“Okay.” Axel was itching to move, almost resenting the delay it would take in hauling the equipment up the embankment. He wanted to be at the pickup point. Wanted to see the bastard he was sure could tell him where his sister was. Placing his foot in Sage’s hands, he grabbed for the top of the ledge as soon as his fingers could reach and used the momentum from the boost to pull himself over it. Lying flat on the ground, he reached for the rucksack Sage held over his head. The weight of it surprised him. He was not a small man, was well used to working with the heavy equipment that building bikes required. Still, he had to brace himself to ensure he didn’t go headfirst over the edge. Muscles bulging, he dragged the bag upward. “Fuck what’s in this, concrete boots?”
“Nah, that’s minimal gear,” Sage held his arms upright over his head for Axel to help him up. Once he too was over the edge, he bounced to his feet, adjusted the battle-sling on his rifle, ensuring he could run and still have fast access to it if he needed to defend them. “Let’s go! We need to run about a mile to the clearing.”
“Fabulous.” Axel muttered, but that clearing meant Gavin Kony so he shut up, put up, and started jogging behind Sage, trying to avoid the tree roots and other items the rainforest threw into their paths, including but not limited to, lizards, snakes, and that damn monkey throwing a freaking fruit at them.
At least Axel thought it was fruit, could have been shit too. Axel just kept moving.
“Almost there.” The heat and humidity didn’t bother him much, and while a mile run with a full ruck over harsh terrain was normally similar to a walk in the park for Sage, running through a jungle or rainforest had its own challenges. “One, this is TOC, we have reached extraction point one.”
“This is One,”Castello’s voice immediately responded, “We are rightover you, move your asses. You have tangos incoming on your six.”
Axel figured tangos on their sixes could not be a good thing, he tried to concentrate on where he put his feet, but the whoop-whoop of the helo hovering over the break in the trees ahead, made him put on a burst of speed
and not pay attention to where he was going. Just as he broke through the tree line, his legs went from under him, and a bullet whizzed past his head as he swung feet first up into the air. “Shiiiit.”
***
Castello pushed back the helo door, clipping a restraining hook into one of the hinges. If Zack had to do some fancy maneuvers to get them out of there the last thing he wanted to do was fall out. Nope. Falling out of a helo would fucking suck. He secured the rope they would have to use to hoist Sage and Axel into the helo and dropped it out the door. With their target covered by Rafe and Balas, as well as secured to the seat, Castello had Connor at his side, where they took up positions to provide cover fire for the guys on the ground to make it to the bird.
Zack kept the helo in motion, trying to avoid the bullets they could all hear pinging off the fuselage. Castello ignored the insults being thrown at him from the asshole tied to the fucking seats behind him. As he concentrated on picking off targets he could now clearly see, he noticed immediately when Sage and Axel broke through the tree line, and saw Axel stumble before he swung feet first into the air. “Fuckballs.”Is he hit? Shit! Godfuckingdamnit!
He swore and levered another round into the chamber of his gun, laying down cover fire for both men.
“Boss, Package One is down.”Sage yelled through comms,“Ormaybe it’s up.”
Castello unclipped his safety line, “I see him, Five, shoot that damn rope,” Castello grunted as he fast-roped to the ground. “Three get your ass on the bird.”
“Boss—”
“Now.” Castello snarled out the order. He didn’t give a fuck that he shouldn’t be the one on the ground. Nope, Axel was under his protection, he was not fucking leaving him, period. Somewhere between the time they had rescued him last night, that kiss that should not have happened, and right the fuck now, Castello had decided he wanted to know more about Axel Shaw.
“What the fuck are you doing, Boss?”
Zack yelled in his ear as Castello booted it across the clearing toward Axel. “Take the fucking shot, Five, Stat!”
“Jesus, fucking cover them.”Zack’s voice and the doubling of the rapid fire coming from the helo told Castello that his team were covering his ass. Castello made it to where Axel was hung from a tree by his feet, just as
the distinctive boom of a .338 Lapua Magnum told him Connor had taken the shot. Axel dropping headfirst into his arms reconfirmed in Castello’s mind why he hired the kid. Any man who could shoot a freaking rope from a moving helo was one he could always find use for. “I got ya.” Castello didn’t take the time to check if Axel was hurt or not. Nope, he tossed him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and bolted for the rope. “Hold on tight.”
Castello grunted under the weight of carrying Axel, who was almost as big as he was. But he would fucking make it, the alternative was not an option. Zig-zagging across the clearing, he finally made it to the helo. “Close your eyes if you freak at heights.” Yelling the instruction over his shoulder, he wrapped his boot into the rope and gripped it with one hand, before letting go of Axel’s thighs for a split second to secure his other hand. “Go, Go, Go.”
Immediately the helo began to lift. Castello and Axel hovered in midair, only the rope between them and the drop to the ground below. Once the helo was over the trees and the guys above had stopped firing at the tangos, Castello felt the first pull that told him his team were pulling them upward.
“You good?” he called to Axel.
“Peachy.”
Castello’s teeth flashed as he grinned at the snark from the man he carried over his shoulder. He kinda liked the idiot. Maybe he could see if—
“Got him, Boss, you can let him go now.”
Sage’s voice jerked Castello out of his head. Crap, he was freaking losing it. “Roger that.” Castello felt the weight of Axel being taken from him before his ass was hauled inside and the door slid shut.
Chapter 5
“You okay?” Castello scrambled to his feet, turning toward where Axel was now sitting on the floor with his back between Sawyer’s legs.
“Yeah,” Axel nodded, he swallowed hard to avoid puking as the helicopter swooped to the left.
