Page 6 of Hunt

Coincidences are worth noting because nine times out of ten, they’re not coincidences at all but strategic and deliberate acts conducted by someone who wants you dead.

There were many coincidences then, just before my father was murdered, and there were many coincidences now with Riley Laws.

She wasn’t in the science library where she liked to study and hang out with a girl who looked just like her, except shorter and weirder, so I started walking toward the Mustang to drive to her dorm.

As I stepped out into the open car lot, I felt an icy hand clasping the back of my neck. I was suddenly aware I was out in the open and immediately pulled the hood over my head. Something urged me to look behind at the admin building, and movement from the window on the third floor caught my eye. A girl hiding behind a curtain of hair seemed to be wearing glasses, although it’s hard to tell due to the gleam from the glass. But she seemed to be watching me, then pulled away from the glass as soon as I noticed her.

Damn. That girl looked like Riley. And if it was Riley, did she see me without my mask? Had I just been found out? My mask was in my Stang, but instead of walking back there, I turned back, pulled my sweater over my nose, ran around the front of the building, and swung the doors open.

I hadn’t decided what I would do once I got to her if it was Riley, but all I knew was I needed to get up there because she saw me without a mask before I spotted her. The elevator was in use, so I ran up the stairs, holding my sweater over my nose so only my eyes could be seen. Once on the third floor, I entered the deans’ offices with their receptionists at the helm.

“Can I help you?” one of the receptionists asked, looking at me strangely because I had my hood over my head and sweater pulled up over my face. Fuck, I was getting sick of living this way.

If Riley were still here, she’d be in the office to the left, facing out over the parking lot.

“Are you lost?” the receptionist asked, her hand twitching toward the phone as if she were about to call security.

“No,” I answered and backed away to the stairwell until one of the doors to the dean’s office opened, and a girl with long brown hair and glasses walked out. I waited a couple of beats to see if Riley would walk out behind her, but the door shut, and my heart sank when I realized I’d mistakenly seen Riley when it was that girl.

I was pretty sure that that girl was Riley’s friend, and she studied with her sometimes. She glanced up at me under those glasses, quickly looking down again shyly as if she wanted to discourage my attention, but she might know where Riley was.

I stepped toward her, but the receptionist was still wary about me lingering as she picked up the phone receiver to call security. The elevator door slammed shut before I could slip inside, so I turned and ran down the stairs, pausing halfway down to check my phone to see if Riley had replied to my message. Nothing.

This didn’t sit well with me. She might be in class, or perhaps the battery ran out on her phone, or something, but seeing that blond lady cop in her room put me on edge.

I threw the door open out into the sunshine, scanning the area for that little geek girl. I couldn’t see her, so I resigned to heading back to the parking lot until a soft, accusing voice said, “I know who you are.”

A small figure leaning against the wall behind a flax bush frowns at me while chewing her bottom lip. “Huh?” I point to my chest. “You’re talking to me?”

“There’s no one else here,” she sighed as if weighed down by something. “It’s not a particularly effective disguise.”

I knew I still had my hood over my head and sweater over my nose. “It’s not a disguise. I have a cold and forgot my mask.”

“Sure,” she rolled her eyes.

“I’m not hiding anything,” I lied, suppressing a smile.

“Sure,” she hit back. Her resemblance to Riley was uncanny but weirder, with a strange left-eye twitch and a stare similar to a hare in the spotlight.

“Do you know where Riley is?” I asked, hoping she’d tell me, but I suspected she wouldn’t.

“I’m not her minder,” she hissed, unsurprisingly. I liked her style. I liked her loyalty toward my girl and even enjoyed her snotty attitude toward me. “And that mask you sometimes wear to terrorize Riley is stupid. I knew it was you. Why do you pursue her?”

“What? That’s a lot of nosy questions that you don’t deserve answers to,” I snarled back to her, although I was curious to know if she knew who I was. “Do you know where Riley is right now at this very moment, or are you just having difficulty?”

“That’s a nosy question you don’t deserve an answer to,” she parroted, pointing her finger accusingly at me.

That snotty attitude again. “Just tell me if she’s okay,” I demanded as my patience ran out.

Her nostrils flared as she looked up briefly under her glasses before looking away again, unable to connect her gaze with me. Which could mean that she was socially awkward and shy or shifty as fuck. I didn’t think she was crooked or high, but you never know these days.

She shrugged those narrow shoulders. “I haven’t spoken to her since…” she gazed up at the sky as if trying to remember and screwed her face up when the sunlight struck her eyes. “Yesterday. And she seemed okay to me.”

“Fine,” I exhaled and turned to walk away because it was like squeezing water from a stone. Although I was curious to know her name and perhaps do a little digging on her, it occurred to me that she appeared at Riley’s dorm door not long after the blond cop left, and they had a conversation that I assumed was about the cop.

“You’re from Larsson,” she called after me, and my feet stalled. I turned slowly around to face her again.

“I’m sorry?” Many people here at Gotland knew who I was and kept their distance, but I pursued Riley from behind a mask. How did she know it was me under the Scream and ski masks?

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