Chapter 9
Zeus
Zeus
How’s our girl doing this morning?
Yas
Perky. We just got back from a walk around my block, and she seems okay, thankfully.
Zeus
Around the block is good; she does better with more short walks than fewer walks that are longer.
Yas
Noted! I’m taking her to work with me today, so that should be easy enough to arrange.
Zeus
I hope you two have a good day at work.
He smiled at the next text that came in, a shot of Hope sitting on the floor in front of Yas, hoping for some kind of treat.
She was smiling her doggy smile, and her tail was blurred, indicating it had been wagging when Yas took the picture.
The fact that she was sitting again, instead of standing or pacing, made him feel a lot better.
She definitely was adjusting to being at Yas’ better than she’d been at his house.
As if he knew Zeus was distracted by another dog, Tiger shoved his head under Zeus’ hand, making him chuckle.
“Yes, you’re a good boy,” he said, giving Tiger a rough rubdown, making him wriggle with joy, then bounce a couple times before darting off. Zeus chased after him. “I’m gonna get you! I’m gonna get you!”
Unfortunately, he only had a few minutes for Tiger’s favorite game before he had to be out the door. Tiger sighed dolefully when Zeus stopped playing and flopped down on the mat by the door, watching as Zeus got ready.
“Sorry, buddy. I’ll be back later. And Tara will be by this afternoon.
” He gave Tiger another head rub and headed out.
The teenage dog walker was on the cross-country team.
She liked to take Tiger out for a run with her because it let her get her exercise and have a guard dog at the same time.
Plus, make a bit of money. And Zeus didn’t feel so bad about Tiger being left at home when he knew the dog was going to get an afternoon run. It worked out well for both of them.
Feeling unusually chipper as he went into work, Zeus got right down to business in his office. He could do some things from home, but Black Fox’s server was more powerful than his at home, and they had access to some files he couldn’t pull up at home.
It didn’t take him long to get immersed, but his head came up the second a figure appeared in his door frame.
Ever since Drew had been hit on the back of the head in the office—conveniently when it had only been the two of them in the office, and Zeus had stepped out to go help Noelle, perfectly setting him up to appear responsible for the attack—he’d been on high alert.
Even during the weekdays, when at least half the team was always around.
Lincoln stood there, silver hair gleaming in contrast to the pitch black of his suit and tie.
“Morning, Zeus.”
“Good morning.” Zeus frowned. “Did we have a meeting scheduled?” Lincoln didn’t just pop by to chat. Jensen was the only one who did that, and those visits were sporadic.
“No, no meeting.” Lincoln waved his hand, stepping inside and closing the door. His voice lowered. “I just wanted to let you know that Noelle was at MacLeod’s event last night with Marshall. The others already know, and I didn’t want you to be blindsided.”
The way he’d been blindsided during an office meeting when he’d found out that Noelle had been cheating on him.
Drew had been surveilling Devlin’s and gotten footage of them together.
He’d ambushed Zeus at the meeting, apparently hoping to get some kind of reaction to see whether Zeus knew and was part of Devlin’s schemes.
Unfortunately for him, Zeus had barely reacted at all. At least externally. He wasn’t really the type to get emotional in the middle of people he didn’t fully trust. Especially when they didn’t trust him, either.
“Thanks for the heads-up.” He appreciated Lincoln’s faith in him. Sometimes, it made things more difficult, though. On days when he wanted to say ‘fuck it’ and quit because why bother working with a team that didn’t trust him, he couldn’t… because Lincoln still did.
“No problem.” Lincoln opened the door again and tilted his head to the side. “How’s your neighbor doing?”
“Good. She should be out of the hospital on Monday, hopefully.”
“Glad to hear it. Alright, I’ll see you in the meeting in fifteen.”
Zeus nodded and got back to work, wrapping things up in time for the meeting. He braced himself as he moved down the hall, rolling his shoulders back. Yeah, things with the team had been better this week, but they still weren’t right.
“Hey, Nutmeg,” Jensen said as Zeus walked in. A paper airplane headed straight for his face, and Zeus snatched it out of the air before it hit. “Welcome to the party.”
