Betrayal Codes

Chapter 12: Cole

I fumbled. For once, I couldn't lie quickly enough.

"Cole, who the hell was that?" Libby demanded, turning on me. I was frozen. I couldn't believe this. What were the odds that Libby would come up right as Peter was going down?

"Uh... who's Peter?" I finally managed, remembering my cover.

"Ugh, no, I mean Parker," she adds a snotty tone to his name.

"Libby, why would Parker be in our hotel?" Cleo asks, saving me while I gather my thoughts. How much did they see? Did they see his face? Do they know what he looks like? And how can I cover this up?

"I don't know. But I swear that was Pet–Parker," Libby corrects herself. "I just don't know what he would be doing with them." She turns on me.

"No, uh, that was my grandfather. He was visiting," I lied.

"Then why can't we see him? Why'd you jump in here like that?"

"Well, you see..." I start before Cleo cuts me off. "Lib, imagine you were a random girl and your grandpa was visiting. You were just having a great time with him and then, as you're helping him to his car, you stumble upon your boyfriend," she winks at me. Were our feelings for each other that obvious?

"Now, you like your boyfriend and all, but you're not sure if you want him to meet your family. So when you see your boyfriend suddenly, you get spooked and freak out," she shrugs. "That's what happened."

"Fine, fine, whatever," Libby mumbles as the elevator stops on their floor.

"Hey, mind coming back with us? We have some news to share," Cleo suggests. When she and I make eye contact, I send her the most grateful look I can muster. She saved me. It seems I owe multiple people favors now.

I follow them to their room and spread out on the nearest bed. It's curious how comfortable I've gotten with these girls in the past week. I'm truly going to miss them when we head back to our respective homes.

"So, what's up?" I kick the conversation into gear. Libby keeps trying to catch Cleo's eye and send her some urgent eye message, but Cleo purposely ignores her.

"We just came back from the prison. You know, the jail in the square with the worst delinquents?" Cleo asks.

"Yeah..." I reply slowly. The same one Peter was just at? He told us all about the new criminal in our meeting. This guy seems bad. Of course, most of the Band members are bad, but this guy seems much worse. Plus, seeing as he just got into jail, he'll be itching to commit crimes. And from what Peter said, he got in for a kidnapping — Peter's favorite.

"So Parker was in there recently, trying to get out some criminal. Well, not just trying. He succeeded."

"Oh," is all I can manage. Ugh, they know more than I thought they did.

"By making that discovery, we also found out he has a lot of money."

"Yeah, like, a lot a lot," Libby pipes up for the first time. "He was able to bypass laws." Ah, so that's where the bank robbery money went.

"And pay off officers so he could get in and out without getting arrested," Cleo jumps in.

"Huh."

"We just wanted to let you guys know. We'll discuss our gameplan alone, but figured you might want to be caught up on our discoveries," Cleo adds jazz hands to "discoveries."

"Cool, thanks." I'm not sure what to do with that information. With the Peter thing and now this, I'm shaken. Our plan is collapsing. We're falling behind them. We're going to fail.