Invincible (The Trident Code) (6 page)

The bed shook and awoke
me from sleep. My first thought was that it was an angry wave, but it was Annie shaking. She ran to the bathroom and vomited. Vic gave her more meds and she calmed down for a bit. He went to the living area to watch satellite television and Kyle was on the deck manning the ship.

I warmed some chicken broth in a mug and handed her a ban
ana, 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 that 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 Curaçao— it was burnt to the ground. We searched the island for you and Kyle got a tip that you girls were moved to Aruba so we came here but couldn’t find you. You’d told me that the last thing you remembered on the ship was being in the elevator with that drummer. 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. In fact, the only way you can thank me is never mentioning our i
nvolvement in your rescue.”

She winced. “Oh, okay. I get it. You don’t want to be associa
ted 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 was shaking. “So I have to lie about how I was rescued?”

“I’m not asking you to lie. But I’d prefer you 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 unde
rcover 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, that I found you. I’m only sorry that I didn’t torture the motherfuckers who took you.” I paused … Did I owe her an apology for hiring her to blow me? “Look Annie, I’m not an asshole. I’m a SEAL. I was meant to be in that brothel that night, to find you, to save you. We’d been deployed for seven months, I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife. I’m not a cheater. I didn’t mean to disrespect you or anything.”

She laughed. And for the first time I saw a sexy glint in her eye. “Don’t apologize. You saved me. I’d do it again in a hear
tbeat. Maybe I even enjoyed it.” She glanced down at my pants.

I had to remind myself that she wasn’t flirting with me—that her words came from some kind of survival mechanism where she was probably taught to come on to the clients to get better tips. My thoughts turned to how great it would feel to have her moist mouth wrap around me again. I tried to push the memory of the blowjob she had given me out of my head.

Her eyes seemed distant. “Kyle didn’t have to kill Jose.”

“Are you fucking serious? I wished I’d popped that mothe
rfucker myself, but I was carrying you. My only goal was to get you out of there. 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. “Jose wasn’t that bad co
mpared to the others. He took care of me.”

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

“I know. But sometimes he was nice to me." She laughed and it was hollow. "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 Jose’s
well-being than her own.

“Can I go on the deck?”

“Of course. You don’t have to ask me permission to do anything. You’re safe here. They aren’t going to find you. But you’re not leaving this boat under any circumstances. Once you’re better, we’ll take you straight to the embassy.”  

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 stairs to the deck and just stood there in the breeze, breathing in the Caribbean air. 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.

“Pat! Pat!” I jumped up
from the floor. Annie was pacing around the cabin.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Her hands trembled, her teeth clattered. “I need a fucking fix. Can you get me some smack? Maybe we can sail back and find a dealer. Just a little? I can’t do this. I can detox at home! My dad will send me to one of those Hollywood country club kind of rehabs.”

“No fucking way
am I going to score you dope. And if you haven’t fucking noticed, we’re in the middle of the goddamn ocean.”

Vic opened the door to our room and tried to hand her more meds, but she pushed them out of his hand and they scattered on the floor.

Vic bent over to grab them but I stopped him. “Pick them up,” I said calmly but firmly.

“You can’t fucking tell me what to do,” she hissed. Her pupils were dilated and she had sweat beads on her forehead.

Kyle came in from the living area. He was about to speak, but I signaled to him that I would handle it.

I still didn’t raise my voice. “I said pick them up, Annie. Don’t make me ask you again.”

She cackled. “I don’t have to listen to you. You don't fucking own me. You’re no hero—so fucking pathetic you have to pay for a blowjob from a whore. You’re no better than my pimp. At least he kept me high. At least he could stomach fucking me. I know you want me. What the fuck is your problem? Can’t get it up?”

My muscles quivered. I wasn’t going to engage with her. She was detoxing. I had to remind myself this was normal.

“Pick them up now! That’s a fucking order.”

She spat in my face then crawled on the floor and got the pills.
This wasn’t Annie, this was Star. Like a fucking Jekyll and Hyde.

Vic handed her water and she downed the pills. Then she went into the bathroom, slammed the door, and started the shower.

“She’ll be fine. You guys can go back to bed.”

Kyle spoke in a quiet voice. “This is normal, man. My cousin went through this. He fucking jumped off a balcony trying to score.”

I gave a heavy nod. I couldn’t imagine having her family see her like this. So I accepted this project with no reservations.

Seventy-two hours had passed. The paranoia had set in; her withdrawal was brutal to watch. She flipped from being a sweet yet reserved girl to a paranoid drug fiend. Through it all, I just was
there for her, gave her anything she needed except heroin, talked her down from the highs, up from the lows.

“The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men.”

Her behavior didn’t upset or concern me. I knew she would get through this. She'd gotten through worse.

Kyle, Vic, and I were crammed in the living area, watching te
levision. It didn’t even bother my brothers that they had given up their entire vacation leave to help this girl. I was thankful for them, for my training, for my ability to have the tactical skills to save Annie.

