The Perfect Cover (The Perfect Stranger #2) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,1

the only person who believes in my innocence.

So, why am I leaving her?

I have thought about this a hundred different times and imagined a hundred different scenarios. I need to protect Isabelle, but I also need to get out.

She bought a car that she registered in her name and she took out cash from the bank, all of the savings that she has in the world. I came to her without a penny to my name and I’m leaving with new clothes, a car, a burner phone, and five thousand dollars. And I didn’t need to steal any of it.

The only reason I’m taking it, borrowing it, whatever you want to call it, is that I need to protect her. I need her to go back home and to live her life just like she did before.

It’s cold back here.

The air is still and stale.

It’s dark.

We drive for a long time without stopping and I know that no one suspects a thing. The longer we drive, the more I wonder whether I’m even doing the right thing.

It’s not that I don’t want to be with her. In fact, I want to be with her more than I ever wanted anything. Probably more than I even want freedom, and that’s what makes it so scary.

The cops who found Lester, one of my partners, the guy whose cell was right next to mine, shot him. They executed him without even trying to arrest him. They didn’t report that on the news, but I know that’s what happened. That’s usually what happens with everyone who is deemed armed and dangerous.

Since I love Isabelle, I can’t let that happen to her. I can’t put her life in danger like that.

The car comes to a stop and she hits the steering wheel three times with a loud bang that I hear all the way in the back.

This is my signal.

I know that everything is fine and that she’s just pulling over to let me out.

I feel the outside of my pocket and the jeans that she got me at T.J. Maxx. I trace the outline of the folded up letter that I had written her.

Here, I tried to explain and apologize for everything. I also left her a thousand dollars so that she can get an Uber to a car rental place and then rent a car to get back home.

In the letter, I lay it all out and I tell her not to worry. I promise that I will get in contact as soon as I have everything set out west.

After I emerge from the trunk, in the back of a gas station somewhere along the interstate, I quickly get into the passenger seat so that no one spots me. Wearing a hat that I pull over my eyebrows and popping up the collar to my jacket, I hope that there are no cameras back here and, if there are any, that they don’t see me.

Isabelle says that she’s going to get something from the store and asks what I want. I tell her to surprise me and she waves goodbye.

When I give her a hug, I slip the letter into her purse and make sure that she takes it, even when she just wants to take her wallet.

She doesn’t think anything of it at the moment, but I know that she will as soon as she comes out.

When she disappears around the corner of the convenience store, I start the car and pull away.

Isabelle

When I see him…

The door closes behind me, making a loud dinging sound before it shuts. The chill of the early morning slams into my lungs as I take a breath and look for Tyler.

I go back to where I left the car. It’s not there.

Uncertain as to what to do, I stand holding everything that I had bought in my arms and listen to the uncomfortable crinkling sound of the plastic bag of potato chips.

When the wind picks up, I grasp the stuff tighter, wondering if it’s the only thing I have.

“Tyler, where are you?” I whisper.

My chest tightens as my pulse accelerates.

Was it a police officer?

Did they take him already?

No.

If it had to do with law enforcement, then this place would be crawling with them. They’d be blaring their lights and pointing their guns in my face.

At least, that’s what happens on television and everything that happens on television happens in real life, right?

I laugh.

Maybe it was the federal marshals who snagged him. That’s who looks for escaped