TPG Read Free Page B

or
warning. They weren’t that close anymore.
    After hanging up,
Kyle turned to his laptop, focusing on what had happened to Allie. Tom said
alcohol could’ve caused the hemorrhage, but Allie hadn’t appeared drunk. Not
that drunk, anyway. Her texts were clear and her gait steady. She might’ve been
tipsy, but not wasted. And he didn’t think she was on drugs. But he could’ve
been wrong about that. You never knew. Maybe she was taking Ecstasy or
something. Possible, but his gut told him no.
    He did a Google
search for burst aneurysms and found a site called brainaneurysms.com, where he
saw just what he’d expected to see. An aneurysm, which was essentially a blood vessel in the brain that
balloons and bulges out, wasn’t that rare. But a ruptured one was. Very rare, even more so in someone so
young. Almost all ruptured aneurysms happened to people north of thirty-five.
    He stared at the
laptop, realizing that there could’ve been other reasons for the aneurysm to
burst. Maybe she had a hereditary disease. Or maybe the man in the alley had
done something.
    But what?
    Allie couldn’t
have been there for more than a minute. Probably even less. So what could he
have really done? There was no sign of an assault or trauma. Maybe there was a
needle prick somewhere? Perhaps he injected her with something then ran away?
But what would work so fast?
    Kyle closed his
laptop and began to crack each one of his knuckles as he leaned back on the couch,
just like he always did when things weren’t sitting right with him. And things
definitely weren’t sitting right. His gut was telling him there was something
more going on, something else that had happened.
    But what that
something was, he wondered as he cracked his last knuckle, he had absolutely no
idea.

 
 
 
    CHAPTER FIVE

 
 
    The next few days were uneventful
in terms of Allie’s condition. She was still in a coma, and they apparently
didn’t know much more.
    He thought about
mentioning her condition to his class, but decided against it. Allie didn’t
seem to be that close to any of them beyond superficial hellos. And that made
sense. It was a summer class. She went to Michigan and was only taking the
class to avoid a heavy load for her upcoming senior year. Kyle remembered
seeing the big yellow “M” on her dark blue T-shirt during the session’s
introductory lecture. Sitting in the front row, she had a cheery smile that
easily outshone the bored glazed-over looks from the other students, those in
the summer session caring much less about the nuts and bolts of psychology than
his full-time students. She was also undeniably gorgeous. Tall, thin, high
cheekbones, with bright green eyes framed by flowing long blond hair. Not that
Kyle would let his eyes linger for long. Whenever a pretty student caught his
attention, he usually did his best to ignore them. And Allie wasn’t the first
attractive student he’d had, or the only one to hit on him. Kyle had thick,
dark blond hair with a narrow nose below deep brown eyes and kept his six-foot
frame fit with bike rides up and down the Palisades.
    So, yes, there had
been other overtures in the past, but he had never acted on them. But it was
different with Allie. He allowed himself to banter with her after class and
even believed her when she said she always had an interest in the workings of
the mind, that it was a hobby of hers. That she found it fascinating.
    And he enjoyed
their conversations, convincing himself that she was mature beyond her years.
Even then, he wouldn’t have acted on it if she hadn’t asked for his cell
number. But she had. The class had a test coming up, and Allie wanted to know
if she could call him in case she had any questions. Kyle knew that wasn’t the
real reason, but he didn’t care. He gave her the number. He couldn’t not give it to her.
    That’s when the
flirtatious texts started. And what he was too inhibited to say in person, he
felt emboldened to say in a text. He played