Page 105 of Hero Unbound
“Metter. Hold up.”
Gareth stiffened and spun around as Theo crossed the last few feet to him. “I’m warning you, Lindstrom…”
Theo moved closer, and Gareth backed away from his car, obviously concerned Theo was going to take a swing at him or something.
“Listen, it looks like I owe you an apology. I got a text from Eva while we were in the coffee shop. Looks like you were right—she’s bolting. Already gone, in fact.”
Gareth relaxed and nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry that I was right. Believe it or not, I’m not an asshole.”
Theo refrained from comment and stepped closer to the car. “I don’t want you to think that the people in Oak Creek are assholes either. I’m sorry about that mugging attempt or whatever.” He pointed to the bruise at the edge of Gareth’s cheek. “I would never condone someone do something like that to you, even as Eva’s ex-fiancé.”
“So, you believe me about that now?”
Theo shrugged. “You haven’t been wrong about anything else you’ve said.”
Gareth nodded. “Well, again, I’m sorry if you got hurt by Eva. She doesn’t think. She needs help. I hope she’ll get it.”
“I hope so too.”
Gareth stepped toward the car, and Theo shifted out of the way. “I had my attorney initiate a restraining order against you, but I don’t think that will be necessary anymore. Sounds like we both got caught up in a similar situation—used by a woman who has some issues.”
Theo gritted his teeth. “I appreciate that.”
Gareth got into his car. “Take care. I’ve got a flight back to Philly this afternoon. You’ll understand if I say I hope I don’t ever see you again.”
“I can’t think of any reason why you would.”
Gareth closed his door and started the car, driving away without another word.
All Theo could do was watch him go.
33
Twenty minutes later, Theo was storming up the stairs to Lincoln’s house. The front door opened before he reached it, due to his friend’s security system.
“Thanks for not answering any of my texts, jackass,” Lincoln called from his office down the hallway the second Theo was inside.
“That’s because I don’t have my phone anymore.”
And he hoped he hadn’t just given it up for nothing.
He walked the rest of the way to Lincoln’s office. Althoughofficewas too tame a word for the command center Linc surrounded himself with—more monitors and keyboards than many small businesses. At any given time, Lincoln could be working on three or more of them at once.
An accurate representation of how his brain worked and just how brilliant he really was.
Lincoln didn’t look up from his screen as Theo entered the room, nor did his fingers stop typing on the keyboard. “You lost it in the past thirty minutes?”
“No, I turned it off and tossed it in the back seat of Gareth Metter’s car.”
I could’ve never started over without those two. They’re the only thing that has always made sense to me.
Eva’s words from a couple of weeks ago came back to him again like they had at Fancy Pants.
They were in total opposition to the texts he’d received from her today. At first, he’d taken those texts at jarring face value.
But as Gareth had walked away, the plain and simple truth had struck Theo: he’d never been able to take anything at face value when it came to Eva.
He wasn’t going to start now.