Read Online Sealed with a Lie by Kat Carlton - Free Book Online Page A

kindly older gentleman seems amused at the sight of my hair. I’mfinally inspired to go and look at it again—which is a big mistake.
    I twist, turn, and contort to check out the full extent of the damage in the Interpol office’s bathroom mirror. Most of my hair is one length and streams past my shoulder blades. Then there’s the large hank of it that’s ripped jaggedly across and only about six inches long. Nice. I can only imagine how hard Cecily Alarie would laugh if she could see this.
    I’ll need some hair extensions—or at the least a wig or a hat. Oh, well. Frankly, I’m a lot more worried about Charlie than I am about my hair. And I guess it could be worse: The woman could have ripped it completely out.
    Honestly, my face looks worse than my hair. I’m not sure what we can do about it —just smear it with makeup, I guess. And like I said, I don’t care.
    “Kari?” Evan’s voice calls through the door.
    “What?” Despite the fact that I have bigger worries, I’m not happy he’s seen me looking like this. But it’s better than Luke seeing me this way. Right?
    “I think it may be possible to French-braid your hair so that it covers the part that’s—” He hesitates.
    “Missing?”
    There’s a weird snorting sound.
    “Are you laughing ?” I fling open the door. He’s doubled over, nose pinched, gasping for air in between chortles.
    My mouth works.
    Matthis makes himself small.
    I lunge at Evan and pound my fists into him—any part I can reach.
    “Ow! Damn it, Kari—”
    “You. Do. Not. Get. To. Laugh.” I keep pummeling him. Maybe my reaction is out of proportion, but I have a lot of leftover adrenaline from that fight. “Not. Funny!”
    He laughs so hard that tears run down his face. “Yes it is . . . oooof . . . sorry . . . but it is!” He finally twists and captures my wrists and forces me back against the wall.
    That makes me so mad that I think about spitting in his face.
    “Don’t,” he warns.
    Boy, do I want to work up a good loogie. It would look awesome right in the middle of his forehead.
    “Don’t,” he says again.
    “Let go of me.”
    He shakes his head. “I’m restraining you for my own good.” He stares down at me for a long moment. “Besides, you’re not the ugliest girl I’ve ever had against a wall.”
    I’m speechless.
    He grins provocatively. “In fact, you’re rather hot.”
    This gives me a perverse thrill that I’m instantly ashamed of. And I so do not know how to respond. So I take refuge in arguing with him.
    “I’m not hot. My hair is torn and my lips look like they got stuck in a vacuum cleaner and none of this has anything to do with finding Charlie, so—”
    Evan brushes his lips over my swollen ones.
    Wait, did he just do that?
    Then he releases my hands and turns away.
    I almost slide down the wall.
    Suddenly the door to the suite opens and a no-nonsense gray-haired guy in a suit walks in, looking down at a file and then up at us. “Andrews, Karina? Kincaid, Evan? Matthis, Clearance?”
    “Yes.” Evan speaks for us all.
    Which is good, because I still don’t think I can.
    “You can go,” the German man says without further explanation or introduction. He pulls our passports from the file and hands them to us after a quick perusal of each. “Interpol vouches for you.” He frowns down at the file once more. “However, Mr. Matthis is to check in regularly with his parents on his progress during the, ah, chess tournament.” The blandness in his voice is commendable.
    Matthis blushes, of course. Pushes up his glasses. Fidgets.
    Gray-Hair continues. “And Ms. Andrews, you should drink plenty of fluids and have some chicken soup for dinner. To aid in your recovery from the flu, of course.”
    I clear my throat.
    “I’ll make sure she does that,” Evan says with an easy smile.
    “Very good.”
    Matthis glances at me, then Evan, as if to say, can we get out of here now?
    “Well, then,” says Gray-Hair. “How delightful