R I L E Y

Benny's last words to me echoed in my ears. Be ready to tell me everything by the next time I see you. My heart pounded so vigorously that I felt it everywhere in my body. He wouldn't make me reveal all the things I'd learned, would he?

No. I was Riley Traversa. I didn't let people walk over me. He wouldn't get that information, not unless I got something out of him in return. No matter how broken our team was becoming, I wouldn't sell them out. And if I had to, it wouldn't be without a way out of this mess.

"How the hell are you here?" Arlo asked, not a single shred of fear in his voice. I wondered if he was masking it. "You're supposed to be rotting away in an impenetrable ONNT cell."

"It wasn't impenetrable," a tall girl with blunt, shoulder-length hair said, coming up beside him. She was wearing an ONNT uniform. Had this girl broken him out?

"We don't give a shit about you," Jaxon stayed flatly, dismissing this new girl's presence here. His eyes stayed on the assassin. "Why are you here?"

"To finish what I started, of course." Benny opened his arms in a wide gesture toward all of us.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kane's voice was low and dangerous, the way it often became when he was faced with his brother. He raised his spears infinitesimally.

"It means, dear brother, that Orion sent me here for you. My capture, imprisonment, and interrogation meant nothing. Now is the moment we've been waiting for."

I glanced upward, to where four hawks were circling. They were much closer than they'd normally be if they weren't under my power. I had them ready for attack. If Benny said or did anything to put us in danger, well, those talons weren't just for show...

"Get the hell away from us," I said, my voice edged with rage. "We just took out one of your armies. You will be nothing compared to them."

"Riley." Benny dragged out my name. I held my head high, jaw set. "There you are."

"Keep her name out of your filthy mouth," Kane spat, eyes blazing. My heart swelled at his defense of me, but I knew that something very bad was coming.

"Why? She's not yours, brother." His eyes laid on me again. "She is mine." I knew that he didn't mean it in the way that Kane did. He controlled me, he knew what I had to do.

"I'm not yours," I said, staring back with equal steel. "I never will be." He understood what I meant, even if none of the others would.

Then, Benny gave a slow clap of his hands. And another and another until it was a full, mocking round of applause. The strange girl stood behind him, completely still. I had a feeling that she was waiting for his command.

"How lucky they are to have such a good friend at their side. They don't even know how lucky they are," Benny murmured to me. I said nothing. He could tell them what he had me do. He could tell them that I'd done it. But he had no way of knowing what I'd actually found out.

I ran through the information in my head. I'd learned that Benny and Kane's father had left soon after Benny did, leaving Kane to be the supporter of their family, which he greatly resented. I knew that there was something suspicious going on with both Jake and Jaxon and how they'd met each other. Jake hadn't told us why he hated Hundsen with such a passion; there was something to be explored there. The other day, I'd found out what had happened to Gigi, what had led to her becoming the mad killer she was today. I knew that Finn had a sad, empty childhood like I had, and wanted to be an ONNT soldier. Arlo was a science experiment, kept between white walls until he was eighteen. As for Delphinium, I'd heard many of her traumatic stories and knew enough about her to sate Benny's craving for information.

"Honestly, your performance was flawless. Nearly brought me to tears. Bravo!" My teammates' eyes began to shift between Benny and I, wondering what he was talking about. My gaze didn't stray from his scarred face.

"Performance?" Delphinium's knives were already clutched in her hands. Her clothes and skin were sprayed with blood and she looked to be seconds away from spilling Benny's.

"The ruse Riley put on for the rest of you, of course," Benny said, looking a bit too unbothered by this whole situation. "This entire time, she's been gathering information for me."

Finally Delphinium turned to me. "What information?" The look in her eyes made me feel like a small rabbit being cornered by a wolf, but I didn't break. I wouldn't show how I truly felt.

Benny answered for me. "Information on all of you. Your deepest secrets, regrets, fears. All of it."

"But," I broke in, taking the reins back into my own hands before this situation got out of control, "I haven't told him anything. And I won't. Not until we get what we want out of him."

Benny's dramatic smile widened. "Really, where did you learn to lie like that? You're quite the actress."

He was relentless. He was twisting this situation around with lies of his own, just as he had with Delphinium and Gigi. And look how that had turned out.

But this would be different. Benny didn't have what he wanted yet. In order to get it, I would make him behave. He would bend to my will before I bent to his.

"You can lie and manipulate all you want," I said, keeping the withering look plastered onto my face. "But you still need the information from me. You can't do anything to us without it."

The assassin laughed openly this time, a sound that had neither warmth nor happiness. "Really, Riley? Then how do I know about Arlo's life in the laboratory?" He turned to Arlo. "Up until you were eighteen, your life revolved around pills, needles and scientists. You were so alone, so scared. But it was all you knew, wasn't it?" How could he possibly know that? We hadn't even known until Arlo had revealed it during the Romanian president's interrogation.

Arlo narrowed his eyes and looked angry for the first time since I'd known him. I'd much rather have his insane smiles and strange remarks than this dry, unpredictable fury.

