Chapter 25 Ari #2
“You think Jason’s apartment, the guy who ran Aryeh off the road, and Cryptic are all connected?” Tivon asks, sitting back on the couch and pulling me with him. We get situated side by side, but sit a lot closer than we were when we first came out here.
“Yeah. My gut is saying this plan has been in the works a lot longer than we gave Aharon credit for. Did your guys find out anything in Israel?”
“Just that Aharon has gone into hiding. No one has seen him for over a month.”
“Is he even alive?” Nolan asks. “Ari even said it was weird that Abraham came instead of Aharon. What if this has nothing to do with Ari’s dad, and everything to do with the uncle?”
I massage my temple, too much information coming in all at once. Tivon squeezes my thigh, and I feel myself relax slightly. “Okay. This sounds like some conspiracy theory shit, but might not be all that crazy. Let me call you back.”
We say our goodbyes, and I send a message in the group chat for the team to meet us outside, including Jason and Kira.
They need to be involved in this discussion too.
Within minutes, they’re all coming outside.
Tivon grabs Jason’s hand and tugs him down on his lap.
Jason looks surprised and tense until Tivon whispers something in his ear, and he relaxes.
Jason whispers something back with a smile and grabs my hand.
Tyler’s eyes are ping ponging between us so fast they look like they’re about to fall out of his skull.
“Nolan just called. He found Cryptic’s location, but it was within minutes of him hooking up Tivon’s software.
This is almost certainly a trap, or we can finally grab this jackass.
I don’t want to make a decision for the team.
I want us to make it together.” I look at Tivon and nod for him to share his thoughts.
“We can stake out the place first, the best we can. If anyone gets a bad feeling, say something, and we pull back immediately, then we can wait for another opportunity. We do this as a team or not at all.” Jason catches the change in the way he speaks about the team, including himself.
He kisses Tivon’s cheek and snuggles into his arms. I wait for the jealousy and when it doesn’t come, I relax.
This is right, and I’m not going to fight against it.
Especially with how he made me feel when he was on top of me. “What are your thoughts?”
Jason startles when he realizes Tivon is talking to him. “Me?”
Tivon smiles softly. “Yes, you, Nehedar. You’re important to this team, also.”
“As much as I want to say that I don’t want you to go, I know that you need to.”
“Same here,” Kira says, smiling at everyone around her. It fills my heart to see her so fucking free. “We’ll be waiting for you to come home to us.”
Tyler shrugs. “I’m in.”
“Me too,” Gavin and Keon say at the same time.
“Call Kane,” I tell Kira. “I need someone here with you, and we need to move quickly.”
And move quickly, we did. Kane and his guys were at the house within thirty minutes. We put a plan in a place while waiting and were in the SUV minutes later to meet Axel. Jason kissed us all, including Tivon, when we left, and Tyler looked like he was about to burst.
“Ask,” I finally say.
“What the fuck is going on?” Tyler says, leaning between the front seats. I let Tivon drive again, which put me in the passenger seat and available for his bullshit. “Are you going to bend that pretty ass over for Tivon?”
Tivon chokes on a laugh, and I glare at the side of his head before looking at Tyler. “We worked through our shit.”
“Does that mean you’re going to quit fighting against us?” Tyler asks Tivon.
Tivon nods. “But like I told Aryeh, you have to be patient with me.”
“Fuck that,” Tyler laughs. “That’s no fun.”
“Tyler,” I growl, making him roll his eyes. “You can’t steamroll this.”
Gavin starts cracking up. “That’s Tyler’s MO. You just gave him the green light.”
“We’ll talk about this later. We need our heads in the game,” I say, giving Tyler a serious look. Besides the shit eating grin, I know he’s on high alert.
This can go one of so many different ways.
But since we’re almost positive this is set up, we can prepare for the worst. Best case scenario, we get Cryptic and get a lot of answers.
Worst case…I don’t even want to think about it.
We drive the rest of the way to meet Axel and his team, talking about everything that we know so far, which, admittedly, isn’t a lot.
When we pull in behind Axel’s SUV, I take a steadying breath for my first big mission back in the field.
We get out and start strapping on our vests.
“The house he’s at is up that way,” Axel says, pointing to the west. “According to Nolan’s intel, he’s alone, but it could all be bullshit.
He started digging a little deeper, but we still can’t figure out what we’re walking into.
The house is abandoned, two stories with a basement, and that’s where this Cryptic should be.
There’s only one house within a five mile radius, and it also looks abandoned. What’s the play?”
I adjust my vest for the fifth time, letting my nerves get the best of me.
I feel a hand slide across my spine and blow out a breath, because I don’t even have to look to see who it is.
Tivon’s strength bleeds through everywhere.
I’ve never been this nervous for a mission, but I’ve also never had a hit like the one I took, and it spooked me so bad.
This one has me all fucked up. I roll my shoulders back.
“I’m going to admit, I’m nervous as fuck to walk back into this. Tivon can take point.”
Axel’s eyes widen slightly, but he nods and turns to Tivon. “What’s the plan?”
Tivon subtly squeezes my arm. “I’m going to find a spot to do some recon. They hopefully don’t know we’re here yet, so maybe we can get the drop on them before they can get it on us. There’s enough of us to surround the place while some go in.”
Axel taps his vest. “We have cameras that Nolan has access to so he can be an extra set of eyes from a different perspective. There’s obviously nothing he can hack into out here to watch us, so it’s the best we have. Nolan, comms check.”
“Loud and clear. Cameras are on and running.”
“Anything new?” I ask.
“Not really. I’m backtracking into his system right now without resistance. Take that for what you will.”
It most certainly means we’re fucked.