Chapter 17 #2
It was ironic that Baker used those words.
And for the first time, Pid understood exactly how annoying they were.
You couldn’t just tell someone to trust you and have them immediately do so.
He’d been saying the same thing to Monica ever since he met her, and now he had an idea how she must’ve felt.
Pid was just as incapable of trusting her life to someone else, even a fellow SEAL like Baker, as Monica was of instantly trusting him for the same reason.
It was a sobering thought. He prayed he’d have a chance to tell her that he understood how she’d felt every time he said those words.
At the moment, she was probably scared to death, and there was no telling what a psychopath like Shane Beyer might be doing to her right this second.
“He wants me,” Baker repeated, bringing Pid back to the present with a jerk. “He’s hated me since I wrote him up and he got kicked out of the Navy after the subsequent eval. This is a game to him.”
“This isn’t a game,” Pid growled.
“No, it fucking is not,” Baker agreed. “I’ll be there in an hour. Be ready to go.”
“Go where?”
“To get your woman back.”
Monica came to a couple of times, but each time she did, Shane injected her again and she fell back into unconsciousness.
When she woke up a third time, she slowly realized they were on a boat.
If she’d been given the chance, she’d have told Shane that she suffered from seasickness.
Not that he’d have cared. It was probably a good thing she’d been drugged, otherwise the boat would have been puke central from the moment she got on.
Shane didn’t drug her again when he realized she was awake. He simply smiled and asked how she was feeling. As if he was a friendly neighbor, looking out for her well-being.
She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious or where they were, but when she asked, Shane didn’t reply.
All Monica knew was that it was dark, she was scared, and she had a very bad feeling about how this was going to go for her…
especially when Shane didn’t pull into a marina.
He stopped the boat, hopped out, and held out his hand. “Time to go.”
Monica didn’t move from where she was lying in the bottom of the boat. She thought for a second about grabbing hold of the steering wheel, or helm, or whatever it was called on a boat, but Shane laughed.
“Don’t even think about it. Now come on, before I lose my temper. I have a very important meeting to get to.”
With no other ideas, Monica stood—and almost fell flat on her face. She reached out with a hand and caught herself on the side of the wheelhouse. The boat was small, but by the looks of the large engine on the back, it was powerful.
She tried to see something on the shore, but everything was pitch-black. There weren’t any lights. No sign that anyone was nearby who might be able to help her.
“Now, bitch!”
The change in his voice was startling. As if he was two different people. Without a choice, Monica walked toward him. As soon as she was within reach, he grabbed her upper arm and yanked her toward him.
She would’ve fallen if it wasn’t for his hold. The second she stepped onto the shore, she yelped in pain. Whatever she’d stepped on hurt. Bad.
Shane laughed again. “I forgot you don’t have shoes on. You have two choices.”
Monica was sick of him saying that. She never liked any of the choices he gave her.
“You can walk, or I can carry you.”
“I’ll walk,” she said immediately, not wanting this guy’s hands on her. Besides, if she walked, she might have a chance to get away at some point.
He smirked. “Right. Then let’s go.” He released her arm and turned his back, walking inland.
Monica took another step, and winced. Then another, crying out as a particularly sharp rock pierced the tender skin of her instep. There was no way she could walk on whatever rocks were under her without shoes. And there was zero chance she’d be able to make a run for it.
Shane turned back. “Change your mind?” he sneered.
“Where are we? Why can’t you just leave me on the boat and go to your meeting without me?” she asked.
He stalked back toward her, but Monica refused to cower.
“We’re on Hawaii. The island, not the state, in case you were confused.
The ground beneath your feet is lava. It’s sharp as fuck when it hardens and cools.
Kilauea started erupting again recently.
Gave me the best idea. But, in order to put my plans in motion, I needed bait.
And you, my dear, are that bait. No offense. ”
Monica stared at the man in confusion.
“I was going to grab one of the other women, but you and I have unfinished business. You got away from me once. I couldn’t let it happen again.
That would make me look bad.” He laughed again, a sound that grated on Monica’s nerves…
and let her know that something definitely wasn’t right in the man’s head.
“Now, we don’t have a lot of time to get to our rendezvous point. I’ve already called my friend, and I know he’ll do whatever it takes to get here as fast as he can.”
Then Shane moved, coming at her so fast, Monica didn’t have a chance to retreat. Not that she’d be able to with the incredibly sharp lava under her feet.
He grabbed her wrist and roughly yanked her toward him. He moved his hold to her biceps and squeezed so hard, Monica knew she would have a nasty bruise. That was the least of her worries.
“Don’t even think about trying to get away.
There’s nowhere to go, and the lava is flowing even faster and more widespread than it was a few years ago.
There’s no one around here, all the houses were overtaken by the lava from Kilauea.
We’re completely alone. The last thing you’d want is to find yourself in the dark, surrounded by lava, right?
