Zephyr had one job: not to fuck up. All that shit in New York, it didn’t matter anymore. So just don’t fuck this up.

He tried to keep from pacing. Nerves weren’t usually a problem, but this job mattered. And he wanted to make a good impression. The Tanashis were known for making or breaking careers.

A strawberry-blond woman pushed the large glass door open and marched right up to him. She was all power stride with a no-nonsense attitude. There was no swinging of her hips as she walked, just a straight march. She sort of reminded him of his sister Delilah. No-nonsense. But his sister had a softer side to her.

"Mr. Donovan."

He nodded and stuck out his hand. "Please, call me Zephyr." She took his hand and gave a brisk, firm handshake.

"Mr. Tanashi is not big on informality. I'm Piper Leavens. I'm the Director of Human Resources. I'll get you settled and notify your hiring manager, William Cook. He's looking forward to having you on his team. My understanding is that you will be shadowing Mr. and Mr. Tanashi? "

Zephyr's eyes went wide. What the hell? He'd be working directly with them? Shit. "I had no idea. I spoke to William on the phone and got a brief schedule. He said that I'd get a more detailed one when I got in."

"Yes. It's already on your desk." She gave him a quick once-over before saying, "A word of advice for you when you meet the elder Tanashi: keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open. You'll learn a lot, if you don't piss him off."

Fantastic. This whole place was full of warmth and sunshine. She led him down a brightly lit, well-appointed hallway, and he snuck a peek at some of the offices and surroundings. All glass and chrome. Sleek and modern. Luckily though, no one was in suits. Business casual, but hyper professional. Which suited him fine. If he had to wear a suit every day, he might shoot himself.

"This is you."

He'd been given a corner cubicle at the end of a long row. And lucky him, he even had a window with a great view of the three bridges. Wow. It wasn't an office, but he really couldn't have done better. "Thank you. This is great. There's plenty of room in here.”

"I'll leave you to get settled."

Zephyr dropped his things and booted up his laptop. Before he could even get his email open with the password that had been taped to the inside of his welcome packet, his new boss was knocking on his cube. "Zephyr? Welcome aboard."

Zephyr stood and shook his hand. "Mr. Cook, nice to meet you." He was taken aback by how young he seemed. The guy couldn't be any older than twenty-six. He'd read all about his meteoric rise. He’d been a Tanashi fellow as well.

William shook his head and chuckled. "Old battle-ax Piper has been giving you the speech about no informality?"

Zephyr grinned. "Yeah, is that not a thing?"

"Only with H&H and Piper. Her unofficial name is Dragon Lady. But don't let her hear you call her that. Your life will be hell because that woman signs the paychecks."

"Duly noted. I'm excited. I'm not sure what's going to happen today."

His new boss nodded. "I know. The first day is always nerve-racking. More so for you because they requested you be assigned to them specifically. Is your father in some secret billionaire club or something? I’ve never seen that happen before.”

“Nope. Just a guy.” He’d rather not think about the cavernous expanse separating him and his father at the moment.

“Listen to them closely. They won’t say much, especially Hiro. And don't take it too seriously if Hokuto doesn't warm to you right away. That's just his way. Just do whatever it is you did to get them to request you and you’ll be fine."

Except he had no idea what that hell that was. "Fantastic."

"You'll be fine. With your history and your internships, and the work that you did at Columbia, you have no reason for nerves. He picked you based on your reputation. From what everyone says, it’s only ever happened one other time where a future applicant has been approached about the program and asked to submit their portfolio."

Zephyr inhaled deeply. Relax. Easier said than done. They'd come looking for him. Tanashi Corp. hadn't even been on his radar. But the offer to apply had come at the right time so he'd jumped at it. It was the perfect reason to get out of New York for a while.

And once he'd done his research, he knew it was the best fit, despite what his father said.

"You ready to meet them?"

"Yeah. Let's do this."

William gave him a wide grin. "Relax. Your experience in product marketing will be a huge asset. Let's sync up at lunchtime. And then we can come up with a plan for what you're working on and the plan for the students at Carnegie U. I understand you meet your team tomorrow?"

Zephyr slowed down his stride. "Yeah. They're a great group. I picked well. I think we’ll knock the project out of the park."

"Great. I want to see the portfolios at lunchtime. That work for you?"

"Sure thing."

