The Suicide Project (Rebirth Book 1) (23 page)

Gideon exhaled a shaky breath as he continued, “Instead of a happily ever after, my family all congregated on me the same week my grandmother was buried. They were all convinced that she had left something for me in her Will. They wanted the money she left me and I was threatened and beaten almost on a daily basis by Cody and my brothers. I couldn’t get away from them. I couldn’t get help. There was no one to turn to. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house and they were starving me.” Belatedly, I remembered how thin Gideon had been when he arrived here, and I grew angry that this was the reason why he had been so skinny. “I lost track of how long I had been a prisoner for in my own home. I didn’t have a car, I didn’t have a bike, and I didn’t have a phone. I couldn’t get away.”

“Since I would’ve rather died than let my grandmother’s money fall into their greedy undeserving hands, that’s what I decided to do. I waited one night until everybody had gone to bed. I was so weak from hunger, I almost wasn’t strong enough to tie the belt from my robe around the hook that was in the ceiling of my closet. I remember standing on my chair, and I put the belt around my neck, and I just kicked the chair away and let myself drop. I remember being irritated because as I was losing consciousness, my legs were twitching and the heels of my feet were uncontrollably drumming against the closet wall and I was afraid that one of my brothers would find me and beat me as punishment before I had a chance to die.”

I didn’t bother swiping at the tears that pooled at the corners of my eyes and slid down my cheeks. Sam’s story was horrible, but I was absolutely mortified over what Gideon had to suffer through. “Jesus,” I muttered, disgusted with Gideon’s family. I kissed his forehead and sniffled, sharing in his pain.

“I remembered seeing light and hearing shouting, and I felt hands grabbing roughly at my legs and around my waist. And that’s the last I remember of my previous life. I guess it goes to show how desperate my family was to purposely torture and starve me for nearly 9 months, all for a measly $6k.”

I froze at that and stared at Gideon in confusion. “Sweetie… your grandmother left you a little over half a million dollars. You had $600k in your account that she gave you.” When Gideon continued to look at me blankly, I shot a look over my shoulder at Sergeant Ramsey. His back was still to us as he stood there blocking our view of Mercer and Sam. As if sensing my attention, he responded without looking at us, “Teagan’s right, son. You have about $600k that was left to you, and its safe and sound here in your personal military account. I made sure yer idiotic family didn’t lay a grubby finger on your money.” I heard the smugness in his voice, and was again proud that he looked out for us and protected our assets when we were helpless to do so.

Smiling in satisfaction, I turned back to Gideon and saw the shock on his face. “How did
you
know that Teagan?”

Shrugging I answered, “It came up the other day when Jamie was explaining how and why they had possession of all my old stuff from my apartment.”

I watched his face crumple with emotion again as he came to terms with the enormity of what his grandmother had tried to do for him. I shared in his sadness that his life should’ve improved dramatically if only his circumstances had been different. After all, he had just turned 18 and it was supposed to be an age of excitement and learning experiences when he left home and reveled in the college life. It was a time of growth when he learned how to be an adult and provide for himself, and become a contributing member of society. Life should have been fun and carefree at that age. I pondered what I could’ve possibly done differently in his place if it were me, but I agreed that his situation was a little on the hopeless side. But not impossible. I probably would’ve tried to run away in the middle of the night instead, in order to start over in a different state where they couldn’t find me. But what’s done was done, and the past was over.

I carefully wiped away his fresh tears with my thumbs and murmured to him soothingly. “You’re safe now and in a better place where none of them can ever touch you again. You have a new and improved family that I think your grandmother would’ve been proud to meet. You’re practically a celebrity in this place, and you even have your own Fan Club! Best of all, you have possession of all your money, so take comfort in the fact that those cretins who used to be your family weren’t able to spend a single penny of it! It’s all yours to do whatever you want with.” I smiled at him tenderly as I tried to cheer him up, but as he gazed back at me intensely, I saw a new emotion cross his features. I stilled as I identified the look…longing.
Uh oh!
Uncomfortable with the direction that his thoughts may have gone in, I tried to pop up to my feet when I realized I was still perched on his lap. His arms were quick to wrap around my waist like steel bands though, keeping me firmly in place. When I looked back in his eyes, the longing was still there, along with a small knowing grin as he realized I was trying to keep things platonic.

