Page 40 of SEAL's Tempest
The plane touched down a few minutes later. They grabbed their gear as the ramp lowered. Josh was surprised to see Tony waiting for them. Usually, he waited in the conference room. He wondered what happened that he needed to talk to them right away, and when he glanced over at Quinn, he looked surprised too.
“What’s going on,” Josh asked.
“Fuck if I know, but it can’t be good,” Quinn said so only Josh could hear.
Josh nodded.
Great. What new clusterfuck was waiting for them?
Quinn exited first and went over to Tony. Josh followed but kept his distance until Quinn signed that it was okay to approach. But it didn’t come. Instead, Tony walked up to Tempest as she stepped off the ramp.
What the fuck was going on?
Tempest looked upset but nodded at whatever Knox had said. Then she looked toward him and nodded. What the hell did that mean? Then he reached to take Tempest’s pack, but she refused, and Josh was even more confused. None of this made sense.
As the CO led Tempest away, Josh still didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on and he didn’t like it. If she was in trouble he needed to be with her, to help her, to explain away the problem. He’d promised to be there for her, and already he was failing.
Quinn joined him as the rest of the team walked off the ramp.
“What’s going on, Boss?” Doc asked. They’d watched as Knox and Tempest walked toward HQ.
“It would seem that Tempest had more secrets than we knew,” Quinn said.
“Fuck. You mean more than her sister being one of the people we were supposed to extract. Oh, and that she’s Naval Intelligence?” Lucky asked.
“Yup. Even Knox didn’t know ahead of time. JSOC kept it from him. But Tempest’s father works with the POTUS as a foreign affair adviser. When he found out she’d been injured on the mission her father sent her on, he showed up here.”
“You’re serious? How did no one know this?” Ry asked.
“Beats the fuck out of me. But maybe I’ll find out more during the debriefing. He’ll be there too because of Tempest’s mission.”
“Fucking perfect. Just what we need, some ass who’s never been in the field grilling us on the mission,” Lucky complained.
Josh didn’t care about the debriefing, that was Quinn’s headache. But he wondered if Tempest knew about her father’s involvement. “Did she know he was the one who sent her?” It shouldn’t matter to him, but it did. How could her own father send her back to the same place she’d lost her mother, lost her childhood? Who did that to their own child? Fuck. Josh wanted to punch something he was so angry. He wouldn’t, he hadn’t given in to those emotions in years, plus he couldn’t lift his fucking right arm.
“Knox didn’t say. He probably doesn’t know either,” Quinn answered.
This just kept getting better and better. Why hadn’t Tempest told him her father worked with POTUS? After everything they’d been through, he thought she trusted him, but maybe he was wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d misjudged her.
“Is he here for the debrief or to check on her condition?” Doc asked.
“Who the hell knows. But I’ve got to report so I can get this shitshow over with. Who’s turn is it?” Quinn asked.
Josh chuckled at the look on everyone’s face. They could plan the most complex missions down to the second, but no one ever remembered who’s turn it was to host the post-mission beer night. The last few times they’d been lucky and returned in time to hit the Ready Room, but not this time.
“I can’t do it, Harmony would kill me if everyone came over in the middle of the night,” Ry said.
“Fine. Come to my house, I’ll pick up a case on the way home. But you can all bring your own damn snacks,” Doc said.
“No problem. I’ll stop and pick up a bunch of shit on my way,” Lucky added.
“All right, see you as soon as I can. And Josh, don’t even think about skipping out on the doc,” Quinn said as he headed over to HQ.
“This fucking sucks,” Doc grumbled.
Each of his teammates echoed the sentiment. They’d faced death together. It forged a bond and changed each of them. Tempest was one of theirs now, even if she’d wasn’t a total badass and never wavered from her mission. None of what happened had been her fault, and he’d make sure the son of a bitch knew it.
“Guess I’ll get this over with. See you later,” Josh said. Then he hooked his pack over his left shoulder and headed for medical. The last thing he wanted to do was see a doctor. The only thing that made it better was that Tempest might be there since she needed to be out checked too. After making sure she was okay, he’d ask her to explain what the fuck was going on.
