Standing behind Ham was North, another former SEAL who’d helped rescue Colt in Nigeria. Also blond, but built like a lumberjack, North greeted him. And then Colt turned to Jake Silver, again, a former SEAL who Colt met during their scuba training a year ago when Jake had joined the team. Ham had brought them all to Minnesota for a meetup and some diving in the lake that bordered his property. Colt had spent a couple evenings on Jake’s Hobie Cat, catching the wind on said lake.

“Hey, you’re here.”

The voice issued from the stairway that overlooked the great room. Colt turned, his heart thumping. “Fraser?”

His buddy Fraser Marshall stood, healthy and whole, grinning from the second story. Last time he saw Fraser, the man had been his wingman in captivity with the Boko Haram, trying to stay alive and figure out how to escape, even with his broken wrist.

“Hey, buddy,” Fraser said. “I knew you were too stubborn to die.”

Tae’s hand tightened in his.

He glanced at her. She knew the shape he’d been in when they’d pulled him out. But so did Fraser. Colt nodded. “Always. How’s that wrist?”

Fraser threw down a towel from the second story. Colt caught it. “Better every day,” Fraser said. “Get changed. We’re taking the boat out.”

“You guys on vacation here?” Colt turned to Ham.

“It’s a sweet setup, but no. We’re here for the same reason you are. There’s a national threat and President White asked us to help. We’ll brief you later tonight. For now, we’re just doing a training evolution. I’m dropping you all off out in the ocean. You get to swim back,” Ham said.

“Right now?”

“It’s not luck, dude,” Jake said. He headed up the stairs, as if to go change.

Right. One of the SEAL sayings. It’s not luck, but hard work. Colt turned to Ham. “I forgot how many former SEALs you have on the team.”

“There’s plenty of room for Delta,” Ham said. “I’ll loan you a shorty if you want to join us.”

A shorty—as in a short wet suit.

And weirdly, suddenly, his chest tightened. As if somehow the thought of diving into the ocean and swimming five klicks back to shore might sink him.

Not even a little. “Gimme ten to get us settled.”

Tae looked at him. She wore a be careful look in her eyes. But then swallowed and hiked up a smile.

Huh. Still, it raked up the memory of his weirdly temperamental heart. That, and the fear Tae wore in her eyes that night on the dock. So maybe he didn’t have anything to prove to anyone. At least anyone outside himself.