Chapter 15 Keon
KEON
As promised, Blaze convinced the night shift staff to go along with the plan. When I asked what he did, Blaze just laughed, and I didn’t push for more information. Tivon put his men into place with the ambulance, and I insisted on riding in the back. I needed to see this go off without any trouble.
The doors to the ambulance open and two of the nurses roll the gurney inside. As soon as the doors are shut, I unzip the bag, and Ari’s eyes flash open.
“Goddamn, that sucked,” Ari groans. “I don’t know what was worse, the pain of being pushed on this thing, or the bag.”
“But you got out.”
Ari snorts and winces. “Yeah. That was interesting. Why the fuck did you guys send Blaze?”
“That was Kira’s idea,” I laugh. “We knew he could get the job done.”
“He damn near had them pissing on themselves to be cooperative. I’m glad he’s on our side.” I help Ari get set up on the gurney, and he sighs. “What the fuck are we going to do, Ke?”
“What we always do. Fight like hell, and win. There’s never been anything that keeps us down for long, and we aren’t going to start now. We play it smart.”
“How’s Tivon doing?”
“Fine. He's brought a lot to the table, and he’s fucking smart. Plus, he deals with Tyler’s ass with ease.”
“You think he’s a good fit?”
“With the Saviors?” Ari nods. “Yeah, I do. He’s definitely not afraid to take a stand. He protected Kira when I couldn’t. Do I agree with the way he went about that? No. But it isn’t anything that we haven’t done before. He’s one hundred percent in.”
“We need to have a meeting when we get back to the house. I need to be caught up on everything.” Ari catches my frown and grabs my hand.
“Not because I don’t think you can’t handle it, Ke.
Just because I want to be up to speed. I have no doubt that you could run this team better than me and right now, I’ll be out of commission for a while.
After getting my ass chewed out more than once, I’m going to take my recovery seriously. ”
“Which one got through to you?”
“All of them, but having Tivon read me the riot act really put it into perspective.” Ari chuckles. “And Jason calling me a prick.”
“You deserved it. I know this sucks, Ari, but we’re doing all that we can.”
Ari nods and squeezes my hand. “I know that. I was having a pity party and being an asshole to the wrong people. I need to focus that anger on my father and Abraham.”
We ride the rest of the way to the safe house in silence, and when we get there, we gently ease the gurney from the ambulance and wheel Ari inside.
When he gets to the couch, I help him up and get him situated, propping his legs up on the coffee table.
He’s pale by the time he leans back, but at least he’s here with us now.
Kira sits beside him and kisses his cheek.
Ari wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his side, kissing the top of her head.
“How are you feeling?” Kira asks as she snuggles closer.
“Tired,” Ari answers. “But it’s good to be back with you guys.” Ari nods to Tivon. “Can you get me up to speed?” Tivon goes through what we found out about the guy from campus and from Jason’s apartment. “So this is a team?”
“From what I can tell, yeah,” Tivon answers. “We’re still trying to find anything we can about the guy that ran you off the road, but so far, there’s no surveillance footage. We’re running facial recognition on the other guys, and when we get a hit, we’ll find him so he’ll talk.”
“Torture,” Tyler coughs, making Tivon roll his eyes.
“Your obsession with torture is a little concerning,” Tivon answers and looks back at Ari. “I want to run something by you.”
“Go ahead.”
“I still have guys in Israel. Guys I trust. I think the only way to get to Aharon is to separate him from his guards.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” I ask.
“By separating the loyalists from the ones who are just there out of a sense of obligation. He hides behind them, because he knows he’s made enemies out of the people from back home.”
“Could you set him up to be assassinated?” Gavin asks.
“We could. It wouldn’t be hard, but we can’t do that until we find Abraham. If Aryeh doesn’t go home to take Aharon’s spot, then it defaults to Abraham, and we can’t let that happen to our people,” Tivon explains. “But it’s an idea for the future.”
“Any word on Abraham?” Jason asks from his spot on Gavin’s lap.
