“I didn’t know he left the Navy,” Walker said. It had been a good two months since he’d spoken to Lee. Or anyone else from his old team for that matter. Not because he didn’t care, but because they were still enlisted, and last he’d heard, deployed. “I know his contract was up a few months ago, but he told me he passed the physical.”
“He might have, but he opted not to renew and now he’s looking to work with us,” Hank said. “I know his commanding officer well and from what I’ve learned, Lee tends to be a hothead. You were team leader. Is that true?”
“It is.” Walker saw no reason to lie. “He could be a tad arrogant at times and thought his way was better.”
“Did you often butt heads?” Jake asked.
Walker had to be very careful how he answered this question, but only because he wasn’t sure if he was being asked because they were still unsure about him being a team player, or if they wanted an honest answer. “Lee can be stubborn at times and he always has an opinion.”
“And were those thoughts helpful?” Hank asked.
“Sometimes.” Walker wasn’t lying.
“What about you, Fay? You worked with him,” Hank said.
“You don’t want to know what I think.”
“Yeah. We do.” Hank sat up taller. “And we want you to be honest.”
She shrugged. “I don’t trust him.”
“Like you don’t trust Walker?” Hank cocked his head.
“I never once said I didn’t trust Walker.” Gracefully, she rose. She strolled across the room, lifting the bottle of tequila from its perch on the table by the stairs. She poured a hearty glass and took a sip. “At least not in the same way and it’s Walker that has the trust issues with me.”
Walker lifted his hands. “Not anymore. We’ve worked through that.”
“For the most part.” Fay chuckled.
“So, what’s your problem with Lee?” Hank asked.
She turned and locked gazes with Walker. “Once we finally made it out, Lee confronted me about the execution of my plan to pull Walker’s team out safely. So much had gone wrong before I was even called in. I followed a paper trail that told me there was a mole, but I couldn’t figure out who because whoever it was covered their tracks well. Ultimately, I had to take a risk if I was going to get to them at all and we went in. That was my call. And he thought I made the wrong one.”
“Wait. What?” This was something that Walker hadn’t ever heard. Not from Fay. Not from Lee. Not from anyone. “What exactly did he expect you to do?”
“Wait. Dig a little harder to find out where the leak was before rushing in, trying to make a name for myself. He told me if I had a little more patience, his buddy might not be dead, and you’d still be a SEAL.”
“That’s not really true,” Walker said.
She lifted her drink. “It’s not really false either.”
Fuck. That hadn’t come out right. “If you had waited much longer, we’d all be dead and why was he even discussing a mole? He didn’t believe—”
“He never said mole. He said leak and there is a fundamental difference between the two,” Fay corrected. “And he honestly thought it was me.”
“Why would he think that if you were trying to make a name for yourself?” Jake asked the obvious.
“Lee believed I rushed into rescuing the team, opening the mission up for a number of mistakes, including leaking information, even if it was my accident, because I was up for a promotion, which was true. At least the promotion part was, but I didn’t rush anything.”
“So, you don’t trust him because he doesn’t like you,” Jake said.
Fay laughed. Walker wished he could have pinched or kicked her or something because that wasn’t the right response in front of their bosses. “No. I don’t trust him because he went out of his way not to tell anyone what he believed. If I thought someone was that incompetent, I would have told their supervisor. He chose not to and for that reason, I did a little digging on him and found out—”
“He doesn’t like taking orders from women,” Walker finished her sentence. It wasn’t the first time Walker had come across a man in the military who had problems with women in positions of power. But he hoped it would be the last.
“If that’s the case, I’m not sure he’s going to be a good fit with the Brotherhood Protectors,” Hank said. “We might be heavy on the male side, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t consider putting a qualified woman in charge of a mission.”
“I’ve never known Lee not to fall in line,” Walker said. Again, he wasn’t lying. For the two years Lee was on Walker’s team, Lee always did what was expected, even when he’d made his opposing opinion clear.
“Sounds like that might have taken some doing on your part,” Jake added. “Something I don’t like to deal with in this branch and if we do decide to hire Lee, that shits not going to fly.”
“You should know he’s coming to town for an official interview,” Hank said. “And since we’ve established the two of you as being in a relationship, we don’t want to jeopardize that storyline.”
“We also don’t want to risk anyone else knowing that it’s not true, so our question to you is would Lee buy that the two of you could have hooked up?”
Walker couldn’t believe he was going to admit this.
And in front of his boss.