Michael awoke in a house and room he was well familiar with: Ian’s secluded Carmel Valley safe house. The pain in his side ignited instant recollection of his fall from the Triton in a snarling tangle with Rodriguez and Hono. “Kaitlyn,” he called in a weaker voice than anticipated.

Beside him, a familiar feminine voice called to the room next door, “Bloody hell, he’s awake. Someone get Ian.”

Next, the voice was paired with two sets of large hands that held him down as he tried to sit up. “Take it easy, Stitch,” said Hono. “You lost some juice, but we’re setting you back to rights.”

Michael lifted his heavy eyelids and focused first on the big Polynesian that had saved his ass on the Triton, then on Hach, the other man holding him down. His blurred vision corrected itself almost instantly. “Where is Kaitlyn?” he asked in a menacing tone, afraid he already knew the answer.

Ian materialized in the doorway. “She’s in safe hands, brother.”

Don’t give me that shit, Ian. If she’s not here with us, then she’s not in safe hands.”

Two more men piled into the room and surrounded Michael on the bed. “We’ll retrieve her as soon as possible,” Ian replied as they all folded over Michael to prevent his imminent explosion. “I need you to be patient brother, and let your body heal before you go storming after her.” He inserted a needle into the cannula in Michael’s vein and injected a pain killer that would make him sleep.

“How the hell did this happen? The plan was to bring her with us!”

“This…plan will work out better for everyone. She’s doing what needs to be done; she’s safe and well, which is more than I’ve been able to say about you in the past 24-hours.”

Fear and rage flooded Michael’s face when he realized how long he’d been incapacitated—how long Kaitlyn had been lost to him again. “If anything happens to her before we extract her, brother, your ass is grass!” His words died in his throat as the medication took hold, and the men restraining him were able to breathe again.

“That went better than expected,” said Hono, with relief.