Annie awoke and walked into the living area. Vic handed her water and her meds, and she just pushed back her crazy hair and gave me that crooked smile I had first noticed in the lineup that day.

“How you feeling?” I didn’t know which Annie she would be today.

She nodded her head. “Good. Better. I’m sorry about the other night.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Vic and Kyle headed down to the deck. I wanted to go and hang out with them.

Her eyes narrowed at me. “Why are you doing this, Pat?”

“Doing what?”

“Helping me detox. You could’ve just dumped me at the e
mbassy like this.”

I hated being questioned about my motives. “Your parents have been through enough; I didn’t want them to see you like this. It’s the right thing to do.”

“So that’s it? You’re going to take me to the embassy and I’ll never see you again?” Her voice trailed off.

“Yup. That’s the plan.” Truth was, I was stationed in Cor
onado, so when I came off deployment, I could technically see her again. Her family lived nearby in Encinitas. But that wouldn’t be a good idea. I trained sometimes eighteen hours a day and spent my time off at SEAL watering holes, like Danny’s Palm Bar & Grill. She wouldn’t find me hanging out at the country club with her friends, that was for damn sure.

“What’s your deal? Why don’t you have a girlfriend or a wife? You’re a SEAL. All my sorority sisters would always go SEAL hunting in Coronado and drop their panties in seconds if there were any sightings. You’re gorgeous, sexy,
selfless…. Any girl would be lucky to have you.”

Tell that to my ex. “I’m just not interested. Not until I retire. I can’t be responsible for anyone else when I’m thousands of miles away. And I could die. I wouldn’t want to leave a kid without a dad, like mine did to me.”

“He was a SEAL, too?”

“No. He was a piece of shit who couldn’t take any responsibi
lity for his actions.”

She put her hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. But I pushed it off. “I need to get some fresh air. I’ll be on the deck if you need anything.”

She shrugged her shoulders and just lay back in the bed and pulled the covers over her head.

I needed a break from her, from this intensity. I just wanted everything to be normal, my normal, before I’d ever set foot in that brothel.

Safe on the deck, Vic handed me a beer. “You good?”

“Yup.” I took a sip and sat down. I didn’t even know how to process all the emotions I was going through. It had been so long since I’d had to think about a woman’s fucking feelings.

Kyle grabbed his own beer and sat next to me. “So have you hit that yet?”

Vic just shook his head. “What this fucker means is that you aren't getting too close, are you?”

“Fuck that, Vic. I just want to know if he’s gotten laid. We’re trapped out in the middle of the ocean, with only one girl and three of us. If I’m not getting any, at least he should be. I mean, you’re sleeping in the same room with her every night. Those walls are thin but damned if I don’t hear any headboards banging.”

“You’re both fucking idiots. I’m not in love and I'm not going to fuck her. Not now, not ever. She’s got someone waiting anyway. Probably. He says he is.”

Kyle laughed. “That chump girly-man surfer? Please. He can’t compete with you. You’re a motherfucking SEAL, asshole.”

Vic motioned his hand toward me as if he was my fucking therapist. “So you are trying to tell me you have no feelings for her? At all?”

“That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know her, really. I mean, half the time she’s out of her mind crazy, detoxing. The other half she’s all moody and withdrawn. She’s hot, for sure, but I don’t have a clue who she is. I don't even think she knows who she is.”

“So you haven’t slept with her?” Kyle asked.

“Are you deaf? What the fuck did I just say? I mean, I fucking met her at a brothel and paid her to blow me. I seriously doubt she’s interested in any man after what she’s been through.”

Vic put his arm around me. “You’re a good man, Walsh. When you get back to San Diego, you guys can meet up again and see if you have any common ground.”

“Not going to happen. I don't want to remind her of this. I was one of her clients. She needs someone stable. And that's sure as hell not me."

“But you deserve to be happy. Not all girls are going to cheat on you like Marissa did.”

“Whatever, man. Your wife cheated on you too. I don’t know anyone in the Teams with a good marriage. And it’s not just about that. Annie is so messed up. She’s going to need a man who can be with her, take care of her, protect her. I can never be that man.”

Kyle pounded his beer and looked toward the guest quarters. “That’s the thing. You rescued her. You’ve been taking care of her. You’re already that man, whether you like it or not.”

Shit. I came up here to relax. Now I just wanted to jump overboard. Fucking idiots.

The three of us had spent so many hours together in silence, watching targets, waiting for action. They knew me better than I knew myself. I couldn’t deny the connection I had with Annie, the sense that we were meant to find each other. I wasn’t talking about some crappy romantic movie
insta-love, just this intense feeling we were destined to be in each other’s lives. I saved her. That was enough for me.

The gentle waves rocked beneath me. I lay down under the stars and drifted to sleep.