Chapter Nine
Zeus: You coming to me or am I coming to you tonight?
Tracker: I’ll come to you. You don’t need to get up earlier to drive home.
Zeus: Thanks for that. I love you.
Tracker: I love you too.
Zeus: That never gets old.
Tracker: I found a new game. You have to solve puzzles to move freely through the different levels.
Zeus: Awesome. We’ll have that beaten in an hour.
Tracker: It’s an hour we’ll be together.
Zeus: I love the sound of that.
Hey friend. Did you get the codes I sent you?
1CEOofGenius_ATLAS
Yeah. I sent the cracked files through a series of various networks to hide its origins. Let me know what you think.
1_bottomless_data_base
Oops. I never hit send. LMFAO.
1_bottomless_data_base
We’re such a pair. Love ya, babe. You’re amazing.
1CEOofGenius_ATLAS
The feeling is mutual. Have you cornered Foster yet?
1_bottomless_data_base
HAHAHAHA! I scare the hell out of that poor guy.
1CEOofGenius_ATLAS
I have faith.
1_bottomless_data_base
Zeus: There’s a free playroom.
Tracker: I’m on my way.
Tracker stared at the shower wall as hot water beat down on him.
His mind had drifted five minutes after he stepped into the shower and hadn’t come back to reality yet.
Zeus’ shower had a mesmerizing tile design.
It was soothing. Plus, Zeus just lived inside his brain now, overriding everything in his life, even his showers.
Tracker had slept nearly every night in Zeus’ bed since the day after they nearly split.
This felt like his home now. Tracker had been super excited about the security building Beau had built for him.
Now he couldn’t even recall what the bathroom walls looked like. It was odd.
The bad thing about feeling this way, he knew things couldn’t stay like this.
His home was with his team. His brothers.
He was shocked Beau hadn’t had a few things to say about Tracker’s more absent than not behavior.
He had invested a lot of money in Tracker to keep his family safe.
Tracker still did that, just from afar. He used his laptop during the day to keep an eye on things.
That setup was nowhere near the same. He knew he wasn’t doing his best. Tracker had no idea how to balance his life.
He had to figure out something, though. Tracker practically felt the reckoning moving his way.
He couldn’t pull off this half-assed juggling act forever.
With a loud sigh, Tracker blinked and got back to his washing.
He couldn’t stand there all day. Tracker went through his routine before ending up in the kitchen.
Zeus had left him a pot of coffee. It was unusual for Zeus to be missing in the morning since Tracker started staying there.
That was the whole reason Tracker chose Zeus’ place over his.
Zeus worked late hours. He got more sleep when he didn’t have to make the drive to see Tracker.
Tracker wished he had realized that sooner. Zeus needed the rest.
With his coffee in hand, Tracker headed for the couch.
As he walked past the door, he heard several voices all speaking over each other outside.
That was odd as hell first thing in the morning considering Zeus lived in the back of his club.
It sounded a lot like his loud-ass brothers, but that didn’t make sense either.
Tracker set his coffee on the sideboard and opened the door.
A door across the hall and down from the apartment a little way stood open.
Of all the things Tracker expected to find, it wasn’t Henry standing guard in the hallway.
His confusion tripled. Henry was Beau’s personal bodyguard.
Beau Bosi had taken his brothers and him in and treated them like family.
That didn’t explain why Beau would be here.
Unless he wasn’t. That was possible. Henry was also married to Tracker’s brother, Field.
Maybe he was just escorting him. At the thought, his mood brightened.
Field was such a ball of sunshine. He made everyone smile.
Tracker always loved spending time with him.
At the sight of him, Henry stuck his head in the door he guarded. “Tracker is up.” He focused on Tracker. “It took you long enough to drag your ass out of bed. You’ve gotten lazy.”
It took everything Tracker possessed not to roll his eyes. Except Henry wasn’t wrong, and Tracker had literally just been thinking about that. “If I’d known everyone was waiting for me, I might’ve moved faster. Why is everyone here? I heard their loud asses all the way inside the apartment.”
Zeus stepped into the hallway, looking like the Adonis he was. Nothing ever seemed to dim his beauty. If anything, he looked sexier every day to Tracker.
