Page 108 of Hero Unbound

Lincoln nodded. “Even more importantly, he must have destroyed her phone not long after he left Oak Creek. Ensured there was no way of tracing it. I can’t find any sign of it.”

“But we can trace his car with my phone.”

“Like I said, I trust your instincts.” Lincoln pointed to the map on the screen. “Metter didn’t head toward the airport. He’s headed northeast.”

Theo shook his head. “That’s wilderness. Not much around for two hundred or more miles.”

“I normally would say he just wanted a chance to enjoy some solitude—”

“But not if he deliberately stole Eva’s phone, made me think she was leaving town, then destroyed it.” Once again, Theo didn’t have all the details, but he had enough. “It may be innocent, but I’m not taking that chance. I’m going after them.”

34

When Eva woke up, she was sitting in a chair at a dining room table. She blinked, trying to clear her mind enough to figure out exactly where she was.

Had she fallen asleep while studying? She’d done that a couple of times during the hardest parts of vet school—exhausted from pulling an all-nighter of reading or clinicals.

She blinked again. No, that wasn’t right. She wasn’t in vet school anymore. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and decided to stand up…

She couldn’t.Her wrists were restrained to the arms of the chair.

Her back went ramrod straight as all the details of the past twenty-four hours came flooding back.Oh God.Gareth had her. He’d taken her from Becky’s house, injected her with something that had caused her to lose consciousness.

She’d woken up a couple of times and found herself in the trunk of the car. Each time, Gareth had quickly injected her again.

Ignoring her dizziness, she spun her head as far as she could both ways to try to get an idea of where she was. Some sort of cabin. It looked pretty plain and not at all like the decor Gareth normally surrounded himself with. He liked everything around him to be perfectly coordinated—simple lines, square-edged, shades of beige.

His style was definitely not the soft, overstuffed couch in the corner or the love seat with a checkered-pattern blanket thrown across it.

Because he’d taken her somewhere that wasn’t his. Somewhere fortraining. She could feel bile rising in her throat. She pulled at the restraints on her wrists, but that did nothing but burn her skin.

“Ah, finally awake, baby. I was concerned that I’d misjudged the dosage of midazolam,but it looks like you were just taking your time and making me wait.”

Gareth walked toward the table carrying a tray with two plates of food—steak with some sort of salad—along with wineglasses, and set it down.

“I thought we could have some dinner like civilized people. A nice meal and wine while you’re in your favorite dress.”

Eva looked down at her body and broke out in a cold sweat.The black dress with a low V-neck cut wasn’t her favorite dress. It washis. It was the one he insisted she wear when he was feelingromanticallyinclined.

After shifting in the chair, she realized she had nothing on underneath the dress. Her breaths started coming in short, panicked gasps.

She knew what that meant too. Knew what he had planned for immediately after this meal, if every time he’d had her wear this dress in the past held true.

He saw her distress and stopped organizing the plates to walk over and stand behind her. She shuddered as he cupped her shoulders under the dress.

“It looks like you’re having some sort of reaction to the medicine you forced me to give to you.”

As if it were the drugs, and not his touch, making her skin crawl.

“Don’t worry, it will pass. It won’t be long until everything starts to feel normal to you again.”

She couldn’t stop herself from retching as one of his hands slid down and cupped her breast before sharply pinching her nipple.

“Yes, the drugs can sometimes make you feel sick.” He leaned down and kissed her neck, which was infinitely worse than the pain in her breast. “But it will be out of your system soon. And then we’ll see where this evening takes us.”

Her heart thudded and her breath caught in her constricted lungs. He’d used that phrase before so many times.We’ll see where the evening takes usat dinner was always a precursor toyou like it rough, don’t youin bed.

She couldn’t stand the thought of it. Lovemaking with Gareth had been bad enough when she’d had no idea what lovemaking should really be. Now that she’d known real passion with Theo, the thought of Gareth anywhere near her naked body caused every fiber of her being to rebel.

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