“Thanks,” Zeus replied dryly as he took the empty seat to the right of David. He didn’t mind Jensen’s antics, recognizing them for what they were—cautious acceptance of him on the team. The fact that he did it during a team meeting was interesting.
“Nutmeg,” Claudia mused, looking up from her phone and studying Zeus, her dark eyes contemplative. “No, I’m not sure that suits you.”
“I’m not sure any of them really do,” Jensen joked. “He’s too icy to be spicy.”
That made Claudia and David snort. Across the table from Zeus, Mason appeared to be more focused on the cupcake he was eating than on the conversation, but Zeus was sure the profiler was taking in every nuance of their interactions.
Shrugging at Jensen’s comment, Zeus leaned forward to take one of the cupcakes from the box on the table—from Cupcakes and Crumbs, of course.
Mason’s girlfriend, who was also David’s sister, made incredibly good baked goods, but her cupcakes were something special. Zeus was never sad to see them at a meeting.
In fact, the only one who didn’t have a cupcake in front of them was Drew.
Ever since he’d been taken down at the office, he’d been on what seemed to be a personal mission to sculpt himself into pure muscle.
Sitting back in his chair right now, arms crossed over his chest, his gaze was unfocused, as if he was lost in his own head.
Unlike Mason, Drew might actually be fully lost in thought and not paying attention to what was going on around him.
Zeus had noticed he never fully let his guard down at the office anymore unless the whole team was in the room.
He sympathized. He didn’t think he’d be able to relax if someone had gotten the drop on him here, either.
“Okay, let’s get things started,” David said, drawing everyone’s attention.
Lincoln sat on his other side, listening but letting David take the lead.
“The senator wants to do a visit to Naomi’s women’s shelter.
Obviously, this isn’t the kind of thing that can really be publicized since there are women at risk there, so this is not a public event.
Violence against women is an issue the senator feels strongly about, and she wants to see the shelter without putting anyone in danger. ”
“Are they going to be taking photos?” Jensen asked, frowning.
“Yes, but only with staff who have agreed, and we’ll be going over the photos to make sure there’s nothing in them that would help anyone identify the location of the shelter,” David replied.
“Naomi’s already agreed,” Drew said. Unlike a few minutes ago, his expression was now tightly focused, and he was sitting up in his chair. “She’s excited to meet the senator, and she’s used to being the face of the shelter.”
Zeus couldn’t help but frown. That sounded kind of dangerous to him.
Women who went to the shelter usually had husbands who weren’t willing to let them go.
Being the face of it would give those men a place to aim their anger.
On the other hand, he supposed most of the men couldn’t be sure which shelter their wife ended up at.
Still. No wonder Drew looked tense.
“Zeus has finished the deep dives, so everyone on the senator’s staff who will be coming with her is trustworthy,” David said, glancing at Zeus and nodding his thanks.
Something about that simple acknowledgment felt like more.
Maybe because it showed that David was putting his trust in Zeus’ assessments.
“They are going to keep the number of people for the visit as low as possible, and that’s part of why we’ll be there instead of the regular security team.
Naomi stressed that she wanted us, not people she didn’t know, and the senator agreed to the stipulation. ”
“Makes sense,” Claudia said. “There’s nothing like a bunch of men showing up to a shelter full of domestic violence victims to make the occupants feel safe. This way, Naomi can reassure them that she knows you all personally.”
“Exactly. Also, we’re going to be dressing as inconspicuously and non-threateningly as possible,” David said firmly.
“No visible weapons. Wear loose clothing.” He glanced at Drew, whose black shirt looked practically molded to his muscles.
“Whatever you can think of that will make you look less intimidating.”
Jensen raised his hand. “I can borrow Mick’s My Little Pony shirt.”
“Why does your brother have— You know what? Never mind.” Mason shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
“He says it helps him pick up chicks.”
“Sure, it does.”
“That sounds great, Jensen,” David said, taking back the reins of conversation before it could devolve completely.
“For the rest of you, it’s not necessary to take things quite that far, but feel free if you are so inclined.
