Page 50 of Breathe
“I can’t be here!” he screamed and beat his hands against the bunker steel door. “Let me out, let me out.”
It worked, and when he slid to his ass on the floor wailing, Tanis acted.
“There, there, I’ll let you out,” Tanis said and opened the bunker door to usher him inside.
What they found within the large room was sickening. Cages upon cages of boys locked in a bunker that smelled of sweat and feces.
Crow and Fisher attacked Tanis’ bodyguard and a brutal fight started. During the altercation, Azrael got caught, and Tanis used him like a human shield.
All hell broke loose and Tanis’ grip on him loosened… Azrael took that moment to spin and headbutt Tanis in the face.
That day, he learned a very valuable lesson. Never take your eyes off your enemy.
But how could he look away when Real thundered into the bunker, all muscle and power like a fucking hero?
Real took a quick glance around, their eyes met, and their gazes collided.
So when Tanis hit him, Azrael didn’t see it coming, but Real saw it all.
Stars filled Azrael’s vision when Tanis backhanded him in the mouth. The force sent Azrael flying against one of the cages. Dazed, he landed on his ass on the floor.
Tanis lunged for something, probably a weapon, but never made it.
Real launched across the distance fast, like a panther, and lifted Tanis by the throat as if he were a doll.
All hell broke loose.
Real pushed Tanis’ head against the bars of the nearest cage. Thankfully, that cage was empty.
Tanis screamed and scratched at Real, but it did no good against the impenetrable military gear the warrior wore.
Real’s muscles corded and bunched, and Azrael watched as Tanis’ head was pushed through the bars of the cage.
It was a very tight space that wasn’t designed to fit a human head.
Tanis’s face and skull caved between the bars and the onslaught of Real’s force.
Tanis gagged and jerked until he went still, and Real stepped back, leaving Tanis hanging there.
Azrael tried to stop the tears, but he couldn’t. Relief made him shaky.
Tanis was finally dead.
Real stalked over and lifted him from the floor and into his arms.
Azrael had wrapped his arms around the big soldier’s neck as he was carried away into the night like some prized possession.
Perhaps that had been the day he had known there was no going back.
He was in love with Real.
He was in love with a man who hid his emotions. A man who didn’t love him back. A man who was unlike any other he’d ever met.
“Az?” Boston’s whisper drew him from the past.
“We’re not getting in there today. Let’s regroup, and we can come back in the night,” Azrael told them and turned to head back down where they’d left Rebel’s SUV.
“We’ve been staking this place out for hours. Are we ever going to let them know we’re here?” Rip shifted in the passenger seat of the SUV.