“There’s my baby. Did you get enough sleep? I swear we tried to be quiet.” Zeus closed the distance between them while he spoke. “Well, I tried not to wake you.”
Tracker realized he wore a huge grin. The amount of happiness that filled him each time he set eyes on Zeus should be illegal. “You should have. I didn’t get to tell you goodbye. I thought you’d left for the day or something.”
Zeus kissed him again.
Tracker forgot what they were talking about.
When Zeus pulled away, Tracker noticed several of his brothers lingering in the hallway. “Um. So, what’s going on?”
Zeus glanced behind him. “Everyone is impatient. Come on.” He took Tracker’s hand and led Tracker to the open door that people kept spilling from.
“Everyone has been working really hard. We put our heads together to get this as close to how you’d like it as possible, but I left enough room for you to rearrange everything if you’d like. ”
Field, Foster, Ridge, Shadow, Edge, and Rain waited, looking as if they held their breath.
The rest of his family were still inside the room; even the ones who should’ve been in Hawaii were there.
Tracker had moved five steps beyond curious.
He stepped inside the room. It was almost a mirror image of his security room at home.
Except this one had an extra dashboard for the club’s security as well.
Confused didn’t begin to cover how he felt.
Tracker was downright baffled into silence.
The giant red-haired brother with all the anxiety jumped in first. “We tried to remember everything. Obviously, we’re not as good as you.”
Tracker met Field’s stare. He couldn’t let Field worry. “This is amazing. You did great. I just don’t understand the purpose. Beau spent a lot of money to design my place. Why would I need two?”
Henry took his husband’s hand, obviously stepping in to protect his husband’s peace. “Don’t worry about Beau’s money. I doubt he even knows how much he has, but you might want to look behind you.”
Confused, Tracker turned.
Zeus was down on one knee.
Tracker blinked. “What are you doing?”
Zeus’ eyes swam with laughter. “I’m begging you to move your security station here and marry me.”
Tracker couldn’t speak. Everything had been such a whirlwind in the last six months.
He supposed they had—in their own way—been together for much longer than that.
Still, he never would’ve expected this. Zeus’ proposal seemed so dramatic.
“I mean, yeah, but you didn’t have to go through all of this trouble.
You could've just asked. You knew I’d say yes.
How did you even get everyone here? This seems like a pretty big fuss just for me. ”
There was a glint in Zeus' eyes, letting Tracker know Zeus would have some things to say about that one later. He hated when Tracker pointed out he wasn’t special.
It ended up being Rain who scolded him. “Are you kidding? You’re the level-headed glue.
All you’ve done to keep us safe, loving us enough to never sleep so we can—that matters to us.
You matter to us. You’re our brother.” Everyone nodded along, but Rain kept going.
“Without you, none of us would’ve made it this far when we escaped.
You mean everything to us, and you deserve to be happy and have fusses made.
No one makes you smile like Zeus does. You’ve given up enough of your life for us. You should be here with him now.”
Tracker’s gaze moved from face to face. Everyone’s expression matched Rain’s.
His throat swelled. He loved these men with everything he had.
No one could possibly understand what they had been through together.
“I love you.” He eyed each of them. “All of you. I haven’t sacrificed anything.
Doing everything to keep us safe has been the most selfish thing I’ve ever done.
” He shrugged. “I don’t know how to lose you guys.
” There was no missing the way his voice broke.
Zeus obviously gave up on being on one knee.
His arms engulfed Tracker, pulling him back against his chest. He kissed the shell of Tracker’s ear.
“They love you too and wanted to be here to share this moment.” Zeus ran his hand down Tracker’s left arm and lifted his hand.
He slipped a ring on Tracker’s third finger, and reality felt very real.
This was happening to him. He wouldn’t wake up and realize this was some fever dream.
The smiles surrounding him were almost too heavy.
Things like this weren’t supposed to happen to him.
Tracker had never even dared to let himself hope.
When he tried to speak, his voice broke again. “I don’t want to lose you guys.” He didn’t know why he kept repeating that. Tracker knew his brothers would never abandon him, no matter where they ended up in life.
He had no idea who moved first, but Tracker found himself engulfed in nonstop hugs and promises this family was forever. Tracker had known that. Everything just felt so unreal, and Tracker hadn’t thought he could have the beautiful existence Zeus offered him and showed him every day.