Betrayal Codes

Chapter 5: Libby

Hours later, I'm still upset. I've been intentionally ignoring Cleo since the deal and she's not happy about it. "For goodness sake, Libby, I'm sorry! But we needed help!" "But" apologies are never sincere.

I sigh. "We could have figured it out ourselves."

"Maybe. However, when three crazy hot dudes come around and they can crack our codes in twenty seconds? You hire them," she reasons.

I snort. "You still should have discussed it with us first."

"Yeah, I know. But we might have never seen them again. Seize the opportunity or whatever, you know?" Wow, this girl is the worst at apologies. "Either way, you've got to suck it up because it's too late to retract the deal," she goes on. Behind her, someone approaches our door, knocks, and is let in by Shay. It's the boys.

Hazel eyes — or, as he so kindly informed me this morning — Aiden walks in first, followed by Cole and Tucker. Without waiting for permission, he plops down onto the small sofa next to us. "These rooms aren't too shabby," he comments. We also booked a new room so we were slightly closer to the boys. Sure, they were two levels away, but that was the only availability the hotel had. And now we have a suite that Shay and I share.

"I was pleasantly surprised," Cole agrees as he slides into the seat on my right. Tucker claims the one on my left. Um, are they my new bodyguards or something?

Cleo turns her attention from me to them. "I'm glad you could leave home for a while."

"Oh, we left our parents long ago," Tucker waves his hand.

"Since he's been a legal adult for almost three years, he forgets that we only became legal a year and a half ago," Cole corrects. Ha, I silently congratulate myself. He's only a year older than me. It seems I haven't lost my touch for guessing ages.

"Anyway," Tucker continues loudly. "It was no biggie. What can we help with? Oh, wait, no. Back up. How'd you get here and what was that code really for?" Okaaaay. I admire this guy's "cut to the chase" attitude. I just wonder how we're going to explain ourselves without blowing our covers.

"Ummmm, welllllll..." Taylor joins the conversation, sliding into the nearest bed, Shay joining her. I can tell she's trying to come up with a believable lie by the way she draws out her stuttering. "You know, this is a top-secret grocery list so I really don't think I should be giving you all the details."

"Oh, cut the bullshit," Aiden grumbles.

Tay's mouth drops open in shock. "I'm not bullshitting!" He lets out a dramatic sigh. Taylor scoffs. Uh oh. He just got placed at the top of her shit list.

Cleo takes charge of the discussion. "It's a bit of a story so put your listening ears on." I silently panic. Is she seriously going to tell these (super hot) strangers our life story? We aren't a well-known or well-funded spy agency so we don't have any memory-wiping technology for them!

I let out a cough serving as a warning: Cleo! What the hell are you doing? She ignores it and begins her story. "So we met in middle school. We all clicked immediately. There was no denying we were meant to be friends forever." Thank goodness she's telling a fake story. "We would do everything together and spent most nights together too, rarely sleeping at our own houses alone."

"And by 'most nights,' she means every night," Shay adds. "We loved Cleo's house because she had the biggest room and her parents were barely ever home."

I wince internally as Shay was tiptoeing on the line between truth and lies. In truth, we shared rooms back at the Agency, me with Shay and Taylor with Cleo. Shay and I would usually sleep in Taylor and Cleo's room because ours was tiny and we were often too cramped.

"Yeah," Cleo agrees. "On one of those days, we decided to switch it up and sleep at Taylor's house. Her parents were home more often than the rest of ours so we were looking forward to a good, homecooked meal. Preferably Taylor's mama's famous pupusas."

"Pupusas are the national dish of Mama's country, El Salvador," Taylor explains.

"And they're delicious," Cleo adds, sighing wistfully. Actually, Taylor makes extremely shitty pupusas as she never had enough time with her mama to learn correctly. She's determined to learn because she wants to reconnect with her heritage, but is failing spectacularly. "When we walked into the kitchen to put in our dinner request, Taylor's mama was sitting at the counter, crying," Cleo continues. "As it turns out, her dad had been taken into custody and accused of murder."

Tucker's eyes are widening slightly, engrossed in this false tale. "Is he innocent?"

Cleo pauses for suspense. "...No." Tucker gasps. Cole hides a laugh with a cough. Taylor gets into the role and hangs her head in shame and embarrassment. "Turns out, he's killed multiple people over his lifetime and he finally got caught," Cleo states. Wow, we need to hire her for the Littles' story time at the Agency. She's good.

"Just last week, Taylor's mama got a call from the police asking if she knew where her husband was. She was confused because he was supposed to be in jail. Turns out, he had escaped! So here we are, trying to catch her father who escaped from prison."

Aiden looks skeptical, but only half-heartedly, like he's bored but playing along for the others. "Four regular girls are going to catch a murderer?"

Taylor gasps, clutching her heart. "He's my papa! Not a murder!"

This time it's Shay who adds to the story. "We've had some training." Then she gets up, walks over to Tucker, and faster than you can blink, has him bent over with his hands secured behind his back in her death grip. "Ow, can you let go now?"

"What's the magic word?" She singsongs, enjoying it too much.

He sighs in irritation. "Please?" She frees his hands and steps away, a self-satisfied smirk working its way onto her face.

"So do you still want to help us? Since now you know we're hunting a murderer?" I confirm.

"See? This is why you should have believed my super-secret grocery list story," Taylor insists.

Aiden, still looking bored out of his mind, answers: "Sure, whatever."

"One question though," Cole pipes up. "Why are you getting codes and why does your dad want someone to find you four?" Ten points for Cole for a great question!

"He doesn't want to be caught," Tay answers, a duh unsaid but obvious.

Cole hums like that makes total sense. "Okay then, I guess we're going to help four troubled girls find their criminal father," Tucker claps his hands excitedly.

"We're not troubled," Shay defends just as Cleo provides Peter's fake name: Parker Crane.

He gives her a look of disbelief. "You're trying to hunt down a murderer. Who knows you're coming and doesn't want you there so he sent minions to stop you. I'd say you're troubled. Or I'll change it to psycho if you prefer that title instead."

She huffs. "Troubled will do."

"Wonderful!" He gets up, and Aiden and Cole follow suit. "I look forward to working with you four." He shakes each of our hands in turn. "Have a great rest of your day!"

Then the three mysterious boys are gone. The boys we just agreed to share our life-or-death mission with.

In the wise words of Tucker Tate: wonderful!

(That was sarcasm.)