Something was up. Zephyr could see it in Hokuto’s face. Since their last meeting, things had been a bit terse, but fine. He’d actually been learning a lot. Hiro had kind of broken off from his father on that regard.

He was actually teaching him, and he was learning—which was great. Hiro took him in several meetings and on short trips, and he was getting to pick everything up. The younger man still didn’t say much, but he was far better than his father. For the first time in the months he’d been there, he felt like he was actually learning and not just being berated all day.

Hokuto sat back on his chair. “How are your students coming along?”

This was about his mentees? “They’re good. They’re ready. Everyone’s nearly done with their products.”

It was smooth sailing, each one naturally gravitating to their strengths and working together. “We’ve had no issues. They’ll all be ready for their presentations in a few weeks.”

He still couldn’t believe that in just over a month all of this would be over. The time had gone by quickly, and he wasn’t sure how he’d managed it. But just like that, it was almost time to be done. And just like that, he could be with Malia in the open. That should terrify him. It honestly should, but it didn’t.

God, he was such a sap. But it felt awesome. He’d been on the cusp of falling in love with her from the very beginning. He’d known then that he wanted to be with her. She’d just taken a little more convincing. And now they were so close. They could be together.

But first, you have to survive Hokuto and Hiro.

The older Tanashi nodded. “That’s good to hear, because we’d like to see them present on Monday.”

Zephyr stared at him for a moment, pretty sure he hadn’t heard that correctly. None of the students were ready to present. They had classes as usual on Monday. No one had prepared anything.

“Monday, sir?”

“Yes, it’s the first day of the week. People usually dread it, and now you and your students will be dreading it for another reason.”

Zephyr bit his tongue. He didn’t let any of the expletives fly. He needed to figure out the plan of attack to get his students ready. There would be no changing Hokuto’s mind. Not even Hiro could do that at this point. “Yes sir. I’ll make sure the team is aware and prepared to present.”

The older man nodded. “Good. I can’t wait to see what your protégés have cooked up. You’re dismissed.”

Zephyr wasted no time. He just pulled up the group text and then he typed out a quick message.

Zephyr: All hands on deck. You’re being asked to present to Tanashi on Monday. They mostly just want see your progress, but this means all of us have to up our game over this weekend.

There was the usual expected flurry of anxious responses.

Becky: What? Why?

Tom: Oh my God!

He didn’t have any answers for them. All he knew was that he had to get them ready. And he only had two days to do it. Interestingly enough, the one person who didn’t respond right away was Malia. But knowing her, she was probably at work. He’d have to deal with her mental breakdown afterward.

As he packed up his laptop and his files, one lingering thought ate at the back of his mind.

It was the why of it all. The students were a good month away from having their presentations anywhere near ready. So why force it? To torture him? Yeah, but he didn’t have to present. And if he did, he was experienced enough to know how to do it on the fly. So why torture the students? They weren’t going to be graded on it. Maybe Hokuto wanted to see them all in action.

But still that thought lingered. Zephyr climbed into the car and the thought clarified before him. What if he knows?

Shit. But how? They’d been extremely careful. Were they trying to expose him? Expose Malia?

If they were, they’d be ready because he’d been serious when he told her he was going to make sure that she wasn’t exposed. He’d have her so ready they would have no choice but to see how brilliant she was. No, he had to work with them not seeing the depth of his feelings for her.

* * *

“They know, don’t they?”

Zephyr lied his ass off. Well, not technically a lie, because he didn’t know. But he suspected the same thing she did. “No, they don’t know.”

“Zephyr, they have to. Otherwise, why do this? None of the other companies are doing this. We’re not set to present for another month. And none of us are ready for this.”

“You will be ready because at the end of the day all we can do is present what we have. The rest of it would just be pure BS. We’ll get our documents together; you already did those. We’ll talk about production of the products; you have this. We’ll talk about our marketing plans; you know what to do. All you have to do is do it. Whether it’s ready or not, just show them what we have. I’m going to help you.”

She shook her head and tucked her hands into her jeans. “Zephyr, it’s not that simple. They have to know. We were sitting here in this blissful world and they know something. You know what I think? I thought I saw a car following me the other day. What if that was them? What if? I mean, they have enough money; they could do something like that.”

He stared at her. Tanashi was a corporate company. They had no reason to be following people who work for them. “Baby, I know. I know you’re scared. I’m worried too, but none of this comes down on you. You did nothing wrong.”

She ran her hands into her curls. “I wish that was true, but it’s not. At least it’s not how anyone’s going to see it. All people will see when they look at me is the girl who slept with her mentor.”

“No. They will see a brilliant woman. Just relax and focus on the problem at hand. Let’s not create any more problems for ourselves. We don’t know what’s going on. So we’ll stay focused, okay?”

She shook. “I—I don’t know if I can.”

“Well you have to.”

* * *

Malia was freaking out. How could Zephyr be so calm? How could he think that they didn’t know, or didn’t at least suspect? And why would he think all of this fell back on him and she could escape the blame for what was happening with them? She knew that he couldn’t, because as much as he tried to protect her, he couldn’t protect her from this. She was the one people would look at. She was the one people would judge. He was a guy. Sure, he might get spanked on the wrist, but it would be her career that would be impacted forever, because that was just how it went.

Zephyr snapped his fingers before her eyes. “Malia, focus. Walk me through the product specs again.”

“Shit. Maybe we just come clean.” There would be pain, but maybe they could survive it. They’d been going over this since last night. They were meeting with the rest of the team at the library in an hour. They were going to be so screwed. “Zephyr, maybe if you come clean, this will all go away.”

He stared at her. “Are you insane right now? I’m not doing that. I’m not giving up the best thing in my life. It’s a risk, but we both took it. No going back now. You and me, okay? We made that deal, right?”

She nodded. “We did, but –”

“No buts. Focus on the problem at hand. Our relationship is not the problem right now, okay?”

She had no choice but to believe him. Even though she suspected something was up and it terrified her. Maybe he was right. Maybe this was all just about the Tanashis wanting to see the work that they’d put in. And if so, that’s what she should focus on. Because the work, she could do. Yeah, they were rushed, and they didn’t have enough time and didn’t have everything that they needed, but that—that was nothing. She was made to do that. Given enough preparation, she could do this in her sleep.

Not like you had enough preparation. Okay, there was that, but the work part of this she was less terrified about. It was all the personal stuff.

Malia prayed that she wasn’t losing her mind. She prayed that this was just a freak-out. Because if it wasn’t, she wasn’t just going to lose her career, she was going to lose Zephyr too.