Geez!
I had no problems thinking of Sam and Gideon in a brotherly sense, so why was it so hard for Gideon to think of me as his sister? Hmm…maybe it was because he didn’t have any sisters in his former life. Regardless, he knew I was determined to keep our trio a “family” so it kind of sucked that he was earnestly trying to sway me otherwise.
Persistent little bugger.
Part of the problem was that even though I was only four years older than him, I was kind of old fashioned in my beliefs of having an older boyfriend. Not that I was even entertaining the idea of jumping back in the dating scene right now…I was nowhere near ready for that.

Clearing my throat, I looked down pointedly at his arms and back to him. Grinning, he replied, “Can’t I at least have one more hug of comfort?” I rolled my eyes and snorted at him, but decided to comply with his request. He had been through a lot after all. I wrapped both my arms around his neck again and squeezed gently as I rested my cheek on top of his head. I figured he really did need more comforting and wasn’t just trying to cop a feel. As I rubbed his upper shoulders, my eyes swiveled to the camera mounted in the hallway. I hadn’t even noticed it!
Son of a bitch!
Of course it was pointing down right at us. I didn’t want to have any witnesses of Gideon’s uber crush on me. Sighing in exasperation, I gave it the death glare before easing myself off of Gideon’s lap. This time he let me go. As a reward, I gripped his lower jaw and turned his face to the side to administer an over-exaggerated smooch on his smooth, dimpled cheek. “MWAHHH!” He chuckled at me fondly for a few seconds.

As he tried to rise to a standing position beside me, I gripped his shoulders to keep him down on the bench. “Will you try something for me Gideon? Just try, that’s all I ask. If it doesn’t work, we can try again tomorrow until your fear goes away.” Now that he knew I was referring to an experiment with Mercer, his jaw clenched with tension and I saw the fear re-enter his eyes. Patiently, I stood there and waited for his answer. I wasn’t going to force him and he knew it. The decision was all his. The nod of agreement was so slight, I almost didn’t see it. “Are you sure?” Again, another slight nod of agreement.

“Take a deep breath and close your eyes, okay? Promise me you won’t peek. Keep them shut the entire time until I say you can open them again, okay?” Another slight nod of his head before he did as I asked. “Keep breathing deep and steady Gideon.”

I pivoted and strode down to where Sergeant Ramsey and Sam waited. “Are ya sure you know what yer doin’ girly?” The concern in his voice was evident, but it all came down to trust. I didn’t know if it would work, but I was sure hoping it would at least help ease Gideon into being around Mercer. I just shrugged in reply and reached for Mercer’s leash. The puppy was so happy to be next to me again, that his tail started whacking Sam’s upper shoulder in a steady “thump, thump, thump”. Sam was tickled over Mercer’s antics and I was relieved to see that at least he already adored the dog as much as I did.

“I need you guys with me for backup just in case.” Sam stood up, and they both followed me down to where Gideon sat. I was pleased that he was still breathing deeply and loudly for my benefit, although his breathing started picking up in pace since he couldn’t ignore the fact that Mercer was trotting closer. The little metallic tinkling of the vaccination tags on his collar announced his arrival. I knelt down on the ground and reached out for Gideon’s left hand. He wasn’t expecting the contact since his eyes were shut, and he jumped, startled.

“Just me, big guy. Keep on breathing, but slow it down some. You’re on the verge of hyperventilating. Breathe with me, just like this.” I demonstrated noisily the pace that I wanted him to breathe in. Slowly, his breathing started to match mine as he focused on listening to my breaths. I glanced at Mercer next to me and grinned as he cocked his head to the side, clearly wanting to know what I was doing. I had been gently stroking Gideon’s hand, but I slowly picked it up in both of mine and held it out towards Mercer’s mouth.

“You’re doing good, Gideon. Don’t think about your hand, just keep on breathing with me.” He started to tremble, and his breathing got choppy again, but he visibly struggled to keep his breathing paced with mine. I definitely gave him an “A” for effort. As I pulled Gideon’s hand closer, Mercer delicately sniffed at it, before deciding to give it an enthusiastic tongue washing. Gideon made a strangled whimper deep in his throat as Mercer made contact, but Gideon didn’t bolt or open his eyes.

