I didn't sleep. I couldn't. After I finished editing somewhere around one in the morning, I stared at the ceiling for the rest of the night, listening to the distant sounds of cars and the occasional dog bark. My thoughts were swirling and coalescing in scenarios that could possibly happen the next day, and none of them ended well.

So I was practically dragging myself downstairs when I got out of bed the next morning. Trina took one look at me and poured me a cup of coffee. "I don't want that," I told her as I grabbed a box of cereal.

"You look like you need it," she said as if it were a well known fact. "Besides, what could one cup hurt?"

I sighed and took it, waving away her offer of cream and sugar. When the bitter liquid hit my tongue I had to force myself to swallow it without gagging. I've never really liked bitter things, and I've never really cared much for coffee at all.

Trina snorts and when I look at her I can tell she's fighting really hard to not laugh at me. When she notices me looking, she simply shakes her head and says, "You should've seen your face." I roll my eyes and she starts laughing. I join in, finding it to be rather infectious.

"I don't really care for coffee," I tell her when I stop laughing enough to speak. "But thanks." I stared into my cup. "I do need it, actually. I barely slept last night."

She gave me a sympathetic smile as I heard Shawn leave his room. "Everything will be fine," she said quietly.

I swallowed nervously as I heard Shawn enter the kitchen. "Today would've been the day," he said, sounding utterly disappointed. "Things would have worked out, I could feel it." He took out the milk and sat it roughly on the counter. "Have fun today, Liza." He turned and smiled at me, but it didn't touch his eyes. "I'm afraid I won't be here when you get back - I'm meeting up with someone later over in Fort Worth and spending the day with them. I won't be back until late."

I simply nodded, as my mouth was full of food.

Within ten minutes I was sitting in the Charger with Trina as she backed out of their driveway. "I won't pick you up today, remember?" I nodded. "It's going to be an old Toyota Corolla with your boyfriend, okay?"

I turned to her. "Wait. Boyfriend? We didn't discuss this."

She glanced at me. "We need some explanation for who's picking you up when Peter comes out with you. Besides, he has a thing for you and telling him your boyfriend is getting you will make him back off."

I sighed, but I couldn't argue with her logic. She knew I wasn't interested in Peter. "What will he look like and what's his name?"

She snickered. "Like a giant, dark brown wall with a black rug attached to the top. His name's Ade, but we generally call him Poke."

"Should I ask why?"

"He used to work as a guard in a prison, but he left after a few months." I nodded slowly, unsure if I should be worried. Trina glanced at me quickly before giggling. "Don't worry - he's super sweet and gentle. He's one of my best friends, actually."

"Okay," I said, choosing to trust her. Just like with everything else. I was choosing to trust her just as much as she was choosing to trust me.

Not long afterwards, we were pulling to a stop at Vitality HQ and I was getting out. Nerves were making my hands sweatier than usual, so I discreetly wiped them on my jeans as I walked into the building. Peter was already in the conference room, just like every other morning. He gave me a smile but refrained from talking to me as I was later than usual and there were others in the room.

If you were to ask me what we talked about in class, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. All I could do that morning was think about what came after. After the morning session. After lunch. After we finished the afternoon session. After I told Peter my 'boyfriend' was picking me up.

What felt to me like mere moments later, we were breaking for lunch, which also seemed to go by far quicker than usual. Then, that afternoon, time dragged on. It seemed like every minute was two, every sentence lasted an hour.

When it was finally over, Peter came over to me. "Hey," he said with his usual smile. "I wanted to ask you something."

I raised an eyebrow, feeling like I knew what was coming. "Okay." I turned to him.

"Can I take you out to dinner tonight?"

Even if I didn't already have plans to be somewhere else, I knew what my answer would be. "No, sorry. I'd love to hang out with you, but I kind of already have plans with my boyfriend," I said, trying to be believable.

Shock flitted across his features before settling into something like pleasant surprise. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

I shrugged and looked down, forcing myself to smile a little. "Yeah, well. It's kind of recent, so I didn't really know if it was going to work out before. He's actually coming to get me today."

"Oh," he said. I could hear in his voice that he wasn't happy. I bit my lip and turned to walk out. Peter followed me. "Can I meet him?"

I nodded. "Sure. He should be here by now." I headed out of the room and led Peter to the lobby. A Toyota Corolla was sitting right outside with a guy leaning on the front bumper. I recognized him right away from Trina's description. "Hey, Ade," I said with a smile as I walked out.

He gave me a smile that could have lit up the whole parking lot. "Liz!" He gave me a hug, lifting me off my feet.

I giggled as he set me down. "Ade, this is my friend, Peter. Peter, this is Ade." They said their hellos and Peter excused himself from us. I watched him leave. "I'm gonna go now," I said in a hushed whisper once Peter was far enough away. Ade simply nodded.

