Page 85 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part two
I have half a mind to storm into the office Abraham is hiding in and blow his brains out, but that puts Ari and Tivon even more at risk. So, I keep to my rounds.
Hoping like hell we all make it out of this, so we can go get our loves from New York.
35
TIVON
Iwake with a jerk and notice immediately that I’ve been tied with my hands above my head. I will all my training to kick in and take stock of everything. Besides the grogginess from being drugged, nothing is broken. My hands are tied tight enough to cut off the circulation, and my toes are barely touching the ground, but it’s nothing that I haven’t gotten out of before. My head jerks up when I hear a groan, and my stomach sinks when I see Ari. He didn’t make it out unscathed. He’s tied up just like me, but his nose is bleeding, and there’s blood from what looks like a bullet wound on his thigh.
“Aryeh,” I whisper.
“Motherfucker,” he hisses when he tries to get his feet more firmly under him. “They must have hit you with something stronger. I tried to get away, but the jackass shot me.”
I’m fucking pissed they got the drop on us, and my mind goes back to Cryptic. Did he set us up? If he did, did he have a choice? Are the guys at the prison okay? So many thoughts are swirling through my head, but I shove them away when the door opens. Two guards walk in before I finally catch sight of the asshole who started all this.
“Father,” Aryeh grits out. “Pleasure seeing you here.”
“It’s time this ends,” Aharon announces, buttoning his suit jacket like his son isn’t bleeding out in front of him. “I need you back home to take over our empire.”
Aryeh laughs hoarsely. “Yeah. That’s going to be a no from me. It’s been nice catching up, though.” One of the guards whips out a baton and smacks Aryeh right in the ribs. I have to count backward from ten so I don't say something to make this worse.
“You always had a smart mouth. I know from your youth that beating you won’t help, so I’ll turn it toward your new friend. Nice to see you again, Tivon.”
“Fuck off,” I spit. The guy comes at me with the baton, but they forgot that I’m not the injured one. I jerk myself up with the chain, lift both feet, and kick him right in the face. He crashes to the ground, and I lower myself back down, but keep the chain in my hand. “You can try me, Aharon, but I’m not that same boy I was in Israel.”
“I know exactly what you were doing in Israel. Trying to take me down. You failed.”
“We haven’t failed yet,” Aryeh says. “You’ll never get me back to Israel alive. I don’t understand why you even want me there. You said I disgraced the family name when I left.”
“It’s your birthright.”
Aryeh laughs again, but then groans. “What can I do to make you see that you don’t want me there? Oh, I know. I fuck dudes now.” The backhand from Aharon even catches me by surprise. He hits Aryeh so hard that his head snaps to the side. When Aryeh looks back at Aharon, Aryeh’s eyes are blazing. “I’m tainted. Isn’t that what you said about Avina? Your own daughter? The one you let fucking die because she was raped? You have ruined every good thing there ever was about Mossad. I. Do. Not. Want. It.”
“I know about your…activities since you left. No matter. You’re still going to take your place at my side until it’s time for you to take the lead. This isn’t a discussion.” Aharon gestures at me. “Lower him to his knees and work him over until Aryeh agrees.”
“Don’t you fucking touch him!” Aryeh yells, jerking against his binds. His wounds are long forgotten as white hot anger overwhelms him. “Goddamnit! Why can’t you just leave me the hell alone?!”
“This isn’t who you are. I raised you better.”
“You didn’t raise me at all! I had fucking nannies until you could stick a gun in my hands. If mom was still alive?—”
Aharon backhands Aryeh again, and this time it’s me struggling to get free. I’ve never felt so much anger and panic in the same breath. There was no warning that my brother was going to be shot. This is going to play out similarly if I don’t put a stop to it. “Your mother would be disappointed in the man you’ve become. I plan to fix that.”
“She hated you,” Aryeh grinds out. “She hated everything you stand for.”
The jackass controlling the lever lets all the slack out, and my knees smash into the concrete. Besides a slight inhale, I don’t make a sound. I’ve been through worse than whatever they want to do to me. They won’t kill me, because they already know Aryeh will never comply. They plan to torture me until he agrees to go to make it stop, then they’ll kill me. My arms are pulled back over my head until my shoulders are screaming.
“I don’t know why you’re fighting against this,” Aharon says, shrugging out of his jacket. “You’ll have unlimited power.”
“You think I care about power? I don’t give a fuck about that. That’s what you never understood about me. You wanted to mold me in your image, but I’ll never be like you. I never want to be like you. I have a life here. Give it all to Abraham.”
“Abraham is incompetent. He couldn’t even succeed in grabbing you.”
I laugh before I can stop myself. “Because you underestimated your son and who he keeps at his side at all times.”
Aharon kicks me hard in the face, making my head snap back, and blood starts pouring out my nose. “I should have taken you out when I shot your brother. He would have never gotten out of that prison if it wasn’t for you.”
“Because he actually gives a fuck about me,” Aryeh says quietly. “He saved me from my own father and uncle.”
