Was Luca really here? But Troy had just been here. If he was here, she had to get out.
Closing her eyes, Evie still felt Troy’s breath on her neck and his hand gripping her hair. She scrunched her eyes tighter. She had to get him out of her head.
When a hand reached out to touch her, she took a furious step backward, hitting the desk.
“Don’t touch me,” she heard the hysteria in her own voice but couldn’t quite grasp reality.
“It’s okay, Evie. You’re safe. Remember?”
Was she? She had just heard Troy. Had just felt him. Evie could still taste the blood from where he’d hit her.
The shaking in her hands increased. As the hand in front of her reached out for her again, she tried to fling herself back but was stopped by a desk.
“Please,” Evie begged. “Just leave me alone.”
Closing her eyes, the sight of Troy’s hate-filled eyes stared back at her.
Oh god, she hated it when he got that look in his eyes. Some nights she was sure he was going to kill her. Some nights, she wanted him to kill her.
Two strong hands suddenly gripped her arms, keeping her where she was. A scream escaped Evie’s throat as terror seized her. Covering her head with her hands, she begged for peace.
“Get away from me. Please. Just leave me alone.” She couldn’t go through it again. She wouldn’t survive.
Confusion swirled through her mind. Troy’s hands were gentle, but she couldn’t trust them. Troy wasn’t gentle anymore. Not since he’d returned.
“You’re safe, honey.” The whispered words just reached her ears. They couldn’t be real but she wanted to trust them so badly. She craved for the words to be true. How was she safe with Troy here, though? Even if he wasn’t here, he was alive, and that alone meant she wasn’t safe. She hadn’t been safe for a long time.
The air was no longer making it to her lungs, and she struggled to keep the panic from suffocating her. If she passed out, he would kill her.
“Breathe.”
She tried to listen to the gentle voice. Oh god, she tried, but there wasn’t enough air. Her lungs wouldn’t cooperate. She tried pulling breaths in, desperate to get the oxygen into her body, but it wasn’t enough.
Too quickly, white dots started appearing behind her eyes. She was losing consciousness.
Evie prayed that if she woke up, the sweet voice that told her she was safe would still be there. Too soon the world went black.
CHAPTER EIGHT
LUCA WANTED TO strangle someone.
Could no one in this place keep their emotions in check? First Eden blowing up about that damn letter, then those kids going at each other. It was like a damn high school at Marble today.
Gently placing Evie on the office couch, Luca pushed her hair to the side. Keeping his back to the room, he knew the guys were filtering in and that Lexie had just returned to cover the front desk.
Concern filled Luca. Evie’s face was pale. Too pale. Tuning into her heart rate, he was relieved to hear that it had slowed back to an almost normal pace.
When the fight had broken out in the gym, he had heard a whimper come from Evie. When he had focused his attention on her, he’d first noticed her pale complexion followed by her quick breaths.
Luca had wanted to help her. It had become obvious real quick that physically, she may have been at Marble Protection, but mentally she was somewhere else entirely.
Luca had seen even the toughest of men have panic attacks. Their eyes would glaze over and reality was no longer a factor.
There had been ghosts in Evie’s eyes. There were moments out there where he thought she recognized him, but then she would zone out again, retreat to that other place.
Coming back to the present, Luca turned back to his Navy SEAL brothers. These men were his family, and he needed their support right now.
“Any idea what just happened?” Luca shifted his focus to Mason’s question.
“She doesn’t cope well with violence. She was already a bit shaken from Eden’s little interrogation earlier.” Clenching his fists, Luca’s rage boiled at the memory of Eden standing over Evie. He was damn lucky Luca hadn’t beaten his ass. He needed to back off before Luca lost his shit. She was not the enemy, and Eden needed to get that through his thick skull.
“She shouldn’t have been trying to see what was in our mail.” Eden’s apathy on the matter fueled Luca’s anger.
“She’s not one of the people we’re searching for, Hunter. Stop acting like she is.”
Pushing off the wall, waves of violent energy flowed from Eden. “She’s hiding something, and you’re bringing her right into our backyard.”
Not hesitating, Luca moved toward Eden, strategically placing his body between him and Evie. “How could she be a threat to us? She’s a five-foot-four girl who has done absolutely nothing to tell us she’s our enemy. You scared she’s going to take you down, Hunter?”
Eden’s body vibrated from fury. “If she’s connected to them, then her being here is a threat to all of us.”
There was a moment of silence in the room. Did the rest of the team think the same thing?
“She’s not part of Project Arma,” Luca said the words with absolute certainty. “You think I would bring someone in who’s a threat to us? Who the fuck do you think I am?”
“I think you’re a guy who’s thinking with the wrong part of his anatomy, brother.”
Struggling to keep his rage in check. Luca had never hit one of his brothers out of anger, but at that moment, Luca was tempted.
“I know you’ve been through a lot, Hunter, but you better check what you’re saying right the fuck now.”
Before Eden could respond, Asher stepped in between them.
“Let’s cut the verbal sparring for the moment. Rocket trusts her, Hunter, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt until we have something to prove otherwise.”
For an instant, Luca thought Eden wasn’t going to budge. The fury in his eyes would make the ordinary man quiver. Luca stood firm, unfazed by Eden’s display of anger. Then Eden turned away.
Maintaining his gaze on Eden’s back, regret filtered through him. In all the trainings, missions, and life and death situations, they had never questioned each other’s judgment about a woman before. What was in Eden’s past had really done a number on him.
Asher spoke up from the back of the room. “Still nothing more to report on her background check?”
Wyatt sank into the chair behind the desk. “Honestly, man, not a damn thing. Like I said last week, there’s nothing to make us suspect anything. Graduated from high school eight years ago. Lived with her parents until the age of twenty-three when she rented her own place. Worked in sales until moving here. Seems squeaky clean to me.”
Moving away from Eden and back to Evie, Luca glanced down at her before turning to Wyatt.
“Boyfriend? Partner?” There had to be something. Luca could see the ghost of the past in her eyes.
“Nothing on the system. Couldn’t even find a parking fine, and trust me, man, if it was there, I would have found it.”
Wyatt was right. He had a brain that was technologically hardwired. You would be hard-pressed to come by someone better at digging up dirt than Wyatt.