Girl of Lies Read Online Free PDF

exhaustion sinking fast into her bones. Then she called out, “I can’t open the back door!”
    She didn’t say that there was no way in hell she was crawling over the body of Hairy Chest to get to the front door. They could figure that out on their own.
    Seconds later, the door opened, and she staggered out of the vehicle.

1. Andrea. April 28. 5:20 pm
    “I T’S JUST A precaution,” the police officer said. “We’ve got orders to make sure you get to the hospital safely and get checked out.”
    Andrea sighed. She knew it was necessary, especially since she’d gotten an unfortunate amount of blood in her mouth from the driver. But a helicopter?
    Whatever her objections, the bright red air ambulance was coming in for a landing, the rotors throwing up a wash of dirt and dust all over the highway. Westbound traffic on Interstate 70 was stopped, and police directed frustrated and angry commuters to alternate routes. Half a dozen police cars, two ambulances, a fire truck and a swat team truck had converged on the site.
    The need for that level of force had already come to an end. Fifteen seconds after exiting the car, Crew Cut, or Dan , or whatever his name was, opened fire on the police, then died from half a dozen gunshot wounds. The police were quite thorough making sure he wasn’t getting back up.
    The police had refused to allow her to retrieve her phone or purse. Evidence , they said. It might be evidence, but her passport was in there. Her frustration about that situation lasted right up until the moment she stood up to walk to the helicopter. After a brief argument with an EMT who wanted her to be strapped down on a stretcher, she squeezed herself into a crew seat and they buckled her in.
    She stared out the windows as the twin engines roared to a high pitch and the helicopter lifted into the sky. To the east stood Baltimore, a city she’d never actually been in other than passing through the airport. Toy buildings, tiny cars, the hazy horizon, all contributed to her sense of unreality and isolation. Was it only two days ago she’d said goodbye to Javier? To her grandmother?
    She wanted to go back home. She shivered, looking out at the harbor on the right side of the helicopter as it sped toward its destination.
    Damn it. She didn’t even know Javier’s number. Or any of her friends from school. And if she got a replacement phone, it wouldn’t do any good, because her backup was on her laptop, in the trunk of the stupid car.
    Who the hell were they? What did they want? It didn’t make any sense. Sure, her father had been nominated for some job with the US Defense ministry or whatever they called it. But that had nothing to do with her. And her attempt at negotiation wasn’t exactly honest. For all she knew, her parents wouldn’t lift a finger to ransom her. She barely knew them, and had been raised primarily by her grandmother. Her mother and father were remote figures on another continent.
    The only one of her sisters she was close to was Julia, the oldest. At thirty-two, she was double Andrea’s age. But she’d also been the one sister who consistently visited her in Spain. She was the sister she could count on.
    It had been eight months since she’d seen Julia. That was a long time. They’d sat in the park together near Carrie’s condo in Bethesda, Maryland, the day after Ray Sherman’s funeral.
    “Why don’t they want me home, Julia?”
    She had asked the question, not really expecting an answer. What possible answer could there be when your parents don’t want you there?
    “Of course they want you, sis,” Julia said.
    Andrea shook her head. “No…they don’t. When I told Mom I wasn’t coming home for Christmas last year, she didn’t even argue.”
    Julia flinched. “Mother and I…I’ve never understood her.”
    Andrea said, “There’s nothing to understand. They’re both awful. She’s crazy and he’s an icebox. I’m glad Abuelita raised me. At least I know I’m