I rubbed my eyes and stared at the ceiling for a long moment. My back was sore. The floor was hard, even with four blankets and a pillow under me. I could hear people in the kitchen, and on the sofa I could hear soft snores coming from Trina. The unfamiliar room came into focus as I slowly woke up. The more awake I was, the more I could feel the little aches.

At least it wasn't dark this time. Like every other time I woke up.

I stretched and thought about what I was going to do today. When I ran my fingers through my hair I remembered I was going to have it cut today, since Sheila's friend couldn't do it last night when she came over to take a look. I had a short time this morning to get used to the idea. She was going to stop by about seven on her way to her salon. That would give her time to sort me out, she said.

She just didn't say what she was going to do to my hair.

The doorbell rang about the time I closed my eyes. Trina barely even stirred and the quiet snores didn't stop. With a muffled groan, I got up. Trevor was at the door, looking through the peephole, when I walked into the kitchen. The alarm system on the wall next to the garage announced that the front door opened as I took stock of the pile of pancakes I'd been smelling. Adam and Sheila were sitting at the table with their chairs pulled close together and Ade was sitting across from them.

He noticed me standing there as voices drifted in from the foyer. "Mornin' Liza," he said with a smile.

I returned it as Trevor walked in with the woman from last night. "Morning," I told Ade.

The woman sat a cloth shopping bag on the counter and I heard the items settle inside. She had a definite hippy vibe going for her, and the purple streaks in her brown hair wasn't easing my mind about my own hair.

I grabbed a plate and began stacking pancakes on it from the rather large stack on the platter next to the stove. "Welp," the woman - who I vaguely remember being called Shay - said. "I think we're ready to get you prepped." She put her hands on her hips and eyed my pancakes. "You can have those after - I'm going to be late enough as it is. I have to open at eight, you know."

Fighting a sigh, I set my plate on the counter and turned to her. "Where do you want me?"

She pulled out a dining chair and gestured at it. While I got settled, she began pulling stuff out of her bag. "So, what we're going to do now," she said, "is wash your hair and then we're going to cut it." Shay turned to the sink. A moment later she nodded. "That'll work. Come here." I walked to the sink and she flipped all my hair over my head as I bent over it.

Once she'd wet my hair and put soap in it, she began massaging my scalp. It was super relaxing. Too soon, she stopped and rinsed the soap out. After seating me, she put one of those capes on me and began combing my hair. When my hair had been combed enough, she pulled out her scissors and began cutting it. I could feel the weight leaving my scalp as my hair fell to the floor.

Eventually, she finished cutting and slid the scissors back into her bag. "The best color for you is a nice, rich brown," she said. "I brought three different ones to see which color would be best for you." She came back with three boxes and held each one up against my hair and face. "This one it is," she said almost cheerfully as she put one of the boxes on the counter and returned the others to her bag.

Not long after putting on gloves the smell of chemicals permeated the room. About fifteen minutes later she sighed and stepped back. "Now we gotta wait," she said, pulling off her gloves. "In about thirty minutes, we're going to give you a rinse and see how the color did. It should give you darker, more brown hair. If you want highlights later, Sheila knows where my salon is. You're not going to be as recognizable, but I'd still change up my style if I were you."

I shook my head. "I'm not buying clothes or anything like that. This is gonna have to do for now."

Shay shrugged. "If you say so. Just don't blame me if someone spots you."

---

My mouth hung open as I inspected the girl looking back me. Her dark brown hair was in a bob with bangs that flopped in her eyes. I glanced back at Shay who was leaning in the doorway of the bathroom. "It looks incredible," I said, sounding shocked.

She raised an eyebrow as a smile played on her lips. "I'm a stylist, Liza," she said smugly. "You were in good hands."

I smiled timidly at her. "Thanks for this. I love it."

She nodded. "I'm glad you do."

---

Trina stumbled into the kitchen as I finished off my pancakes and did a double-take. "Whoa, your hair looks amazing!" she gushed. She came over and lifted some of it, letting the strands fall through her fingers. "Soft, too." She did it again before walking over and getting a cup of coffee. "So, what's on the agenda for today?"

I shrugged as I brought my plate to the sink to rinse it. "We really need to start digging through the stuff we got from Vitality." I paused as I put my plate into the dishwasher. "I could do that while you comb through what you got from Shawn. What all did you get, anyway?"

"I copied the text files on his computer." She took a swig off coffee, looking thoughtful. "We'll need to double check our tracks, too. Like, do some damage control. What cameras could have seen us at what point, could they track us to this house, can they track the vehicles? Those."

