Chapter 44
Zeus
Any concern I had about returning to Tennessee and what we might face with our teammates here faded the second we got back home.
I know Casper had something to do with it. When he asked Zayne whether we wanted to fly out of Connecticut sitting together or in different areas of the plane, he took Zayne's answer of together and flew with it.
Zayne's things were already in my room when we got back, keeping us from having to walk them over from the other house.
We haven't been given another job yet. I figure Zayne will have a lot more time to heal before he's sent back out, but I'm still within the two-week required downtime Cerberus has in place to maintain our mental health.
"He looks like this is punishment," Zayne mutters.
We've been back five days, and I haven't noticed a single person in the house look at us in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. The only real reaction we got was from Zero. She caught us holding hands as we came down the stairs, our second day back.
She looked at us, looked at our hands, and I was seconds away from confronting her despite Zayne's hard squeeze of my hand, a plea to just let it go, but instead she smiled.
Her verbal response was, "You know what? Hell yeah."
"I think it is," I mutter, trying to hide my reply behind the lip of my beer bottle.
Nyx glares in our direction as if he knows we're talking about him despite being thirty feet away, and that was the reaction I was worried about in the first place.
"He frightens me," Zayne says, but he makes no effort to hide his face.
He lifts the beer up in Nyx's direction, earning a deeper scowl from the man.
"Can't tell," I say with a chuckle.
"Never let them see your fear," Zayne says, his eyes still locked on the man across the room. His voice is a lower whisper than before. "It's like chum in the water for sharks like him."
Nyx pulls his eyes from us and points that hateful glare in a different direction.
I feel the relief of its absence, as if it were a tangible thing locking me in place.
"This doesn't feel weird to you?" he asks.
"They have these get-togethers all the time."
"Not that, this party in particular. I really thought he was done," Zayne says, turning toward me a little more.
"I did, too, but Kincaid sees something in him that maybe we can't."
"Is it psychosis?" he asks with a chuckle, but I'm not as quick to laugh.
"There's a need for men like him," I say, hating that we live in a world where Nyx's behavior might be beneficial in some instances. "He can do things that others might hesitate to do."
"And not be affected by it," Zayne adds.
I shake my head, rejecting the words. "He'll be affected. If he weren't, then he would have no place in Cerberus. He just doesn't process that shit the same way we do."
"Is that a Marine thing you're talking about?" he asks, real curiosity in his voice.
"Not necessarily," I answer. "But it plays a part. I don't know if he became the man he is today because of his time in the Corps or if he was that man before and thought it was the best place for him. If he were truly psychotic, he would've been rejected before ever being contacted by Cerberus."
"Should we warn her?" Zayne asks as he watches Zero approach Nyx.
I shake my head. "She frightens me just as much as Nyx frightens you."
His laughter settles inside of me, and I hope I never get used to the sound. I want to feel exactly like I do now when I hear it. It's calming in a way that makes me yearn to hear it even more.
"That still blows my fucking mind that she's that same waitress from the diner."
"Same," I agree.
"I wondered how her fucking standards could be so low that she'd like the attention she was getting. Those guys were disgusting."
"Damn good actress," I praise. "She'll be a good asset."
"Is that—"
"A smile?" I ask, feeling like we've somehow stepped into an alternate dimension, watching what could pass as a smile, especially considering it's on Nyx's face.
I don't know what Zero says, but the smile wipes away, the man's face transforming into one of the hardest looks I've ever seen the man give someone.
Zero tosses her head back with a laugh before walking away to speak with someone else.
I stiffen, feeling Zayne do the same when Nyx snaps his eyes in our direction.
"Is it voodoo?" Zayne asks, the words coming from flat lips and clenched teeth. "I don't think I can move."
I chuckle again. Nyx is one of those guys you give a wide berth, but the man doesn't frighten me as much as he'd like to think. We share a brotherhood, and there are some lines even that man won't cross.
As scary as he might be, I never see the guy attacking someone on his own team. At least I don't think he'd do it in front of witnesses.
"How do you think he's going to like New Mexico?" Zayne asks as he turns his back to Nyx, putting full faith in me that I'll defend him if the man chooses to head this way.
