Page 11 of The Hunt

“A girl. But not just any girl,” I said, lips curving in a wicked smirk. “The perfect girl.”

2

Everly

What the hell was that?

I sucked a ragged breath into my lungs and hurried along the path, pulse pounding so loudly in my ears that it almost drowned out the annoying squeaky wheel on my suitcase. Once I’d counted out two minutes in my head, I risked a look over my shoulder to see if Rhett was still following me. Thankfully, he wasn’t.

Despite the relief flooding my veins, a tiny, treacherous part of my mind was weirdly disappointed to see the empty path behind me.

Oh my god. Why?

I knew fear could make a person do crazy things, but I’d never experienced it doing something like this to my brain—drawing me to danger and making me crave the presence of a psycho like Rhett.

Every single thing about him disturbed me, from the violence I’d initially witnessed down to the way his mask of harmless jocularity dropped the second he realized I wasn’t falling for his bullshit. Even his attempt at a friendly smile came across as predatory, sending shivers down my spine. But despite all that,there was an undeniable pull there; a heat that lingered on my skin long after I’d walked away.

I took another deep breath and tried to focus my thoughts on something else, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling my encounter with Rhett had left in my chest, like a jagged splinter lodged too deep to reach.

The way his dark, intense eyes seemed to look right inside me, seeing things I wanted to keep hidden from the world, had left me shaky and uneasy. It was beyond unsettling. He shouldn’t have been able to do that. He was just a stranger.

Ah.

That had to be it.Thatwas why I couldn’t shake the thought of him. I was pissed as hell that someone who barely even knew me had so easily teased out the truth about me. So easily deduced that my confidence was just a show. Something I put on to prove to others, and myself, that no one could get to me anymore.

Rhett got to me, though, and he did it in record time, because he gleaned the truth about me in five minutes flat. And that truth was exactly what he claimed it was—at the heart of things, I was just a scared little girl, trying to survive a world with countless horrors.

“Asshole,” I mumbled, heat rising in my cheeks. I had a feeling tonight wasn’t the last I’d hear from him, and I also had a feeling there wasn’t much I could do about that.

I could tell as soon as I made eye contact with him that it was a mistake for me to approach him. He’d seemed so enraged at that Ryan guy before I made him aware of my presence, but the second he caught sight of me, he’d seemingly forgotten all about his hapless victim, not even caring as the smaller guy fled the underpass. Then, as I stepped closer, and our eyes finally met for the first time, I instantly felt like I’d been caught in the gaze of a predator who’d just chosen its next target.

That campus cop was right—I should’ve known better than to walk into a dark tunnel just because I thought someone needed help. My Taser was a godsend for making me feel safer as I navigated the world, but it had clearly made me reckless, resulting in me launching myself right into Rhett’s crosshairs.

Ugh.Why didn’t I just mind my own damn business?

I finally arrived at Ashcroft Hall and let myself in with the code the college admins had sent me prior to my arrival on campus. Then I made my way to my new dorm, wishing the stupid wheel on my case would stop squeaking.

As I fumbled in my pocket for my new keycard, the door opened, and a tall girl with curly red hair in pink and white heart-print pajamas greeted me. “Hi! I thought I heard someone out here!” she said, smiling brightly. “Are you Everly Marlowe?”

I smiled back at her. “Yeah. Are you—”

“Tessa Morgan. I’ve been waiting for you.” She thrust her hand out, motioning for me to let her take my tote bag. “Please, let me help.”

“Thanks.”

She glanced at me over her shoulder as she stepped toward the bed on the right side of the spacious dorm. “I’msoglad to finally have a roomie. Last semester was so boring without anyone in here.”

“Glad to be of service.”

Tessa set my tote on the end of the bed and looked at me again. “So, not to be awkward, but… are you okay?” she asked, brows knitting. “Did something happen?”

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Yeah. I was supposed to get here around five, but there was some sort of incident on the highway, and they ended up closing every lane, so I had to double back and take a totally different route. Then I ended up getting totally lost for a while. Sorry if I woke you, by the way. I know it’s pretty late.”

“Don’t worry, I was still wide awake. But I wasn’t talking about the time. I meant, like… did something happen just before you got here?” she said, tilting her head. “You kinda look like you’ve seen a ghost, as majorly clichéd as that sounds.”

As soon as she said it, I glanced in the mirror to my left and felt a jolt of surprise at my reflection. My face was pale and drawn, and my eyes were opened wider than usual, giving them a distinctly haunted look. On top of that, my hair—which was perfectly smooth earlier—was now disheveled from all the sweat on my scalp, with a few damp strands sticking to my forehead.

“Oh, um…” I briefly bit my bottom lip. “I ran into this guy on my way here, and it ended up turning into a whole thing. But I’m okay.”

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