diff --git a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
index 1d5b513fabc..c3cfa722876 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/gci/configure-helper.sh
@@ -2113,10 +2113,12 @@ function download-extra-addons {
 #
 # $1: URL path after /computeMetadata/v1/ (without heading slash).
 function get-metadata-value {
+    # We do not want quotes for CURL_RETRY_CONNREFUSED
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2086
     curl \
         --retry 5 \
         --retry-delay 3 \
-        "${CURL_RETRY_CONNREFUSED}" \
+        ${CURL_RETRY_CONNREFUSED} \
         --fail \
         --silent \
         -H 'Metadata-Flavor: Google' \