Don't Say a Word (Strangers Series) Read Online Free Page A

lack of sleep took much more of a toll on her body than it once had.
    The phone rang. Allie reached for it and answered. “Hello?”
    There was silence on the other end.
    “Hello?” she said a little louder.
    She could hear someone breathing. Then, after a few seconds, the call disconnected.
    A shiver moved through her.
    When she looked up, Bitty was watching her expectantly. “Who was it?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “They didn’t say anything.”
    Allie rubbed the goose pimples that had risen on her arms and tried to tell herself that it had been nothing. A bad connection or a wrong number. But given her past, alarms were sounding in her head.
    She glanced at Zoe, who had stopped eating her eggs, midbite. “It might’ve been my dad trying to call,” she said, her tone hopeful. “Sometimes when he’s on the road he hits dead areas and he can’t hear us.”
    A chair screeched against the tiled floor, making Allie jump.
    Carrie stood and burst from the room.

CHAPTER 5
    COLD RAIN SLAPPED the gutters of the one-story brown brick building that housed Johnson County’s behavioral services department. While Allie and Sammy sat in the warm truck, Bitty walked the girls in.
    Allie lowered the windows an inch to let some of the cold, crisp air rush in. There was something about the chilly, rain-cleansed air that she’d always found soothing. Breathing in the tangy scent of wood smoke, she peered in the rearview mirror and saw Sammy also watching the girls. He’d had a million questions about both of them as he’d dressed that morning. She wondered what he was thinking now.
    “You warm enough back there?”
    Sammy nodded. “Why we not go with them?”
    “Why didn’t we go with them,” she corrected. “Because it’s going to be boring in there. Someone’s just going to ask them a bunch of questions, then they’ll be done. They shouldn’t be long.”
    Sammy returned his focus back to the game on his iPad.
    Her thoughts shifted to the breather on the phone earlier that morning. The call was still creeping her out. If someone had simply gotten the number wrong, why didn’t he or she say something? Why just sit there like a freak, breathing on the phone?
    She found the big Stop sign in her mind and waved it in front of her eyes.
    Stop! she told herself. Relax. It was just a wrong number.
    It was a technique Bitty had taught her years ago that helped her suppress negative or obsessive thoughts. It worked really well . . . most of the time.
    Prone to depression and anxiety attacks, Allie had learned that if she controlled negative thoughts, ate well, took a low-dose antidepressant and a handful of supplements, the bad feelings usually went away very quickly. On the other hand, if she didn’t do all the above religiously, they often spiraled out of control.
    She powered on her tablet and was in the middle of reading a nutrition article she’d bookmarked when someone tapped on the driver’s side window.
    She almost flew out of her seat.
    Her eyes darting to the window, she realized it was just Bitty. Exhaling loudly, Allie lowered the window and cursed her exaggerated startle reflex. It was going to end up giving her a heart attack.
    “Sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Bitty said. “But Zoe said she won’t talk to the therapist unless you’re in the room with her.”
    Allie frowned. “What? Me?” That didn’t make sense. Bitty was the one good at connecting with people . . . comforting the children. Not her. So why did Zoe want Allie there? They didn’t even know one another.
    Besides, Allie’s rule was to never get involved with the foster children. “But that’s crazy. Why would she ask for me?”
    “I don’t know.” The woman watched her. “If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to do it.”
    Allie definitely wasn’t comfortable.
    “I can go back in and say it’s not an option,” Bitty continued. “And they’ll just have to find some other way.”
    But