THE BED RATTLED AND THE vibrations on the floor awoke me from sleep. My first thought was it was an angry wave, until I realized it was Annie who was shaking. Her little boy popped up in bed, his hair disheveled, and let out a whimper. She ran to the bathroom and slammed the door.

I didn’t know what the fuck to do. I sat on the bed next to Gabriel.

“Hey buddy, you want to check out the boat?”

I had nothing to offer him—totally ill-equipped to entertain a toddler. No toy trains or cars. No crayons or stickers. I didn’t want to touch him, scare him. I hadn’t a clue what kind of life he’d grown accustomed to, who took care of him while Annie worked. Fuck—I still didn’t know who his dad was, and for that matter, if I’d killed him.

I could hear Annie gagging and retching.

Gabriel looked around the room, his eyes fixed on the tiny porthole.

“Boat?” he said.

“Yes—we’re on a boat. Do you want to see it?”

He nodded and put his arms around my neck. His affection startled me, so trusting, so warm. I carried him to the deck where Kyle was manning the ship.

“Hey, little man.” Kyle came from a big family with a bunch of nieces and nephews. “You want to help me steer?”

A smile broke out on Gabriel’s face. Kyle offered his hand to Gabriel, and the little boy happily took it, and stepped up to the control panels.

Kyle turned to me, “I got this. Anyway, we need to talk about what we’re going to do with them.”

Vic interjected. “She’s right, you know. We can’t drop her off at the embassy, with her son. He’s a Dutch National. They could prevent him from leaving the country.”

“I know. What are our options?”

Kyle spoke, his hands helping Gabriel steer the wheel. “We can sail her back to San Diego.”

“No way. We don’t have the supplies, it will take at least two weeks, and I’ve never sailed through the Panama Canal. She’s detoxing. This isn’t even our boat.”

Vic stretched out on the deck. “We don’t have a choice, Walsh. Unless you marry her and take them on a Navy cruiser. The consulate might try to locate Gabriel’s family, might investigate our mission at the brothel. I already radioed Dave. I didn’t give him the details about Annie, but I asked him if there was any way we could take the boat to San Diego. He said yes—as long as we took him.”

Great, just fucking great. Not exactly the way I wanted to spend the few weeks of leave I get a year. But they were right. I didn’t have a choice. I’d see this mission through to the end. And I trusted Dave, we’d used his weapons for the rescue anyway. “Fine. Let’s go tell Annie. Kyle, radio Dave and confirm everything. Make sure he gets enough supplies for us, Annie, and the boy. Toys and stuff, too.”

Kyle grabbed the radio. “Roger that. Go take care of Annie.”

Vic headed back to the room with me, carrying his medical bag. “How’s she doing?”

“She woke up and puked.”

We entered the room; Annie was sitting on the bed, her hair wet, her skin bluish.

Vic gave her more meds, and she calmed down for a bit. He then went to the kitchen to make us all breakfast.

I led Annie into the living area. I warmed some chicken broth in a mug and handed her a banana, which was about the extent of my cooking skills. “You need to eat. Here.”

She took a sip of the broth and relaxed into the chair. “I thought I was dreaming. I can’t believe I’m really free. When we moved islands, I thought my one chance was gone forever. How did you find me?”

I studied the girl sitting in front of me. She already looked different to me than she had when I’d last seen her in the brothel. She seemed lighter, like a weight had been lifted from her soul. But her skin was pale and her hair was lifeless. She still had a long way to go before she fully returned to the land of the living. “I went back to the brothel in Aruba—it was burnt to the ground. We searched the island for you and Kyle got a tip that you girls were moved to Curaçao, so we came here. You’d told me the last thing you remembered at the resort was being in the elevator with that dancer. He was playing at a bar and I followed him. I thought I saw you in the window, so I took a chance and here we are.”

Sweat dripped from her forehead. “That’s amazing. You’re amazing. How can I ever thank you? My dad, he has money. . .”

I raised my hand up. “Stop. I’m not interested in money. Your father has offered a reward, a huge one at that, but I don’t want it. In fact, the only way you can thank me is never mentioning our involvement in your rescue.”

She winced. “Oh, okay. I get it. You don’t want to be associated with me. I understand.”

“That’s not it. We all need to be anonymous to do our jobs in the Teams. And this was off-record. We didn’t get permission from our command. We could get disciplined and ruin our careers.”

Her eyes closed and her jaw shook. “So I have to lie about how I was rescued?”

“I’m not asking you to lie. But you need to leave our names out of it. Our names and pictures can’t be plastered over the media or we’ll get kicked out of the Teams. We can’t exactly go undercover if the world knows our identities.”

She took a small bite of the banana. “I get it. I’m sorry I got you involved in this.”

I touched her shoulder. “Hey. Don’t say that. I’m not sorry. I’m not sorry about any of it. How I met you, that you told me your name, or how I found you. I’m only sorry I didn’t torture the motherfuckers who took you.” I paused … I had to ask about Gabriel. “Your son—his dad?”

“Renzo, the dancer.” Her eyes seemed distant and dare I say, sad. “You didn’t have to kill him.”

“Are you fucking serious? I actually would’ve let him go, but he reached for his weapon. Cocky motherfucker was laughing. My only goal was to save you and your son. Especially now, knowing he was the boy’s father, he could’ve tried to kill us all since we were taking his son away. He kidnapped you. How can you even say that?”

I couldn’t read her. Her mouth was turned downward in a frown yet she was nodding her head. “Renzo wasn’t that bad compared to the others. He took care of me.”

This poor fucking girl was identifying with her captor. I’d studied that shit. “Annie, he was a fucking pimp. He sold you.”

“I know. But sometimes he was nice to me, like when I was pregnant. And he was good to Gabriel.” Her eyes shifted. “Sorry, it’s just hard for me.”

Jesus, this girl needed some serious psychotherapy. I knew she’d be messed up, but she seemed to care more about Renzo’s well-being than her own. Or her son’s.

“We’re going to sail you to San Diego. It will take a couple of weeks.”

She beamed at me. “Oh, Patrick. Thank you. You truly are a hero.”

I hated being called a hero. This was my job. Any Team guy would’ve done the same. “You’re welcome. I need you to focus on getting better. Somehow I don’t think this journey will help with the detox.”

“I can do it. I’m not scared of anything. Now that I know we’re going home.”

She wouldn’t be saying that tomorrow, when the withdrawal kicked in. But I would be here for her, every step of the way.

“Where’s Gabriel?”

“On the deck with Kyle.”

“Can I see him?”

“Of course. You don’t have to ask me permission to do anything. You’re safe here.”

Pushing herself off the chair, she walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek. “I know I’m safe. You’re here.”

She climbed down the ladder to the deck and stood there in the breeze, breathing in the Caribbean air. Gabriel ran up to her and she scooped him in her arms, pointing at the ocean. He kissed his mama. I could see she loved him, that she didn’t see him as the son of her captor, just as her adorable little boy.

I wanted to ask her a thousand questions, about her life before she was taken, about the horror she had endured, but I was in too deep already.