Page 6 of Zeus

"Yep."

It may make more sense right now to stay on the main floor just for ease, but I also know more people will come eventually, and I don't want to deal with the hassle of moving. If this house fills up, being as far away from the gathering areas as possible will be better for me.

Instead of saying goodbye, Ace follows me up the stairs. At first, I don't question it. Maybe the guy has to make a log of where everyone will be for some reason, but I fight the urge to crack my neck side to side in irritation when he hovers in the bedroom doorway.

"This one okay?" I ask, trying not to sound as irritated as I feel.

"I mean, they're pretty much all the same," he says.

"Is there something else you need?" I ask, my irritation hitting an all-time high.

"We're just not going to discuss the big elephant in the room at the other cabin?"

I drop my bag on the bed and face him fully, my arms straining at my sides with my need to cross them in front of me, but that would be a sign of weakness or submission, and I refuse to give this man either.

"What elephant?"

He scoffs, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"So you've known Zeus for a long time, huh?" he asks after a long pause, probably realizing I'm not going to have a little gossip session with him.

"Zeus," I mock.

The name is absolutely ridiculous, and with the ego he's had since he was a child, I imagine he came up with it himself.

"How'd he get the name?" I ask over my shoulder as I start pulling my personal belongings out of my bag.

"You don't know?" he asks, and the hint of challenge and protectiveness over the man might as well be an alarm bell.

"I don't know anything about him," I mutter. Keeping my eyes on my working hands, the man standing behind me has every other ounce of my attention.

Curious when he doesn't speak, I turn to face him.

"Franklin Jenkins is a Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient, but I fully believe he should've gotten eight. One for each bullet hole he got, plus one for each of the three Marines he used his own body to protect."

Every word after 'bullet hole' sounds like a murmur, although his tone never changes. I'm sure if my dad had heard that he'd been injured while serving, he would've told me. It's definitely something I wouldn't forget had I been told.

I'm not surprised that his parents would see him getting hurt as an act of weakness. That may have kept them from mentioning it back home, but I find it impossible to believe that he would've received the highest military honor in the Marine Corps and not spent every waking hour for the rest of his life boasting about it to anyone who would listen.

"So Zeus then, huh?" I ask as my weight carries me to sit on the end of the bed.

"Stories say he's immortal," Ace says. "Have a good night. I'll lock up downstairs."

He just leaves, his boots carrying him down the hall as if he didn't just leave me with the news that Frankie could've been wiped from this earth, and I never had a clue he was even hurt in the first place.

Chapter 4

Zeus

"What the fuck?" Jericho asks as he steps into my path on the way to the conference room.

The smack of the back of his hand on my chest is as shocking as the grin on his face. It's not that the man doesn't ever smile, but his tone says he's annoyed, and the grin contradicts that.

"What the fuck?" I counter, reaching up to rub the area he just smacked me.

"You bolted last night," Jericho says.

"I was tired and went to bed," I explain as I try to step around him, only for him to shift right back into my path.