Chapter 16 Tivon
TIVON
Idon’t think I’ve ever had someone tell me they appreciate me for the work that I do, so the conversation with Keon has me feeling off kilter.
I never expected them to accept me the way that they have, much less be appreciative of me.
Since I got here, I've felt like I was on the outside looking in. Not that they’ve ever treated me that way, they treated me as part of the team as soon as we got everything out in the open. It’s me that’s holding back.
My phone pings with a message from one of my team telling me that there’s been movement at Aryeh’s house, and I’m hit with a moment of indecision. I don’t run this team, but I can’t go alone. I go in search of Keon and find him on the couch watching TV with Aryeh and Kira.
“We have movement at your house,” I inform them when I walk in.
“I’ll ride with…” Keon trails off when Kira gives him a look, causing Aryeh to cover his smile with his hand. “Take Tyler with you. Gavin had to run out.” Keon sends someone a message, and I hear movement from upstairs.
Tyler comes around the corner, and I tell him what’s going on. Within minutes, we’re loaded into an SUV with me behind the wheel.
“What do you think this is?” he asks.
“I’m not sure. We’ve been monitoring it just in case someone showed up but we haven’t had a chance to install new cameras, just motion sensors.” Someone disconnected their old ones when Aryeh was still in the hospital.
“Good call.”
“I’m not sure what we’re walking into.”
Tyler slaps me on the bicep. “I’ve got your back.” When I don’t reply, he cocks his head to the side. “Why do you get weird when someone says shit like that?”
I shrug, uncomfortable. “I don’t know.” How the hell do you explain to someone that you aren’t used to this type of teamwork or compliments? “I’m close with my team, but I wouldn’t consider us friends. We work together out of duty. Relationships aside, you guys are still close.”
“You aren’t a stranger anymore, Tivon. You’ve more than proved yourself.”
We ride in silence for a few more minutes before I finally say what I’m thinking. “I just feel like a lot of this could have been avoided, had I come to Aryeh in the first place.”
“Man, we all wish we would have done things differently. Ari even said he wouldn’t have listened to you. All we can do now is move forward. I have a question though. Why do you insist on calling him Aryeh?”
“Because that’s what he’ll always be to me. I’ve had many names over the years, but Tivon is my given name, and the one I’ll always fall back on, no matter the life it represents.”
“We know very little about Ari’s life over there. I mean, we know the basics about who his father is and what happened to his sister, but he doesn’t share much. Was it bad for you?”
“Yes,” I answer honestly. “I was ripped from school to fight a fight we knew nothing about. We were taught to believe that we were always under attack. It wasn’t until I started training with Aryeh that I understood the truth.
” I can feel Tyler’s eyes burning a hole in that side of my head, and glance over at him. “What?”
“It’s just that when you talk about Ari, there’s something in your voice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I admire Aryeh, sure, but there isn’t anything more there.”
Tyler snorts. “That’s a load of bullshit. Look, I get it. Ari protected you and taught you how to protect yourself. Of course there would be admiration there, but you spent your life protecting him from a different country.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That you want to put it in his ass.” My head jerks to look at him so fast that the car swerves slightly and I correct it easily. When I glance at him again, he’s grinning from ear to ear. “Come on. It’s just between us girls.”
“Until we get back to the house and you tell everyone else.”
“That’s not a denial.” Am I really that transparent about my feelings for Aryeh?
I take the turn that leads into their driveway and pull into the wide spot. “We need to go on foot.”
Tyler pulls his face mask down. “This conversation isn’t over.” That’s what I’m afraid of.
We slide out of the car and hug the treeline toward the house.
Before we break through the trees, we search for any disturbances.
“There.” I point to the second floor window where we can see someone walking past. Tyler hands some binoculars to me and waits until I have a visual.
“Two on the second floor. One on the bottom. They’re looking for something. ”
“They won’t find anything in there. We don’t keep anything that will identify us laying around.”
“Computers?”
“Holden and Nolan already wiped them remotely. Fingerprints won’t even come back to us.”
“We need to get in there without it turning into a shootout.”
“Can’t you do the sneaky shit too?”
I laugh under my breath. “Yeah. Although, I haven’t met anyone that even came close to my skills until Gavin almost got the drop on me.”
“My baby is spectacular. You need to meet Sean and Gavin’s brother, Ghost. They can do the creepy shit too.” Tyler pulls his Glock out and screws a silencer on. “Lead the way. I’ll stay right behind you. We can grab one to question, and dispose of the others.”
With a nod, I slip back into the trees and follow it back to the road so we can come in from the other side.
Moving as fast and silently as we can, we make it to the back door without being spotted.
I twist the knob and slowly push the door open, listening.
Footsteps echo through the house, and I spot one in the kitchen.
I hold up one finger and point that way.
Tyler nods and slips past me while I go toward the stairs.
I hear a slight grunt, and then the air shifts behind me.
I glance back and Tyler is wiping a knife on his pant leg.
