Page 127 of Zeus

"Seven nineteen. A perfectly respectable time to still be in bed."

"Says the Marine who no doubt sees every single sunrise," I mutter, the soup in the bowl on the table looking more tempting than I know it will feel hitting the cut on my upper lip.

"Haven't seen a sunrise before today in weeks," he says, reminding me that the shitty cabin they had us in had no windows.

"Doesn't mean you weren't up."

"True," he finally agrees, taking a seat on the other sofa across from where I've been sitting.

The man has been very attentive since pulling me from that dungeon on the compound, but not in the way a lover would. The guilt flowing off of him with every action tells me that he fully blames himself for what happened, and despite the pain I'm in, I bet he would've traded places with me just to not feel how he's feeling now.

"Who's in the conference room?" I ask, wanting to change the subject because the references to me being an invalid are eating away at me.

Pain is pain. We all experience it, but it's a whole lot easier to tell someone that having a moment of weakness is completely normal than being the one on the receiving end of that sympathy.

"New Mexico," he mutters. "They got here twenty minutes ago."

"Is that common?" I ask.

My only direct experience with Cerberus, aside from the training I went through for the job, was the prep for this last mission and now. Kincaid was here both times.

Zeus shakes his head.

He told me a little about what happened at the compound when we got back, even though getting those little pieces of information was like pulling teeth.

Nyx lost his shit to the point that there's little doubt he'll be in Cerberus much longer.

Melody, the waitress from the diner, is actually a badass Robocop who set the raid in motion.

Bobby ate the fucking business end of his handgun before any agent or member of Cerberus could get their hands on him.

They recovered his computer, but a lot of the files had been compromised before they got it.

A lot of the girls were at a processing unit in Knoxville, many refusing to give their real names even after being assured they were safe.

"He said we'll have a meeting later to debrief," Zeus says. "I doubt he expects you to be there."

"And why the fuck would I miss it?" I growl, lifting a hand to press to my ribs as I groan in pain.

He waves his hand in front of him, moving it up and down to indicate my body.

"My ears still fucking work," I snap, my anger only coming out in my voice rather than body movements because, if anything, I'm a quick fucking learner.

"Why cause yourself extra pain?" he argues back. "There's no fucking point in it."

"I didn't spend the last three weeks of my life in that shithole to stay upstairs and take a nap while everyone else is debriefed."

I don't even bother to start the argument once again about how I ended up in his room. I presume it was because no one wanted me to be the only one in the other house, as if more than just Zeus thinks I'm going to fucking die if someone doesn't have eyes on me.

The only reason I didn't argue that point at the time is that the vehicle transporting me back here was parked outside of this house, and the walk to the other house seemed a million miles away. I really thought I could go to bed and sleep for a couple of days, but the pain radiating from every inch of my body makes it too damn hard to get comfortable in any position.

The walk over to the other house seems just as daunting now as it did early this morning, or maybe I've somehow subconsciously convinced myself that being in Zeus's room is where I really want to be.

"Fuck me," I wince when I sense motion on the other side of the room.

The pain it causes to simply try to look over my shoulder makes me wonder if the doctors missed something during their many examinations.

I catch Nyx walking by, his eyes filled with rage.