“No. My guess is he’s hiding from us and Aharon because he failed. He won’t stay like that for long, which means we can’t stay in one place for long. We need to give Aryeh a couple days, and then we need to move again,” Tivon answers.
I’ve defaulted to Tivon a lot over the last couple of days because he knows these people, and I don’t. I’ve never felt like he’s overstepping, just that he genuinely wants to help. I also sense that he might feel a little more for Ari than just hero worship.
“Do we have options?” Ari asks.
“We do. My team has a couple. Plus, I’ve been in contact with Alessa Poletti and Kane. They’re also working on some things on their end. We’ll have places to go. We just need to stay on the move. We don’t need to stay in one place for long.”
“You’ve been talking to my brother?” Kira laughs.
“I have. After he threatened to cut me into several pieces for drugging you, he thanked me for saving you, and he agreed to help.” Tivon rubs the back of his neck with a chuckle. “It was an interesting conversation.”
“You’re brave, I’ll give you that,” Ari chuckles. “I assume Kane isn’t our biggest fan right now.”
Tyler snorts. “Yeah, while you were laying your lazy ass around in bed, me and Gavin caught the brunt of his wrath. So thanks for that.”
“I’m sorry for almost dying,” Ari says dryly.
“It’s okay. Just don’t do it again,” Tyler responds, making Ari laugh, then groan.
“Don’t make me laugh, asshole. It hurts.”
“Do you need something for the pain?” Kira asks, trying to sit up, but Ari pulls her back down.
“I’m fine, Mal’akh.” Ari rubs his finger across her cheek. “I owe you and Jason an apology for how I acted. It wasn’t your fault, and I took it out on you. For that, I’m sorry. I promise to be better.”
Kira pecks his lips. “While I agree you were a douche-nozzle, I’ll forgive you.”
Tyler starts laughing, and it causes the rest of us to join in.
It’s damn good to have everyone back in the same place.
After we got Ari caught up on everything going on, we helped him into bed with the promise he would yell for one of us if he needed anything.
I went to bed shortly after and crashed.
It was the first night I actually slept, because I knew he was safe.
Kira decided to sleep in there with Ari, so that made me feel even more sure that he wouldn’t be stupid and try to do shit on his own.
The next morning, I roll out of bed, take care of business, shower, and head downstairs for some coffee. When I get to the small kitchen, Tivon is already sitting at the little table, sipping on a cup.
“It’s fresh,” he says when he sees me. “I just made it.”
“Good man,” I reply, pouring a cup and taking a drink. I sigh and sit down at the table with him. “I’m guessing there’s no news?”
Tivon shakes his head. “Not yet. Facial recognition is still running, and my team is still searching.”
“Do you have any recognition running for Abraham?”
“We do. Even though I don’t think he stayed in Forest Grove. He’s still in the states, but he would have run away from here.”
“But you think he’ll try again?”
“He will, without a doubt. Failure isn’t an option with Aharon.”
“Why the hell does he want Ari back so bad? According to Ari, Abraham told him that he disrespected the family by leaving and joining the American forces. Now he wants him to take over Mossad?”
“Aharon feels like that’s where Aryeh belongs, no matter his feelings on him leaving. He thinks it’s Aryeh’s legacy. He’s always had a twisted view of what power is. Mossad used to be respected. It’s what all the boys strived to join, until Aharon took over. Then we didn’t have a choice.”
“I know we didn’t start off on the right foot, but I’m glad that you’re here.
” I can see the surprise all over Tivon’s face.
“Look, we all have to do shit in this line of work that we don’t like but at the end of the day, you did what you had to do to save Gavin and me that night, and to save Kira.
You helped us get Ari and Jason. I mean the list goes on, but I just needed you to know that we appreciate you being here. ”
“Thank you for that.”
I know that Tivon has tried to keep a low profile while he’s been at the safe house with us. I can’t imagine what he feels like after what happened, and knowing that we’re all like family and he’s stuck in the middle. But the more that we talk, I feel like he’s already a part of the Saviors.
I just wonder what his plans are after we take down Aharon.