Page 116 of Run Away With Me

‘I know,’ I murmured.

‘That cop,’ she said. ‘He was really looking at Meredith’s ID. I know we look similar, but we’re not freaking twins.’

‘He didn’t question us, though. He let us go.’

‘Yeah. That was good. I just have a bad feeling.’

‘About him in particular?’ I asked.

‘Maybe. I’m trying to put it all together.’

We walked in silence for the next block.

‘What if,’ Brooke said as we were waiting for the lights to change, ‘Meredith told Jules that you’re with me.’ She nudged my arm to get my attention and we crossed the street together. ‘And that I have her ID. Then Jules told the police. Or she told my parents, who called the police.’

‘Would she do that?’

‘If she saw the same news reports we’ve seen, then yeah. Maybe.’

‘Shit,’ I muttered.

‘So then if the cops know we’re together, and they know I’ve got Meredith’s ID, and that cop runs my license plate …’

‘It won’t take them long to figure it out,’ I finished for her.

‘We need to get out of here as soon as we can,’ Brooke said, glancing over her shoulder. ‘First thing in the morning.’

‘I’m okay with that.’

‘And maybe we skip Orlando altogether.’

That didn’t feel right to me. We’d worked so hard to get there – it felt important that we at least saw the city.

‘You didn’t tell Julianne or Meredith that’s where we’re headed, though,’ I said. ‘No one knows where we’re going.’

‘I know. I really just want to shake things up a little, you know?’

I could hear the anxiety lacing her words, and decided we could have this conversation again in the morning, when she’d calmed down.

Something felt wrong as we turned the corner for the hotel and I noticed two police cars parked outside, their lights flashing.

Brooke looked at me and frowned.

‘We need to take a detour,’ I said.

Brooke’s eyes went wide, frantic. ‘How did they find us so fast?’

We got closer to the front door of the hotel, and it became even more obvious that something was going on – the police hadn’t set up a barrier, but in the lobby there was definitely more than two police cars’ worth of uniformed officers.

‘I don’t like this, Brooke,’ I said. ‘I don’t like it at all.’

Her eyes went hard, and she shook her head. ‘This is really not good,’ she said.

‘Listen, I know we might be paranoid right now, but –’

‘No, you’re right.’ She grabbed my arm, and we moved toward the street entrance of the parking garage. Our footsteps echoed on the cool cement, putting me more on edge. ‘We should go check the car.’

I felt Brooke tense as we walked up to the Mustang.

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