Page 63 of Robb

It wasn’t Trent.

It wasn’t Hector.

She didn’t know who it was.

Private Number, the screen read in cold, impersonal letters.

A strange, fearful feeling came over her.

Don’t pick up, the feeling seemed to urge.

At the same time, however, a contradictory feeling told her that she had to pick up, if she wanted to know what was going on.

She looked at the brolga.

The brolga fixed her with its beady orange eyes.

Do it, the brolga said after a moment. But be wary. Trust nothing you hear.

Tahnee nodded firmly. My thoughts exactly.

She wasn’t sure exactly why she was having these sudden conflicting feelings, but she hadn’t gotten as far as she had in life without learning how to trust her gut – and without learning how to take some risks.

And this, she knew, was a risk she had to take.

She allowed herself a moment to breathe in and out, before picking up.

“Hello?”

There was what must have been the briefest of pauses, but which seemed to stretch on for eons.

Then:

“Tahnee?”

Tahnee’s stomach dropped.

Because it was Robb. It was Robb’s voice on the other end of the line, sounding unhurt and – obviously – very much alive.

And yet… why won’t my lungs let me breathe properly?

“It’s me,” he went on, somewhat pointlessly. “It’s Robb.”

“Robb,” she said, before she could stop herself. Her instinctive urge to demand to know what was going on, to reach down the phone and shake him by the shoulders until he told her everything she needed to know, was tempered by the strange warning feeling she had felt – was still feeling – and by the brolga’s insistence that she keep her head.

Could Robb be trying to warn me through the mate bond? she wondered. Does someone have a gun to his head?

She didn’t think that Robb was the type to give in to threats to his life – but maybe they’d threatened those he cared about, like his team.

Or like me.

Not that she wanted to get big-headed and assume things about her position in Robb’s life after only a day together, but she knew that the mate bond was powerful. If Hargreaves – or whoever it was – knew that they were mates, then they could be using it against him.

Well, there’s only one way to find out.

Trying to keep her tone cool and neutral, she said, “What’s up?”

Robb paused.