Read Cowboy Gangster 02 - Gunnin' for Love (CMS) (MM) for Free Online Page A

good with him as well. Axel just didn’t yet understand that.
    “Clint.” Cole shook Clint’s hand. “Good to see you again so soon.” He shot a quick glance at the stage. “Thanks for the gift, by the way.” He winked and grinned.
    Angel’s boyfriend –Dane –shook his hand next, though his dark eyes rested on Axel. Dane had the strongest cause to hold a grudge against Axel, but Clint detected no animosity in Dane –simply curiosity. As was present in them all.
    When Axel shifted the pup in his arms and faced the three men more directly –all attention was immediately seized by the sight of Clint’s belt and buckle wrapped securely around Axel’s waist.
    Clint breathed deeply as Gabriel, Cole and Dane slowly raised their eyes and met his stare, brows arched and an entirely new level of intrigue visibly surging through them.
    He groaned inwardly and shifted his gaze to Axel who met his eyes with hesitation and uncertainty. What was Axel expecting him to say? What did he   want   him to say?
    The loud clink of bottles broke the trance they all seemed momentarily trapped in, and all eyes shifted to the end of the bar where a young man had set down a small box of liquor. He smiled and started to speak when he caught sight of Axel and he blinked like maybe he was seeing things. His slim fingers slid absently through his sandy brown strands and he came forward.
    Angel . The boy even moved with the grace of an angel and his crystal clear eyes radiated warmth as he held Axel’s gaze for a moment before drifting down to the pup in Axel’s arms. Something deeper, even heartbreaking, flickered strongly then softened. Like Axel, did he remember that day from their childhood when Axel had brought the stray pup home and for a brief moment, they had all played with it and been “real” brothers? Or had the memory gotten buried beneath the years of horror that came after?
    Angel approached Axel slowly as Clint and the other men watched in silence. His slender fingers reached out and touched the pup’s fur, caressing gently over the bandage wrapping the small animal’s ribs. “The puppy…” he whispered, and his eyes turned softly to Clint. “…that you rescued?”
    Clint nodded, captivated by the boy as he had been the day he’d forgiven Axel and claimed him as his brother.
    “You gave him to…” his gaze shifted back to Axel and held the young man’s stare. A thin film of tears glossed Axel’s eyes as he looked back at Angel. A tender smile touched Angel’s lips and he asked quietly, “What’s his name?”
    Axel swallowed thickly and whispered, “Jonah.”
    Angel’s eyes shimmered and his smile grew brighter. “Wait till I tell Maddy.”
    Yet another of the many walls surrounding Axel came crashing down in the glow of Angel’s smile and the reality that he, too, retained those rare, precious memories that Axel clung to.
    Clint blinked against the sting in his eyes and resisted the urge to give Angel a crushing hug.
    The boy was truly heaven sent.
    Gabriel caught his stare, a smile twitching his lips and a gloss to his own eyes as the look he shot Clint insisted the cowboy had a hell of a lot of explaining to do.
     
     

Chapter 6
     
“Hidden In Plain Sight”
     
    ♦
     
    “You remember?” Axel stared at Angel.
    The other boy looked up from the pup. “I remember.” He smiled and his eyes glowed with warmth. “I remember how happy Maddy was when you said he could give the pup a name.” Humor mingled with a thin film of tears. “A real one, besides just dog. ”
    Axel ducked his head and laughed softly at the recollection of how Maddy’s face had wrinkled at the suggestion of such a bland, generic name. “Yeah,” he cleared his throat and raised his eyes. “I didn’t have much of an imagination.”
    “You were teasing him,” Angel grinned. “And you know it.”
    Those moments had been so rare and fleeting –bonding as brothers. Feeling like “family”. Axel smiled and swallowed