READ THE FIRST CHAPTER

PROLOGUE

If he finds me, he’ll stab me again, right through the belly.

Sophie Whitestone pushed into the holiday crowds gunking up Michigan Avenue. She’d fold into the herd and disappear. When zebras packed in close, their stripes confused predators. Hadn’t she read that somewhere?

Strings of lights wrapped around the tree trunks lining Magnificent Mile, the wires like green snakes, coiling up every crooked branch, reaching the raw tips where new buds wouldn’t emerge for another five months. Each blinking bulb reflected off the carpet of fresh snow, where Sophie’s rubber soles made glistening patterns—little lacy flowers. These boots were her favorite. Something about leaving trails of icy blooms seemed magical, like spreading winter wishes.

These were childish notions, she realized with some sadness, not the ideas of a young woman. A college woman, who just that morning had stamped those enchanting impressions across the University of Chicago’s snow-covered quad, each oval evenly spaced and deep-set from a confident stride. Not hitched and staggered, like the damp shapes she was now marking on the downtown sidewalk.

He’ll follow my footprints, Sophie thought. Even if I’d lost him back at the L station, he’ll track those kiddie sunflowers.

Another drop of blood detached from the cuff of her coat and landed on the bright ground.