Page 10 of Mated to Team Shadow

"What are you doing there, Gunner?"

Damon looked over his shoulder, and his eyes narrowed. He appeared ticked off.

"I'm being nice."

Jeanine huffed, and I watched her nostrils flare with an unaccustomed level of interest.

"Be nice to her and leave her alone," said Damon.

"Stop your jawing, both of you." Gunner poked an oil-streaked face from the engine compartment. "I don't know. It could be a clogged fuel line. Do we have any wire?"

"There's the snare wire in the survival kit," I said.

"No," he said. "It's too thin. But, damn it, get that kit."

Jeanine huffed. "Do I have to give you every tool?" She fiddled with the clasp of her bra and pulled it through the sleeve of her hoodie. How do women do that? But I didn't understand until she pulled at the stitches of her bra and pulled out an underwire.

"There," she said holding out the curved wire. "If that doesn't work, I will have destroyed a one-hundred-dollar bra for nothing."

Kane

Jeanine was one smart woman, and resourceful. One thing SEALS admire is a person who can pull solutions from nothing. I didn't know if Jeanine's bra part would work, but I reached and plucked the curved wire from her hand. Our fingers touched, and a spark of electricity shocked me. Her gorgeous blue eyes opened at contact.

Over her shoulder, dark clouds shadowed the water, and a sense of danger prickled through my body. It would be a disaster to get caught in a storm in a boat like this. The rough waves slapped against the hull of the boat and confirmed my suspicion that we were in for rough weather.

"I don't suppose you have a wrench," I said.

"Here," said Gunner who reached for his backpack. He pulled out a multi-tool with many tools including a saw. It was obviously expensive and not standard issue.

"Geez, you should have given this to me first thing, Gunner."

"Am I the only one that packed their survival kit?"

"No. But you are the only one who didn't use it," I said.

"When you're good—"

"Stow it," I said. "You picked off our kits and left yours alone."

"I gave you my multi-tool."

The SEAL survival kit is a thing of beauty when it's fully packed. It has a slew of useful items from pain relievers to bouillon cubes. But we've been on one mission after another with hardly time to re-provision. My last government issue multi-tool got lost on the previous mission. And this one that Gunner put in his case was not standard issue. He'd put some dollars into it.

"Thanks. I'll consider it my birthday present."

"Hey!" complained Gunner.

"Stow it," said Damon. "When Ryker pokes his head up here, he'll expect something done."

With a few hard yanks, I disconnected the fuel line, and the few drops you'd expect from the connector didn't spurt from the hose. With the flathead screwdriver of the multi-tool, I dislodged the connector from the fuel line. But instead of diesel, a white goo spilled from the line.

"What the hell is that?" said Damon.

"Big problems. Someone put in a product to dry the water in the tank, and it solidified and clogged the fuel line. Nasty business."

"Can you unclog it?"

"Sure, for now. It hasn't clogged up the fuel pump. But I can't guarantee the fuel line won't clog again." I looked at the skyline again, and Damon followed my line of sight.

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