“Move with it as you would curves on the road on a bike,” Castello advised.
“I can see the freaking curves coming,” Axel took shallow breaths until he was sure he wouldn’t puke. “Big difference.” He had been dragged up by the ears in the middle of a 1% club, and he was used to violence and shit being thrown at him. Had been since the day his momma walked out and left him and his sister with their asshole of a father. But the brutal reality of being in a country like this, of needing to be rescued, being shot at—those were the very things he had tried to avoid in the club, that meant he had taken the beating handed out by the Hell’s Eagles, taken Krystal’s too, so they could leave without looking over their shoulders. That reality made him question why the hell he thought he would be able to do this. Looking around, his eyes landed on the man he wanted answers from. Getting to his knees, he scooted across the floor of the bird until he could look the bastard in the eye.
“Where is my sister, asshole?”
“Who the fuck are you?” Kony squinted at Axel, not bothering to hide his contempt. “Do you know what my Boss is gonna do to you assholes when he finds out what you have done?”
“Don’t give a shit.” Castello moved until he was behind Axel, it was a tight damn fit to be there; while his hips may be slim his shoulders took up a hell of a lot of space. “Answer his question.”
“Who is your sister?”
Axel tried to read the man, but damn it he was no good at this stuff. Let him hear the sound of an engine and he could tell you the bike, the year, and what freaking mix of fuel it was using. People were so far out of his comfort zone, it wasn’t funny. “Krystal Shaw.”
“No fucking clue who that skank is.”
“Liar!” Only Castello wrapping his arms around Axel’s torso and arms stopped him launching himself at the asshole.
“Go sit over with Sage and hold on tight.” Castello muttered in his ear,
“I’ll get your questions answered.” He waited to feel Axel’s head move in a
nod under his chin. “Someone give him a headset, so he can talk to me without shouting.” Castello called over his shoulder and immediately took the one Sawyer handed to him. “Put that on.” he told Axel “And go sit.”
Castello studied the man they had been sent to retrieve for the US
Government. “Nobody told me I had to bring you back in one piece.” He reached for Kony.
“Uh, Boss, what're you doing?” Connor’s eyes widened as Castello cut the bonds holding their prisoner to the seat and pulled him out of it with his fist wrapped in the fucker’s shirt.
One-handed, Castello slid by the door of the chopper, bracing his feet against the pull of the wind that threatened to pull both him and Kony out the door. All of them hated that Axel’s sister was in trouble, in fact any woman in trouble was something they never tolerated. It was ingrained in them to protect the weak. But even knowing that, Castello struggled to understand what it was about Axel’s need for answers that drove him to get them for him. Maybe it was because if it was his son, he would search. Argh. Who knew, who cared, he was going to be the one who found the answers. Period.
“Fuck.”Sage muttered in his ear. Castello could still hear him with his comms unit. He felt a tug on his vest and knew by the feel of it that someone had secured the safety line to the climbing carabiner attached to the vest on his back.
“What are you doing?” Gavin Kony screamed in what Castello hoped was fucking fear as he wrestled him toward the open door. The man’s hands grabbed for the metal door frame to try and stop what Castello was attempting. Castello allowed him to do it. For now.
“Where the fuck is Krystal Shaw?”
“I don’t know.”
He was lying, Castello could see it. “I can drop you off here, man,” He shrugged as if he was having freaking tea with the Queen rather than questioning a man whose ass was hanging out of a helo at just under ten thousand feet. “If you make it to the ground alive, then there’s the animals, they may enjoy you for dinner.”
“You are fucking crazy.”
“Yup,” Castello pushed against Kony’s chest. He could feel how the wind was pulling at him. Knew the man must feel how fragile his grip on survival was at this point. “Tell me where she is?”
“I don’t kn—” Kony’s fingers slipped, losing their grip on one side of
the door frame, making him change his mind over the denial, “Mexico, she’s in Mexico—pull me in. Jesus, pull me in.”
“Where in Mexico?” Axel’s voice in his ear made Castello’s grin feral, he poured the years of dealing with tangos in the world’s worst hotspots for the last two decades into it. He wanted this fucker whose life he held in the balance to feel fear. Fear that Krystal Shaw must have felt, and possibly still felt today. “Where?”
“Tierra Caliente.”
Both of Kony’s hands no longer had a grip on the door frame and flailed wildly. Castello knew he had to pull him in shortly or he may just drop the fucker for being a dick of colossal proportions. “Who did you sell her to?”
“El Mencho.”
El Mencho? Fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck!“Someone grab this fucker, before I throw him out.” Castello growled. Only when he felt Sage and Sawyer reach past him and take over did he pull back. “Secure his ass.”
