The Perfect Lie (The Perfect Stranger #3) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,2

me in quite a predicament when you said that I couldn’t take you there. Then you passed out to make it extra exciting.”

“Well, going to an animal clinic was… brilliant.”

“I wish I could take all the credit, but the building and the sign sort of popped up and I thought… What the hell?”

Tyler laughs and then grabs onto his shoulder and winces in pain.

“You have to take it easy for a while,” I say.

“Yeah, but how do I do that?”

We drive for a while, nowhere in particular. Frankly, I have no idea what to do at this point. We don't have much money, a few thousand dollars that Tessa gave him earlier, but that's about it.

“Do you think that I should go back to the crater?” I ask.

Tyler's eyelids are closed and he doesn't respond.

His chest moves up and down with each breath so I decide to let him rest.

When Tessa, Mac, and the rest of them left, they only put one barrel of money into their car.

They left the other one.

Do I dare go back?

I'm sure that they'll be back for it later, they just didn't want to deal with Tyler at that moment.

I decide that I have to try. I don't have anywhere else to go and I'm not too far away from the crater.

With Tyler asleep next to me, I drive back, following the exact route that brought me here.

The closer I get, the harder my heart starts to beat.

My stomach jumps up into my throat and each breath becomes extremely laborious.

Still, I drive.

2

Isabelle

This is the last place I want to be. I know that it's not safe.

Mac and the others have left a barrel of money and the only reason they drove away in the first place was to leave me to deal with Tyler by myself.

But that doesn't mean that they're not going to be back.

I grab onto the wheel, watching my knuckles turn white. I'm the only one on this dusty road and, for a while, it feels like I’m the only one anywhere.

When I see the sign for the crater and drive past the enormous granite boulders bursting out of the desert, I slow down and then come to a sudden stop.

Tyler is still asleep.

I look down at him and try to decide what to do.

I could just go. I could just turn around, right here, right now, and drive away.

I'm tempted.

Of course I am.

Driving away would mean safety and security, but for how long?

Tessa only gave Tyler a couple thousand dollars. I'm not sure how much it is, I haven't counted it yet.

The amount of money in a barrel?

That's got to last a really long time. That's actually enough to start a new life and maybe even pay off my debt. Who knows?

I put my foot on the gas and accelerate.

I haven't given my debt of $100,000 much thought today, and it suddenly all comes back to me.

My mother had borrowed the money and now she has disappeared. I have no idea if it's of her own volition or on the direct order of someone else.

Maybe she's even dead.

Either way, the debt now belongs to me. I owe them a hundred thousand dollars and if I don't pay, then they’re going to tell the police exactly where Tyler is.

I don't know how they know.

I thought that they had traced my phone, but they somehow managed to get the number of this burner phone as well.

They must've followed me here because they knew exactly what motel we were staying at before we went to see Tessa.

The one thing that I know is that these are not the kind of men to fuck around with.

I finally approach the gas station, where the next turn left goes to the crater. It's a tall, dirty, and dusty operation with old pumps that require you to go inside to pay for gas. It’s right next to a nonoperational motel standing empty and abandoned, waiting for guests for all eternity.

Besides the mountains and the creosote bushes, there is nothing much else here but the nonoperational motel.

When I drive up to the spot near a collection of creosote bushes where I had left money, a strange sense of déjà vu overwhelms me. Of course, I have been here before, but it feels almost as if that happened in a dream.

I glance over at Tyler, who is still asleep.

Maybe I can get all this done before he wakes up.

My car had made imprints in the sandy dirt, leading me straight