Page 109 of Hero Unbound

With another tweak of her nipple sharp enough to bring tears to her eyes, he let her go and went back to arranging their plates and glasses.

She was going to vomit. She could feel fear crawling all over her skin, slick and slimy. When Gareth touched her—and she knew he would; this meal was just a scene in his sick stage play, a way to justify kidnapping and rape in his mind—it was going to break her in ways she would never recover from.

Even if she survived, she would go back to being a shell of a person. All sense of self lost.

She could feel the blankness tugging at her once again like it had so often over the past couple of years. An invitation to sink into that cold, empty nothingness rather than face an unbearable reality.

The enemy’s chances of success plummet when the victim decides they’ll do anything to survive. Either you rise or you fall.

She blinked back to reality. Those words were Theo’s, although he hadn’t said them to her. She’d overheard him saying them to a self-defense class he’d been teaching.

Theo wasn’t coming to rescue her.Nobodywas coming to rescue her. The only choice Eva had right now was whether she was going to fight Gareth or whether she was going to roll over—literally andfiguratively—and give up.

Either you rise or you fall.

She forced herself to get her breathing under control—to swallow her panic and push it down far enough that she could think.

She wouldnotturn herself over to Gareth to become his toy to manipulate as he pleased. She would not lose herself again.

She would rather die. If that happened, so be it. But she would never be hisbabyagain.

Gareth always thought of himself as the smartest person in the room, and usually he was right. He might be smarter than her, but she was going to use her most valuable tool against him.

The fact that he underestimated her.

“Thank you for making dinner. I think eating will make me feel better.” She forced out anothershaky breath. “Can you release one of my hands so I can get some calories in my system?”

She was afraid he was going to try to feed her himself, but he looked pleased that she wanted to eat. Probably thought she wasalready giving herself back to him.

In his defense, if he’d kidnapped her before she’d come to Oak Creek and had finally started to find herself again, she probably would’ve already given up.

But not now.

Now, all she could do was stare at the steak knife next to her plate. That, coupled with the element ofsurprise, would give her the only advantage she was going to get.

Gareth walked into the kitchen and came back with a small pair of scissors. She took a breath and focused as he leaned over to snip the zip tie on her right hand.

Another mistake on his part. He should’ve released her nondominant hand. Again, not taking her seriously as a threat.

“Now, let’s enjoy dinner and see where the evening—”

Hearing him repeat those goddamned words again gave her the final push she needed. As he straightened, she smacked the scissors from his hand and grabbed the knife.

Driving the knife into his torso wasn’t easy from her angle, and she had to do it backward. She wasn’t even sure where she got him, but his roar let her know she’d been successful.

She pulled out the knife and then rammed it back into him again.

He yelled again and stumbled away. Eva didn’t wait to see how badly he was hurt—she stretched herself across the table and grabbed his steak knife to cut her other hand free.

“You fucking bitch! You stabbed me.”

There was way too much strength in Gareth’s words. Wherever she’d managed to put that knife was not going to keep him down long. Eva took her first steps toward the door, kicking off the three-inch heels he’d put on her feet. Barefoot would be faster.

And fast was the only thing that mattered now.

“You’re going to pay for this, baby. In ways you can’t even imagine.”

She heard Gareth’s words as she yanked the door open—infinitely more terrifying because of their lack of volume or passion.