Page 101 of Hero Unbound
But he was too strong and ready for her attack. He made it down the stairs and threw her onto the sofa. Before she could get up, he had a knee over her abdomen, making it impossible to breathe.
He’d placed some zip ties on the coffee table and used one to secure her wrists. He grabbed a roll of tape from the table. “No screaming, or this is going to become much more unpleasant for you.”
She nodded. Becky’s house was too far away from neighbors for anyone to hear anyway. “What are you doing?”
“It’s time for you to come with me. To come home tous. I can’t believe you’ve forced me to take such extreme measures like this.”
The zip ties were already biting into her skin. Her heart was hammering in her chest, but she forced herself to take calming breaths. “This is not what I want, Gareth. I don’t want to go with you.”
He shook his head and ran a finger down her cheek again, despite her flinching away. “You’re confused. You don’t know what you want. I’m going to help you remember how good it is between us, baby. Don’t worry.”
“I won’t go with you.” She tried to swallow her panic.
“You’re not going to have a choice.” He shook his head sadly. “I had hoped you would get to this point on your own. I gave you multiple chances.”
“What does that mean?”
“Do you think I didn’t know where you were all this time? I tracked your cell phone from the day you left. I’ve just been biding my time for making contact.”
Eva pulled at her wrists—but nothing loosened. This was worse than she thought. This wasn’t just some momentary lapse in judgment overtaking Gareth. He’d been planning something like this all along.
“When you landed here and stopped moving from town to town, I knew it was time. That you were ready to come back. That all I needed to do was help you see that.”
He stood and began pacing. “I thought for sure when I set your car on fire you’d realize it was time to come home. Honestly, baby, I’ve given you every opportunity. I can’t believe you’re so resistant.”
Eva blew out a breath, relief flooding her even through the fear. She hadn’t been the one to sabotage her own car. Thank God.
But that didn’t help her out of this situation. Maybe reasoning with him would help. “Gareth, I appreciate that you would go to such lengths to communicate with me. But relationships end. Ours ran its course, and now it’s time for us to let each other go. Untie me, and we can part ways as friends.”
It was the wrong thing to say; she saw it immediately. He stormed over to her and grabbed her by both arms, yanking her up to her feet. “You and I belong together. You’ve just forgotten how good it can be.”
“You’re hurting me.” She winced as his fingers bit into her upper arms.
“I’m not hurting you. You’re bringing this on yourself.”
“No, I’m not.” She finally said the words she’d wanted to say for way too long but never had the courage. “Just like I didn’t bring stuff on myself many other times too. This isyourfault. Not mine.”
His backhanded punch to her face had her flying back onto the couch. She struggled to breathe through the pain. Gareth had never hit her like that.
He knelt down next to her. “Now look what you made me do.” He shook his head sadly. “You have to start taking responsibility for your actions. You’re confused, baby, but I’m going to help you understand, no matter how long it takes.”
She flinched away as he cupped her cheek, tears streaming down her face. He wiped some blood from her lip where it had split.
“I’m not going with you,” she whispered. “My friends here know I would never go with you.”
“Friends?” He sat back on his heels and grinned. “You mean the people you’ve been lying to this whole time? You’ve set it up so it’s so easy for me to prove that you’re unstable.”
She slid back as far as she could from him. “What?”
“You should’ve seen your boyfriend at the police station a few hours ago, when it became obvious there was no evidence of me under that ladder.”
“You were there, weren’t you?”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t very difficult to scope out that security camera and make sure I remained at an angle where I wouldn’t be seen. Then to rip your pants leg so it looked like you got caught on a nail.”
“You lied.” She wasn’t sure why she was so surprised.
He gripped her chin with bruising fingers. “Our relationship is worth much more than a single falsehood. I will do whatever I need to in order to get our lives back on track.”