Page 86 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part two
“Save your pity for someone else.” Aharon takes the baton from the guard and walks behind me. “Agree to go, and this all stops.”
“Don’t,” I say before Aryeh opens his mouth. “Not like this. I can take it.”
“Tivon,” Aryeh chokes out, and I give him a small smile.
The first strike comes without warning right in my ribs. The blows come fast and hard, so I block it all out, including Aryeh’s screams. I drop my head and relax every muscle one at a time. I focus on Kira, Jason, Keon, Gavin and Tyler. The way we were before everything started falling apart. I even let myself think about Tyler and those damn tiny hands. We were never fitted with trackers, so there’s no hope of anyone finding us now.
I let my mind sink further into the abyss of fake happiness, until it’s nothing but blackness.
“Tivon,”someone hisses, and I have to struggle to lift my head. “Tivon. I need you to look at me.” It takes my mind what feels like forever to catch on that it’s Aryeh hissing my name, and toremember the situation we’re in. “I don’t know where the fuck you are in your mind, but I need you to let me see those pretty dark eyes.” I finally lift my head, even though it feels like it weighs a thousand pounds, and Aryeh blows out a breath. “You scared the fuck out of me. I thought they gave you a concussion.”
I shake my head and immediately regret it when my stomach turns. “I blocked it all out. What happened?”
“They worked you over.” The quiver in Aryeh’s voice has me struggling to focus even more. I don’t like when he’s upset. “I’m going to agree to go.”
That brings me fully back to the present. “No. You aren’t.”
“Tivon, they are going to keep doing this to you until I agree to leave. I can’t watch anymore.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been through worse.” That’s not a total lie. My father used to beat me - that’s how I learned to block it all out. It’s the only way I could survive enough to protect my brother. Even though I eventually failed at that. But he never had to watch my father’s beatings. Aryeh is having to watch every wound that they inflict on me, but at least they aren’t touching him.
“Goddamnit, Tivon. You can barely hold your head up. Let me end this.”
“Not like that,Neshama sheli.”
Chaos erupts outside the room we’re being held in, and then the door is flying open. Familiar skull masks fill my blurry vision. They come straight to us, cutting the chains, and helping me to my feet. “Come on, big fella,” Axel says. “We need to move.”
“Aharon?” I croak.
“I don’t know where he is.”
“Find him,” Aryeh demands. “Or this never stops.”
Axel nods at the two with him and they disappear into the hallway. “Ghost and Shadow will do their thing while I get you out.”
“You called Ghost?” Aryeh asks, limping beside us. I want to reach out to help him, but I can’t seem to get my hand to lift up.
“His brother is stuck in a prison with your psycho uncle. Yes, I called Ghost.”
“Are they okay?” I ask, but my voice is barely above a whisper.
“He’s fading fast,” Axel says to Aryeh, pulling me tighter against him. “Yes, they’re fine. For whatever reason, Aharon hasn’t filled Abraham in on anything. He has no idea they’re inside the prison. We don’t even know how they found you.” Axel hands Aryeh an earpiece and he shoves it in his ear.
“It had to have been Cryptic,” Aryeh answers, slinging my arm over his shoulders to help Axel with my weight. I want to fuss, but I can’t fucking get the words to come out. “I don’t think he had a choice.”
We step into the hallway and something hits us from behind.
Then everything goes black.
36
ARI
Someone hits us with a running tackle from behind. We lose our grip on Tivon, and he lands on the floor hard. Axel and I get our bearings, and he whips around, gun already raised. He fires off a shot, and we don’t even wait for the guy to hit the ground before we’re pulling Tivon to his feet. He’s completely out cold, and I’m getting more worried by the second. He scared the shit out of me when he zoned out while Aharon was beating him. He didn’t even make a sound, just stared at the floor. The last blow was to the back of his head because he pissed Aharon off by not screaming in pain. Aharon stormed out seconds later with the warning that he would be back.
We half drag Tivon down the hallway and I come up short when two figures skid into our path, but relax when I see the masks. “This place is empty,” Shadow says.
“He wouldn’t go alone. There has to be a secret way in and out,” I argue. We cannotlose him again. We’ll never get Kira and Jason back if he gets away, and I never want to see what Tivon just went through again. Each strike felt like a blow to my ownbody, and my heart was ripped to shreds. “Where is everyone else?”
