you couldn’t trust strangers. not back home, and apparently not in a place like this, either. not all strangers, anyway. some of them turned out to be all right, but some of them, you wanted to keep your distance from. she’d been heading into town, and she just happened to be going the same direction as the man who was now talking to her. well, talking seemed to be putting it nicely. threatening was more like it. still, she scoffed. “do it,” she said, knowing that she had her knife, and if she could maybe think quickly, she had half a chance against the stranger. the scar on her cheek was visible proof that she’d survived worse than some stranger trying to threaten her. “honestly, just do it. maybe if i die here, i go back home.” or maybe i see my daddy, mama, and shawn again. that dark thought remained inside of her head, untouched. the fact was, though, if she begged this man not to hurt her, maybe that was exactly what he wanted to hear, so he could do just that. perhaps if his threat was boldly welcomed, he’d leave well enough alone because that wasn’t what he’d been expecting. her heart hammered in her chest, but this wasn’t her first brush with death, and with how things were going lately, beth rather doubted it would be her last.