Chapter 2

<Gavin Forrester>

"Gavin, Gavin, get out here!" Victoria shouts on our 3rd day being in Barbados.

I walk out, rubbing my eyes due to the fact that I've slept a total of 5 hours since we got here.

"What's up?" I mumble and sit down next to her.

"Look at the news!" Victoria shakes me and I catch a bit of fear in her expression.

I look up at the news and my body shuts down. On the news there is an anchor talking about my escape from Attica. A picture of my mug shot comes on as the anchor continues describing what the authorities know so far. Next a picture of Blaze and Slick driving away from Attica comes on.

"Blaze, Slick, get the hell in here we may have company." I shout and the pair of them come racing in.

"Dude, what's going on?" Blaze says in an irritated tone.

"Look at the TV." I state simply and jerk my head in the direction of the news story.

"Authorities believe these 2 men are harboring the escaped fugitive however, their apartments were empty as was the fugitive's. It would seem that these 3 have fled the New York area and it is believed that they are somewhere in Barbados where one of these 2 men have family. Please be aware and alert your local police if you see any of these men. The FBI have begun to look into this and are calling an international man hunt as they believe that the escaped fugitives and his friends are extremely dangerous. Please, if you do see any of them, don't antagonize them and go to the police instead. That will be all for now, back to you Chris." The anchor signs off and I'm left feeling extremely numb.

"Damn it, what are we going to do?" Blaze takes a seat on the couch and looks at me intently.

"We have 3 choices as far as I see it. We can run off to somewhere else. We can never leave this house or we can get disguises." I cross my arms and stare back at Blaze.

"We'll only 3 of us need disguises." Slick mutters bitterly.

"Hey, I'm just as much involved in this as the rest of you." Victoria narrows her eyes at Slick angrily.

"Really, 'cause I didn't see your picture up there next to the headline 'escaped fugitive'. I'll bet your daddy made damn sure that your name never made it anywhere near the media."

"My daddy runs a mass murder company and is on the run with my mother who attempted to kill me." Victoria mutters, her eyes still narrowed.

"Don't start fighting now, we haven't even been caught and I won't let any of you guys get caught. Got it?" I look at each of them and they nod. "Now, we need a plausible plan. Something we can actually achieve and keep up."

"First off, we need to get rid of the plane because that basically proves we're here. Secondly, we need to rewire our phones so they can't be tracked and then we need to buy disposable phones. Thirdly, we can only pay in cash, no credit cards." Blaze crosses his arms and looks at the ceiling like he's still thinking.

"We need to get disguised first, otherwise they'll know it's us." Victoria points out.

"Why do you need disguises?" We all turn around and find Jeffrey coming into the room.

"They know Gavin is missing and they know we helped him." Blaze states simply.

"I told you that dirty cop would turn us in." Slick glares venomously at Blaze.

"How the hell was I supposed to know?" Blaze says dumbly.

"Dirty. Cop. The better question is why you would trust someone that was already turning their back on someone else and that someone being the NYPD!" Slick gives Blaze a disgusted look and then turns back to face me.

"That's behind us, we have bigger things to deal with right now than the dirty cop." Victoria looks at us incredulously and then leans back into the couch in surrender.

"You all want to be disguised so the cops won't catch you?" Jeffrey asks in a suspicious tone.

"Pretty much, any ideas?" I turn towards him and wait expectantly.

"I'll pick up some hair dye and colored contacts at the costume store. That should take care of the disguise part." Jeffrey mutters and grabs his keys. "I'll be back in an hour. Close all the blinds, lock the door and make as little noise as possible."

