Axel could barely see the man in front of them, the only reason he wanted to bitch about the pace they were setting was his need for answers.
“My sis—”
“When we get to cover.” Castello growled again, “If I have hog-tie you and carry you there, I will. You put my men in danger by being a dick and stopping here.”
Oh shit.That was not what Axel intended, damn it. He forced himself to move to follow the path the man in front had taken, until they ducked under the tree-line into the pitch black of the rainforest where even the dim moonlight didn’t penetrate.
Chapter 3
Axel counted he had taken five hundred steps into the forest before the men and dog in front of him stopped.Thank fuck.
“I’m sparking a bulb,” Castello warned his guys to remove their NVGs before he turned on a flashlight and shone the light toward the ground, providing them with the barest amount of visibility without the light penetrating the tree line. “Here,” he held out a hose pipe. At Axel’s look of confusion, he nodded to it, “It’s attached to my water supply.”
“Thank you.” Axel filled his mouth with water, he was in heaven. Even the metallic taste of whatever was in it to purify it didn’t take away from how fucking amazing it tasted. He knew sometimes prisoners or captives in this part of the world were often left without water for days at a time. He had barely gone a few hours, still he sipped the water and savored it, grateful for the ability to do so.
“I’m Castello.” The man confirmed the name he had given him earlier, then pointed to the others in turn, “Zack, Rafe, and Sawyer. We’ll meet the other two members of our team at our extraction point.” Castello ignored the frowns from the other members of the team. It was unusual for him to give out real names. That he did now should have been his first indication that his brain was still stuck on that sexy as fuck scar, and the husky growl in Axel’s voice that made his dick twitch in his pants.
Extraction meant leave right?“I can’t leave.”
“What the fuck?” The man Castello had called Zack, growled. “Is he for fucking real?”
Axel took a step back at the man’s fury, he got it, he did. “You don’t understand—”
“Then fucking make me understand, dude,” Zack whisper shouted,
“Because we just risked our asses for you.”
At Axel’s statement, Castello was pretty damn sure it was only the rims of his night vision goggles that kept his eyebrows from hitting his hairline.
With the goggles switched off he studied Axel Shaw in the small amount of light provided by the flashlight.He’s hot as fuck,his brain helpfully supplied, but he shoved it down. Now was not the time, damn it. What the hell were they missing? Was Grif St. Clare wrong? Was this man they had just rescued just another criminal? He saw Zack’s hand pull back. Shit, he had missed something, he’d missed that Zack had lost his grip on his patience, Castello
stepped between them. “Don’t punch him, Z,” Castello grabbed his second’s fist as it flew. “I know you are pissed, but we are missing something.”
“Fuck that, Boss.” Zack muttered.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Castello flipped up the NVG’s. He wanted to see what Axel looked like in real life, not down a tunnel. True, he couldn’t see very much in the dark, but it didn’t stop the need to see if the rich, husky tone of Axel’s voice matched the man himself in reality.
“Nothing.”
“He’s lying.”
“Yup,” Castello agreed with Zack. Axel lied when he said he wasn’t hiding anything. Nobody went fucking day tripping in the damn Congo. It took work to get here, never mind to get this deep into the basin and find yourself in an illegal diamond mining site.
“Boss—” Rafe’s warning followed by Balas’ growl, told Castello that Axel was going to run, even before the first crunch of his footstep on the vegetation did as he took off past Castello into the jungle.
“Damn it.” Castello spun around and snagged the back of Axel’s shirt, dragging the man back to him.
“Hey, let me—oomph.”
Castello knew his eyes were flaring wide open at the challenge Axel presented, his dick rock hard. Jesus, he’d only just met him but already this man was making him fucking crazy. Castello had no freaking idea why he did it, but even the shocked inhales of breath from the men around him didn’t deter him. He spun Axel around in his arms and pulled him up close to his face, oh shit, bad mistake. Now he was fucking tempted to do something more, something he shouldn’t. Fuck, he didn’t even know if the man liked men, never mind was attracted to him. But for some reason every scrap of training he had had over the years deserted him, and the only way he could think of to shut him up, to prevent him from yelling and alerting the assholes back at the mine to their presence was to kiss him. But that would be so fucking wrong.Do it! Do it!
“Fuck you.”
Castello’s mind blanked of everything but the man in front of him. He crushed Axel’s mouth with his, eating his breath and sucking and biting his lips so hard he whimpered.You shouldn’t be doing this.His inner voice, the one that sounded suspiciously like his former Drill Sergeant, Godzilla, contradicted the one who had convinced him just a couple of heartbeats
before, that this was what he should do. Castello was about to play the good soldier and listen to the Drill Sergeant in his head, but then Axel kissed him back and nothing else mattered.
“Good thing we knew the Boss swings both ways or this could be kinda awkward.” Sawyer’s voice filled with amusement finally penetrated Castello’s brain fog.
