Read Online 39 Clues _ Cahills vs. Vespers [03] The Dead of Night by Peter Lerangis - Free Book Online

edgy. That wouldn’t be useful.
    The screen showed Evan’s name. “Hello, Ev?”
    “Ames!” he squeaked. “We just heard the news from Erasmus. All I wanted to do was, you know, touch base? How’s it going? Are you okay?”
    For a moment, Amy felt a smile breaking the stalemate of expression on her face. No one said hello like Evan. He was a ball of sweet eagerness.
    As the elevator door opened, she felt tears rushing to her eyes. It was refreshing to speak to someone whose first concern was her.

    Crying?
    Jake worried about the leadership skills of Amy Cahill. He watched her face carefully. She was talking to . . . what was his name? . . . Tolliver. From the video transmission in the Prague hotel. The nerdy guy. Her boyfriend. She was crying and smiling.
    Funny. When she smiled, all the tension drained from her face.
    She was really pretty.
    And you’re an idiot for thinking that. And, doofus, she’s noticing you.
    Jake turned away from Amy’s eyes. He didn’t care, really. She deserved to have a boyfriend, like anyone else.
    The elevator began to rise. Behind Jake, Atticus was helping Dan with anagrams. Amy finished her call and hung up. Jake noticed her eyes had changed. They were scanning the hotel skittishly.
    What was she so nervous about? So many secrets in this family. So much paranoia.
    “Slob rate!”
Atticus exclaimed.
    “I don’t think that’s it,” Dan drawled.
    “What are you toddlers yapping about?” Jake said.
    Amy shushed him. She was staring upward. Jake followed her glance.
    High above, a man leaned over the balcony. He was dressed in a black suit with no tie, a wide-brimmed black hat, and sunglasses. He was scanning the area slowly, as if searching for something.
    “Why is that guy wearing sunglasses?” Amy asked. “The lighting scheme is dark. No normal person would need to wear those.”
    “A Turkish film star?” Jake suggested.
    “He’s on our floor!” Amy said.
“Someone hit the button. Any button.”
    They were rising quickly — eleven . . . twelve . . . thirteen.
    “Amy . . . are you okay?” Dan said.
    Amy lunged across the elevator and pressed the seventeenth floor. The elevator came to a stop. “Get out —
everyone
,” she said, pushing Jake by the shoulder. “That guy is waiting for us. Up on the balcony.”
    Jake stumbled out. The girl was strong. “How do you know?”
    Amy ran past him, onto the floor. She frantically pressed the button to an elevator going down. A door immediately opened. “Get in. Now!”
    The elevator was crowded with other people. Amy shoved Jake and the others inside, then made her way to the glass wall.
    “Amy, chill!” Dan urged. But his sister was fixated on the scene above.
    Bewildered, Jake watched the man in sunglasses. He seemed to freeze as he spotted their descending elevator. Then he began walking quickly toward that section.
    At the same time, the elevator in the tube next to theirs rose to his floor.
    A young woman emerged. She also wore sunglasses and was dragging carry-on luggage. She grinned at the sight of the man, throwing her arms around him. Together they strolled away from the elevator and toward a hotel room door.
    They were guests. Plain and simple.
    “Hi ho the derry-o, the Vesper takes a vife,”
Dan sang.
    Amy sank to the floor. “My bad,” she murmured.
    Atticus and Dan cracked up. Jake fought back a grin.
    When the door opened at the lobby, the other bewildered passengers couldn’t get out fast enough. They rushed around a stooped, balding man, who was smiling at Amy and Dan.
    “Excuse to me?” he said in a thick accent. “Is you . . . Daniel and Amy Cah-heel? Friends of Erasmus Yilmaz? I am manager. His cousin Bartu.”
    Amy nodded. “I’m Amy, this is Dan.”
    The man’s eyes watered. He grabbed Amy by the face and kissed her on both cheeks. “Any friend of Erasmus is family to me!”

    Fool. Paranoid.
    Amy breathed deeply, trying to slow her heart rate. She would have to stay cool. Leadership