Page 9 of Beta Team-The Saviors: Part One

I plug my phone in and settle into the pillows.

Only to dream about what would have happened if he didn’t get that phone call.

4

GAVIN

Ihad just fallen asleep when we got the nine-one-one phone call from Axel. So when we walk into his office, I’m already pissy.

“Where’s Ari?” Axel asks.

“I don’t know. He wasn’t home when we left,” Tyler answers with a yawn. “What’s going on?”

“We can wait until he gets here. You don’t know where he was?”

Keon, Tyler, and I exchange a look. “I have my guesses, so he should be here soon,” Keon says.

Ari comes in seconds later and flops down in front of Axel’s desk. “This better be fucking good.”

“Where were you?” Axel demands.

“None of your business. What’s up?”

“I need help with an extraction. I got an agent in distress signal from Baxter and Roland.”

“You’ve been sending them on missions?” Keon asks. “Since when?”

“They called a couple of weeks ago wanting to work, so I gave it to them. We need to move.”

Axel leaves the room without another word, leaving us to follow behind him. We pull the gear from Tyler’s trunk and start strapping our vests on. When I tighten the last strap, I can feel my heart rate skyrocket.

“Just breathe,” Tyler whispers. “It’s just an extraction.”

“That’s what he said the last time.”

Tyler grabs my arm and pulls me to the back of the garage. “We’re just going in to give Baxter and Roland an out.” He slings the strap of an AK around my neck and hands me my thigh holster. I shove my Glock into it and my knife that was a gift from Ghost. “You’ve done these a thousand times.”

“Got it.” I push my shoulders back, and he slaps my arm.

“Good. After we’re done, we can grill Ari about where he was.”

“Do you ever let anything go?”

“No. What fun would that be?” Tyler hooks his hand on the back of my head and pulls our foreheads together. “I know this shit has been tough, Gav, but we’ll get through it.”

I nod because words are locked in my throat. I knew going in this would be rough. They never hid that fact from me, and I was fine until that last mission.

“Let’s roll out!” Axel calls out. “Gavin, you’re with me.” He climbs into his truck, and I look at Tyler in alarm.

“Have fun,” Tyler laughs, walking over to Ari’s truck.

I get into Axel’s truck, and he pulls out of the garage without a word. I’m man enough to admit that Axel scares the shit out of me. I glance at him and sigh. “I’m sorry for what I said.”

“Don’t be. But I need you to understand that just because you guys are always on missions doesn’t mean we aren’t, and I have other teams now. Yes, we took a backseat for Ari’s team because I thought you guys could handle it.”

“We can handle it.”

“I know you can. But I should have seen the strain that trafficking case put on you.”