Page 117 of The Hunt

Rhett took another step toward me, close enough now that I could feel the warmth radiating from his body. When his fingers brushed mine, I didn’t pull away. His touch was steady, grounding me.

“I never hated you,” he said in a low voice.

“You did.”

“No. Iwantedto, but I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

He scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “The first time I met you, I just knew there was something about you. I didn’t know what it was, exactly, but still… Iknew.I was obsessed, even when I didn’t want to be,” he said, his voice rough but certain. “When I saw your profile on the Hunt list, I knew you didn’t belong. I knew it had to be a mistake. So I came up with a plan to save you.”

My breath hitched, eyes searching his face. “Really?”

“Yeah. I planned to track you as long as you were here. Keep you safe until you were the last one standing.”

“You were going to make sure I won,” I murmured.

“Yes. It was the only way I could get you out of here alive,” he said. “So that’s what I’ve been doing. That’s why I’ve been following you. You’ve never been in any danger, even when you thought you were. The only times you even came close were in that smoke trap, which I got you out of as fast as I could, and in that pit-trap field I warned you about.”

“I really wish I’d listened to you about that,” I said, shoulders sagging.

“I know why you didn’t. I get it.” Rhett squeezed my hand tighter. “But I mean it, Ev. You were never,evergoing to die on this island.”

I swallowed hard. “What if another hunter caught me? There’s so many of them.”

“Some of them tried. More than once. I sabotaged them,” he said. “And if it ever came down to it, I would’ve killed them.”

My eyes widened. “But then you’d get in trouble with the society, wouldn’t you? And your own life would be at risk.”

“No. It’s not unheard of for hunters to die from friendly fire out here. Especially with the newer hunters,” he replied. “It’s easy to mistake a rustle in the bushes as a player and take a shot, only to find out you’ve just killed one of your fellow Wilders.That’s just a risk we all take out here. So if I ever killed any of them, I could easily pass it off like that. An accident.”

“Oh.” I glanced over at Jake’s still form. “Is that what the other Wilders will think happened to him? Once someone finds him out here, that is.”

“Probably, yeah. But when they take his body in and get a proper look at it, they’ll realize he was stabbed, not shot.”

“And that can’t really be mistaken for friendly fire,” I muttered.

“No. So then they’ll think one of two things—that a fellow Wilder stabbed him to death for some reason, or that a player somehow got hold of a knife and killed him.”

“Which is more likely?”

“Probably the player theory. He told me he lost a knife after throwing it at some girl on the first day, and he always had a big mouth, so he probably mentioned it to a few others, too.”

“Kanako,” I murmured. “She was with me for a while, and she had a knife lodged in her arm when she arrived at the safe zone. It must’ve been his.”

“Do you still have it?” Rhett asked, brows rising. “If we plant it here, it’ll make the player theory even stronger.”

“No, sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “One of the others had it on them when they died, and I didn’t have time to grab their stuff.”

“I understand.” He rubbed his jaw. “It’s fine. No one will immediately suspect me of killing JJ anyway. Or you.”

“Why not me?”

“Only he and his father know you’re his ex-girlfriend, remember? The other Patriarchs and members think you’re a real player like the others.”

“Oh, right.”

“Actually, there’s a problem I didn’t consider.” Rhett’s eyes darkened. “JJ might be dead, but Peter isn’t, and he’s the fuckingHigh Patriarch. If he starts to suspect you killed his son as revenge for bringing you here, he’ll probably have you marked as the next bounty. Almost every hunter on the island will be after you then.”

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