Page 1 of Zeus's Ruin

CHAPTER ONE

Sugar

1996

“Where the hell yougoin’, woman?I’m fuckin’ hungry, and this is what you bring me?Left over shit from the diner?”Jimmy—my lazy, son-of-a-bitch boyfriend—yells from our couch as I push out of the shotgun house into the balmy night.The screen door rattles as it slams back on its hinges, and I stalk down the steps and lean against the peeling front porch banister.I don’t even know how it stays upright.I don’t know how this whole double shotgun is still standing.The slightest breeze and it looks like it might topple.Thank god we’re in New Orleans, where there’s never a fucking breeze anyway.

Cicadas sing in the quiet night, a shrill symphony echoing my frayed nerves.“Fucking asshole,” I mutter.“Go eat a dick.”

“Whoa.Now is that anyway to talk to your landlord?”The husky voice sends a shiver down my spine.I should have known he’d be out here, sitting in the dark on the porch, always tinkering with an engine or scribbling in that notebook.Maybe some part of me knew he’d be here, and that for just five minutes, my day might not seem all that bad.

Keep dreaming, Sugar.

I turn and face him and then—because I’m a fool who likes to tempt the devil—I climb the bottom two stairs and park my butt on his porch.“Sorry.I didn’t know you were here.”

“Now we both know that ain’t true.”

I chuckle and stare out at the river in the distance and the lightning tearing up the sky over in the marshlands.There’s no thunder, at least none that can be heard from here.Though, there will be if Jimmy finds me talking to our gorgeous landlord.

Jimmy and I have lived in the one-bedroom house next to Zeus for just on a month, and so far, I’ve had only a handful of interactions with the gravelly voiced biker, usually when I’m coming home from work late at night, and one or two meetings where I had to get away from Jimmy’s bullshit.

“You want a beer?”Zeus asks.

“I shouldn’t.”

“Because of him?”

“Because it’s late, and you’re my landlord.”

“I could be a friend too.”He shrugs and takes another sip.“Just sayin’.”

I can’t see his eyes in the dark, I can barely even make out his grin, but I tilt my head and stare at him in disbelief, because I know he can see my face in the streetlight.“You wanna be my friend, Zeus?”

“Sure.Why not?”

I laugh halfheartedly.“I don’t have a lot of those.At least not anymore.”

“Then it sounds like you could use another.”

“Woman!”Jimmy shouts from inside.

I shoot up from my perch and give Zeus an apologetic smile.“I should ...”

“Yeah.See ya ’round, bestie.”

I shake my head and chuckle, but as I round the banister and glance up at Jimmy’s livid expression, the smile disappears from my face.Stupid.I shouldn’t be here talking to him like this.

“Who the fuck you been talking to?”

He obviously hasn’t seen Zeus and I’m not about to tell him our landlord is just a few feet away.“No one.”

“Don’t bullshit me.”He descends the porch steps and grabs my upper arm.

I try to yank free of his grasp, but I can’t wrestle my arm loose, and instead, I’m dragged closer as he searches my clothing for my phone.“Ow!You’re hurting me.Jimmy.Let me go.”

“Where the fuck is it, bitch?”

Jimmy releases me with a shove and I fall to the hard cement.He inhales sharply through his nose and takes a step back.“You make me fucking crazy.You know that?”

---