I wanted to pull over the car and hold her. We approached a stoplight, and I kissed her. “Thanks for telling me. It meant a lot to me. I’m not going to leave you, Annie. I’ll always be here for you.”

“I know. You’re my hero.”

We didn’t talk for the reminder of the drive home. But my thoughts raced. There was no more doubt. I was one hundred percent committed to Annie. Committed to making her happy.

But I still didn’t have the entire story straight. Who were these men, who hired them, and why did they leave them behind, when according to Dave, they were completely capable of saving them?

The only thing I was sure of is that I wouldn’t rest until I found out what the fuck was going on.

23.

I lied to Annie again, and told her I had to work the next day. I headed back to Kyle’s house, but this time, instead of Sara’s fine ass opening the door, I was greeted by Vic.

“Hey man, come inside. I think we’ve got something.”

I followed him back to Kyle’s office. Kyle was in intel and made mission plans like they were football plays: there were pictures, diagrams, timelines, maps. Luckily, we had access to all the SEAL alumni records.

I sat on one of the chairs. “What have we got?”

“Well, I made a list of all men who had left the Teams in the last five years. Then I eliminated all the men who went into non-security-related careers. I was left with one hundred and forty-three men. They were spread out among different countries, different States, different contractors. There were only three gingers. Two of them still work at their security companies, but one of them worked for Neptune Group. He left his security detail, around two and a half years ago.”

“Six months after he found Annie.”

“Exactly. Name is Matt Houston. I asked some buddies who knew him, looks like he checked into rehab. And get this, he lives in Poway.”

Vic jumped in. “And we’re meeting him for lunch in an hour. I fed him some bullshit that I’m thinking about contributing to a foundation for fallen SEALs. He ate it up. Was happy to meet with some Team guys.”

Brilliant. Team guys always welcomed a meeting from a fellow Frog, even if they had never met before. That was one of the benefits of being part of the best fraternity in the world.

We headed inland in Kyle’s Black Cadillac Escalade Hybrid. I texted Annie to see how she was doing. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her before I had to deploy, but I needed to find out the truth.

Matt had recommended that we meet at Brothers Provisions, a sandwich shop that served craft beer on tap in Rancho Bernardo.

As we approached, I scanned the patio. I recognized him immediately. Red hair, still built, looked hardened. I didn’t care if he was a Team guy—I wanted to kill this motherfucker, for fucking my girl and leaving her to die.

“Nice to meet you, Matt. I’m Pat, this is Kyle and this is Vic.” I reached out my hand, but he didn’t take it. His hands had an unsteady twitch, and he was rattling his keys.

He nodded his head and we all went inside to order a few sandwiches and beers. Back out on the patio, we made small talk about different Teams we had been on, a few guys we knew in common, and different deployments.

He took a sip of his beer, and his eyes shifted back and forth. “I need to hit the head.”

He stood up and went inside the shop. Barely a few seconds had passed, and an older model black Ford truck barreled out of the parking lot. He’d been on to us.

We didn’t speak; we knew what to do. I threw down some money for a tip and we hightailed it into Kyle’s Escalade.

I could see Matt’s truck entering I-15 freeway going south.

Kyle chased him down the freeway, dodging in and out of cars. Matt didn’t slow down. Where the fuck was he going?

I didn’t have time for this shit. He slowed to enter the 56 West and I took out my pistol and shot out his back right tire.

He pulled to the shoulder of the freeway, Kyle’s Escalade right behind him.

I saw him reach toward his glove compartment. This motherfucker was going to kill himself. Or us.

We all jumped out to the car, with our weapons.

I approached the vehicle. He had the gun aimed right at me. “You have about ten seconds to unfuck yourself. Matt, put down the gun. We’re not here to kill you. Don’t do anything stupid.”

He kept the gun steady. “He sent you. I didn’t talk to anyone.”

“No one sent us. We are the ones that saved Annie. We did some digging. We just want to talk to you.”

With three guns pointed at his head, he didn’t have much choice. Kyle disarmed Matt without a struggle. I slid into the passenger seat of his truck and handed Matt’s keys to Kyle. I told Vic to get Matt’s spare tire just in case a cop drove by and thought we looked suspicious. Kyle stood guard on the side of Matt’s truck.

I needed some answers. “Start talking asshole. Why did you leave her there? She told you her name.”

He blinked. The creases around his burdened eyes were so deep they looked as if they had been beveled with a blade. “First off, it’s not my fault man. I tried to save her. You have to know that. It started out like a standard job. Missing girl, possibly trafficked. Go to the island and see if she’s alive, if you can find her.”

“Who hired you?”

