Free Broken Honor by Tonya Burrows

noise in the hotel room did nothing to help the headache pounding behind his eyes.
    He stalled out in the doorway, unsure if he had the patience to deal with the team right now. Marcus and Jean-Luc had claimed the suite’s couch and were arguing good-naturedly over the football game on TV. Harvard already had his tech stuff spread out on the large dining table and was tapping away at his keyboard while Ian stood at the sink in the kitchenette, filling a bowl with water for his dog, Tank. Seth sat in one of the two deep leather chairs that completed the living room arrangement and added his two cents to the animated football argument. The guy looked happy, more at peace with himself, worlds away from what he’d been only a few short months ago. Meeting Phoebe in Afghanistan had been good for him, had done what no doctors or psychologists had been able to accomplish: she’d given him a solid foundation of love and support on which to build his recovery. Yeah, he still struggled with his PTSD, but he was coping, and Phoebe was helping him do it.
    At the thought of the happy new couple, a twist of longing snaked through Jesse’s chest. He didn’t begrudge them their happiness. He didn’t. He simply…wanted a piece of it for himself.
    And wasn’t that goddamn foolish? You’d think he would have learned by now. He’d already tried the whole falling-in-love thing—not once, not twice, but three times, and they had all ended in divorce.
    He glanced away from Seth and noticed a stranger looming in the corner.
    Who the hell…?
    Eyes narrowed, he studied the man. Big guy, close-cropped dark hair, olive skin—most likely of Hispanic decent. Recognition clicked. This was Jace Garcia, HORNET’s new pilot, hired on shortly after they had returned from Afghanistan. Jesse had met him only once, very briefly, when he was first introduced to the team, but he remembered the pilot wasn’t much of a talker, liked to keep to himself.
    Garcia seemed competent and came highly recommended by Camden Wilde, who had served in the air force with him. Still, Jesse was surprised to see him here. This op wasn’t exactly situation normal for the team.
    Marcus spotted him loitering in the doorway. “Hey, Jess. You have any idea why Gabe called us all back to El Paso?”
    Yeah, he wasn’t in the mood for chitchat. Ignoring the question, he crossed to the window and stared out over the parking lot, but it wasn’t well lit and there wasn’t much to see but the blackness of a desert night.
    “Hello to you, too. What bug crawled up your ass, Warrick?”
    The door opened again, and Gabe Bristow’s quiet, commanding voice overrode the chatter of the TV. “All right, gentlemen. Everyone here?” He scanned the room, nodded in Jesse’s direction. “Good. Time to get down to business, then.”
    Yeah. Business. Jesse snorted in disgust. Like they should’ve been doing hours ago instead of sitting here on their asses, watching football and twiddling their thumbs while they waited for him to arrive. Mara could be on the other side of the world by now, and he shuddered to think of the horrors his sweet, softhearted cousin might be facing at this very moment. She didn’t belong in this world—his world, so full of death and destruction. None of his family did, and he’d done his damnedest to make sure they never got involved in this portion of his life—which had cost him all of his marriages and, now, his son’s love. And yet despite his efforts to keep his two very different worlds from colliding, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d invited this danger to Mara’s doorstep by asking his teammates to help him protect her this summer.
    Gabe shut off the TV and positioned himself at the front of the room. “We have a situation, gentlemen.”
    Seth straightened in his seat and glanced around. His shoulders tightened. “Hey. Wait a minute. Where’s Quinn?”
    For the first time since convening on the hotel, the rest of the guys took