Page 108 of Hunting Pretty

Me: I got your ‘gift.’

He replied immediately.

Scáth: How are you planning on thanking me?

Scáth: Blow jobs are always welcome.

Me: It’s sick. You’re sick.

Scáth: Don’t lie. You loved my gift more than jewelry.

Me: If you don’t turn yourself in… I’m going to the police.

I pressed Send and a big drop of rain hit the screen, blurring the words.

I’d wait until Ebony got home from her trip. If he hadn’t turned himself in by then, I’d tell her what happened, show her the evidence.

She’d know what to do.

She’d call the commissioner to send a detective to the house.Someonehad to believe me. I’d show them the eye. They’d get fingerprints off the box or something. They’d reinterview Cormac. He’d have to tell them the truth.

Still, this decision sat like a lead weight in my stomach.

Up ahead, the wrought-iron gate at the campus entrance banged noisily in the wind and I jolted. There was no one around to secure it in place.

The sky churned as it shifted into a darker and darker gray.

Gloved hands grabbed me and wrenched me around so I was facing away from my attacker. Pinned to a massive chest, I was dragged between the last two buildings on the edge of campus.

A white van waited with its back doors open, like gaping jaws.

Oh God. I was being kidnapped.

AVA

Ifought in vain against the arm which crushed my rib cage. But before I could scream, a hand covered my open mouth.

I inhaled something sweet-smelling. And familiar.

It was the same drug used on Liath.

He held a wet rag against my nose and mouth.

I could do nothing against the flood of panic and gasped in blind fear. Whoever took Liath had come for me.

I’d pushed him too far. I dug too hard.

I didn’t really believe it, but it was now an unavoidable fact: he was going to murder me.

I kicked and flailed my fists, trying to stop him from dragging me into the van, but gray dots formed on the stone wall opposite me. The edges of my vision started to blur.

My fingers uncurled from his hands. My toes scrapped uselessly across the asphalt as a powerful sleepiness overwhelmed me.

I could no longer resist the heavy pull of sleep.

This was it.

It was over.

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