Page 105 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part One
It’s my turn to give him a hard look. “I’d never do that, asshole.”
“I’ll talk to her tonight while you and Gavin are gone.” Ari scrubs a hand down his face. “This is a clusterfuck. If something happens to Kira, Kane is going to chop our fucking balls off.”
“We’ll handle it, just like we always do.”
I just hope I’m not lying to him.
“I’m in,”Gavin whispers later that night. It’s still a mindfuck watching him just disappear. I’m proud as fuck of him, and he deserves his Phantom nickname.
“Coming,” I whisper back, sliding around the side of the house.
“Wait.” I stop dead in my tracks. “I think someone is coming.”
I move around the back of the house so no one can see me and peek around the corner. A car pulls into the driveway, idles there for a minute, and pulls back out. When it drives away, I notice it was a black car but not the same one that tried to run me the fuck over. “All clear.”
I meet Gavin at the backdoor, and he nods. He picks the lock and slips inside. I wait with my breath held while he searches,and he finally tells me that no one is home. I slide inside, and Gavin is waiting in the living room. “Are we doing this clean or ripping this place apart?”
“Fuck it. Let him know that we were here.”
I start in one of the downstairs bedrooms while Gavin searches the living room. I pull all the drawers out and upend them, dumping everything on the floor. I check every nook before moving to the next room. Gavin and I end up in the last bedroom at the same time, and we search it together. Gavin pulls out a drawer on the dresser, and I hear him mutter under his breath.
“What?”
“This has a false bottom.” He puts the flashlight between his lips so he can have both hands. He pulls the bottom out of the drawer, and several folders are lying there. With our names on them. “Fuck.”
Gavin pulls them out and hands me half the stack. I flip through them, and my stomach sinks when I realize how much information this guy actually has. “This guy knows Ari’s real name and where he’s from.”
“Goddamnit,” Gavin grits out. “He knows about Ghost, my dad, everything. How the fuck would he get that information?”
“I don’t know, but Ari needs to see these.”
“Let’s dust for prints and get the hell out of here.” We busy ourselves with dusting commonly touched surfaces, and I don’t see a fucking one. The only people who would wipe off prints in their own house is someone who is hiding.
“Did this asshole wear gloves in here?” Gavin asks, coming to the same conclusion as me. “There’s not even a print on the doorknob.”
“That or they wiped this place clean.”
We dust a few things just in case on our way downstairs. When we hit the bottom of the stairs, headlights flash across theliving room wall. Gavin and I plaster ourselves against the wall, breaths held. The car sits there, and I strain my ears, trying to hear anything. The lights go off, but I can still hear the car idling. Gavin and I both get our Glocks, screwing silencers into place. We don’t need to alert the neighbors if this turns into a shootout.
“What do we do?” Gavin whispers. “Wait until they leave or go balls to the wall?”
Our heads snap in the direction of the kitchen at the same time when we hear the doorknob turning. “Balls to the wall it is,” I whisper back. He nods in understanding and clutches the Glock in front of him, waiting. I blow out a breath and level mine in the same direction.
“I know you’re here,” a deep voice calls out. “I just want to talk.” I listen for footsteps but don’t hear any. “I’ll even put my gun away.” I hear Gavin snort softly beside me, calling bullshit. I gesture with two fingers toward the living room door. Gavin nods and slips past me. He melts into the shadows to unlock it so we can slip out. I stay behind for cover. “I just have questions.”
I don’t even hear Gavin slide back beside me, just a slight disturbance in the air.Damn, he’s good.He jerks his head for me to follow him, and I stay on the same path he’s taking. My hand lands on the doorknob. “Stay right there,” the voice growls.
Yeah, no thanks.I jerk the door open, and we take off running. Shots ring out behind us, causing us to dive off the porch. We scoot back against the edge, out of sight. I look around and nod for Gavin to follow me. Still crouched, we start moving toward the opposite side of the driveway. If we can make it to the backyard, we can disappear into the night. I stop when the asshole starts shooting through the wood on the porch. “Like I said, I just want to talk.”
Before I can blink, Gavin slips through a hole in the lattice under the porch, then I hearpfftpfft pfftfrom his silencer. Theguy on the porch grunts, and I can hear his boots stomping, trying to avoid the shots.
Gavin appears back beside me, and we take off running, hoping the guy is distracted. We make it to the side of the house before a bullet tears right through my shoulder. I hiss in pain but don’t stop running. We slip into the woods behind the house but keep going. We finally slide into the car, and Gavin peels out, jerking his mask off.
“Fuck, that was close.” He glances at me when I pull my mask off. “What’s wrong?”
“I took one in the shoulder.”
Gavin hits the voice command on his steering wheel, telling it to dial Ari. “You guys good?”
