Alibi (Brantley Walker Off the Books #5) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,41

to leave the clothes behind at the motel. She’d spent good money on that stuff and hadn’t been able to wear half of it. Now she was stuck in this shithole of a town, and the Walmart was the only store they had, so she had to make do. Temporarily, of course.

Now that she’d scrounged a few pieces that were relatively decent, she needed something that’d help alter her appearance a little more.

The thought of putting cheap hair dye on her hair had her stomach cramping, but Juliet knew the days of salon highlights and coloring were out. At least until she figured out a way to start over, to change her identity for good. One day, she would get back to the glam life, of that she was certain. She had even started her list of potential husbands. There were several she knew who had bank accounts worthy of her. It was just a matter of getting through this debacle and reinventing herself. At that point, she could marry money one more time and live happily ever after.

As she skimmed the rows of boxed hair color, she couldn’t help but wonder where Travis Walker was. He hadn’t been part of the group backing the guy who’d stepped up to the microphone and made the big announcement. Juliet had expected Travis to be the speaker, but at the very least, she thought he would be standing in the background.

No. It looked as though Travis Walker couldn’t be bothered to show up.

So where was he? At home, cuddled up to his husband, maybe? Juliet wouldn’t doubt it. The guy was disgusting. A wife and a husband? Who did that? Was he too good to settle down with just one person so he grabbed one of each?

It sickened her to think about. Maybe Travis Walker had already moved on. Maybe the reward was his family’s way of avenging the woman’s death.

Now that she thought about it, most of what she’d ever read was about Travis and the husband. Rarely was the wife even mentioned. Could be he hadn’t wanted the wife in the first place.

Had she done him a favor by offing that bitch?

Juliet felt her face heat with her anger. Had she killed the wrong person? Was that woman of so little importance to Travis that he couldn’t be bothered to offer a reward himself?

She grabbed a box of red hair color, threw it in the cart, and stomped toward the register.

If Travis Walker couldn’t be bothered for Kylie, then Juliet would find someone else to eliminate. Someone whose death would bring that asshole to his knees once and for all.

But first, she would have to find a place to go for a little while. Somewhere to hide until the heat died down. The reward would have people actively looking at her. It raised the chances of her being caught.

As much as it pained her, she knew she would have to leave the area for a little bit. Not too far though. Juliet liked knowing Travis Walker was close.

Mexico wasn’t ideal but it would take little effort to get there. Only a few hours from here.

Then again, crossing the border on her own would likely result in her being caught. She would have to get creative, which meant a little more time.

Nope. Not Mexico. Not yet.

A touristy spot might work. Somewhere along the coast. South Padre? It was close to Mexico. That way, if it came down to it, maybe she could make a run for it.

As she scanned her items through the self-checkout lane, Juliet came up with a new plan.

Chapter Twelve

Three weeks later

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Reese had known that offering a reward to the public would result in an overabundance of crap sightings of Juliet Prince.

What he hadn’t expected was to have spent the past three weeks chasing one lead after another only to come up with absolutely nothing. Every single time they had what sounded like a legit sighting, they investigated. And so far, they’d done nothing more than harass innocent people.

The calls had died down significantly in the past couple of days. They’d been prepared for that, too, realizing there would be a heightened sense of awareness in the beginning, when the story was hot, but eventually the buzz would wear off. With each passing day, people were forgetting about the reward, moving on with their lives. Eventually they would stop looking for the woman whose picture had been flashed on the television and social media for