William stopped at one of the conference rooms. "Just remember, do whatever they say, don't talk too much, and try not to ask too many questions. If you don't understand something, ask me about it later. I can deep dive. It's not that they don’t want you to ask questions; it’s just that Hokuto gets impatient. A lot of people get butt hurt."

Zephyr could handle him. He was Teflon. He'd had to be. "I'm not sensitive."

"That's good." He pushed the doors open and Zephyr followed. Hokuto Tanashi was at the head of the conference table on a phone call, quietly speaking in Japanese. Hiro sat at a seat in the middle.

When he saw him, the younger man stood and stared.

Zephyr frowned. Did he have something on his face? William nodded and muttered something like good luck before running off.

Zephyr cleared his throat. “Mr. Tanashi, nice to meet you. I'll be shadowing you as part of the Tanashi Fellowship."

Hiro Tanashi seemed to snap himself out of his stupor then came around to shake his hand. “Mr. Donovan. It’s nice to put a face to the portfolio.”

Hokuto finished his call but he didn’t stand. Like his son, he just studied Zephyr intently, as if dissecting every one of his features. Damn, did he have a booger out of his nose or something? Was he too casual?

The elder Tanashi finally spoke. "Mr. Donovan. I'm sure you've been warned not to say much. But I want to know that you have a sharp mind. So if you see something of interest, tell me. Otherwise, people are right. I prefer it if you don't speak much."

"Understood sir." Yeah, he could see this guy was absolutely a real charmer. And then Hokuto Tanashi turned his attention to his son and business.

After several moments, Zephyr learned quickly that being with the Tanashis was like being on his own or with a robot. Because neither man looked at him or asked him questions; they just got straight down to work.

He took notes on everything. From who Tanashi met with, to the purpose of the company, to which clients they had.

As hyped as he was for the day, his mind kept wandering to the pretty girl with the wild curls. Focus dipshit. This is important. Eva was a distraction.

The elder Tanashi was speaking to the owners of Private Core. Private Core made one of the chips that the Tanashis used in their phone design. And since Zephyr's area of expertise was technology, this was an important meeting to pay attention to.

This was going to be great. He just needed to get adjusted. Everything was going to be fine.

Maybe it’s time to reevaluate our concept of fine.

* * *

Zephyr was out of the Tanashi Offices by 2 p.m. His schedule was unusual, but it would suit him fine. And after a less than stellar first day, he needed a break. Hokuto Tanashi was terrifying. And he wasn’t usually intimidated by much. Not when it came to work. He knew his numbers, and he was on his game. Tanashi was extremely organized. The job, this stuff, had always been easy.

So what if it was a rough first day? He’d read the old man down. The one he really couldn’t read was Hiro. The younger Tanashi had watched him carefully as if assessing him nonstop—probably looking for a crack in the armor. Maybe the fellowship wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but it was still better than New York. Right now, anything was better than New York.

He’d loved his family, and they’d given him exactly the kind of support that he needed. But they were meddling, and interfering, and it was just a lot of noise. A lot of people checking in on him and making sure he was okay.

Surprise visits. Under normal circumstances, Delilah and Mia went home to Hope maybe once a month. Sometimes twice if there was some special event going on. But ever since things had gone down, they’d been home every fucking weekend, usually with their husbands in tow.

Derek and Kisima had set themselves up in New York instead of the usual post in Los Angeles. They tried to make it seem like she needed experience on different tracks. But Zephyr knew better than that.

It was the off-season for Derek, so he’d essentially been off traveling with Kisima, acting as her personal trainer on call. Whatever that meant. He would rather not know exactly what his brother was training his fiancée on. The two of them engaged in far too much PDA for his liking.

Dylan checked in more often than he normally did.

And Jezzie, well, she and Logan had been on tour, but she flew home a lot. Her agency was in New York, so that made sense, and she was more emotionally in tune, generally. So she wasn’t as invasive, but she still called a lot, texted, and sent him funny memes. Her level of interference he could handle. The in-your-face, are-you-okay, constant babysitting ones he could do without. So Pittsburgh right now felt like a fucking vacation.

He ticked the elevator down to the parking garage. He still couldn’t believe that he’d been given access to his own car while he was here, and a nice one at that. A shiny Audi sat in the spot he’d been assigned. Holy shit. That was one hell of a sports car. The S6 was black and sleek, and the kind of thing he could only dream about driving. He hadn’t had a car at Columbia because, well, Manhattan—who the hell had a car in Manhattan? And he’d expected to Uber everywhere here, or buy some old beater or something. He didn’t know that he’d get a company car. Or that it would be one like—this.