” The dry way he made the statement made even Zeus’ lips twitch with amusement.
Unbothered, Jensen grinned. Zeus absolutely expected him to show up in a My Little Pony shirt. Maybe he should throw them all off by doing something similar. He’d think about it. It might be fun to see everyone’s reactions.
The meeting wrapped up after everyone had been given their assignments for the week and discussed who would be doing what at the shelter. Zeus’ mind started to drift as they talked, because he couldn’t help but wonder what his mother might have done if she’d known about such a place.
He shut that thought down as soon as it came.
He already knew what she would have done.
“Bay, what are you up to this weekend?” David asked as he followed Zeus out the door.
“Bay?” Zeus glanced over his shoulder.
“As in leaf.” David grinned, reaching up to run a hand through his ginger hair. He was smiling, but his eyes remained cautious. He was trying, though. “It counts.”
“Sure, it does.” Zeus shrugged. “I don’t really have any plans yet.”
“You should come to the club on Saturday. We’ll all be there.” The way David was looking at him made Zeus wonder whether it was with caution or with sympathy. The last time Zeus had been to The Outlands, it had been with Noelle. “You can think of it as low-stakes team building.”
“I don’t have anyone to go with.”
Strangely, Yas’ face flashed in front of his eyes. He brushed that thought off, too. He’d only met the woman once and had only texted her a few times. It was way too soon to ask her to go to a kink club with him.
“That’s okay. Neither do Claudia nor Jensen.”
Which meant that Jennifer had a date with her doctor on Saturday. So, Zeus wouldn’t be the only one riding solo.
“I’ll think about it.”
David clapped his hand on Zeus’ shoulder. “Do. We’d love to have you join us there.”
Love was probably an overexaggeration, but Zeus appreciated the effort. He probably should go.
Team building and all that.
“Why are you here?” The aggrieved tone of Claudia’s voice clued him and David into the fact that she wasn’t pleased with the person’s presence even before they hit the lobby, but she didn’t sound actively hostile, just annoyed.
“Why shouldn’t I be here?”
The jovial voice was familiar, and Zeus recognized the man as soon as he turned the corner.
Normally, he visited with Claudia’s brother, Miguel, but today, Ian Blake was on his own.
Like Lincoln, and unlike the rest of the security team, he wore a suit.
When Ian and Miguel had first shown up at the office, Zeus had recognized the man immediately due to his reputation in the tech industry.
Not only was he a tech genius who had sold an incredibly popular program, making his first million before he was twenty-two, but he and his brother were the heirs to an incredibly successful company currently run by their grandfather.
Last year, he’d made the list for a local magazine’s Top Thirty Under Thirty, while a popular website had declared him the number one bachelor in Pittsburgh. The fact that he spent an awful lot of time hanging around a security firm had made Zeus wary, and he’d done a deeper dive.
It turned out that Ian and Miguel had become friends in college, despite—or maybe because of—their differences in background.
Ian was charming, irreverent, and flirtatious, yet none of it ever seemed to work on Claudia.
He kept coming around, though both Delgado siblings treated his flirtations with her as a joke.
Granted, he flirted with every woman to cross his path, and maybe Zeus was misreading things, but he always thought Ian seemed more earnest with Claudia. No one else seemed to think so, though.
“Because this is a place of work. I’m sorry, are you not familiar with the concept?” The irritation in Claudia’s voice was growing, and she stood with her hands fisted and on her hips, her displeasure emanating from her.
“All work and no play makes Claudia a dull girl.” Ian reached out to flick a lock of hair off Claudia’s shoulder, and she glared at him like she wanted to murder him. Either the man had balls of steel, or he really had no concept of what Mistress Claudia liked to do to a man’s balls.
Zeus walked through the lobby, giving a bemused Jennifer a nod as he passed by her desk and headed back to his office. As amusing as it might be to watch Claudia and Ian hate-flirt, he had work to do. Plus, he wanted to text Yas for a Hope update, just to make sure she was still doing well.
His desire to text her had nothing to do with David’s invite to join the team at The Outlands this weekend.
Nothing at all.