I sighed and hopped up onto the counter. "The answer to all of those is probably a yes. At least, if Shawn truly wanted to find us, he could."

She tilted her head as she leaned on the counter next to me. "That's true, but he would need to know where to start. He doesn't know just yet. Once they find the getaway car and my car they'll say where they are and that's when we'll have to keep an eye out for my brother busting us. Until then, there's way too many possibilities for things we could have done. We got about a day to get ourselves sorted, figure out if we need anything else, and to move to another place."

"Wait. Move?"

She nodded. "Yep. You see, the trick to this stuff is knowing how to find people. Once you know how to do that, you can avoid being found. Trust me, Ade, Trevor, and Adam all have a lot of experience in finding people and in not being found."

"What about Sheila?"

"She's along for the ride, pretty much. She's basically useless when it comes to computers and most tech, but she's got mad skills when it comes to organizing, research, and costumes."

I raised an eyebrow. "Costumes?"

Trina nodded with a smirk. "Oh yeah. She's a costume designer for some theater around here. I saw some of the stuff she made for Adam last time he disappeared. Those clothes looked like he seriously hit up Macy's or Dilliard's. Like, some high-end store my mother loved. She's awesome like that. So, don't worry about clothes - she can literally make you a brand-new wardrobe in a few days. All perfectly tailored, too." She winked at me.

That was definitely useful, but I wished I wasn't running from someone. I didn't want to be the girl everyone knew about because she'd stolen from Vitality. I wanted to be the girl who was known as a good person, loyal, honest, confident, and an all-around role model for other girls who doubted themselves. I mean, what I was doing this for was a fairly noble cause, but still.

I simply nodded at Trina's words, sinking further into my own mind. "I think I'm going to go on and get started with combing some of the employee records, see how much I can find." I could feel Trina watching me, knowing she was catching on to me but was too polite to say anything. We weren't at that stage where you could blatantly tell someone to come back and tell you all about what's bothering them just yet, and I was secretly glad about that. I kind of didn't want to right now. I wanted to stew in everything a little longer.

---

An hour of staring at words on a computer screen later, I was beginning to be bored out of my mind. Normally I'd research a single topic for a while, going through information that brought me to the heart of the matter and then translating it into my own words for me to use against my best friend on camera in front of millions, but this? This was going through a lot of technical stuff I had no understanding of to find information relating directly to one person before trying to put it all together without actually finding what I want. It was like searching on Google for something about, say, the latest iPhone but instead of tech articles or listings at Best Buy or some other tech store, all it gives you are the model numbers along with various numbers on the box. All useful information, but, without any point of reference, it's also useless.

I rubbed my eyes and closed my laptop. "Had enough for one day?" Trina asked.

"Definitely. I can only take so much tech speak that I don't really understand."

"I hear ya." She read another line on her laptop before setting it aside. "Tell you what. How about I put on a movie and we watch that? Afterwards I'll put a frozen pizza in the oven for us to split."

"Sounds good to me." I picked up the remote and turned on the TV as she got up and walked over to the entertainment center. We'd left it on a news station last night and now a sketch of Ade was on the screen. "Um, Trina?" I said as I turned up the volume.

"Hmm?" She turned to the TV. "Oh, no," she whispered to herself as she recognized the picture.

"According to Mr. Welch, he goes by Ade and drives a white Toyota Corolla. Surveillance cameras captured this car leaving Vitality headquarters yesterday with Liza Mercy. Suspect is not thought to be armed and dangerous, but if you recognize this man or if you see this car, please contact Dallas police immediately."

Trina was digging out her phone before the man on TV had even finished speaking. She began furiously tapping on the screen before holding it up to her ear. "Come on, come on, come on," she chanted to herself. After several rings she yanked it away from her ear and called again. "Oh, come on," she said loudly, exasperated.

The front door slammed open, making both of us jump. Ade ran inside, slamming it closed. "The police are looking for me," he shouted as he walked into the living room.

"I know," Trina said, hurrying over to him. "I was trying to call you just now." On the TV the man was reciting Ade's plate number. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head with a grunt. "No, I'm fine. I was scared out of my wits at work, though. I was in the middle of talking to a client when everyone got a text. The woman hung up on me and I had to run back here without being spotted.

Trina began pacing, running her fingers through her hair. "We need to get out of here."

Ade nodded. "Agreed. I can have my stuff together in five."

She gave a single nod and looked at me. "We're moving out. You're driving the van." She walked over to the hooks on the wall and removed the last of the keys hanging there and tossed them to me. "Spare house key and key to the black van in the garage," she explained as Ade hurried up to his room.

I barely caught the keys before scooping up my laptop. "Okay. Just tell me where to go."