Seal of Honor(20)

“That true?”

Quinn’s jaw cracked from the force of his back teeth grinding together. “I don’t appreciate you going over my head, Warrick. You have a problem with me, you talk to me.”

“I tried,” Jesse shot back. “You brushed me off. Several times.”

“I’ve been busy. In case you haven’t noticed, we have a very limited window to find Bryson Van Amee.”

“What I’ve noticed is you’re defying a direct order from our boss.”

“This coming from the guy kicked out of Delta for punching a ranking officer. Since when are you so hell-bent on rules?”

“All right, gentlemen. Enough.” Gabe stepped between them before the heated argument escalated out of hand and, for one brief moment, wished for his former SEAL teammates. With them, there had never been scuffles like this during an op. Before and after, sure. But during, it just didn’t happen. You followed orders to a T or someone got killed.

In fact, Quinn used to be by-the-book, strict as they come. Did a shoulder injury and discharge papers really make that big of a difference in him?

“Q, man, why are you fighting this? It’s nothing. Let Jesse do the damn physical and give him access to your medical records so we can move on to more important things.” He motioned toward the Jeep in the driveway where Audrey sat, watching them through the window. “That woman is counting on us to bring her brother home and you’re wasting time we don’t have.”

“Exactly,” Quinn said. “Time we don’t have. I’ve been busy and haven’t—”

Jesse grunted. “I’ve shoveled some mighty big piles of bullshit in my day, but yours is the biggest.”

Quinn stepped forward. So did Jesse.

All right, this was getting ridiculous and Gabe was sick of listening to these two snipe at each other like ten-year-olds.

“Knock it off or you’ll both have a meet-and-greet with the ground.” He shoved Jesse back with one hand and jabbed the business end of his cane at Quinn’s stomach. “You. Inside. You’re getting that fucking physical now.”

“Gabe—”

“Goddammit, I mean it. You wanted me to lead this team, so I’m leading it. And right now, you’re being an epic jackass. If you were anyone else, you’d be done. Don’t make me pull you off this op, Q. I’ll hate it, but I’ll do it.”

The two men stared at each other over Gabe’s shoulder for a long, heated moment. Quinn finally relented. He turned and walked, stiff-backed, inside. A second later, Jesse sighed and followed, but Gabe caught his arm.

“Call me if you have any more trouble with him.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

In the car, Audrey gave him a sympathetic look as he leaned his head against the seat and shut his eyes. After witnessing that spectacle, her faith in them as saviors had to be next-to-nil, and yet she laid a comforting hand on his arm.

“This is new to you, isn’t it?” When he cracked an eyelid and shot her a sideways glance, she added, “Not the hostage rescue stuff. Seeing you work, I have no doubt that you know what you’re doing there. But this set-up is new.”

That was one way to describe a six-hours-old, never-trained-together team. New. He called it a goatfuck. Man, he should’ve passed on this mission. He’d been so eager to get back into the field. Too eager—and his team was suffering for it.

With a sigh, he sat up and started the Jeep. “That obvious?”

She nodded. “Everyone’s testing boundaries. Not exactly jockeying for power, since they all seem to get you’re in charge, but they’re trying to figure out what they can get away with, what they can’t. It’s a natural progression for any newly formed group.”

Yeah, but Quinn? He always liked to know where the boundaries lay and never, ever crossed a toe over them. What the hell was the matter with him?

“The same thing happened when Phil joined my dolphins,” Audrey said, drawing his attention back to her. She sat buckled into the passenger seat, staring out the window at the passing Bogotá streets as he wound the Jeep through gathering traffic toward the edge of the city. He wondered if she was looking for her brother in the faces of everyone they passed. Probably.

“You have dolphins?” he asked, partly out of genuine curiosity but mostly to take her mind off Bryson for a little while.

She flashed him a brilliant smile before returning her gaze to the window. “Guess they’re not really mine, but I think of them that way. They hang out around my dock and visit me throughout the day. Rata, Matahina, Hika, and Phil.”

“Phil?”