Reviving Izabel Read Free Page A

should’ve vacationed in Florida or something, huh?”
    I gaze out the window again.
    “No,” I say. “I love this city. And I know how much you wanted to come.” I smile over at her briefly. “I say we have as much fun as possible this week.”
    She bumps her shoulder against mine playfully.
    “Now that’s the Sarai I know.” She smiles.
    Yes, but I’m not that person….
    She walks over and grabs Eric by the elbow, pulling him from the bed.
    “Let’s get out of here and let the girl rest.”
    Eric cooperates and then comes over to me, turning me around with my elbows cupped in his hands. He looks into my eyes with his baby-blues and gives me his best pouty face.
    “If you need me for anything,” he says, “call me and I’ll be here.”
    I nod and offer him a real smile. Because he deserves it for being so kind to me.
    “I will,” I say.
    Then I shuffle them out the door with both hands in front of me.
    “I would say don’t have too much fun without me, but that would be asking too much.”
    Dahlia laughs lightly as she steps out into the hallway.
    “No, it’s not asking too much.” She holds up two fingers. “Scouts honor.”
    “I don’t think that’s how it goes, Dahl,” Eric says.
    She brushes him off.
    “You just get some sleep,” she says. “Because tomorrow you’re going to need to be fully charged.”
    “Agreed.” I nod.
    “Bye babe,” Eric says just before I close myself off inside the room again.
    I stand with my back pressed against the door and let out a long, deep breath.
    Pretending is so hard. It’s far more difficult than just being myself, as abnormal and reckless as I may be.
    “I know what I have to do,” I say aloud—talking to myself has become my new thing as of late. It helps me to visualize and to figure things out easier.
    I walk back to the window and gaze out at the city of Los Angeles, my arms crossed loosely over my stomach.
    “A disguise is necessary, but not to hide from Hamburg. Just from the cameras and from anyone else. I want Hamburg to see me. It’s the only way I’m going to get in.”
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
     
    Sarai
     
     
     
     
     
    Dahlia and Eric didn’t come back up to the room until a couple hours later, just after sundown. I had made sure to shower and change into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and to leave the lights off in the room to make it appear as though I had been asleep. The second I heard the card key sliding into the door, I leapt into bed and sprawled out across the mattress, the same way I always do when I’m really sleeping. Eric crept in quietly, trying not to ‘wake me’, but I rolled over and moaned and cracked my eyelids open to let him know that he had. He apologized and asked if I wanted to go with him and Dahlia to a nearby nightclub and insisted that if I didn’t go, he wouldn’t, either. But I rejected that idea quickly. I could tell he really wanted to go and I can’t blame him; if I were in his position I wouldn’t want to hang out in a dark hotel room at barely eight o’clock on a Friday night in one of the most active cities in the U.S.
    But the two of them leaving was exactly what I needed. I had spent that entire two hours trying to come up with an excuse to tell them about why I was leaving, where I was going and why they couldn’t come.
    They solved it for me.
    Minutes after Eric leaves, I wait until Dahlia—in her room next to ours—changes out of her swimwear. From the peephole in my door, I watch them walk down the hallway. I count to one hundred, pacing the floor, over and over again. And then I grab my purse and carry it out the door. I walk briskly down the hallway in the opposite direction and make my way to the secret room on the other side of the building.
    A little paranoid about getting caught, I fumble around inside my purse, touching just about everything except the key to the room. Finally, I manage to get it into my fingers and I hurry inside, sliding the chain-lock into