“But—”
“No—”
He held up one hand at both Zeke and Axel’s protests. “In this room, you have at least three of the best hostage retrieving teams the military has trained over the last two decades. Do you really want to go in there all guns blazing and risk that?”
“We don’t even know if she is a hostage or there of her own accord.”
Axel grumbled.
“Yeah, we do.” Castello nodded to Sage, “She’s undercover DEA.”
“The fuck?”
“Sage will show you the files in a bit.” Castello wanted to be the one to do it, but his strengths lay in planning an infiltration, therefore that is what he would do.
“Grif?” Axel turned to the man he had grown up with. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Castello, his heart did. His brain—? That was still playing
catch up and needed confirmation from someone he had listened to and trusted for most of his childhood.
“Everything we have found says it’s true.” Grif leaned back against the table he stood next to and crossed one ankle over the other. “I trust my intel guys. If they tell me this is the truth, then it is until someone proves otherwise.”
“Is a cop really the worst thing she could be?” Castello asked. “Because in my book, cops are mostly on the right side. Yeah there are dirty ones, but unless they have managed to turn her, she isn’t one of them.”
“Way I see it,” Malik added his opinion, “We get her out of the shit she is in, then we deal with the rest later.” He shrugged, “I have no reason to dislike her, I have always known my man has been with women.” He winced when Zeke’s elbow jabbed into his ribs, “Um, yeah, we get her back and then figure shit out.”
“Okay.” Axel could live with that. He needed her back, needed to know she was okay more than he gave a shit about her being a cop. He wasn’t one to talk anyway, considering he had dealings with ATF. “I am coming with you.”
“Not in this lifetime.” Castello growled. “You are not coming with us.
There is only so much space in a helo, and you do not have combat experience.”
“I’m going.”
“Nope.” Castello disagreed. “I’ll tie you to the damn bed first.”
“Then you better not sleep at night, or you wake up missing your balls.”
“Axe, be reasonabl—”
“I’ll stay with the chopper?”
“No.” Castello ignored the audience they had. Pushed all the looks he could feel watching them to the back of his mind. “You will distract me.”
“Fuck you.” Axel knew he was being an idiot, but he needed to be there.
Every instinct he had was telling him he should be. “You are being a dick.”
“No,” Grif stepped into the mix. “We get you are pissed, get that you want to be the one to save your sister. We all would in your shoes. What the big lug is trying to tell you is that you matter to him. Having you there means he is concentrating on you not getting hurt instead of doing his job. That puts everyone in danger including your sister.”
Castello nodded in agreement. Yes, that is what he had been trying to say, but the thought of Axel running into danger gave him chills as much as it
would have if it were Rourke insisting he do the same. The last thing he wanted was Axel in danger.
“Whatever,” Axel swallowed down the voice of his father in his head telling him he was a worthless piece of shit. Part of him argued that this was not what Castello had intended to sound like. But the kid inside of him revolted at being shut down and left out, even if his reasons were solid. He needed air, needed to breathe before he fricking lost his temper.
He had come down here looking for Castello with stars in his eyes.
Hoping last night had meant something to Cas. He was a fucking idiot. He’d walked into a mess and now he had to stay at home. It wasn’t lost on him that he was acting like a spoiled brat. One he had never been allowed to be when he was a kid. His emotions were all over the place. First lust, excitement, and maybe something more. Then hope, and shock, and now a mix of anger and denial. Yeah, he needed air, or he was going to choke with the effort it was taking not to do a toddler stomp. He needed a boot in the ass to send his brains back up from his balls to his head and to remind himself that he was a grown-assed man and not four. “I need air.”