"Honestly?" I ask, looking at the man again over Zayne's shoulder. "I think he's going to hate any place he has to go. I think he's going to be given a very short leash until Kincaid can trust he'll act the way he's expected, and that's going to irritate the hell out of him."
"Makes me wonder why he didn't quit," Zayne says, smiling as he lifts his beer to someone behind me.
"I don't think that it's Cerberus that's the wrong choice for him. I just think that Tennessee isn't the right place for him," I explain.
"You might be right. I hope he figures himself out in New Mexico."
I take one more look in the man's direction, only to find him gone from where he had been standing. My eyes search the room.
"Nyx knows exactly who he is," I argue. "It's finding the place that's right for him that's going to change things."
My eyes find him, and I'm shocked.
What we thought was the only smile the man was capable of doesn't even compare to the wide grin on his face as he talks to Emmalyn, Kincaid’s wife.
"Holy shit," I mutter, my eyes drawn to their interaction, incapable of looking away.
Zayne turns around, his healing proof in how fast he moves.
He's too stunned to speak as he watches the two of them interact.
"He looks fifteen years younger," I whisper.
"He's handsome," Zayne says absently, smiling when I growl, but he keeps his eyes locked in their direction. "She just has that way about her."
"One of the kindest women I've ever met, but I didn't know she could tame dragons."
"I think that New Mexico was a good choice. Kincaid really knows what he's doing."
"The man is a wizard in his own right," Zayne adds. "Have you noticed Lark?"
I take a second longer to stare at Nyx and Emmalyn, surprised to see that when she reaches out and places her hand on his arm, he doesn't flinch or anything.
I can't pull anything from memory of someone ever touching him before, but I know enough about him to know he wouldn't welcome it from just anyone.
"Lark?" I ask, once again letting my eyes travel around the room.
"My seven, your two."
I look to the right. "He just can't control it."
"Been watching her since she stepped into the room," Zayne says.
He doesn't even have to look in the man's direction to know he's tracking Zero's every move.
"It's sort of creepy," I whisper, watching Lark’s face transform with every movement Zero makes.
"More than a little creepy, but I think with the way he's been throwing back those drinks, he's trying to muster the courage to go talk to her."
"He hasn't spoken to her yet?" I ask, a little shocked at his restraint.
When Lark pushes off the wall and doesn't head toward the bar, I know shit is about to get real.
"He's moving," I tell Zayne, waiting for him to shift again so he can watch whatever is about to unfold.
"I feel like we need to step in," Zayne mutters. "She's going to tear him to shreds."
I consider his words, not one to go out of my way to watch drama, but also maybe her cutting him off at the knees is exactly what it's going to take for him to snap out of this fucking trance every time he sees her.
"He's an adult," I say.
"I don't want him to make her feel awkward," Zayne says, shifting gears.
"She can handle herself," I assure him.
Lark walks slowly, not much different from a lion hunting its prey, and I see from the corner of my eye that Kincaid is also paying attention to this unfolding.
If he isn't going to interfere, then neither am I.
Lark waits until Zero is done talking to Jericho and Aspen before he makes his move.
They're five feet away, and I don't know if we're too close or not close enough.
"You don't smile much. I could fix that," Lark says to her.
I watch her eyes skate down him as if she's assessing him with a robotic mind.
Surprisingly, something in her eyes shifts. They soften in a sad way, making me think I got it all wrong about the two of them.
But she takes a step back, putting some distance between the two of them.
"Men like you don't survive women like me."
She walks away before he can argue her statement.
"Burned," Zayne whispers.
Instead of watching Lark, I follow Zero from the room and witness the pain on her face. She meant every word, and although I may not know how Nyx became the man he is, I know something terrible has happened in her past to make her believe it.
They weren't just words of rejection. They came from a very dark place, a place of tragedy.
"Zero," Hemlock says, catching her before she can leave the room.
She turns to face him, making no attempt to wipe away the single tear rolling down her cheek.
"I need to talk to you and Lark about the next job you're heading out on together before you call it a night," Hemlock informs her.
I pull my eyes from the man speaking to look in her direction, but they stop halfway there on Kincaid's smiling face.
THE END