I knew this team was good, but I didn’t fully understand it until I worked side by side with them. It gives me the courage to place my life into their hands. I trust them one hundred percent to have my back.
Before we can take the first stair, footsteps sound around the corner, and we jerk back to flatten ourselves against the wall.
“It’s not here,” one of the guys says.
“He said it would be. We can’t go back without it.”
“I don’t know why he’s more worried about this than finding that motherfucker. When I get my hands on him and that little faggot…”
He doesn’t even get to finish that sentence before Tyler and I explode into action.
I grab the first guy as soon as his foot hits the last step and jerk him out of the way.
Tyler pulls the trigger on the next guy, making him tumble the rest of the way down the steps.
I lock my arm around the guy’s neck and squeeze just enough that he’ll pass out.
He struggles like hell before the fight finally leaves him.
I drop him to the floor, slap zip ties on his wrists, and follow Tyler upstairs to search the rest of the house.
Shit is thrown everywhere, not giving us a clear idea on what they’re looking for.
Mattresses are slashed, furniture turned over.
“What the fuck?” Tyler mutters, pulling his mask to sit on top of his head. “Who is he, and what is he looking for?”
“My guess is Abraham, but we can ask the one who called Jason that awful fucking word,” I spit.
We make our way downstairs, and when I round the corner, something slices across my bicep, making fire race up my arm. I spin, lift my boot, and kick the asshole right in the face. He drops, and the knife slides across the floor.
“Well, it looks like we missed one.” I can’t help but laugh at Tyler’s dry tone. “You good?” Before I can even answer, he rips my shirt sleeve off and wraps it around the wound. “Ari can stitch you up at the house. It’s pretty deep.”
“We need to grab the car and get these guys back to the safehouse.”
And get some fucking answers.
We get them loaded without any more problems and get them back to the safehouse, chained up in the basement. We go back upstairs to leave them stewing, and so I can change clothes. I don’t make it three steps into the living room before Aryeh’s eyes zero in on my arm.
“What the fuck happened?”
“It’s just a knife wound.”
“Sit down. Ke, get my kit.”
Tyler slaps me on the back. “You might as well just listen.”
With a roll of my eyes, I pull my shirt off and sit beside Aryeh on the couch. Keon brings back a first aid kit, and Aryeh pulls on gloves before pulling the makeshift bandage off. “Just a knife wound? That’s deep as fuck.”
“Well, technically, it did come from a knife,” Tyler answers, flopping into a chair as he goes through the story of what happened. “I think Tivon needs to be added to Team Sneaky. He could have a cool name too.”
“What?” I ask.
“You have Ghost, Shadow, and Phantom. Gavin’s sexy ass is Phantom, Sean is Shadow, and Ghost is, well, Ghost.”
“These guys are working for Abraham?” Aryeh asks, wiping the blood away and disinfecting the wound.
“They didn’t say his name directly, but I’m pretty sure. I’m going to leave them down there a while before we question them.”
“This is going to sting,” Aryeh warns before sticking me with the needle to numb the area. “I wonder what the fuck he’s even looking for.”
“Whatever it is, it must be important if it’s a priority over looking for you.” I’m trying my hardest to control my reaction with Aryeh touching me, especially with Tyler’s eyes glued to me.
“Oh no, what happened?” Kira asks, walking into the room with concern in her voice.
I smile at her. “It’s just a small wound.”
“Mr. Brick Shithouse took a meat carving knife to the arm and went ninja on their ass,” Tyler responds, pulling Kira into his lap.
“Brick Shithouse?” Kira laughs.
“Look at him. His bicep is the size of my damn head. He’s thiccc. That’s thiccc with three C’s, by the way.”
“Stop,” Kira giggles.
“I had no clue what you were hiding under those boring professor clothes.”
“Shut up, Tyler,” Aryeh says, exasperated.
“Oh, that could be some hot roleplay. Put him in some glasses and those clothes. Yum.”
“Holy fuck,” I mutter. “Stop talking.”
“Now that you say that…” Kira comments, tilting her head to the side and looking me up and down, making her and Tyler laugh.
“Do not encourage him,” Aryeh responds, carefully stitching up my arm.
“Are you going to spank me, Daddy?” Tyler asks with a pout. Kira starts cracking up, and all I can do is shake my head. “I bet Tivon likes dishing out punishments. He’s got that vibe.”
“You want to find out?”
“Aw, man. Now I’m the one with the conflicted boner.”
“You need to have speech restrictions,” I answer.
“You kinky fucker,” Aryeh laughs.
“How does that make me kinky?”
“Only a Dom would threaten to spank someone and put them on speech restrictions.”
“Anyone would threaten to do that if they met Tyler,” Kira quips.
“Damn, Little warrior. I thought you were on my side.”
Aryeh smooths a bandage over my stitches. “I’m sure you know the drill.”
“Thanks.”
I escape the living room before Tyler can say anything else, or bring up what he said in the car. I need to keep my feelings about Aryeh buried a lot deeper than I have been. They’re already committed to each other. They don’t need me stepping on any toes.
No matter how much I want to be a part of them.