Page 105 of Hunting Pretty

“Chill.” She hissed under her breath. “I’m texting his sister. She’s in my tennis club.”

Moments later her phone vibrated.

Lisa let out a gasp. “Oh my God.”

“What?” I whispered.

Lisa didn’t reply as her fingers flew across her screen. Her phone buzzed again.

I elbowed her. “Lisa,what?”

Lisa shook her head, some of her long red hair falling out from her emerald ribboned ponytail. “Cormac’s in the hospital. Some kind of accident…”

She sent another text and her phone vibrated again.

“Holy shit,” she hissed, then lowered her voice. “He lost a fucking eye!”

Horror gripped me with icy, clammy claws, sinking deep into my skin until I felt paralyzed by it.

“How?” I hissed. “Who did it?”

The professor paused in her delivery and I knew I was being too loud, drawing too much attention. But I couldn’t care.

I felt detached from this lecture hall, from the rows of attentive students, from this fucking reality, like I didn’t belong in this normal academic scene.

Lisa chewed her bottom lip as she read the latest texts coming through, her brow knitting together. “He said… it was an accident.”

A shudder rippled through me, and I couldn’t stop the chill crawling down my spine, spreading like frostbite.

It wasn’t just fear—it was something deeper, something darker, wrapping itself around my chest, squeezing until I could barely breathe.

It was no accident.

My stalker had cut out Cormac’s eye to make a point.

Oh God. Cormac had been hurt because ofme.

As much as I didn’t like Cormac, as much as I thought hewas an entitled prick who didn’t understand the meaning of consent, I didn’t wish him actual harm.

I turned back to the window, to the spot where I last saw Scáth.

My shadowy figure was still there.

Watching.

Waiting.

I had to tell someone about him. I had to turn him in. Right?

Cormac was obviously too frightened to tell the police what had really happened.

So I had to hand that eye over to the police. It was evidence against Scáth.

And with Cormac’s testimony, it would put him away behind bars. And he belonged behind bars, right?

I mean, he was a fucking stalker who cut out eyes for God’s sake. Right?

No matter how much I wanted him to be good, hewasn’tgood.

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