Page 116 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part One
“Jason started the hard task of putting him in his place. I picked up the rest,” I comment, making Ari growl under his breath. I pat his chest. “It’s okay. We don’t have to pretend here.”
“You’ll pay for that,” Ari says, a promise written in his eyes.
“I like her,” Nolan declares. “She doesn’t put up with your shit. Plus, she got the girls’ stamp of approval.”
Ari rubs his hand over my back. “I had no doubt they’d love her.”
“Chels is already planning another weekend with her and Jason. You know everyone is pissed Jason got to come,” Nolan chuckles. I wonder how mad they would be when they realize he was added to the famous group chat. We were added afterwe left on Sunday, and it’s hilarious. They are all so open, and I can’t wait to tell them what happened last night. I’ve never had girlfriends, even when I was younger. Everyone looked at me like the spoiled princess when I really wasn’t. Kane spoiled me endlessly, so did Blaze, but my father could have given a fuck less. His many wives were more important. Even though he’s made peace with us since then, more than making up for his lack of involvement when we were growing up, I still have a bitter resentment toward him. He didn’t even stick around after the fire. Kane and Blaze are the ones who spent all those nights in the hospital with me. Sleeping on the floor or those uncomfortable chairs. But they never complained. I can remember my dad visiting me twice in the rehab center, and that was out of obligation, not because he wanted to. I try to have a relationship with him, but I still struggle with it, just like I know Kane does. My father wasn’t very accepting of him when Kane told him he was gay. He was actually really nasty about that announcement. I was the one Kane leaned on.
“I can’t wait,” I say, pulling myself from those thoughts.
“I’m going to go. I loaded the program on it that Holden and I came up with so it will do everything. It will notify you when it’s done.”
Nolan says his goodbyes, and when he quietly shuts the door behind him, I snuggle into Ari’s chest. He wraps both arms around my waist and holds me tight. “He was nice,” I say.
Ari chuckles. “Nolan’s awesome. How he puts up with Axel, I’ll never know.”
“He can’t be that bad.”
Ari snorts. “He is. To us, anyway. Axel’s a hardass, but it’s because he cares. A little too much sometimes.”
I trace the veins in his arm with my finger. “Will you tell me how you ended up with the Saviors?”
I feel Ari nod. “You know I was in the Army, but you don’t know the whole story.” He explained to me about the human trafficking his team took down and how they were punished. “I found Charlie, the old leader, right after that. I was pissed and out for blood, so he brought me into the Saviors. It wasn’t…the same then. We were ruthless and did shit we never should have.” Ari chuckles and tightens his arms. “Then here comes Axel and Cole, freshly eighteen, forced into the Saviors by Charlie, Axel’s dad. I didn’t trust them at first, but there was a spark in Axel that I used to see in myself—that need to help people, so I started listening. It didn’t take long to oust Charlie, and Axel took over. He brought us back to what the Saviors were supposed to be.”
“Saving people?”
“It took us some time, but yeah. We made the Saviors’ name mean something. We knew Charlie would be looking for us, so Axel disbanded all the teams except for his and mine. The Saviors went dark, and we started hunting from the shadows.”
“Where’s Charlie now?”
“Dead,” Ari says bluntly. “He almost killed Axel and his team over a year ago. Axel ended him. Once Charlie was dead, Axel started building the teams again.”
I turn around in his arms and rub my hand up his cheek. I press my lips against his, and he sighs into the kiss, deepening it. I no longer feel self-conscious about the scarring that tugs on my lip when they kiss me. I no longer feel like they’ll be disgusted by my scars. I trust them wholeheartedly, and I didn’t think that’s something that would ever happen.
The Saviors saved me from myself.
It would takehours for the computer to work through the encryption. I sadly had to go to class after the hot as hell make-out session with Ari in his office. I felt a little guilty when I ran into Professor North, and he was as nice as he always is. Was it all an act? Was he just using me to get information on the guys? He barely asked questions about them, but they came up in conversation sometimes, but it’s always about Tyler and Gavin. They’ve stayed mostly out of sight since their run-in with him.
When I leave the building after my last class, Gavin is leaning against the hood of the car with his arms crossed over his chest. He straightens when he sees me, giving me that smile I’ve missed so much since Keon got shot. I know he blamed himself, but I wasn’t sure I knew how to help him. I think being invited to join last night showed him that he’s still accepted. “Hey, Baby girl,” he greets me when I make it to him. He pulls me into his arms, and I have to strain to look up at him. He kisses the tip of my nose. “How was your day?”
I stretch up on my tiptoes to peck his lips. “Good. Where’s Tyler?”
“He had to go do something with Ari.”
“Oh. Is everything okay?”
“I think so. Ari didn’t say anything when he picked him up, and it didn’t sound urgent. You ready to go home?”
“Yep.”
He helps me in the car and jogs to his side. After he backs out of the spot, he reaches over and laces his fingers with mine, laying them on my thigh. I can’t help the ridiculous feelings that flood through me at just the simple gesture. They all find some way to touch me like this, and it makes my heart melt. Gavin sings softly to the radio on the way home, and when he pulls up at the house, he’s out, opening my door before I have a chance to grab my backpack.
Gavin leads me inside with his hand on the small of my back. When we step into the living room, Keon walks in to greet us with a grim look on his face. “We got the files loaded.” We follow him into the office, where Ari and Tyler are waiting. They load it onto the big screen, and I sit on the couch between Gavin and Keon.
“He has files on the CIA agent,” Ari says, flipping through documents.
“What do you think that means?” I ask.
