Emily winces. “Oops. I might not have thought that through completely,” she whispers to me.
Emily calms the twins down and convinces themnotto kill Terrell Beck for supposedly making out with me. I wonder if that poor guy will catch some flak from the workers for Emily’s cover story. I want to feel sorry for him, but I don’t, not after what he did to Sixes. Then, Emily compels them to go make us some food and hang out for a movie. She blows on her nails and rubs them on her shirt when the twins leave my room.
“I think I am going to like my new superpower.” We both laugh when my phone chimes.A text from Shadow reads,busy?
I poise to respond when Emily snatches my phone. “Hey!” I shout.
She rolls her eyes. “I need to teach you how to be more covert.” She responds to Shadow’s message. Looking up from the phone, she asks, “Did he say something to you?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Like how he feels about you?”
He did, but I’m still so unsure what any of it means. He’s so much older than I am, and this is all new for me. I shrug, not knowing how to answer Emily’s question.
“I think he’s your true mate. That’s why he feels so alive when he’s with you,” she says softly. The phone chimes again. “You can’t tell?” She looks down to reply to him.
“I... I don’t know. What is it supposed to feel like?”
She gazes up at me. “What does it feel like when you’re with him? When he kisses you?”
I contemplate her questions. But I’ve felt that way with Liam, too. So, I can’t be sure.
“You don’t feel like this insane pull toward him, like he’s the only one who exists? Like if he fell off the face of the earth, you couldn’t breathe or survive without him?”
“I feel tingles when he’s near me, but I’ve felt them before…”
She plops my phone on the bed. “Before? Like with someone else?”
I slowly nod, realizing I kept that a secret from her, too.
“Who?” She moves closer to me, but I hesitate to answer. “Hello? You’re supposed to be my best friend and tell me things!” she shrieks.
I laugh. “I didn’t have time to really think about it, and then I forgot.” I attempt to play it off with a straight face, but I didn’t forget. I simply decided to keep it locked away in my heart.
She narrows her eyes. “Who? If you say Terrell Beck, I will strangle you!”
“Why does his name keep coming up? I don’t even know who he is!”
“Yeah, you do. He’s the idiot in town who jumped out of the car window to talk to you.”
I roll my eyes. “You saw that?”
She giggles. “We watched from the store window. Stop avoiding my question.”
“No, not him.” I sigh. Does it even matter anymore if I tell her? He’s not here. I haven’t heard from him since he left, and I don’t even know where he is. “Liam,” I whisper.
Her eyes widen. “You feel a connection with himandShadow?”
“I don’t know about a connection. Just tingles whenever they’re around or when they touch me.”
“Man, you sure know how to pick them.” She refocuses back on my phone.
“What does that mean?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing. I mean it’s just that they’re like my family. That’s all.”
While that is partly true, there’s more she’s not saying.
