Page 80 of Hero Unbound

“Go rightahead. You don’t have to face the truth if you don’t want to.”He held up Snowflake in front of his face. “Take this cute little bunny here. If something were to happen to him—” Gareth wrapped his hands around Snowflake’s neck. “If he just died suddenly of, say, a snapped neck, what would people think? I’m sure they wouldn’t think you had anything to do with it at first. But maybe they’d be less likely to believe that once they hear what you’re truly capable of.”

“Don’t hurt him.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Come here and take the rabbit, Eva.”

She didn’t want to get closer, but she knew if she didn’t, he would kill Snowflake.

If she did go to him, he was probably going to kill the rabbit anyway.

“Don’t hurt him,” she whispered.

“I’m waiting for you to come over here, baby. Don’t you want to help this animal? He’s starting to look a little distressed.”

Eva walked toward him on stiff legs, breaths rasping.

“Hold him, Eva, before something happens to him.” Gareth held Snowflake out, and Eva placed both hands gently around the bunny. Before she could rush away, Gareth wrapped his hands around hers, holding both her and Snowflake in place.

Eva’s skin went clammy, her breath sawing in and out of her lungs.

He bent so he was speaking directly into her ear in a low voice. “You shouldn’t have left me, baby. We belong together. I had to come all the way out here to prove that to you. Do you really think that you can just walk away from what we had?”

His hands began to squeeze over hers even though she fought to keep hers open. He was cutting off Snowflake’s air. The rabbit began to squirm.

“Please,” she whispered.

“You think you can just have what we had with someone else? What we had was perfect, and you’re ruining it.”

She fought to keep her hands open, but he was too strong. The rabbit was truly panicking now, primally aware of the threat, and there was nothing Eva could do to stop it.

“You’re going to come back to me, baby. You’re going to come back to our perfect life, and we’re both going to remember how good it was.”

“Hey, Eva. How’s it going in here?”

Eva let out a silent sob of relief at Tucker’s friendly voice from the doorway of the Mad Zoo. A charming smile fell over Gareth’s face as he let go of her hands around Snowflake and turned to face Tucker.

“Hi!” Gareth’s voice didn’t sound anything like it had a moment ago. “I’m Gareth Metter. Your employee here was just showing me some of your animals. I’m a sucker for bunnies.”

Now that there were no hands restricting Snowflake’s airway, the rabbit was calming down in Eva’s arms. Eva all but ran over to the rabbit pen, pressing gently on Snowflake’s body in evaluation. Nothing seemed to be permanently damaged, thank God.

“Oh hi, Mr. Metter. I thought we were meeting over at the main office in a little while.” Tucker walked farther into the barn.

Gareth’s smile grew more charming as he strode over to shake Tucker’s hand. “Dr. Metter, but please, call me Gareth. Yeah, I was a little early and had heard about all the animals, so I thought I would take a look around. The ladies in town speak quite highly of Linear Tactical, and you in particular.”

Tucker broke into a smile, responding the way everybody responded when first meeting Gareth. He made them feel like he was the cool quarterback who wanted to be their best friend. People generally fell all over themselves to agree and get closer.

Eva certainly had.

“I’m looking forward to hearing all about what you’ve got to offer here,” Gareth continued. “I think I might have some ideas for methods you can incorporate into your self-defense classes. I’m in the medical field.”

It was always one of the first things he brought up. It added to his prestige, made people trust him more. How had Eva never seen all that until now? Gareth had a script, and he used it like an Oscar-winning performer.

“Yeah,” Tucker said, slapping Gareth on the back. “Let’s go ahead and get started. I’m looking forward to giving you the full tour.”

Gareth turned back and smiled at Eva. “Thanks for showing me the bunny. Now I know where he is any time I want to hold something cute and cuddly.”

The words were benign, but the threat underneath was clear to Eva.And all she could do was watch as he walked out.

25