“We are,” Axel agreed, “but I kinda like this one, G.”
“Got it,”
The metal walkway clanged as someone moved on it. No matter how silent your footsteps were, walking on metal made it harder to be silent. “I think the Boss likes you too.” Zack snickered.
“Everyone just drop your damn weapons so we can get to work,” Grif ordered from behind Castello. “I really don’t like the feeling of a blade against my back. It pisses me off.”
“Stand down.” Castello echoed Rock’s order from a minute before. “We have work to do.”
The chorus of ‘yes Sirs,’ and variations of ‘copy’ confirmed that they all were ready to do just that. Even if they would remain cautious while working with a different team.
Castello pressed himself against the wall, allowing Grif to pass, then snagged Axel’s wrist and tugged him to stand next to him. He really wanted to fucking kiss the shit out of him, but he wouldn’t do it here. Not in front of all these people. Still, he just wanted a second, needed it.
“You okay?” Axel whispered, fitting himself against the wall next to Castello.
“Yeah,” Cas gave a ‘move the fuck on’ hand signal to Zack when he too stopped in front of them. He waited for all of them to clear this level of the walkway. “Thank you, Axe.”
“For what?” Axel kept his voice as low as Castello had. Somehow, doing so in this massive room filled with operators made it feel as if they were the only two people in the room.
“Having my back.”
“I meant what I said,” Axel pressed close to Castello’s ear and dropped his voice even lower, “I like you.”
Castello shivered at the feeling of Axel’s breath against his neck and had to lock his knees to keep himself in place.
“It would have pissed me off if Grif had shot you before we have a chance to fuck.”
Castello’s stomach sank, was that all it was to him? “Is that what this is going to be—fucking?” It was weird and unsettling for a man who was
usually so confident and sure of himself to suddenly not be so damn sure.
Was that feeling vulnerability? He would never admit to it if it were. But either way, he had to know. If this was just going to be just fucking, then it was better he knew it now and locked away his heart for safekeeping. Still, disappointment slammed through Castello, he didn’t want it to be just sex, damn it.
“I don’t know.” Every word Axel whispered in his ear sent a rush of air, raising goosebumps along Castello’s neck. “But I don’t want it to be.”
“Me either,” Cas admitted softly. Yeah, all they had shared was kisses and what a teenager might consider one of their damn bases, but it had been so long since Cas was a teenager that he had no idea if it was second or third.
It didn’t matter either, just that what was between them was better than anything he had ever experienced before, and he craved more. “We, ugh.”
Coughing to make sure he could continue without sounding like an idiot, Castello tried again, “We better get down there.”
“Yeah,” Axel waved Castello on ahead of them, then patted his ass when he passed. “I’ll follow you.”
“Brat.”
“Yup.”
***
Hours later, Axel’s eyes hurt, he had been sitting in this damn office chair, staring at the screens on the wall. One of the guys had put up traffic camera footage of the last time Gavin Kony had come to the clinic in El Alcíhuatl, a smallish town about 250km southwest of Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara. The clinic was rumored to have been built by El Mencho. They were running facial recognition looking for Kony, hoping to grab enough of an image of the people he met with. It was slow and tedious work, even though the computer programs did most of the heavy lifting. With the parameters set to 70% match, they had to verify every target the computer spit out.
“Is that him?” Castello got out of his chair and stepped closer to the screen, “It is, isn’t it?”
A cold dart of fury and rage slithered down Axel’s back, the scar on his cheek pulling his lip up on one side as his jaw tightened. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“This one.” Castello pointed the fucker out to Sage, “Lock onto him, find me everyone he so much as winks at.”
“You got it, Boss.” Sage typed the new parameters into the machine, the
