Axel waited for the door to shut behind the man who was both making
him crazy and making him want more. “I am so fucked.” It would be way too easy to get hurt. That Castello let him lead, just because he was the one who had needed it, only made the pull he felt toward the soldier even stronger. “I am so fucked.”
Chapter 10
Castello pushed open the door to the kitchen. “Sitrep?”
“I hope you wrapped your dick, shithead.”
Oh, fuck me, that was fast!Castello spun toward the living room at the sound of the man’s voice. Walking into the room showed him who he already knew was there. The huge man lounged in the recliner Castello had come to recognize as Axel’s favorite one. Delta Force Team Panther’s Steele Givens was huge; even slouched back into the leather, he still threw off ‘don’t fuck with me’ vibes. “What are you doing here Steele?”
“We have intel.” Steele straightened in his chair. “Intel that makes your op more family than we thought.” His voice hardened, “I look after my family and protect them from my asshole father.”
“The kid is yours?”
“So, it’s true?” Steele’s eyes bored into Castello’s, as if he could read what was going on inside his mind by pure force of will. “And no, not mine, Zeke’s.”
“Shit. How’d you find out?”
“Cade sent me the missing person’s report as soon as he found it,”
Steele shrugged, “less than three hours on Jonah’s plane and—” He waved a hand, taking in the living room, “Here we are.”
Damn it, that meant while he and Axel had been playing the happy couple and picking out booze on aisle seven, Steele had already been on his way here. Thank fuck for Zack and his boot in the pants that had him talking to Axel.Talking? Are we calling hand jobs talking?Castello refused to allow any of the relief he felt show on his face and turned to go back to the kitchen.
He expected Steele to follow and frowned when he realized the man hadn’t moved from the chair. “You coming or what?”
“Not til your guy calls off the dog.” Steele jerked his thumb over the side of the chair, he’d worked with enough Military Working Dogs to know not to move his ass an inch if he wanted his balls intact when a dog was told to guard him. Nope, Kalon, his guy liked Steele’s balls just where they were, thank you very much.
“Balas, Fus.” Castello walked around Steele to click his fingers at the dog. Balas just huffed at his human’s commander and ignored him. Jeez,
“Rafe?”
“Here, Boss.” Rafe called from the hallway where the bedrooms were
located. “We have two more of them here.”
“Oh, for fucks sake,” Castello grumbled to Steele, “You couldn’t knock on the front door like a normal person?”
“Nope,” Steele popped the end on the word. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“How many more?”
“I got some more incoming in the truck at the end of the street.” Connor called from the window, drawing their attention to where he had his sniper rifle peeking through the curtains.
“If you shoot at them,” Steele tensed at the sniper’s words and stance, his man was in that truck at the bottom of the street, “I’ll have to kill you, and it won’t be pretty.”
Castello stilled, his body language showing the warrior he was. As much as power radiated from Steele Givens, it also poured off him. This was Axel’s house. The kid was also Axel’s nephew, one he had searched for, for years.
He would not allow Panthers to come in and take over. Period. “Who else is here?”
“G, Rock, Kalon, Me, Jason, Fritz, Zeke, and his guy.” Steele listed off the names who had answered his call when he needed help.
“Fuck.” Okay, he had needed more than his team to go hunting in Cartel country, especially when they were hunting for a woman and a kiddo. But Castello was not about to allow Panthers to take over. “If you are on this mission, then you are under my command.” He would not back down.
Refused to do so. He had worked with Panthers often during his time in Delta, he knew they were the best of the best. Panthers were above Lynx on the pecking order, so usually, back then Steele and his co-leader, Matt Garrett, had led. And while he was happy to have them on his six, he was not about to take a back seat now.
“Deal.” Steele started to move his hand, but a growl from Balas reminded him of why his ass was still in the chair. He shrugged, “Can ya wait to shake on it?”
