“Boss?” Zack stepped closer to Castello and lowered his voice to keep the conversation between them. He scrubbed his hand over the back of his head. “You know what this means if the kid is Brendan Givens’ grandson?”
“Yup.” Castello was refusing to think about it. For one of the first times in his life, he was torn. Tell a man that he fought beside that he was a father or more likely an uncle. Or keep his mouth shut so Axel could keep his family together if they were lucky enough to find them. He kept his gaze on Zack, not entirely sure what the right call was to make. But the fact that he wasn’t already on the phone to Texas told him if the intel went there, it wouldn’t come from him. Yet. He needed to think.
“Steele isn’t going to be happy.” Zack studied Castello, he could see the decision in his Boss’ eyes, even if the man didn’t say it. “Cade will probably tell him anyway.”
“This shit is classified unless I say otherwise.” Castello muttered, “Cade better remember that.”
“Sawyer too.”
“I—ah—shit.” Castello had forgotten that Sawyer was Hawk’s brother.
He glanced over his shoulder at Axel, who was sitting in a recliner with a sketchpad in his hands. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Make it fast, Boss.” Zack advised, “Last thing you want is Steele
Givens coming down here and blindsiding him.”
Castello could feel his eyebrows raising. He couldn’t have stopped them if he had tried, because holy fuck, when did Zack McGuire become the expert on dealing with people? And why the hell did it sound like Zack was giving him relationship advice? There was something so freaking wrong about that scenario that he couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. But argh, even if the person giving it shocked the fuck out of him, the advice he gave was solid.
“Okay, Saw, you handle food, Zack will help you.”
“Sure thing, Boss.”
“Fucker.” Zack muttered under his breath.
***
Castello went toward where Axel was sitting, there had to be somewhere they could talk that wasn’t filled with his team watching every fucking move he made. “You got somewhere we can talk alone?”
“Garage is about as private as it will get around here this week.” Axel dropped the pad and pencils on the couch and stood. “What you want to talk about?”
Castello followed him through the kitchen to the laundry room and from there to the garage. “We gotta talk about Krystal’s son.”
“Mikey?” Axel crossed the garage to some patio furniture he somehow hadn’t gotten around to putting on the deck yet. He sat into one of the chairs and waved to Cas to sit too.
“Yeah, Mikey.” Castello didn’t want to sit down, he needed to pace.
Had to get his thoughts in order or he’d fuck this up. Squeezing his fingers into his eyes, he blew out a breath. “Okay.” He frowned,just tell him,dumbass. “Okay.”
“You said that already.” Axel got out of the chair. His stomach churning told him whatever Castello was hiding, he wasn’t going to like it.What thefuck was he stalling for?“Is Mikey okay?”Shit, had they found informationthat he was dead?He grabbed Castello by the arm and pulled him to a stop mid-pace. “Damn it, Cas, just tell me.”
“If Mikey is Brendan Givens’ grandkid, that makes him either Steele's or Zeke’s. Right?”
Ugh, I do not want to think of my sister with either of those men,
“Yeah.”
“Sawyer’s brother is in a relationship with one of the men who live in the same compound in Texas. They served together. We all did.”
“The fuck?”
“Cade works with Grif,” Castello figured it was better to put all the cards on the table. “If he knows that Mikey is a Givens, he’s not going to hide it.”
“We don’t know which one.” Axel knew he was grasping at straws, but he would not allow either of them to take his nephew away from his sister. It wasn’t happening.
“What I am saying is, it may be better coming from us.” Castello waved his hand back and forth between them, “Or rather from you.”
“All we have is Brendan Givens’ word for it.” Axel needed to escape, needed to get out of there. Damn it, he needed to think. “His word is worth jack shit to me.”
