Chris’s apartment was not a relaxing place to be.

“Can we fit my desktop in?” asked Chris.

Spencer was looking out the window. He replied without taking his eyes off the apartment lot and McLean.

“Anything that can fit in Penny and that you need to sell Thermo Booster Burn, you should take.”

“I could transfer everything onto my laptop.”

“OK, fine, do that.”

“Your packing looks like it needs work,” said Chris.

Spencer absentmindedly glanced at the couch, where his suitcase lay open. The few clothes he’d thrown in covered his stash of cash and the money from the gas station robbery, now in a different bag but kept separate. It just didn’t feel like it should be his.

Because your money you made in such an ethical way, right?

Give me a break. It should go to Milt’s daughter.

She’s lost, like you need to be.

“How’s Abby doing?” he said.

“I don’t think it’s really clear to her what’s going on. I told her we had to go away and it was an emergency. But she still thinks she’s seeing her friends tomorrow.”

Spencer nodded. “Have you told her where we’re headed?”

“No. I don’t see why—”

Spencer sighed impatiently and went back to packing, throwing in some work clothes and a toiletry bag.

“Chris, just . . . trust me on this. I’ll explain to Abby when . . .”

When you think of another lie, Spencer?

In a few months, there’d be no need for lies. They’d have made a new start, somewhere safe.

“You know it’s nearly six?” said Chris.

“Yeah, so?”

“Well, if CPS were coming today, surely they’d have come by now?”

“You want to take that risk?”

“No, but why not just go to a hotel tonight and one of us comes back tomorrow, without Abby, to pack our shit up properly?”

Spencer’s brain was overheating with the sheer scale of fabrication being asked of it.

“You have to trust me on this. We’ll come back but not for a while.”

“I’m not a damn kid, Spence. And you’re a bonehead at times, so excuse me if I don’t feel like blindly following you to my doom. Why do we have to take so much?”

Spencer zipped his case shut. “Because the job is between me and another guy. And the other guy has offered to start tomorrow. And as for all of us having to go, well, Common Ground said I have to take myself away from the, uh, the environment where I’ve been drinking, and y’know, all that other stuff but keep my support base around me. And . . .”

Spencer’s mind recalled something Marielle had said when he was trying to give up smoking.