“They won’t.” I knew they could, but I really didn’t think they would. If we’d lost a hostage, sure. But with all the valuable American assets back safe and sound, they’d be stupid if they tried to get too heavy handed with us.
Eden glanced up at me, his tongue swiping across his lower lip. “If this is it, you should know it’s been an honor serving with you.”
My lips rose into a smirk as I arched a brow at him. “It has? Really? That’s great, Phillips. Tell me again at our retirement party fifty years from now.”
He rolled his eyes at me, but my confidence seemed to give him something of a boost. “Cocky asshole.”
“You love it—”
“Dobbs?” a curt voice called. An officer I didn’t know stepped out of the room the panel had convened in, turning his steely-gray eyes on me. “Lincoln Dobbs?”
“That’s me.” I gave Eden a final smirk, planted my clean white cap at an angle on my head, and went to face my fate.
Despite what I’d just told Eden, I wasn’t a fucking robot. Nerves buzzed like angry hornets beneath my skin, but I refused to let it show. What we had done had been the right call. I just had to make the panel see that.
I’d expected the room we were going to be in to be decked out like some kind of court in a fantasy movie. Perhaps there would be raised seating around a coliseum-like arena or, at the very least, some hooded figures standing behind evenly spaced podiums.
In reality, it was just another room on the base. A plain long desk that looked like any self-assembled picnic table had the three superior officers behind it who held my career in their hands.
Commander Charles fucking Cantor had the seat in the middle. The man was a highly decorated officer who had been a SEAL instructor since before I’d been born.
His square jaw was set, and his spine was so straight that there had to be a broomstick up his ass keeping him from slouching over. Hazel eyes filled with hate met mine, and his mouth twisted into a grimace.
Every time he saw me, it was like he suddenly smelled shit. He wasn’t a nice guy, and he’d been vocal in his dislike of me before. And he’s the guy who has to decide if I get to keep doing the job I love.
Charles and I had never seen eye to eye. I had no reason to believe we’d start now.
Thankfully, it wasn’t all in his hands. I planted my feet about a foot apart once I reached the spot where I had to stand, snapping my fingers to my forehead in a salute. One of the men sitting next to Charles nodded. “At ease, Dobbs. Have a seat.”
The officer playing bailiff for the proceedings gestured to a plastic chair behind a table the size of a pea. I folded my big body in behind it as best I could, but my knees kept hitting the underside of the fucking thing. It was like it had been made for a first grader.
A hint of a cruel smile appeared on Charles’ features, but his colleagues waited expressionlessly for me to get settled.
Once I was, the Lieutenant Commander and Commander sat back while Charles preened like a peacock. Clearly, he was running the show today. Just my luck.
“Dobbs.” He folded his arms on the table. “You’re here to discuss your actions during your most recent mission to Tehran.”
“Yes, sir.” I fixed him with my gaze.
He narrowed his but didn’t look away. “Your mission was to locate American hostages and extract them, correct?”
“Yes, sir. We achieved both objectives.”
The Lieutenant Commander next to Charles nodded, but the man himself didn’t move a muscle. “You did, but you failed to wait for the order to move forward. According to the report, a firefight broke out before we had cleared the civilians from the area.”
There was no question there, but I answered anyway. “That is correct.”
“Are you aware that gunfire kills people, Dobbs?” He pursed his lips. “Particularly when being fired by hostiles within their own territory.”
“Yes, sir.”
A predatory gleam entered his eyes, and he leaned forward like he was going in for the kill. “In light of that, would you agree that your actions put the lives of the very hostages we sent you to save in danger?”
“No, sir, I would not.” I made eye contact with him first, then with each man beside him. “All the hostages were extracted safe and sound, sir. Their lives were in danger for the entire time they were in that building. Our actions did not place their lives in further danger. We saved them.”
He banged his fist against the table, his face turning an alarming shade of puce. “Your actions drew armed hostiles toward those hostages. Your actions caused said hostiles to fire on those hostages. How in God’s name can you justify something like that?”
“With all due respect, sir,” which, admittedly, wasn’t much, “suggesting that we drew armed hostiles toward the hostages is disingenuous. The hostiles were on the property, already armed and already wielding their weapons against our people. What we did got them away from their captors.”
“Without waiting for the order authorizing you to take any action whatsoever,” he barked. A vein in his forehead bulged, and his hands curled into fists. “Do you understand how the command structure works?”
“I do, sir. We waited for the order, but it never came. A window of opportunity presented itself when all the hostiles vacated the area where the hostages were being kept. After days of surveillance, that was the first time they’d left the hostages alone and none of their captors were in their immediate vicinity.”
“Why do you think that makes it okay to move without permission from
