Page 88 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part One

“Maybe Ari will beat him to it.”

“It’s not a competition.”

“I know that,” Tyler huffs.

“I think he just wanted to spend time with her. But since Ari is a closed-off bastard, he didn’t just say that.”

Tyler shrugs and shoves a chip into his mouth. “I like having her here. And Jason.”

Ever since that near kiss in the stockroom with Ari, Tyler has avoided Ari as best as he could. I know it hurt his feelings, but he won’t talk about it. Any time I ask, he laughs it off. What I don’t understand is why Ari didn’t just do it. I could see it written allover his face that he wanted to, but he backed off at the last second. I know it wasn’t because of Jason. I just can’t figure out why.

I cross my arms on the table and try one more time. “You want to talk about what happened at High Flyer that night?”

Tyler’s shoulders tense, and I watch as he forces himself to relax. “Why do you keep bringing that up? We were just fucking around.”

“Then why do you act like Ari has the plague? You haven’t said two words to him unless we’re talking about work. It’s been two weeks.”

“I’m not avoiding him, if that’s what you’re saying. I just don’t have anything to say.”

I snort because he always has something to say. He hasn’t even been joking with Ari. I don’t feel like I’m close enough to Ari to ask, so I have to settle with prying it from Tyler. “Tyler,” I sigh.

“Drop it,” Tyler barks, surprising the shit out of me. He pushes from the table and storms toward the living room. He brushes past Keon on his way by, and Keon looks at me with a raised brow.

“What was that about?”

“I brought up High Flyer.” Keon nods and takes the chair Tyler vacated. “Where’s Jason?”

“One of his bartenders called. Something about the shipment being messed up.”

“We’ll take him to sort it out if he needs to.”

“So, what’s your theory on what happened between Ari and Tyler?”

“Fuck if I know,” I laugh. “They were both feeling it. We all were. Then Ari just backed off. Have you asked him about it?”

“Yeah. He told me to fuck off.”

“It kind of pisses me off because he hurt Ty. Not that he’ll admit it.”

“Will you stop talking about me like I’m not fucking here?” Tyler grumbles, walking back into the dining room. “He didn’t hurt me.”

“Yeah, he did,” Keon argues, turning to face him. “I wasn’t even there and can tell something’s up.”

“Nothing’s up.” When we give him a doubtful look, he pulls his phone from his pocket. He dials a number and flips it to speakerphone.

“What?” Ari answers gruffly.

“Why didn’t you kiss me in the stockroom?” Tyler asks, making me and Keon exchange a what the fuck look.

“Uh…”

“It’s cool if that wasn’t your intention. But these assholes seem to think there’s some kind of hidden meaning.” I hear Kira’s soft voice in the background, making me even more curious about what Ari took her to do.

“This might be a conversation we have face to face.” I watch Tyler try to mask the emotions rolling across his face. Disappointment is the main one, probably thinking Ari didn’t want to kiss him. I’ll call bullshit so fast if that’s what he says.

“No. Don’t worry about it.”

“Tyler,” Ari sighs. “It’s nothing bad. I wanted to. I just…”