches.

Wizard sits up straight as soon as he catches the flash of black in the distance.

“It’s showtime.” He checks his gun, and I check mine too, even though I’ve done it at least twelve times in the past ten minutes.

No one gets out of their vehicles.

Not even when the black sedan comes to a stop thirty feet away and the headlights go dark as the engine gets killed. The door opens. The car is tinted and there’s no plate on the front—probably not the back either. I can’t see who’s in there until the guy emerges from the interior.

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