” Then he laughed again. “Now get on my back,” Shane ordered.
Monica wanted to say no. Wanted to protest, to fight him, something. But he had the upper hand and they both knew it.
Feeling more frightened than she could ever remember being, even around her father, Monica awkwardly hopped onto Shane’s back. It was so dark, there weren’t any lights no matter which direction she looked. It almost felt as if they were on a different planet. A deserted one.
After clicking on a light he’d strapped around his head, he put his hands on her ass, which made her skin crawl, and headed off into the darkness.
Monica closed her eyes and prayed whoever he was going to meet in the middle of this literal hell might help her. But if he, or she, was someone Shane worked with, someone just as amoral and evil as he was, she was in deep shit.
Her thoughts turned to Stuart as they trudged farther and farther inland.
She wondered what he’d thought when he came home and she wasn’t there and his door was shattered.
Would he be able to figure out who took her?
Maybe…but the more depressing thought was that it was unlikely he’d be able to find her.
Why would he ever think to look on a different Hawaiian island, in the middle of a lava flow?
It was clear she was on her own. She’d have to figure out a way to escape.
She had to survive—because she’d been given an amazing gift. And she hadn’t realized it until this moment.
Stuart was one of the good guys. One of the best. He was nothing at all like her father. Nothing like her dad’s military friends. Nothing like the evil man currently using her, a stranger, to get revenge on someone else.
She’d seen a few psychologists over the years, and they’d all told her exactly what Stuart had—she was letting her experiences as a child rule her life as an adult. But she’d refused to truly believe them. They hadn’t suffered what she had. They could never understand.
But as she was carried over a frickin’ lava field, everything they’d ever tried to impart finally sank in.
Life was short. Damn short. She could spend it closed off and bitter over the rough hand she’d been dealt…or she could make a conscious decision to be happy. To not let her father rule her life any more than he already had. To this day, she was giving him the power he’d always wanted.
Stuart had told her she could trust him time and time again, and she’d blown off his words.
But now that she was in the hands of a madman, a man exactly like her father, she realized the one man she’d refused to trust—despite his patience, kindness, and generosity—was her best chance of being saved.
She had a lot of regrets about her life, but not trusting Stuart was right there at the top.
No. Stuart wasn’t anything like her father.
And everyone she’d met because of him was just as honorable.
Just as kind. Being in the military didn’t make someone a monster.
She’d painted all soldiers and sailors with the same tainted brush.
It sucked that it had taken something like this happening to make her realize how much she loved Stuart.
And that she truly did trust him.
Monica had no idea how this would end, but she hoped she’d have a chance to see Stuart one more time. To tell him how much she cared about him. That she knew he was a good man, and she trusted him with everything in her.
Closing her eyes, she held onto her kidnapper and prayed whatever he had planned, for her and for his mysterious friend, didn’t end in both their deaths.
Shane “Bull” Beyer smiled as he walked over the barren landscape. He’d waited years for this moment. He replayed his short phone call with his former team leader in his head. Meat had been pissed; it was easy to hear it in his voice. Said that if Bull hurt Monica, there’d be hell to pay.
Bull had laughed. Meat wasn’t in charge anymore.
He no longer had the power to order him around; nothing he said could change what Bull was going to do.
There was little doubt the asshole would do exactly as he’d been ordered and come to the coordinates Bull had given him.
Meat was a pussy and a pushover. Always had been.
Even when they were on missions back in the day, Meat refused to hurt women or children. Bull had argued with him more than once, swearing the dumb bitches were just as deadly as the men. Meat hadn’t listened.
But he was listening now.
Thanks to Monica, Meat would join them soon for a little chat. Of course, Bull didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to hear anything Meat had to say. No. He just wanted to kill his former team leader, then get rid of the bitch. The lava would cover his tracks and vaporize the bodies.
And Bull would disappear once more, free to live off the money he’d amassed throughout the last decade.
Smiling wider, almost giddy knowing revenge was finally within reach, Bull walked faster.
The bitch was heavier than she looked for someone so short, but he was getting close to the rendezvous point.
He’d picked an area that had been decimated a few years ago by the lava flow.
Completely deserted, with zero chance anyone would interrupt.
Not only that…the lava was headed for the same area it had overtaken before.
Bull laughed out loud this time and felt the woman on his back stiffen.
Good. He hoped she was scared to death. She was a means to an end, collateral damage, and he felt no remorse whatsoever for what was about to happen.
Her death was Meat’s fault. Everything was his fault.
If he’d been a better man, a smarter man all those years ago, and had seen Bull for what he was—an asset to the Navy and a damn good SEAL—none of this would’ve happened.
Anticipation flowed through Bull’s veins. He couldn’t wait to see Baker “Meat” Rawlins again. Then watch as he died a slow, painful death.