Chapter 3: The Hunter Finds the Prey

Outside, there was a commotion:

“If you ask me, grab him first!”

“No outsider’s set foot in our town in over a hundred years. How’d he find his way here?”

…

I asked Daisy, “What’s going on out there?”

“Don’t get me started. Early this morning, a strange man showed up in town.”

“Pale eyes, thick black brows and hair—looks like trouble.”

“A local stopped him and asked why he was here. Guess what he said?”

My stomach dropped. “What did he say?”

“He said he came to find his wife.”

The words sent chills crawling over my skin.

Pale eyes. Thick black brows and hair.

That was Mason. No doubt about it.

“He also asked which house has a well out front. Our house and a few others have wells. Isn’t that weird?”

“Now all the men are gathered, trying to figure out what to do.”

It’s over. God, it’s really over.

Could Mason really have found his way here?

“Stop picking at your hands. You’re about to rub your skin raw.”

If Daisy hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have noticed—the skin on my palm was raw.

Daisy asked, “What’s wrong? Do you know that man?”

“No,” I lied.

I pretended to be calm, but inside I was panicking.

Mason can’t find me.

None of this makes sense.

Pockmarked Face had already tossed my phone into a ravine. Mason couldn’t have tracked me by phone signal.

Pockmarked Face said GPS doesn’t work here. So how did Mason find me?

My mind felt like it had been struck by lightning.

I remembered—the last time I was beaten nearly to death, Mason had let a secret slip.

I hadn’t believed him at first.

But now, I have no choice but to believe him.

I pressed my hands to my temples, trying to keep my thoughts from spiraling. The world outside these walls was closing in, and Mason was at the center of it all, moving toward me like a storm you could see coming but couldn’t outrun.

I finally knew how he kept finding me.