Smiling at Sam and Sergeant Ramsey over my shoulder, I saw them watching us, but their expressions showed they were clearly undecided as to whether I was actually helping Gideon or making the problem worse.
Pessimists!
When Mercer decided he was done licking Gideon’s hand, he turned his head and bathed my chin and cheek with his puppy slobber. I squealed with laughter and admonished, “Not me, Mercer! You’re supposed to be licking Gideon, you goofy doggy!” I saw one corner of Gideon’s mouth quirk as he listened to my reprimand.

“Okay, I think that’s a great first start, Gideon! You did awesome! Remember to keep your eyes shut!” Rising to my feet, I took the leash and led Mercer back down the hallway again. Sinking to the floor beside him, Mercer rolled over onto his back, so I obligingly started to scratch his belly before calling out, “Okay, you can open your eyes again!” I thought that if Gideon saw the pup in a playful, non-threatening stance, it would help diminish his phobia a little.

When he opened his eyes and saw us several yards away, he looked dazed that he had gotten that close to Mercer and didn’t have any physical injuries to show for it. “Baby steps, Gideon!” I called. “We’ll conquer this dog phobia of yours and you’ll grow to be buddies with Mercer, I just know it!”

After darting a quick glance at his watch, Sergeant Ramsey clapped his hands twice to get our attention and to bring an end to my little Gideon/Mercer experiment I had going on. Internally, I acknowledged that Gideon would probably need several counseling sessions with Dr. Duffy before his dog phobia improved. I definitely considered this first meeting a success though.

“Okay y’all, the other sergeants and I have decided to end Gym time for today, because the other participants have reached their limit and can’t go any further. They claim that they’re all about to drop dead from exhaustion. Bunch of drama queens and whiners if ya ask me. In their defense we
have
worked them hard today, although they’re still not anywhere near caught up to you three yet. So, y’all will take a little break to go back to your rooms and shower before changing into casual clothes. The others are all in the Mess Hall eating a late lunch at the moment.”

I fell back as Sergeant Ramsey started leading us towards the exit. Gideon did great with Mercer earlier, but I didn’t want to push my luck freaking him out by having him walk alongside the puppy. Sergeant Ramsey looked at us over his shoulder as he continued explaining the plans for the remainder of the afternoon.

“I’ve decided that we’ll hold a class this afternoon which you three will join. It’s sort of a Geography class, and we’ll be teaching you the Geographical Coordinate System so that each one of you will be able to find any location on earth simply by following a set of coordinates. You’ll learn latitude and longitude, and basically how to properly read a map in case all y’all forgot how to do that, or if ya never learned it in school to begin with. These are skills you need to learn for upcoming missions in the future. And before you ask Teagan, yes Mercer can go with you. Your dog is to stay by your side at all times unless we state otherwise. He already knows basic commands like sit, stay, and lay down.”

I was pleased with that announcement and grinned happily down at Mercer. “Will he get to stay in my room too? I need to shop for a doggy bed and a name tag. And treats!”

“We have a temporary dog bed that he’ll probably be too big for in a few months at the rate he’s growing. I’ll have it delivered to your room while you’re in class this afternoon. Anything else you need, you’re more than welcome to buy with the leftover money that you didn’t spend from yesterday. You had a $2k limit, and you only spent a quarter of that on exercise clothes and sneakers. I was shocked that you didn’t blow it all in under 30 minutes. I thought you girls all liked to shop.”

“Oh yeah old man? Well, I thought
you
knew better than to generalize people and lump all women into the same category,” I sniffed. “That’s just rude! And besides, you’d think you’d learn by now that I’m not like other women. How many times do I have to prove that to you?”

We all heard his guilty chuckle before he apologized and acknowledged the truth of my words. Shrugging it off, I glanced down again and smiled at my brand new puppy that I already happened to be head over heels in love with. I was so giddy with happiness that I vowed there was nothing that could possible ruin my afternoon.

I was wrong. My afternoon was completely ruined. I sighed quietly in disgust as I listened to the girl named Ruby, continually taunt and browbeat poor little Marisol at the table behind me. This Ruby chick must’ve been who Kyrie was referring to when she said that Marisol had a hard time adjusting here in the barracks because she kept getting picked on.