Page 289 of Nobody's Girl

“What’s he doing out of cuffs and still here?” Kyle demands to know.

Eden looks at me. “Alyssa, maybe it would be best if you take Kyle and Laura upstairs while we work this out.”

Kyle sends me, ‘Let him know I’ll not be shut out of this, Ally. You take Laura up and I’ll stay down here. I have to be in on this. Your safety is my number one priority.’

I look up at Eden and say, “Let Kyle help out, babe. I’ll take Laura up. Come on, Laura, let’s go upstairs.”

As we reach the top of the stairs, Laura pulls me to my room, shutting the door behind us. “Ally, why do you think you can trust that guy? I mean he gave the freak all the information he needed to get to you.”

“This is hard to explain,” I tell her. “I can tell he was forced to give Stiles the information. Brady is Karen Stiles’ boyfriend.  Darren Stiles told him he had to get him into our house or he would kill her. Apparently, he told Brady to give him the information by a certain time. When Brady didn’t get him the information by his timetable, Stiles raped and beat his daughter almost to the point of death. He actually meant to leave her alive, just barely, so he still had something to hold over Brady’s head. That’s what he’s been doing and he’ll keep doing that until he finally gets me.”

Laura throws her arms up in the air as she paces around my bedroom. “How in the hell can you be so gullible? You can’t believe a word the guy says. Of course he’s going to say he was blackmailed. It’s like, step one when you get caught—blame someone else.”

Crap, this is so much harder to get her to believe. I wish I could just tell her I have this gift, but I can’t.

I sit on my bed and look out the window. “I see where you’re coming from, Laura. I really do, but these people are a lot savvier about the ways of the world than we are. I have complete faith in them and my husband, so I’m ready to do whatever it is they come up with. I trust them that much.”

Laura sits next to me, sliding her arm around my shoulders. “I’m not positive these people have your best interest in mind. I’ve thought some brainwashing might be going on. I’ve done a lot of research on this Phoenix Foundation they’re so big in and that you and Eden are going to a part of. Ally. A couple committed suicide or something like that about the same time as you got married. Apparently they were long-standing members of the Phoenix Foundation. Their obituary said the husband died, followed minutes later by his wife. Al, that crap doesn’t happen.”

Man, this is getting harder and harder not to tell her. I can’t though.

“I heard about that too,” I say as I take her hand in mine. “It turns out they were old—like really old—and just it was a weird fluke that they died like that. I haven’t been brainwashed in any way.”

“This foundation is more like a religious cult in my eyes, Al,” Laura throws at me. “Have they made you attend any meetings or anything at all?”

“No, I haven’t been made to attend any meetings,” I say with a slight laugh. “This is a great organization. These people help so many hungry children, even building schools in third world countries.”

Laura rolls her eyes. “I’m aware of all the good they do. Are you aware the members of this foundation never leave it? Once they join, they never leave, not any of them, Ally. That’s not normal.”

Wow, this just keeps getting harder. What can you not find on the internet?

“Well, who would want to quit an organization that does so much good?” I ask.

Laura squeezes my hand and looks straight into my eyes. “Al, you have a quick answer for everything I tell you. That’s kinda crazy, because it’s exactly what people in cults do.”

Boy, she’s making this so ridiculously hard.

I give her a wide smile. “Okay, how about this? You’re here to see everything that happens. I’m asking you to stay awhile and see what goes on. Then you can decide if I’m in danger or not.”

“That’s exactly why I accepted your invitation, Ally. I’m not going to stand by while something crazy or terrible happens to you. I love you.”

Her words bring tears to my eyes.

How can I leave her in the dark like this? The freaking rituals—I can’t put her through that. It’s bad enough that Kyle had to go through them. I can’t let Laura go through anything near what we did.

“I love you very much. You will probably never know how much,” I say as I hug her tightly to me. “You’ll be here with me. If you see anything which seems cultish, then point it out to me. Now, I’m going to need you to help me take care of this situation, but only if you want to.”

“Hell, yeah, I’m going to help you take care of this situation, Ally,” Laura says as we release one another. “Once Kyle told me someone was stalking you, there was no holding me back. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not anything that’s happened between us will stop me from caring about you.”

In an instant, all I can think about is asking her to join our organization. If she could just know about us things would be so much better.

“Laura, perhaps you and Kyle could join The Phoenix Foundation. Better to be on the inside when checking into something, don’t you think?” I ask.

Her eyes narrow. “I’d have to discuss it with Kyle. I’m not sure it would be the right thing to do at this point.”

Okay, she’s clearly not ready.

Eden walks in. “Okay, you both should come downstairs now. We’ve come up with something which involves you,” he tells us.