Sealed with a Lie Read Online Free PDF Page B

ugly garden gnome strung with tinsel, a stone table, and two benches greet me. I yell for my brother yet again. Where could he have gone?
    I circle around to the front yard and look down the street to see if he’s talking with a neighbor or playing with someone’s dog or cat. No Charlie.
    At this point, I’m getting a little freaked out. My brother isn’t the type to wander off alone—he’s more likely to lose himself in a book or on an iPad. I cross the street to knock on Madame Pierre’s door and ask in my lousy French if she’s seen Charlie.
    “Non,” she says, shaking her gray-coiffed head. Have I looked around the corner, in the little park? He may be there playing on the swings.
    After thanking her I go check, but he’s not there, either.
    Back at the town house, I ask Abby if she’s seen Charlie. She hasn’t. I go upstairs to our rooms, and even into Evan’s room, yelling his name and peering under the beds in case he’s playing some silly game—but instinct tells me he’s not.
    I pace back and forth in the kitchen. Where could Charlie have gone? A sick tide of fear washes over me. Has something happened to him?
    Whom can I call? Agent Morrow is out of town for a few days. Stefan is in Greece. I reach for the house phone to call Evan, the only other person I can think of, but it rings before I can pick it up.
    “Hello?”
    “Karina Andrews?” The voice is heavily distorted, probably by some kind of machine. I can’t tell if it’s male, female, animal, or vegetable.
    “Yes. Who’s this?”
    “We have your brother.”
    My heart stops. Then it turns over. Then it tries to gallop out of my chest.
    “Karina?”
    “Wh-why?” I whisper hoarsely. “Oh, my God. Don’t hurt him!”
    “Whether we hurt him or not,” says the disembodied voice, “depends entirely upon you.”
    “On me ?” My hand, the one clutching the receiver, drips sweat. I wrap my other one around it so that I won’t drop the phone on the floor. As if from a long way away, I notice that my knees are shaking. Actually, it’s my entire body. I struggle to hold the phone next to my ear.
    “If you want to see your brother alive again, Karina, you will do exactly as we tell you.”
    I swallow, trying to drag some common sense up from the vortex of fear that’s consuming me. “How do I know you really have him? How do I know he’s alive?”
    “Kaaaa-rrrriiiii!” Charlie shrieks into my ear. “Kaaari,” he sobs. “Helllp! Come get me!”
    Then I hear a smack and a howl.
    “Stop it!” I scream. “Don’t you dare hit him! I will kill you if you touch him again.”
    The voice on the phone laughs, and it’s not a pleasant sound.
    “I’ll kill you!” My hands convulse around the hard plastic, and because it’s slick with my sweat, the phone shoots up and out of my grasp, crashing to the floor. I panic and throw myself after it, scrabbling madly to get it once again to my ear. “Hello? Hello!”
    “Get hold of yourself, Karina,” the voice snaps. “Or it won’t go well for your brother.”
    “Okay, okay . . . I am. I mean, what do you want?! You can’t hurt him, please —”
    “If you want to see Charlie alive again, you will do two things.”
    “What?”
    “And you will not tell the authorities. You bring cops into this, Interpol, any type of law enforcement entity, and we will send you Charlie’s head in a box.”
    Dear God, no. My stomach lurches, and I almost throw up just thinking about that image. Sweat pours down my face and back. I sag against the kitchen counter.
    “Tell me what I have to do.”
    “You will go to a small town in Germany. There you will spring a young thief, Gustav Duvernay, from his confinement in a juvenile detention facility. Gustav will be familiar with the details of your next little project. You will work with him to see it to completion.”
    “What little project?”
    “Stop asking questions and listen, Karina. You will have exactly one and a half weeks to accomplish