Page 13 of Hero Unbound

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Eva’s vision blurred and her mind spun, and not just from the hard hit jarring the breath from her body.

She had to keep herself rooted in reality. Had to be able to remember what happened.She could not lose herself again.

She hadn’t tripped. She’d been tackled.

She hadn’t tripped. She’d been tackled.

She hadn’t tripped. She’d been tackled.

If she repeated it enough in her mind, she would remember. Then when Gareth tried to convince her that she was crazy and she didn’t remember what had actually happened, she would know for sure this time.

“Eva? Talk to me. Are you okay?”

The weight rolled off her, and she could breathe again. She was glad she’d locked Sugar and Spice in the shed. If not, they might have tried to help her and gotten hurt. She couldn’t let that happen. Not again.

“Eva. Please. I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was you. I thought it was someone trying to hurt the animals. Can you open your eyes?”

“I didn’t trip. I was tackled.”

She flinched at the lower curse spoken above her. “I know. I tackled you. I’m sorry. Please, just open your eyes, okay?”

Reality finally filtered through her scattered thoughts. That deep voice—low, urgent—wasn’t Gareth’s. Gareth wasn’t here.

She opened her eyes to find Theo perched over her, worry pinching his features.

“There you are. Are you okay? Did you hit your head?”Gentle fingers probed at the back of her scalp.

Theo. Not Gareth.

“I didn’t trip,” she said again, more to herself than to him.

“I know. I’m sorry. I thought you were anintrudertrying to cause trouble. Why were you sneaking around? Can you sit up?”

Eva struggled to find words as he eased his arm around her and got her to a sitting position. “I, uh, was worried that Wildfire might be going into labor soon. I wanted to check on her. She was acting anxious when I left.”

Both of those things were true but definitely weren’t the whole truth. However, she wasn’t about to explain about a state trooper finding her sleeping in her car and telling her she had to move.

Theo’s dark brows furrowed, and Eva almost let out a curse. She was in the wrong barn if she wanted to be checking on Wildfire.Damn it. She was over here because it was so far from the main house. She hadn’t thought anyone would realize if she hid out in the shed.

Theo brought his hand up near his ear. “Stand down. It’s Eva. She was checking on the animals.”

Her eyes grew wide. “You’ve got some sort of assault team out there?”

He stood and offered her his hand. She took it, her breath catching just a little at the feel of his large fingers closing around hers. He cupped her elbow with his other hand as she got the rest of the way up. The gesture was protective and respectful. Not controlling and angry.

“Not an assault team. At least, not exactly. When I realized someone was out here, I contacted the other Linear team members to confirm it wasn’t any of them. When I found out it wasn’t, they wanted to make sure whoever was out here didn’t mean any harm.”

“Oh. Well, I’m really sorry to have disturbed you. I’ll leave. You can go back to bed.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you really doing here, Eva?”

“Uh, in this barn? Arnie the pig was behaving strangely, so I thought I would stop by. That’s why I’m in here.”

Yet the only one acting strangely here was her.

“Were you going to do it without turning any lights on?”

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