Page 7 of Zeus

"You missed my proposal to Aspen."

Now I feel like a complete asshole.

"Shit," I mutter. "Sorry, man."

He pulls in a deep breath before speaking again.

"Just don't miss the wedding."

"I won't," I promise, trying to sound as enthused as I can manage when I have no idea what the next year of my life will look like, especially after the revelation that walked through the front door last night.

I wish I could get Zayne out of my head, but thoughts of him infiltrated not only my waking mind but also my dreams. Ignoring him would be a lot easier if the man weren't going to be part of this team.

The only thing I can be happy about is that my upcoming job is with Fury, and it could take months of undercover work, months when I won't have to see the man's face and can pretend that I don't have trouble waiting for me back at the house.

"Meeting," I remind him.

"We have twenty minutes before it starts," Jericho says. "I just came down to grab Eli a snack."

"Better get to it," I say. "He's a growing boy."

He gives me one of the brightest smiles I've ever seen on his face, and it's clear the amount of pride he has when thinking about his son.

"See you in there," he says before walking toward the kitchen.

I pull in a breath of relief that he was focused on his own life and future rather than grilling me about Zayne, but I know it's coming, the millions of questions from everyone on the team.

I feel a sense of elation for getting to the conference room super early, but that little ego boost fades the second I step inside and see Zayne already sitting at the table. My mood shifts immediately, turning into annoyance before quickly moving to irritation when he looks up from his phone and locks eyes with me.

I'm not surprised the guy is the first one in the room. He's always been a kiss ass with people he considers to be in authority, but the man doesn't know that Hemlock is usually one of the last ones to show up unless he calls an emergency meeting.

Instead of engaging, I take a seat across the table, closer to the door, so when the meeting starts, I don't have to worry about the man being able to see me. At least he won't be able to if he's paying attention to the person in the front of the room speaking, and I anticipate that because he'd never get caught being distracted when his attention is expected elsewhere.

I pull out my phone, considering downloading some stupid game I'll never play again just to look busy on the off chance he'll take the hint and leave me alone.

I don't have to glance up from the device in my hand to know his eyes are still boring a hole into me.

"Frankie," he begins, but he says nothing else when Ace walks into the room.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Ace says before heading to the front.

I murmur a hello, eyes still locked on my phone, ignoring the increased chatter in the room until the conference room doors are closed.

When I finally look up, shoving my phone back into my pocket, my face heats.

Kincaid, the founder of Cerberus, is standing in the front of the room, looking like the imposing man that he is, despite the soft smile on his face. His vice president and second-in-command, Shadow, is beside him, along with Hound, a current and active member of the New Mexico Cerberus crew and Kincaid's son-in-law.

It's rumored that Hound is being groomed to take over as president of the New Mexico chapter, but I'm not exactly one to listen to gossip. I spent my entire childhood doing my best to ignore whispers, and as I've gotten older, I've found that I'll wait for information when it's fact rather than focusing on speculation.

"As you all know," Hemlock begins. "We have a new member today, and I thought it would be a good idea to go around the room and introduce ourselves and give a little background on who we are."

I barely keep the groan of annoyance from slipping past my lips.

"What the fuck?" Nyx mutters, clearly unable to hold back.

Hemlock frowns as he looks in Nyx's direction. That says a lot, because Hemlock can be a very surly bastard when he's in any sort of mood.

Nyx, on the other hand, is a very different breed of man. He's always angry, always pissed, and there are times I wonder why he has a job with Cerberus when it's more likely he just wants to set the entire world on fire, regardless of who it hurts, good or bad.