We all nod and watch as he goes out the front door. We draw all the blinds closed and lock every door in the house before going back to the couch to sit in silence.

~~~~~

The door squeaks open and we all turn towards it with startled expressions. Jeffrey comes in and slams it shut behind him. I stand up and help him carry the bags into the living room.

"I cleaned out the costume department and got a bunch of weird looks but hopefully, these things will keep you all incognito." Jeffrey lets out a deep breath and empties the contents of the bags onto the coffee table.

There's at least 16 boxes of hair dye in every color imaginable and even more boxes of color contacts. Jeffrey also bought some sunglasses and hats for when we need to go out and the disguise might not be enough.

Jeffrey continues to empty the bag and sets some bowls and brushes on the table for hair color application. Blaze picks up a box of hair color and drops it in rejection when he realizes what the color is.

"Blaze, we'll just give you a buzz cut and a pair of colored contacts instead of changing your hair color." Jeffrey stands up and leaves us to make our own decisions about our disguises.

Victoria picks up a box of bright red hair color and a box of blue contacts. She shrugs and reads the directions on the back of the box while twirling her light brown hair around her finger. I pick up a box of black hair dye and turn it over in my hands. Slick grabs a box of black hair dye as well.

Jeffrey comes back and gives us a 'who's going to go first' look. I stand up and follow him back to the bathroom where he has a bowl and applicator brush ready.

~~~~~

It's a few hours later and Victoria is the last one who needs to get her hair dyed. She's been clutching onto the hair dye box and examining her hair like it's the last time she'll ever see it, which to be fair is not that far from the truth. Jeffrey comes back and offers her his hand. She takes it and unwillingly follows him back to the bathroom. She looks over her shoulder and gestures for me to follow her. I walk into the bathroom where she and Jeffrey are and shut the door.

He hands Victoria an old t-shirt and a towel to put around her shoulders. She puts on the t-shirt and walks over to the sink before draping the towel over her shoulders.

"Comb your hair our really well and then put some Vaseline around your hairline." Jeffrey mutters and then begins to mix up Victoria's bright red hair dye.

Victoria looks longingly at her brown hair before she begins to comb it out. I can see the apprehension written in her features as she finishes and begins to apply the Vaseline. She looks at me when she's all done and reaches out for my hand.

"You ready?" Jeffrey asks in a gentle tone.

"No but I guess I have to." Victoria grabs a piece of her brown hair and then tosses it over her shoulder. "Are you sure this will throw the cops off of our trail because I'm not giving up my hair for something that isn't going to work."

"I will do everything in my power to make sure the cops don't get to you or any of us." I rub circles on the back of her hands and watch her face relax a little. "You gave up so much for me and now I'm going to make sure it wasn't done in vain."

"May I begin, Victoria?" Jeffrey asks as he puts on a pair of rubber gloves.

She cringes at the sound of snapping rubber and then nods as she screws her eyes shut. Her grip on my hand tightens and then Jeffrey dips the brush into the red colored dye that almost resembles red velvet cake.

He grabs a small section of Victoria's hair and brushes the dye all the way down to the tip of her hair. He gets through her whole head of hair before he runs out of dye. He sets a timer for 45 minutes which is how long her hair has to stay in the dye.

When the timer goes off, he rinses her hair and then starts the whole process over until her hair has no brown left in it and is a pinkish shade of red. Jeffrey taps her shoulder and turns her around. Victoria's eyes bulge out of her head and she walks closer to the mirror to look at her new hair color.

"I look like a dessert." She says in horror.

"I think you look beautiful." I rub her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down.

"I never said I didn't like it. I just said I look like a dessert." Victoria smirks and spins around in my arms.

"I'm glad." I lean in and place my lips on her cheek.

"Enough love, it's making me sick. Don't forget to put on your contacts before you go outside." Jeffrey shakes his head and throws the rubber gloves into a trash can near the sink.

Victoria grabs my hand and we walk back into the living room where Blaze and Slick are sitting with their new hair. Their eyebrows raise in surprise when they see Victoria's hair color. She plops down on the couch and continues to examine her newly dyed ends.

"We need to get rid of the plane now." Blaze says seriously.

"Okay, let's wait 'till nighttime so we're less likely to get caught." I sit down next to Victoria and put my arm around her shoulders.

"I almost forgot, I bought you guys' ski masks just for that particular purpose." Jeffrey comes into the room carrying a wad of black fabric.

He hands each of us a ski mask with eye slits to help us blend in and not get caught.

"What innocent person has ever worn a ski mask? If we don't want to look guilty then why are we wearing these things?" Victoria turns her mask over in her hands and runs her fingers over the rough material.

"We're already going to go dispose of a plane used to smuggle a fugitive out of the country. There's nothing innocent about this situation." Blaze shakes his head and stands up. "We'll leave at midnight."