One

W here are you taking us?" Clint sat in the passenger seat, steeped in suspicion. In the backseat, Cochise sat across from Kane, equally suspicious of their destination.

"It's a surprise." The twinkle in Axel's eye and his impish tone didn't bode well with the cowboy.

"I don't like surprises."

The Egyptian scrutinized his fiancé seated next to him. "Neither do I," he muttered.

Kane patted his knee. "This is a fun surprise. You'll like it." He caught Axel's eye in the rearview mirror and both men appeared to suppress smiles.

This isn't good.

"Relax, baby." Axel chuckled. "We're going to have fun tonight, I promise."

There was that impish tone again. Whatever lay ahead, Clint was convinced he would not find it fun. Which was surely why neither Axel nor Kane so much as hinted at their plans for this evening.

Clint felt Cochise's tension from the rear seat. They were not the type who enjoyed social interaction, except amongst those within their small, private circle. Axel and Kane's idea of fun likely clashed with their interpretation.

"Maybe we're not the men to surprise," Clint growled. "It's best you tell us where we're going."

Axel smiled and stared forward as they left the suburbs behind and entered the city. "You should be more open to new things." The boy squinted at him, further heightening the cowboy's unease. "Expand your horizons."

"I don't like new things," Clint grumbled. "And my horizons are just fine where they are."

"Don't you trust me?" Axel queried.

Clint stared at him for a long, silent moment. "No," he muttered. "Not right now, I don't."

"Ah, that hurts." He pursed his lips in a smile. "Why don't you trust me?"

Clint glanced in the rearview mirror, catching the Egyptian's stern stare—he didn't trust his man tonight, either. "Because you're being cagey tonight. And that can't mean anything good for us."

"Cagey?" Axel laughed. "I'm not cagey. Secretive, perhaps. But not cagey. "

"Same difference, in my book," the cowboy mumbled.

"Well, not in mine," Axel replied with a cutesy smile.

Though wary of the young man's intentions, Clint remained at the mercy of Axel's playful smiles. No one else but Axel could have gotten him in the car, headed toward an unknown destination, knowing he probably wouldn't like what was waiting for him. He hadn't yet built up a resistance to the young man's charms and suspected he never would—which afforded Axel far too much power over him. Unfortunately, Axel knew exactly how to wield that power so it worked in his favor.

A quick look in the backseat at Cochise, Clint understood the same was true for his Egyptian brother when it came to Kane. The badass gangster was no match for his counterpart.

Clint sagged against the seat and looked out the front windshield.

We're fucked.