Page 122 of Security and Submission
“This isn’t how I wanted to meet you, either.” Zeus looked down at Yasmine, his expression softening. He rolled his shoulders back. “I’m not sure when or if she planned for us to meet.”
“The curse,” her mother whispered.
Javad sighed and held his hand out in front of him, over Yas.
“It’s nice to meet you, Zeus.”
“You too, sir.” Zeus reached out, trying to ignore the little flecks of dark red he’d missed on his arms earlier. Hoping her parents wouldn’t realize what they were.
As he shook hands with Yas’ father, her eyes opened again, and she smiled brightly.
“Soos save me.” She looked over at her parents. “Soos save me.”
“You saved her?” Maryam stared at him, dark eyes wide, mouth slightly agape.
Javad’s grip tightened on Zeus’ hand as his expression filled with emotion.
“I, well, I covered her when the shooting started, but…” But he hadn’t prevented her from getting shot. He didn’t get the chance to say so, though, because Maryam had already run around Yas’ bed to throw herself at him. With his hand in Javad’s grip, he only had one arm to catch her as she wrapped both of her arms around him and noisily burst into tears.
Zeus held her up as she sobbed into his shoulder, still holding Javad’s hand. What else was he supposed to do?
Chapter 43
Zeus
Somehow, admitting that he’d saved Yas made the whole meeting-the-parents thing even more awkward. Thankfully, Claudia came in a few minutes later and was able to pry Maryam off him, and Javad finally let go of Zeus’ hand so he could hold his wife up. It was as though she’d been holding all her fear and emotions inside her, and now that the dam had broken, the flooding had started.
“The rest of our team is here, and Zeus and I need to get the details on what happened,” Claudia explained soothingly. “With your permission, I’d like to start sending Yasmine’s friends through, just so they can see for themselves that she’s okay. One or two at a time, so that you don’t have to leave the room.”
“That will be fine,” Maryam said, sniffling and lifting her head, cutting off her husband’s denial. She looked up at him. “Yasmine would want to see them. She’d want them to be able to see her.” She glanced down at Yas, who seemed to have gone back to sleep now that she’d dropped the bombshell on her parents. At least she was sleeping peacefully, without pain, for now.
Javad’s shoulders dropped as he sighed. “Very well.” He didn’t look entirely happy about having to share his daughter, and Zeus couldn’t blame him, but he knew Maryam was also correct. Yas wouldn’t want her friends kept out. Especially because she was the type who wouldn’t appreciate being kept from her friends.
If it was Naomi in the bed instead of her, Yasmine would have wanted in.
Bending down, not caring who was watching, Zeus pressed a soft kiss to Yas’ temple before leaving the room. Both Maryam and Javad nodded in approval. So, if nothing else, her parents were in favor of him. He had no idea whether that would help or hurt him in the future, but Yas seemed close with her parents, so hopefully, it would help.
Since Claudia had said the team was there, Zeus wasn’t surprised that there were more people in the waiting area. It wasn’t just the team, though. Amara, a dominatrix from The Outlands club, was next to Grace now, talking with her, an anxious-looking blonde woman who was vaguely familiar at her side. He thought he might have seen her at The Outlands before, too. Claudia’s brother, Miguel, had shown up and was chatting with Jensen and Jennifer, who had claimed another small row of chairs.
Ashley had also arrived and was standing beside Lincoln, and he assumed Audrey’s bakery must be closed for right now because she had Audrey’s other worker, Alexis, with her.
Mrs. Sussex now had several other shelter workers with her, as well as Deonna Bowen, one of Senator Marlin’s aides.
“Wow,” he murmured. All these people who were part of Yas’ life, and he hadn’t known. He was damn glad he’d found out about her connections before the shooting, or this would have been a hell of a lot harder to deal with.
“Yeah, this is going to take a while.” Claudia sighed, then crooked her finger at Naomi, who was standing cuddled up against Drew. Drew kept his arm around his wife as they came over. “Yasmine’s parents say one or two people at a time can go in to see her. Can you be in charge of the visits?”
“I’ve got it,” Naomi said, nodding. She looked relieved at having something to do. “I’ll go first with Ashley, then I’ll start rotating the others through.” She glanced over her shoulder and frowned. “Does your brother need a turn?”
Claudia shrugged.
“He might want to say hi, but you can put him at the end. It doesn’t matter if her parents decide it’s been enough and he doesn’t get in.”
“What’s he doing here?” Zeus couldn’t help but ask since it didn’t sound like he was here for Yasmine. Claudia wasn’t hurt. Maybe he’d just heard she was in the hospital and came to check on her?
“Pure coincidence,” Claudia replied with an exasperated sigh. “His idiot best friend got roofied last night, but thankfully his bodyguards kept anything from happening to him. Miguel’s here to pick Ian up and came over to see what was going on when I texted him I was here.”
Someone had roofied Ian Blake? That seemed like it should get more than a footnote, but this was Claudia after all. She was likely the only person on the planet who would refer to one of the wealthiest men, who was on track to be head of one of the largest companies in the state, as an idiot.