“Her father. Paid three hundred thousand dollars. Taylor, another former Team guy, and I volunteered. Seemed like a piece of cake—go hang out on Curaçao for a month, all expenses paid, drink, snorkel, rescue a girl, come home. We went down there, started fishing around. Asking locals. Visiting brothels. We had a tip that a girl who matched Annie’s description was at this one brothel. We cased the plac. The first time we went in, our only goal was to see if we thought it was her, identify the tattoo and see what kind of shape she was in. The minute I saw her, I was positive it was Annie. Her hazel eyes, hair, tattoo, scar, height. But we were ordered by our bosses to pick other girls that first night and not her. I was so fucking stoked that day; to think I’d found this kidnapped girl and we’d be bringing her home in a week or so. The girl she was with, Nicole, we didn’t even know she was there. That was a stroke of luck finding her. We’d, of course, read about her disappearance in Aruba. I thought I’d be a fucking hero—saving two Americans. Collect her reward too.”

Cars whizzed by on the freeway. I looked in the rear view mirror, and Vic had the car jack out, pretending to get ready to change Matt’s tire. “So what the fuck happened? Why did you leave her there?”

“I didn’t have a fucking choice. We checked in with our bosses after we found her in the brothel and they reported back to her father. We had a conference call with the motherfucker. He asked me how certain I was it was her, if she looked high, her demeanor, what she was wearing. I told him I’d bet my Trident it was his daughter. She was definitely a heroin user. I saw tracks on her arms when the pimp let me check her out. As long as I live, I will never forget the next words out of his mouth. ‘Leave her there. Forget you ever saw her. With any luck, she’ll overdose soon.’ He said that Annie was an embarrassment to their family. It was her fault for being kidnapped because she was drinking underage with her boyfriend on the cruise. And he didn’t want a daughter who was a heroin addict and a prostitute. No man would ever love her, and she would be a burden to him. She was better off dead.”

My pulse quickened, and I wanted to shoot this motherfucker and save a bullet for Annie’s dad. I was a professional warrior; I knew how to control my emotions. But this was unbelievable.

“Believe me. I begged him to reconsider. I told him we could detox her, and that she’d be hailed a survivor. And with therapy she could integrate back into society. But he wouldn’t consider it. He firmly reminded me of the one million dollar non-disclosure agreement I’d signed. I didn’t have a fucking choice. I haven’t ever told anyone, except you guys. You can’t tell anyone—we have an unbreakable code.”

“I won’t.” He was right. We would never repeat what he was telling us to anyone. Especially since he knew we’d been the ones to rescue Annie. He could ruin our careers. But if I hadn’t told him, he would’ve never talked to me. I needed to know the truth about Mr. Hamilton.

“I racked my brain, thinking of anything I could do to save her. Go rogue, convince my partner Taylor to back me. But he wouldn’t even discuss it, and I couldn’t do it myself. We were ordered to go back a final time to verify with one hundred percent certainty that it was Annie. Which we did.”

He paused and I wondered if he was reminiscing about fucking Annie, remembering her and Nicole going to town on each other. His own personal porno. I watched Matt’s thin lips and I pictured them all over Annie’s body. Her stroking his limp dick. My hand was on the trigger of my gun. Give me an excuse to kill you motherfucker. “Leaving them in that room was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Knowing that I’d found them, but was abandoning them to die. I told the girls I’m sorry, and walked out the door. When I returned to the States, I finished my remaining contracts and quit. I couldn’t work with these people with no integrity. Private contract work is nothing like being in the Teams. There’s no morals, no law.”

I sat there in silence. Completely blown away. I couldn’t even process all the emotions I was feeling.

Finally, I broke the silence. “Nicole died. She overdosed six months later. She’d be alive today if you hadn’t been such a pussy.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “I figured she did. I fucking hate myself, man. I drank myself into oblivion, started doing coke. Ended up in rehab. Don’t have a girl, or a job, living off the disability I get from the VA. I mean, being on the Teams was my life. I was a great SEAL. I’m sure you guys know that, if you did your research on me. Nothing was more important to me than being the best warrior I could be. I pushed away my girlfriend, my family, my friends. Always used the excuse that she couldn’t be faithful when I was away, or that I would be a horrible husband because of my job. That’s my other regret, besides not saving Annie and Nicole, is not marrying my girlfriend. I stalked my ex on Facebook recently. She’s a great woman, married to a Marine, has two beautiful boys. I fucking loved her, but I completely fucked that relationship up. Cheated on her, lied to her. Thought everyone should kiss the ground I walked on and just take my bullshit, because I was a SEAL. I used to be just like you guys, and now I’m just the old Team guy in the bar, reliving my glory days when I play So Com in my studio apartment.”