Page 107 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part One
We wait in silence for Doc, trying our best not to lose our shit. Keon’s normal dark skin is almost gray, and his heart rate keepsslipping. When Doc does finally get there, he’s all business. “Exit wound?” he asks, already snapping gloves on. His wife, Loretta, comes in behind him, already setting everything up.
I stand and help Kira up. She stops to kiss Keon on the forehead and moves to the back of the room with Jason and Tyler. Loretta is already inserting an IV and hanging fluids.
“No,” Ari answers. Ari steps out of the way when Doc reaches for the gauze.
Doc pulls it back and whistles. “That’s a nasty wound, but he should be fine. We’ll need room to work.”
Ari nods, and we all leave the room. Ari jerks his head for me to follow him to the living room. Tyler pulls me to sit beside him on the loveseat and grabs my hand. I kiss his knuckles, glad as fuck that I got to see him again. “What the hell happened?” I give him a play-by-play of everything, and his face gets harder the more I talk. “He had files?”
“Of everything,” I answer. I pull my bag off my back and unzip it. I slap the folders down on the table. “I don’t know if he has more, but I grabbed what was there.”
“Good job.” Ari picks them up, and I see the slight flinch when he sees his real name on his. “Everything?”
I nod, confirming his worst fear. Someone knows who he really is. “They have info on families, birth certificates, aliases, everything.”
“Jason and Kira?” Ari asks.
“No. Just the beta team that I know of. We didn’t have time to search all the way through the files.”
“Goddamnit,” Ari grits out. “This is worse than bad.” We all know the implications ofanyonefinding out who Ari is. It’s such a tight-lipped secret that only the beta team and Axel know everything. Not even Axel’s team knows specifics.
“How is this any worse than before?” Jason asks. “We knew they were looking into you.”
Ari, Tyler, and I exchange a quick look before Ari looks at Jason. “You remember when I told you I can’t tell you some things? This is one of them.”
“Why?”
Kira slides her arm through Jason’s and lays her head on his shoulder. “I know you want to know everything, but trust me when I say that when he can’t tell you, it means he’s protecting you.” Ari gives Kira a grateful look, and she smiles back. “It’s frustrating, I know, but you have to understand that some things are better left unsaid.”
Jason stares at Ari, and I see the hurt already on his face. “Will I ever really know you?”
“You know me,” Ari says. “This part doesn’t matter.”
“Obviously, it does,” Jason argues. “Or you wouldn’t be so freaked out right now.”
“Did you get a look at the guy?” Tyler asks, trying to change the subject.
“No. It was dark, and then we were too busy dodging bullets.”
“Okay,” Tyler says, uncharacteristically serious. “You said he said he just wanted to talk. Did you recognize his voice?”
I shake my head. “It was almost like he was trying to disguise it.” I run back over everything, and something keeps sticking out. “I don’t think he meant to hit Keon. He had every chance to blow our heads off but didn’t take the shot until we were further away. He had the upper hand.”
“So, you think he was just trying to scare you off?” Kira asks, sitting up on the couch.
“Yeah.” I rub my temples where I can feel a headache forming. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“I’ll have Nolan search the area and see if any of the neighbors have cameras. It’s a long shot, but maybe someone caught him on video,” Ari says. “I’m damn proud of you, though.You guys got the job done, and you got Keon the fuck out of there.”
I nod because words are locked in my throat. I’m sure there are a million different ways we could have handled this. Did I handle it right? I could have taken the guy out instead of leading Keon to the front door. He never even saw me when I unlocked the door. But something was telling me we needed this guy alive, that we just needed to get out.
“Stop,” Tyler whispers, where only I can hear. “I can see you overanalyzing what happened. You did the right thing.”
We lapse into silence, none of us knowing what to say. We just want to know if Keon’s okay. With Doc’s limited resources here, it will take a while before they have any news.
I just know I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to him.
One nasty wound,a lot of blood transfusions, and a fuck ton of stitches later, Keon was going to be fine. He was still mostly out of it from the pain medication, but he made sure Tyler and I took Kira to class so she wouldn’t worry herself to death. She hasn’t left his side since Doc said we could see him until we dragged her out of the house. She didn’t put up a fight, but we could tell she wasn’t happy.
