Page 107 of Zeus

"Think we could get some time to go to the funeral?" Zeus asks, giving more life to his lie, despite there being no conversation prior to Scott barging in here, that it's the truth.

"I don't even want to go. Just fucking drop it," I say, letting him know that we need to put an end to the entire conversation.

The best outcome is Scott forgetting what he saw and heard, or thinking that telling people about my poor, dead mother is a waste of his time. They don't really seem like the type of people to gather around a suffering member, so maybe the lie stays between the three of us.

"Sounds good," he says as he stands. "Let's get ready for this meeting."

"What do you think we'll be doing that we need clothes we can ruin?" I ask, releasing a breath and trying to calm down.

"No clue," he says as he steps around me, giving me a wide berth as if he's scared Scott is going to pop his head into the cabin a third fucking time just to try and catch us doing something wrong. "Probably something with shovels and sewer."

I scrunch my nose and fake a cough.

"Yeah," he says as he pulls clothes from his duffel. "That's not gonna work."

I feel no less calm as we walk toward Bobby's area of the compound. But I do have enough experience working under pressure that I'm certain there are no external clues in my behavior that would make anyone suspicious.

I wave to people as I pass and stop to talk to Chris when he walks toward us.

"Have a good night?" he asks, glancing between Zeus and me.

I know that Zeus is sticking close because of what we might be facing. He'd usually walk ahead of me, his refusal to wait for anyone a part of the role he's playing.

"Why do you ask?"

He looks back at me, pulling his eyes off Zeus as if he's curious about the man, but would never be brave enough to ask him questions.

"Sable," he whispers as he leans in closer. "Heard it was a good night... for both of you."

"Word travels fast," I say, chuckling uneasily.

If they're talking about last night, then either someone who was listening is chattering about it, or Sable was put in a position that she had to talk about it with someone. Either way, it puts a spotlight on us that won't bring anything but bad news.

"What kind of man asks another man how he fucked," Zeus growls.

I fight a grin when Chris takes a step back at the ire in my partner's voice.

He holds his hands up near his ears, a terrified look in his eyes.

I simply tilt my head, reinforcing the question when Chris looks my way, as if I'll save him.

"J-Just m-making conversation," he stutters.

"Well, don't," Zeus says before he turns to walk again.

I follow after him, not giving a single reassuring word to the man. Maybe he'll tell people not to talk about it, or Lyle will kill them, and that suits me just fine.

We step inside the building. That fucking crown painted outside still gets on my fucking nerves even though I've seen it every day for the last three weeks.

We get no weird looks other than the guys standing in the front office when we walk past for our meeting, and I know we only have their attention because they're surprised we're not joining them to get our task list for the day.

The conference room is full of other men, so there's nowhere for us to sit.

I head toward Rodney and Chet, the guys I've been chatting up at meals.

Zeus heads to a corner alone, as is expected of him.

Keeping even a minimal degree of separation works for us in two ways. It keeps any chatter about what Scott saw in check, and it also gives us an advantage if there's trouble. Now they have to worry about focusing on two different targets rather than if we were standing side by side.