It only took a couple of minutes of striding with confidence to reach the locked door. I swiped my card, but the light didn't change. Pushing down the panic, I tried again. This time, the light changed and I opened the door. Walking with confidence, I strode up to the door marked HR and looked inside. The office was empty except for one girl on the phone. She didn't look up from her computer. I closed the door quietly and moved on to the security office. I pressed my ear to the door and heard voices.

Making a calculated guess, I poked my head into the Maintenance office. Empty. I slipped inside and quietly closed the door behind me. The closest desk to me seemed to be cleared out. I went to the next desk and found what I was after: an ID card. I didn't look at the name - I slid it into my pocket right away, walked out, and slipped into HR. The girl was still working, so I walked to a desk behind her and sat in the chair.

I pretended to be working, and waited. Soon, I heard a door close in the hallway followed soon by a second door. I gave it another couple of minutes before getting up and going back out into the hallway, making sure to close the door quietly behind me. I went to the server door and slid the card through the reader. The light turned green and possibly so did my complexion. I opened the door carefully and slipped inside.

The ambient temperature both went up and down several degrees. I felt a blast of cold air, and I realized this room was likely climate controlled separately because of the computers that lined the walls and took up most of the floor space. I knew that these were mainly servers for Vitality's website, but that wasn't what I was after. If I wanted to see any of the data, I could ask Trina or Shawn to show it to me. No, what I was after was more valuable to the company - especially to the Knights.

It didn't take long to identify the first server I was looking for. Basically, it was a file server and I could pull up any file belonging to the company on it. I opened my bag, took out a USB stick, and put it into the computer. The screen came to life and I opened the search feature. I typed in words and as the files came up, I put them on the USB. When it was full, I replaced it and proceeded to fill another three with files that had any mention at all of the words I wanted.

Once I was finished, I moved to another terminal. I filled another two USB sticks there. Another quick look around and I knew that was the last of the company databases. I quickly left, sure I was likely going to succeed. I stopped at the door to the security office. A quick listen, no sounds, and open the door. The guard on duty sat in the chair, munching on M&Ms. He turned to look at the door and I hurried away.

Taking care not to run, I walked to the door. I slid the card and opened it. I heard the man come out of the room. "Hey!" he called right as I was about to walk out.

I glanced behind me, that simple action meaning I couldn't slip out as if I hadn't heard. "Yes?"

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously. "I don't recognize you."

I smiled. "I know. I'm a new hire, actually," I said sweetly. "I need to go." I walked in the direction of the bathrooms and heard him go back into his room. Too close. I hurried to the main doors, sure he was about to run the card number that just showed up. As I walked, I made sure to keep it at a brisk-but-normal pace so that I wouldn't make people suspect anything.

As I reached the front doors, an alarm started going off. I broke into a run and somehow managed to open them before they automatically locked. Ade's car was already idling just beyond and he was drove off as I closed the door.

As he hastily pulled out of the parking lot, I tried to catch my breath. The short sprint wasn't bad, but the panic trying to overwhelm me was horrible. I could almost feel the icy tendrils snake into my mind and around my lungs.

Ade laughed and hit the steering wheel. "You did it, girl!" His voice sounded far away. My breaths started coming quicker and I realized I was having a panic attack. I'd never had one before, but I knew someone who did, and the symptoms were the same. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on slowing my breaths, knowing this was one way to calm down. "Hey, you all right? Liz?"

Everything sounded like I was underwater, down deep where everything was slightly muffled and distorted. "I will be," I managed. I felt him reach over and start rubbing my back. It took a couple of minutes, but I eventually calmed down and relaxed into the seat. That was when I finally glanced around and took stock of my surroundings. "Where are we?"

"Parking garage."

"Already?"

He nodded as he pulled into a random space on the top level. "It's been about fifteen minutes, you know."

I took a steadying breath and opened my door as he cut off the engine. "Oh." I followed him to the elevator and then down to the first level. He walked over to a car with another guy and Trina inside. We both got into the back seat and the guy drove away.

"How did it go?" Trina asked, turning around to look at me.

"I got several megs of stuff for us to comb through," I informed her, patting my bag.

She nodded and faced forward. "Good. I got a bunch from Shawn, too. Did you get to the camera and login?"

"Nope. Guard caught me."

She turned back quickly. "Are you okay?" Her eyes were wide with worry.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," I told her with a small smile.

"If you count a panic attack as fine," Ade muttered under his breath.

Trina's brow furrowed. "You had a panic attack?"

I waved my hand dismissively. "I'm fine, it's fine. It was a one-off thing. The stress got to me a little bit too much."

"Are you sure?" she asked after a moment.

I nodded. "I'm fine, okay? Please, don't worry about me," I said gently, patting her shoulder.

She studied me a moment before sighing and facing forward again. "Okay."

We rode on in silence, and I found myself worrying again. I didn't know any of these people, but I knew Trina and I trusted her. If she trusted these people, well, I guess I could learn to trust them, too.