Betrayal Codes

Chapter 22: Cole

All the fight in Libby vanishes. She falls to the floor, knees buckling in shock. My immediate response is to rush to her and make sure she's okay, but I remind myself I'm being the bad guy right now, so I let Shay be the one kneeling next to her, making sure she's okay. Taylor only spares them a quick courtesy glance before coming at Cleo. "What the hell do you mean 'Hello, Daddy'?" She lunges for Cleo, fists ready to be thrown. Aiden and I quickly grab her shoulders and keep her back. She struggles against us, digging her heels into the hardwood floor for leverage, but it does no good.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Cleo asks, voice dripping with fake innocence. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Cleo Cane, Peter Cane's daughter."

I see hurt and betrayal flash across Taylor's eyes, but she sticks with the safer one: anger. "You liar!" She screams, voice piercing. "You betrayed us!"

"It would seem I did," Cleo replies calmly. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Peter slip out the emergency exit door. This was the intended diversion so he could go get Mason and hop on the Band's plane back to HQ. We'd catch our flight in two hours. I'm hoping I can patch things up with Libby in that time.

Taylor screams again in agony, unsure which emotion to switch to.

"After ten years?" I hear Libby ask quietly, broken inside. "After all that time..."

"Yes, ten years of faking, and damn was it difficult." I hear Cleo begin to pace behind where Aiden and I are still restraining Taylor. "You know, this bad guy shit is really fun. It always has been. I mean, I was raised by a criminal. Can you imagine how hard it was to keep that side tamped down and pretend to be a good guy? So. Freaking. Hard." Her footsteps stop. "But it was worth it because your reactions? Priceless. Literally priceless," she lets out a short, dry laugh, one that could quite literally be described as pure evil. "And the Band has so much information about the Agency thanks to me. The Agency won't exist anymore soon enough. All. Thanks. To. Me," she drags out the last sentence.

Taylor starts struggling against our grasp again. "I hate you so much, Cleo! I'm going to kill you!"

"Woah there, Tay," Cleo approaches her, getting right up in her face. "Who's the one with the weapon? That's right, me," she smirks. "See ya later, boys!" Then she turns on her heel and leaves the same way her father did.

Now Taylor turns on us. "And you. Don't get me started. You came into our lives and fucked them all up. How dare you? How–"

Tucker cuts her off. "Taylor, we're criminals," he states in a bored tone, his true colors showing. "And it may not sink in for a bit, but that's the truth. We fuck up everybody's lives. Yours are no different."

"Tucker Tate, you had better hope I never see you again," Taylor threatens. "You used Shay and you hurt Libby and I. The next time I see you, you'll end up like Cleo."

He gestures towards the door she exited a minute ago. "What? Gone?"

"No, dead."

Tucker snorts. "Yeah, okay, keep telling yourself that."

"H-how did this happen?" Shay whimpers from her spot on the floor next to Libby. They're crumpled together, one supporting the other, tired and hurt.

"Oh, this is a good story," Tucker answers, crossing his arms, settling in. "So let's start at the beginning. The first night, Cleo notified Peter when you guys landed and he ordered at least two of us to go meet you. He wanted us to see who we would be keeping an eye on.

"The next day at the cafe, the code we cracked was a fake one, fed to the Agency from Peter to guide you on the path he wanted and keep you from interfering with his business. Then Aiden made that deal with you so we could sabotage your mission. Obviously," he adds. "Then we had the first gala, which was all a decoy. By the way, that van driver was ours. That's why he left the second he parked." I can see it all clicking in the girls' minds and they hate it, I can tell.

Tucker keeps talking. "While you were all stressing about finding Peter, he was actually making his plans for getting Mason out of jail. Oh, and Cole planted that poster, Libby." Her sad eyes land on me and my heart breaks a little, knowing how crushed she is and knowing that I had a hand in doing that. I'm officially a heartbreaker, I think. I just wish it wasn't Libby's heart I was breaking.

"When you guys went to the jail, we couldn't go because everybody knows our faces and would arrest us," Tuck continues. "And we were meeting with Peter. Which reminds me, when you, Libby, thought you saw Peter outside the elevator, you were right. It was him." Libby shakes her head in astonishment. This was a lot to take in. "The next day, Cleo came to our room early in the morning to compare plans and all that. And when Cole blew up about Shay and I, it was because he didn't know it was all fake. You see, Aiden and Peter did not agree on Cole dating Libby; it was never part of the plan. That's why Peter punished him."

Suddenly, my shoes have become very interesting. I try to focus on finding my reflection in the shine, but I still feel Libby's eyes on me. I'm going to have something to say to Tucker about revealing that snippet of information later.

Tucker continues on with the explanation. "What was after that? Oh, yes, that's right. This gala! Also fake, for the record. After that... Well, there's not much else to say."

Right on time, I hear footsteps approaching. It seems the girls hadn't noticed Aiden leave and now he was back with a Band member posing as security. "Oh, no, it's you," Libby groans.