Page 38 of The Hunt

She sounded so small, so terrified, and it hit me like a fucking gut punch. I froze in my tracks, my heart twisting. Every instinct screamed at me to chase after her attacker, to drag him back and make him pay. But I couldn’t leave Ev, not like this. Not when she was begging so plaintively.

The guy was getting away now—I could hear his footsteps pounding down the hall—but I stayed where I was, pulsepounding. I just had to hope the security guy at the front would do his job and stop the asshole in his tracks.

“Please,” Ev whimpered again.

“It’s okay. I’m staying with you,” I muttered.

Gritting my teeth, I yanked my phone out of my pocket and called 911 to report the incident. Then I pulled my mask off and flicked the dorm light on, trying to quiet the war raging in my chest.

“Here,” I said, stepping over to Ev. I handed the cloth mask to her. “Use this to stop the bleeding for now. I’ll go grab some towels from the bathroom.”

“Oh. It… it’s you,” she said, eyes widening in disbelief as she stared up at me. Her faltering voice was broken, but not angry. Just confused and scared. There was no anger in her gaze either. Only raw vulnerability.

I stepped into the bathroom to grab a couple of hand towels. I wet one in the sink and left the other dry. When I returned to the room and gave them to Ev, she flinched as my hand briefly brushed against hers.

“It’s okay,” I said gruffly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Th-thank you,” she said in a ragged voice.

“You don’t need to thank me for not hurting you.”

“I know. I just meant…” She swallowed audibly and looked away. “I know you hate me. But you saved me anyway. So… thank you. For that.”

I sank onto the bed next to her. “Tell me what happened.”

“I was asleep. Then I woke up and there was a guy on top of me.” She paused, swallowing hard. “He was trying to… to…”

She trailed off, pressing the cloth face mask against her mouth as more blood trickled out.

“I tried to fight him off,” she finally went on. “I bit him on the arm. Really hard. That’s when he hit me.”

“Shit, I only called the cops,” I muttered, pulling out my phone. “I should call an ambulance too.”

Ev shook her head. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not fucking okay. Your face is pissing out blood.”

“No, really. It’s fine. My lip went right into my teeth when he hit me,” she said. She opened her mouth briefly to show me the cut inside her swollen bottom lip. “That’s why it’s bleeding so much. But nothing feels broken. My teeth and nose are fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. It just hurts like a bitch.”

As she spoke, she looked down at the blood-smeared face mask. Her brows suddenly dipped in a frown, and she unfolded it to display the skull pattern on the front. She blinked slowly, twice, and then looked back up at me.

“Wait… why were you in my room tonight?” she asked. “How did you even get in here?”

Ah, shit. Here we fucking go.

“That’s not important right now,” I said brusquely.

“Yes, it is.” Her nostrils flared, and she sat up straight. “It wasyouin my other dorm earlier, wasn’t it? You smashed my stuff and wrote that message on the mirror. And now you’ve come back for more?”

There was a wild expression in her eyes now, like she was about to jump up and scream. I clenched my jaw and clamped a hand over her mouth. “That’s not up for discussion right now, Ev,” I said, eyes narrowing on hers.

She moaned in protest, head vehemently shaking.

“Some guy just broke into your room and tried to rape you,” I went on. “We need to focus on that now. Get the sick fuck caught. Okay?”

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