Extraction

Truth Hurts

Tyler handed the girl off to another of our team members, "Careful with her arm." 

"Got it." he replied, gently taking her.

Nik and Yaz walked off with the girl towards our escape boat, the boy suddenly became argumentative with his mother, not letting her walk to safety. Tyler and I watched around to make sure we weren't being followed.

The boy started to shout in Georgian, Ketevan said something firmly that caught Tyler's attention. 

Suddenly the boy turned to Tyler, "Did you kill him?" he asked angrily. "Huh? Did you kill him?"

Tyler said nothing. Ketevan stepped forward and embraced her son. He pushed away from her hold and ran at Tyler, screaming and hitting him.

"Listen to me!" Tyler said, with an odd amount of gentleness, not trying to restrain the boy at all. "He was gonna kill your mother. Okay? It was him or her."

The boy stepped back, breathing heavily and crying.

"Sandro," Ketevan called.

He turned and stormed past her, pushing away her attempts to comfort him.

Without another word we got onto the boat. A driver and one more member inside with the family, Nik, Yaz, Tyler, and I outside.

It was freezing cold out and the water spraying up into my face only chilled my core even more deeply. Tyler sat beside me and slipped an arm around my shoulder as I shivered. I leaned into him, and couldn't miss how his gaze was firmly on his nephew. I slid my arm around his lower back, trying to give him at least a little bit of comfort in return.

---

"Don't, she could aspirate." Nik said as Ketevan held a bottle of water to her daughter's lips.

"I know how to take care of my child." she snapped back.

Tyler said something to Georgian, to which Ketevan responded with an equal amount of sass. 

"Since when do you speak Georgian?" Nik asked.

"Since always," Tyler said, not meeting her eye. 

"She doesn't know?" Ketevan asked. "What about her?" she motioned to me with her head.

When Tyler didn't respond, Ketevan looked at us and said, "He was married to my sister."

"Thanks for the heads-up," Nik said in an amused tone. She was clearly pissed.

"I was gonna tell you when we landed."

"Hmm," she nodded, then turned to me. 

"It wasn't my place to say..." 

She sighed at my response. I looked down at my hands, then stood to get something to eat. 

After a while Ketevan quietly said, "She's mad at you," 

"It's not unusual." Tyler sighed.

"And she's fighting for you." I could tell she wasn't talking about Nik now. 

"Also not unusual." I thought I could hear the trace of a smile in his tone.

I looked ahead at Nik as she sewed up her stab wound. 

"What?" she asked.

"I'm sorry,"

"He told you not to tell me?"

I nodded.

"You're forgiven." she said with a soft smile. 

Nik and I had grown close since my rescue, she and Yaz were the only friends I felt like I truly had. 

"Want a hand?" I offered, also with a smile. "Living with Tyler has given me plenty of practice."

She chuckled and let me help her.

---

We landed in Vienna and drove to a fancy skyrise where an entire team was waiting for us. Yaz went to the dining room where fake visas were being carefully crafted. 

Tyler stood in the living room, speaking with Nik. I leaned on the kitchen island, a water between my hands. I was exhausted, but I wasn't going to rest until they were on their plane. My eyes felt heavy as I blinked. Tyler came into the kitchen and silently started loading a gun. 

"You think what you do is good?" Sandro asks, I nearly jump as I hadn't heard him walk in. Tyler only glances back at him. "You think you saved me? That you're some hero?" he asks further.

Tyler keeps his back to him. "Doesn't really matter what I think. People pay me to do things they can't."

"Like killing my father." 

My eyes shift from Sandro to Tyler and back again. The tension is palpable.

"My mother hired you to kill him. Didn't she?"

"No," Tyler turns to face him. "What your mother did was risk everything to protect you and your sister. Save you from that prion that your father put you in."

"He didn't want yo. They'd have killed us on the outside."

I choke back a scoff. I was like him once, blindly loyal to a monster who called himself my father. I wonder now who I could've been so stupid.

"Who?" Tyler asks. 

"The enemies of the Nagazi. They would've come for us and killed us. He brought us there so he could watch over us."

"He brought you there so he could control you." 

"No. He just didn't trust my mother."

"To what?" I chimed in, no longer able to hold back. "To run for safety with you and your sister?"

"A good son is supposed to stay with his father." he challenged. 

"A good father wouldn't make him." Tyler said.

"Yeah, well at least my father didn't leave us." he said in what couldn't quite be considered a shout, his voice quavering slightly. 

My blood ran cold as Tyler stepped up to him. Part of me wanted to see the boy socked in the mouth, another wanted to call Tyler away to make sure he didn't. He only stared him down for a second before brushing past him. Sandro's breath was heavy in his fear even as Tyler walked into the other room.

"You have no idea how wrong you are," I say quietly. "Our fathers were the same. Tyler saved me from mine just like he saved you and your sister." I said, then turned and left the kitchen.