Benny's expression changed slightly. "Oh, but you're hiding things as well. A...killer secret."

Eyes narrowing, Kane asked, "What?"

"I don't know where you got that information, but it wasn't from me," I said, forcing my voice to stay perfectly even. "You should apologize to Arlo now before you dig yourself into an even deeper hole."

"Really? It wasn't from you?" He raised his eyebrows accusingly. "Then how do I know about Gigi's time at the asylum? Or that Finn's childhood was a sad one, filled with foster parents and disappointment?"

Finn's head snapped to look at me. "You told him? You knew that what I was telling you was confidential." The hurt in his eyes hit me in the gut.

"She told me that there's something not right about you, Jake," Benny said, not flinching under Jake's glare. "Between Hundsen's intense hatred of you, your involvement with the Club, and your odd acquaintanceship with Jaxon before being put together in the team, something isn't adding up." Delphinium glanced between Benny and me, appearing to not be sure who to attack first.

"What the hell, Riley?" Jaxon's deep voice rang out and I buried the urge to close my eyes and scream. "You told him all of this?"

I shook my head firmly. "No. I'm not sure how, but he knows all of these things already. I didn't tell him anything. It's like...It was like he'd pulled the information out of my brain." As soon as the words exited my lips, I knew how crazy they sounded.

I watched as the expression on Delphinium's face turned from burning fury to sudden shock. "Wait..."

Before she could say anything else, Jake said, "Tesla." The white-haired assassin turned back to glance at him; he gave her nothing but a flat stare. She remained quiet.

Kane redirected his anger from his brother to them. "What was that about? Are you hiding yet another secret?"

Jake hardly even looked bothered. "No." They were, but so had everyone else, evidently enough.

"Now why don't I believe you?" Kane sneered. It was almost scary how much his voice sounded like his older brother's when he was this furious.

"Kane." It was all I said. He looked down, gold-flecked eyes meeting mine. I couldn't tell how he felt about my alleged betrayal, but at least he was quiet after I called his name. That had to mean something.

"I see you two are still getting along nicely," Benny said to us as we stood next to each other. I wasn't sure what to make of his statement. "I'll be sorry to nip that in the bud," he continued, not looking very sorry at all. "She told me all about how Papa left our family soon after I did, leaving my poor younger brother as their sole provider." He stared at Kane. "It must have been difficult having everyone rely on you while you continued to fail and let them down. So many people have already left you. Are you afraid of more walking out?"

Ignoring his brother's attempts to rile him, Kane's gaze stayed trained on me. "You told him?" Unlike Jaxon, his tone was soft, pained. He couldn't believe I'd done this to him. I'd almost prefer his anger over his hurt.

"No. Kane, no. I couldn't do that to you." My heart was beating so fast I feared it might break.

"Then how does he know? How could he know our secrets, the things we kept hidden?" The expression on his face was unreadable. "I told you about all of that thinking that you'd keep it private. I thought..." He shook his head, eyes darkening as he closed himself off again. "Never mind. It doesn't matter now."

"Look what you did," Jaxon said, gesturing to our broken team. "You broke our trust, and in turn, our team."

Finn broke in. "Don't you all see what he's doing? He's a monster! He-"

Benny cut him off like he was nothing. "Oh, Jaxon, she got information on you too. I'll admit, I was a bit surprised when I heard it. Though I can't say I didn't see it coming."

"What?" It came out as more of a hiss than a question. "You didn't. Tell me you didn't, Riley."

"I don't know what he's talking about." I hated how desperate my words sounded. "I promise."

"Then tell me," Benny said, his words dripping smugness, "How you found out that Jaxon spent half a year in one of the most heavily-guarded prisons in the country? Was it perhaps the newspaper articles written about him that he keeps in a drawer in his room? I believe you said the headline was: Aaron Williams' Son Gets Twenty Years in Supermax Prison." He leaned toward Jaxon. "Tell me if I'm wrong, I could be mistaken."

"So let me get this straight." Jaxon took a threatening step forward and I had to force myself to stay still. "You betrayed all of us by giving away our secrets to our greatest enemy—information that you got by spying on us and apparently digging through our rooms—and then lied about it?" He was seething. I didn't fully blame him; this looked very bad. But how had Benny known that Jaxon had spent time in a supermax prison? None of us had known until now.

"I don't know how this—any of this—is possible but I haven't told him anything yet." I couldn't back down. The second I showed any sign of weakness, I'd be torn to shreds.

"I have an idea of how it's possible," snarled Jaxon. He still had both a knife and a gun clutched in his hands. I wondered which he'd attack me with first. He started toward me and I instinctively put my hands out in front of me. "I think-"

The rest of his biting reply was cut off by Arlo saying, "Oh, sweet mother of God, this cannot get any worse."

Everyone stopped when they saw what he'd seen. Even Jaxon froze in his path to get to me.

Because there, now joining Benny and the unidentified assassin girl, was Gigi. She had come to kill Delphinium, and judging by the look on her face, she wouldn't stop until she succeeded.