Not sure, he checked his paperwork again. No, this was the right parking spot assigned to Zephyr Donovan. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the key he’d been given that morning. When he hit the unlock button, the car’s lights flashed and made a beep-beep sound. Well, fuck him. This was his car. And he was going to fucking enjoy it.

He opened the driver’s side door and tossed his backpack in. Just as he was about to climb in to get the joyride of his life, a shadow caught his eye in his peripheral vision. He frowned and checked again.

You’re seeing shadows.

His heart hammered against his ribs and his breathing started to speed up. No. No, no, no. He was not having a goddamn panic attack right the fuck now. He hadn’t had one in months.

For months after the situation with Alice, he’d woken up in a cold sweat more nights than he hadn’t. He’d be perfectly fine one moment and the next second he’d feel dizzy and too hot, with his heart going too fast. The shrink had said it was normal and that the symptoms would decrease with time. She’d offered him meds to help deal with them. And he’d taken them in the beginning when the shit was so bad he couldn’t force himself to get out of the bed. But after about three months he stopped because he’d been better, right?

How the hell does one get better after that shit?

It didn’t matter though because he wasn’t having one. Easy breathing— everything was fine. He was fine. And that SOB that had started this whole mess was in jail, right? They wouldn’t have let someone like that out. Not after what he’d done.

You are driving yourself nuts. Get in the car, take a deep breath, verify before panic.

And that’s exactly what he did. He climbed in, closed the door behind him, set the locks, and forced himself to take three deep breaths. Just to be sure, he checked for shadows again but didn’t see any. Okay, now verify.

He started the car and then pulled out the cell phone and waited for the Bluetooth on his phone to pair with the car. In a moment, he was all set and he dialed the speed dial for his brother.

“Little brother, how’s Pittsburgh treating you?”

Zephyr tried not to cringe when Dylan said “little brother.” It had never bothered him before. As a kid, he’d trailed after his older brothers. Chasing them down and trying to be just like them, but somehow now that grated—maybe because now, everyone saw him as the one to be taken care of.

Even his younger brothers, Holden and Jackson, tried to look out for him. He didn’t like that. He was the one supposed to be looking out for them. Derek and Dylan, well—there was nothing anymore to do about Derek and Dylan.

“I’m fine. Everything is good. Listen, you heard anything about Marcus? He’s still in jail, right?”

His brother paused. “To my knowledge. Why?”

“No reason. I just wanted to be sure.”

“Zephyr, are you doing okay? Do you need to come home or whatever?”

“Fuck dude, I was just checking. You know, today was the first day. You gotta disclose all your security stuff and everything. I’m just crossing my T’s and dotting my I’s.” Totally lame excuse. Note to self: next time, think of a better excuse before you call your brother the FBI agent.

“Listen, if you’re not okay, just say the word and I’ll—”

“I’m good. Like I said, just checking.” There was a bit of silence. He knew Dylan didn’t believe him. And frankly, he didn’t believe himself. He’d seen a fucking shadow and well, he freaked. Fuck, he had to get this shit under control. He’d gotten a whole new life he wanted. So he damn well better fucking like it.

“Pittsburgh treating you well?”

“Yeah. It is. I’m seeing Cooper tonight. Everything is all good.”

“Okay. But you know that if you need—”

He didn’t need his brother to finish the line for him. He understood. “Yeah, I know. If I need you, I’ll call.”

“Listen, so Sera and I were thinking of taking a trip. She has a client in Cleveland, which I know, so exciting, right?”

“Yeah, I hear Cleveland is a bit of a boring city.”

“Yeah well, it’s super close, so I figured I’d go with her, then grab a car and swing through Pittsburgh, so you know, you and I could go out?”

Yet again, someone else trying to check in on him. It wasn’t so much that he resented it; it just got old after a while. He didn’t need checking up on. Yeah, well, next time, don’t try to save someone with a psycho boyfriend. Well, it was okay because his saving days were over. No more damsels in distress for him.

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be here.” Though Zephyr would prefer to hang out just because, and not because his brother was worried about him. “Listen, I need to get out of here, so I’ll just call you later.”

Dylan was quiet again for a moment. “Listen, you know, if you’re not okay, it’s cool, right? You got us all to back you up.”

“I promise you, I’m fine.” Zephyr hung up with his brother and hoped he was right about that.