Page 285 of Nobody's Girl

Laura looks up at him. “Do you really think so?” she asks in disbelief.

“I’m very sure of it and so are the police,” he tells her. “I can’t begin to thank you enough.”

“Eden, I’m really sorry,” I say. “I had no idea she didn’t know, but I brought up the bird in the drawer.”

Eden gets a surprised look on his face. “How did she take it?”

“Not really well,” I tell him as I give her a gentle squeeze. “She just about passed out.”

Eden looks at her. “I bet she did. You okay now, Alyssa?”

She nods. “It’s better that I know that anyway.”

Eden smiles at her and I can feel the rate of her heartbeats increase. “I know. I was going to tell you sometime in the near future,” he says with a soft tone to his voice, which makes Ally all melty inside.

God! Knowing what she feels is so damn weird!

I release her from my tight hold and move my chair over, so our legs no longer touch. I really don’t want to feel her every feeling. It seems like we’re getting more and more telepathy with one another.

I’m not sure I like it.

Laura and I take the dishes from the table, as we’ve all finished eating, and put them in the dishwasher. Eden takes Ally by the hand, pulling her up to him. They lean their foreheads together, sending things back and forth to each other no doubt.

Ally’s Mom comes in. Her face gets a strange look as she looks at Ally, then back at me and says, “I’ll get the rest of this cleaned up. You two are guests for goodness sake.”

Eden helps Ally out of the dog house. “She got the news about the bird in the drawer and got a little shaky. So Laura was kind enough to make breakfast for us.”

Her mother gives her a hug. “Oh, it upset you that much?”

Ally looks around the room at us all and says, “It shocked me at first, but I know everything’ll be fine. I have faith. I’m not going to let this guy get into my head, no matter how hard he tries.”

‘That a girl, Al,’ I send her.

She smiles back at me. ‘Thanks, Kyle. I’m so glad I have you,’ she sends me.

Eden looks at her, and in that instant, she shuts me out. “How far you’ve come in such a short amount of time,” he tells her.

“I guess it’s just the fact he did such terrible things to his daughter and what he’ll do to me. If he’s able to get to me, that has me thinking I can’t be afraid of him,” Ally says as she threads her fingers through Eden’s, something she used to do with me. “I have to stop him from doing this to anyone else ever again. I can’t be another victim. I have to be his ending. Our dreams have let me know I have no choice in the fact. He has to be stopped or it will be the end of us.”

Eden’s face drops as we realize she just said something she shouldn’t have. Laura catches it quickly. “Our dreams? What does that mean, Ally?” she asks.

Ally’s eyes look frantically at Eden for an answer. Unfortunately, he just looks back at her with a blank face.

Okay, no help there.

I look at Ally’s mom to find she has the same blank expression.

Okay, then I have to come up with some explanation.

My arm slides around Laura’s shoulders as I pull her tightly to my chest. “It just means, you know, the stress of this situation must have them dreaming about it. Almost like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, only it’s before the actual horrible thing happens,” I offer as an explanation for my Ally’s overactive mouth.

“Let’s go see if they’ve finished watching the surveillance video yet,” Eden says, changing the subject as he takes Ally and leaves the kitchen.

Laura and I follow them. I hold her close to me and she whispers to me, “Maybe they’re too close, ya know?”

Yeah! No kidding! What would she think if she knew how close Ally is to me?

Eden’s father, Lyle, is coming back into the large living room. He must’ve walked the police officers out. Lyle turns to us and I can tell by his expression that they know who helped Stiles.