Page 58 of Hero Unbound

He’d prefer she stay at his house with him, but he wanted to make this as easy as possible for her. She needed a place where she didn’t feel like a guest. She needed her own personal home base—although he hoped to be part of that as much as she would let him.

His phone buzzed, and he saw a text from Eva.

How’s it going?

Not bad. Cleaning up messes. Damage doesn’t seem too terrible.

No real damage with the barns either and all the animals are fine. I’m with Becky. Bear towed my car into town, and she’s giving me a ride in to pick it up.

Good. Why don’t you come to my house after? I’ll make you dinner.

And then they would talk. He had to be careful how he handled this, but there was no way in hell he was going to allow the situation to stay as it was.

That sounds amazing. Thank you.

I’ll see you in a while.

He packed away the tools he’d been using and headed for his own vehicle. He wanted to make her a nice meal. He didn’t know where or what she’d been eating for the past couple of weeks, but if the peanut butter and bread he’d found in the shed were anything to go on, it definitely hadn’t been much.

After a quick shower—much less interesting than the one he’d taken with Eva last night—he got to work on the meal. He’d make one of his family’s favorites: chicken pot pie.

He got out the vegetables and began chopping them when the phone rang. He looked and saw it was Becky.

“Hey.” He held the phone to his shoulder as he continued to work on the food. “Did you get Eva to her c—”

He was cut off by Becky’s panicked voice. “Theo, you need to get to town right away.”

He set the knife down. “Why? What happened?”

“Eva’s car caught on fire in the auto shop parking lot. I don’t know how it happened—it’s crazy. She’s absolutely hysterical.”

Oh shit.“I’m on my way.”

* * *

Half the townof Oak Creek was standing around watching the smoldering remains of Eva’s car in the gathering dark by the time Theo arrived.

Bear caught him as he parked as close as he could and ran toward the action. “Whoa, brother. Nothing you can do there.”

“What the hell happened?” Theo was looking around for Eva but couldn’t see her in the darkness.

“I towed her car here earlier today since I was in a hurry. Had one of my guys make sure it would start and there was no problem. I have no idea what caused the fire. It lit up quick right as it got dark.”

“Was anybody hurt?”

“No. Somebody saw the fire, and we all rushed out here with fire extinguishers. We were able to put it out before the gas tank blew.”

Theo turned back to the car. “Still looks pretty totaled.”

“Oh, it is. Damage on the inside was pretty ugly—and it’s definitely not drivable. But if the tank had blown, it might have taken some other cars with it, so I’m glad we were able to put the fire out.”

“Where’s Eva?”

Bear scrubbed a hand down his face. “She was pretty hysterical, man—must really love that damned car or something. It took two of us to keep her away from it, and I’m going to have damned bruises from her sharp little elbow.”

Eva didn’t love the car. But most of her possessions had been inside it, and she’d just lost them all.

A sickening thought occurred to him. “The dogs weren’t in it, right?”

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