Finding Carly (SEAL Team Hawaii #5)(87)

Carly’s heart was beating a million miles an hour. She was completely on her own…and these were probably her last few minutes on Earth. Gideon was going to kill her. She knew that as surely as she knew her name.

The lessons Elizabeth had pounded into her surged to the front of her brain.

Fight. If you can’t get anyone’s attention, you’ll have to use your own smarts to try to get out of the situation. Whatever you do, you cannot give up. If you do, your attacker wins.

The very last thing Carly wanted was for Gideon to win. No way in hell.

Her mind cleared as if a set of curtains had been thrown back. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but giving up wasn’t on the list.

Maybe she could tackle Gideon and push him overboard. She could then drive the boat back to shore. She had no idea where they were, but if she turned in the opposite direction they were going now, she was bound to run into land at some point.

Or maybe she could pick up the weight tied around her leg and hit him over the head with it, knock him out and, once again, take control of the boat.

Different scenarios spun in her head as she tried to figure out what to do.

“I can see you thinking.” Gideon smirked. “Might as well stop, your poker face is shit. You can’t outwit me. You’re too goddamn stupid. I have no idea what Shawn even saw in you. You’re fucking pitiful, and he told us all about how much you sucked in bed.” He snorted. “The thought of you even attempting to satisfy a man like Shawn is ridiculous.”

“If I was so bad, why’d he care so much when we broke up?” Carly couldn’t help but ask.

“Because he did you a favor!” Gideon yelled. “He was willing to take you under his wing, teach you.”

“Teach me what?” Carly asked.

“How to be a real woman. How to satisfy him. How to be a fucking benefit to society instead of a goddamn leech. You were an embarrassment. All he ever tried to do was make you a better woman, and you threw that in his face! It wasn’t your place to decide when the relationship was over. Shawn wasn’t done with you.”

Carly stared at Gideon in disbelief.

He looked absolutely terrifying right now. The rain had soaked him through and his thinning hair was slicked back on his head. His face was red and his eyes bloodshot. He looked as if he was two seconds away from absolutely losing it.

Gideon took a deep breath and continued speaking. “He was my mentor. Taught me everything I needed to know about women. He even helped me find one. We had her all picked out, I’d started grooming her to be mine, just like Shawn did for you. She was young, impressionable, and she liked me,” he said in a dark, low tone. “But after Shawn died, she didn’t understand why I was so upset. Couldn’t help me. And without him, I didn’t know how to make her come to heel. She left me. Just like you did to Shawn. It’s all your fucking fault! You shouldn’t have left him! If you hadn’t, I’d still have my own woman. She’d be trained by now. Would do whatever I asked. Cook, clean…open her legs whenever I demanded. It’s your fault! Yours!”

Jesus. Shawn was teaching him how to manipulate a woman. How to reel her in and denigrate her and make her feel as if she had no other options but to stay with the man abusing her. She knew Shawn was an asshole, but had no idea he was that big of one.

And Gideon?

Gideon was fucking insane.

Deciding she needed to do whatever she could to mollify the man, Carly said, “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry he’s dead.”

“Your fault!” Gideon screamed, repeating himself. “It’s your fucking fault! But you’ll learn. If it’s the last fucking thing you do.”

“Learn what?” Carly couldn’t help but ask. The words just popped out, and she immediately wished she could take them back. The last thing she wanted was Gideon trying to “teach her” how to please a man. If he tried to rape her, she’d somehow find a way to rip his dick off and feed it to the sharks. The thought of anyone so much as touching her after she’d been with Jag made nausea rise up once more. But this time she held it back, focusing all her attention on her kidnapper.

She couldn’t think about Jag right now, she needed to figure out a way to outsmart Gideon. She was not a stupid little girl, like Shawn thought. She was a grown-ass woman who was going to show this asshole exactly how smart she was…as soon as she thought of a way to get out of this predicament.

“Look how worthless you are. How fucking pathetic,” Gideon growled. “You’ll learn your place. You’re nothing but a useless bitch—and you’re gonna die. And once you do, I can start over, put all of Shawn’s teachings to use and find my own woman again. I’ll make Shawn proud of me.”

Carly’s breath caught in her throat as Gideon lifted his hand and pointed a gun. He’d obviously been holding onto it the whole time, but she’d been too focused on other things to notice. It looked…funny to her. Not like the pistols Jag owned, or the guns she’d seen on TV. The barrel looked longer, a little wider.

“When I decide we’re out far enough, I’m gonna shoot you with a tranquilizer. It won’t kill you right away, but it’ll make you damn sleepy. At least that’s what it does to the lions I use it on.” He laughed loud and long, sounding unhinged. “It’s calibrated for their body weights, so there’s a good chance you’ll be knocked out quick. Then I’m gonna throw you overboard. You’ll sink like a rock. You can try to hold your breath, but it’ll be no use. You’ll be too tired, too overcome by the tranquilizer. And instead of inhaling air, all you’ll get is water in your lungs.