Page 79 of Hero Unbound

She clutched the guinea pig to her chest as Gareth took a few steps forward.

“This Linear Tactical place intrigued me.It’s got quite the reputation, doesn’t it? Self-defense, survival training, and now the animal therapy. It’s been around for decades. Impressive.”

“Why are you here, Gareth?”

He shrugged and gave her a smile. “Maybe I want to learn how to do tracking out in the wilderness or how to build a fire in the rain or bury myself in mud for its healing purposes. Whatever people in Wyoming do.” The disdain in his voice was clear. “I thought your parents’ hometown was bad enough, but at least that was in Colorado, within driving distance of Denver. What the hell are you out here for, baby?”

“It’s none of your business where I go or what I do.” She wished her voice were stronger, but at least she was getting words out coherently.

He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You need to be back in a city where you belong.”

Back in a city where nobody cared about one another and someone could be hiding in plain sight for years, just like she had. At least in Oak Creek, everybody knew who she was. Even if they talked about her, they at least knew her.

“We are done, Gareth. I don’t want to be with you. I don’t want to be in Philadelphia, and you need to leave me alone.”

He crouched down in front of the rabbit pen and held his fingers out through the wire fencing. The rabbits were used to people feeding them when they came near, so they immediately hopped over where he could touch them.

“So, at that coffeehouse yesterday, I was talking to some of the ladies. They had quite good things to say about Linear Tactical—how it was an Oak Creek staple and had put the town on the map.” He looked over at her and rolled his eyes. “As if a map of Wyoming was much of a map to begin with.”

“Just leave, Gareth. There’s nothing for you here. Go home.”

He stood back up, then unhooked the top of the rabbit pen and grabbed Snowflake, the white bunny that so many of the kids loved. He was particularly friendly and never bit so was very useful to the therapists. Gareth tickled him between the ears.

“I have to admit, this is a cute little thing.”

She nodded. “They do animal therapy here. The petting zoo is a good way to enable children to be able to talk about stuff.”

“You always did love animals so damned much. It was ridiculous. But I can see why you like this place.”He kept the bunny snuggled in his arms as he walked around, looking at the other animals in their various pens and cages. “But you have no authority to be here, do you, baby? It’s going to be hard when your friend Theo hears about that.”

At the mention of Theo by name, she stiffened and put the guinea pig back in his cage.

“Theo’s not here.” That was probably why Gareth was—to cause as much trouble as possible and tell Theo about her past. If Gareth did it before she did, it would be so much worse. And Eva had no one to blame but herself for waiting so long to tell the truth.

“Yes, I heard he’s off saving the world or whatever. I also heard some other interesting things about Theo Lindstrom. I hear you two are quite the item.”He widened his eyes in fauxexcitementand scrunched up his face like he was a teenage girl passing along gossip. “It’s so exciting to see someone like Theo be so smitten with the new stranger in town.”—absurd giggle—“They make lovey-doveyeyesat each other.”

An ugly smirk fell over Gareth’s handsome features as he ended his little enactment. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to hear about your behavior, Eva. To hear you’d fallen into bed with someone so soon after ending our relationship. Especially sincewe were engaged to be married.”

Fear stiffened her body. This barn was the farthest away from everything except Theo’s house, and he wasn’t there. There were never many people on the Linear Tactical property unless therapy sessions or classes were going on. Right now, it was only her and Gareth.

“We weren’t engaged. Just because we talked about maybe getting married someday doesn’t mean we were engaged.”

He tilted his head to the side and gave her a knowing smile. “Really, baby, are you sure that’s the truth? Because that’s not how I remember it. We did more than just talk about the possibility, we discussed dates and plans.”

It was starting to get harder to breathe. Harder to remember what was real when she’d been so conditioned to take his word as the truth. “We discussed dates and plans, but it was never official. You never proposed to me. I never said yes.”

And even if they had, it didn’t matter. Whatever had been between them was over.

“Now look at you, so sure of yourself and the truth.” He took a step closer. “Did you drink some magic potion that helped you to remember? Or maybe, as usual, you’re just remembering the parts you want to remember.”

“Maybe I just stopped listening to you.”

He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Do you remember that you cheated on your vet school exam? Do you remember that you hurt yourself more than once to get attention? Do you remember that? You tried to blame me for everything, including your dogs hurting themselves. But I know the truth. And you do too, Eva, if you’ll be honest with yourself.”

With every word he spoke, her breath started to get more and more shallow. She knew part of what he was saying was true and part of what he was saying was false, but differentiating between the two felt impossible. She needed to get out of here.

She had to face him sometime, but this wasn’t the place. She needed to do it on her own terms.

“I’m leaving, Gareth.”

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