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I’ll ine Jose purred to life and we shot down the street, away froei and his buddies ere now probably scouring the streets looking for me

It didn’tand always kept a spare life in the trunk Spare clothes, spare driver’s licenses, spare Social Security Numbers, and a spare tire As soon as I felt like I was a comfortable distance away, I’d pull into a e the plates on my car Yes, Jose wasn’t the most inconspicuous of vehicles, but I was sentimental about the car After all, it wasn’t even mine

Then to I could go before I’d need a legitiure out that moment when I’d have to stay true to my word and make sure that this truly was the last time

I careened around a corner then slowed as the car disappeared into traffic heading across the Ohio River With h it, I didn’t have much of a choice

I took out the California license that said Ellie Watt I’d need to change the expiration date and photo since the last tio, just after I turned nineteen But it would do I was Ellie Watt again

I was finally me

Oh joy

CHAPTER ONE

Then

The girl was lying down in the backseat of her parents’ rusting station wagon, counting down the reen water spots on the roof If she had a cell phone, keeping track of tiirl still struggled with math Of course, you could blas—since the girl had been home-schooled her whole life Division and ot for the eleven-year-old But, according to her mother, you only needed to be able to count in order to succeed in grifting, and at theaway

It had been four minutes since her parents left the car and walked up, arhts that eirl had no idea where they were except that they were still in Mississippi She could s was supposed to be an old friend of her irl wasn’t too sure about that She had heard herabout this Travisexcept build over the last feeeks Finally, she had ot herself dolled up in her “special” dress that showed far too ed the girl out to the car They were going to have dinner with this old friend of hers, and they needed the girl to do a little breaking and entering while they had the man occupied

The girl was shocked at first It wasn’t just that she was getting older and developing her own sense of el with the world her parents had created, it was that no one in their family had pulled a scam in years Her father had steady work at a casino and their tiny apartment in Gulfport had becoet Her parents had proood and that they’d try and lead as norhter Or so they said

But her irl didn’t understand If they were friends with this Travishim? If he lived in an outlandish house with marble pillars and a driveway full of fountains, why didn’t they just ask hiirl doubted her mother’s story This man wasn’t a friend at all

And the girl was being sent right into his clutches

When the tiot out of the car, careful not totoward the back She listened for the telltale buzz of security cahts and felt relief when she couldn’t detect them She kept low, quick and quiet until she was in the sprawling backyard, the rant bush and counted the n the side of the house The plan was for her to go in the second , the master bathroom, then walk out of the bedroom and take the first door on the left That’s where she’d find the safe, the code written in per hand

How her mother knew the code to thisher o

She scampered over to the narrow, frosted pane , and just like her mother said it would be, it was open a crack

The girl would always look back at that moment, the hesitation as she stood below it, thea choice—she didn’t have to go through with it She could run back to the car and tell her parents she changed her irl fro on her instincts

Instead, she silently opened theand went into the house

When she eventually left the house, her life would be changed forever

Now

Bright blue skies, rough desert, open blacktop spreading before me

Cue the music

I fumbled with my iPod and selected the Desert Playlist I concocted a few days ago in a hotel roo from Jose’s speakers and I let myself smile as the hot breeze blew my hair back