The Con Code

by Shana Silver

  “I hope it’s not a room full of FBI agents,” I mutter, my voice strained. Anything to cut the tension and elicit a spark on Colin’s face again. But his face is ghostly white.

  Abby pauses for dramatic suspense. “A poolside luau party!”

  She waits for the applause, but we all just blink at her.

  “I need two volunteers to help me set up.” She cranes her neck for all the hands I’m sure she’s expecting will rise, but no one makes the effort. She purses her lips. “Please, guys. This will be fun.”

  Still no one responds. Don’t pick me. Don’t pick me.

  She sighs. “Lakshmi? You did such a great job helping at the cookout that it would be fantastic if you could help again.”

  Lakshmi looks around the bus, her face falling, before her goody-two-shoes nature gets the best of her and she nods. Abby picks one of Colin’s roomies to help as well, and everyone stands up, gathering their belongings.

  Colin turns to me, his eyes wild and scared. “How are we going to get past my dad and his team?”

  “The same way we get through every other con. Stealth and disguises.” Stealth and disguises, a con artist’s two best friends. “Walk in with your head down, no eye contact. You’re just a kid on a teen tour. That’s all.”

  Since we checked in last night, our suitcases are already in the hotel, along with Natalie’s arsenal of disguises, which means we can only work with what we’ve got on the bus.

  There’s a girl in a pink hoodie, Tig’s fedora, a guy in a baseball cap so dirty I suspect he sleeps with it on, and a bus full of sunglasses, including the pairs we’re already wearing.

  “You take Tig’s fedora,” I say, and he starts texting her. “I’m going for Sydney’s hoodie.”

  As the front of the bus starts to disembark, I reach over and tap Sydney on the shoulder. “Hey, I’m freezing. Any chance I can borrow your hoodie?”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. “Don’t you have one in your room?”

  “I can’t wait that long. I’m literally going to freeze to death right now.” My teeth clatter together for dramatic effect. “Plus, I don’t want to get wet.”

  Sydney rolls her eyes. “It’s barely raining. I think you’ll survive.”

  “Hey.” Colin places his hand on her shoulder and shoots her his most adorable smile. Damn, he’s so sexy when he does that. “That’s super sweet of you to offer her your hoodie.” He does a little swoony sigh and, ugh, I also do a swoony sigh. “That’s my fave trait in a girl: generosity.”

  Sydney dissolves into a series of giggles and pushes her frizzy red hair behind her ear. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” His voice is laced with diamonds, and he holds her gaze like she’s the only thing in the world. “I’m realizing now we haven’t had much time to chat. Maybe we can connect at the luau later? We still haven’t talked about our fave Hearts for Vandals songs.”

  He sounds so hopeful. So in love.

  I want to punch her.

  And maybe tell Colin not to flirt in front of me again, even if he is doing it to help me escape the FBI.

  “Oh wow.” She nods way too vigorously. “That would be amazing.”

  Sydney pulls the hoodie over her head and tosses it to me without looking back. I throw it on, getting a whiff of rose-scented perfume, and tuck my hair inside the pink jacket, letting the hood itself cover my head. Any other color hoodie and this would look suspicious, but thankfully hot pink helps sell the image of teen girl and not wanted criminal.

  Colin picks up the fedora from Tig’s empty seat and tosses it onto his head with a suave little flip.

  My feet splash in puddles, sending water spraying up around my ankles. My pulse beats in my ear like a drum at a heavy metal concert. But I make it a point to look down and do what I would normally do if I was walking into a hotel and no one was here to arrest me.

  Each step takes years. The ornate hotel lobby in shades of beige and gold stretches for miles rather than feet. It feels like the gazes of every damn person in this place weigh heavy on my back. I spy Lakshmi standing with Abby by the front desk and breathe a sigh of relief that she’s not already in the room. We need to talk about this where she won’t eavesdrop. We reach the elevators, and I jam my finger on the button again and again as the other campers groan at my impatience. Each elevator seems to mock me with their perch on a high floor.

  Sydney’s busy gabbing at Colin, trying to get his attention, but he’s staring at the way the numbers on top of the elevator descend from ten.

  When the elevator doors slide open, I launch myself inside, nudging other campers out of the way in order to slink toward the back. I don’t dare breathe as the rectangular box propels us upward. At my room, I wrench open the door and pull Colin inside. Natalie and Tig are already pacing inside. I nearly collapse onto the bed. “Shit, guys.”

  “It can’t be a coincidence.” Natalie twists her hands in her lap, her voice grave. “The FBI must know we’re here.”

  “And that we were going to grab the guitar. But that was the one piece of evidence they hadn’t confiscated from my house!”

  Colin bites his lip, sets down Tig’s fedora, and sinks onto the bed with such heaviness, the mattress caves. “This is really bad.”

  “How could they have found out?” Natalie drags her fingers over her face. “We’ve been so careful to cover our tracks for the rest.”

  We made all purchases using prepaid credit cards and burner phones. We did all the planning in Nat’s backyard only hours before the tour. There was no way it could be traced back to us, not that soon anyway.

  Tig crosses the room to where Lakshmi’s suitcase is perched on the little luggage rack. She unzips the main compartment and starts rooting around in the clothes.

  “Tig, what are you doing?” Natalie sidles up to her. “We need to figure out our game plan here, not search for outfits to borrow.”

  Tig rummages in the side compartments, pulling out random toiletries in superorganized bags, but doesn’t seem to find what she’s looking for.

  I try to tamp down the panic by sucking in a hard breath through my nose. “We need to leave this tour. Immediately.”

  Colin nods. “But how? They’re everywhere.”

  Tig starts digging her nails along the inner rim of Lakshmi’s suitcase, and after a moment, there’s a little snap. A hidden compartment opens, and Tig gasps. She pulls out two items: a notebook that looks like it’s been well loved and a black wallet case. She flips open the wallet to reveal a shiny gold badge.

  Lakshmi’s not a camper; she’s an FBI agent.

  The news hits me like an atom bomb, a bolt of tension that sparks through my body and sets my skin ablaze.

  Tig flashes an ID that indicates Lakshmi’s really twenty-three years old. She juts her hand on her hip as though to say I told you so. She sets both on the table and then backs away from them, a disgusted look on her face.

  “Wait.” Natalie slaps her hand down on the desk, the sound so loud my teeth clatter together. “Is this room bugged?”

  We all clamp our mouths shut. Tig gets out her laptop and bangs the keys with furious strokes. She plugs in various devices that blink red red red. After a few minutes, she shakes her head, and the horrible weight in my stomach shifts slightly.

  I grab the notebook and start flipping through it. Lakshmi’s neat, girly handwriting chronicles every decision we’ve made, every piece of evidence she’s found. Our mannerisms. Our likelihood to flee the tour at each of the stops. The entire amusement park heist, boiled down into detailed bullet points with time stamps that don’t miss a single step.

  Recommendation for Guitar: FBI checkpoint right before reaching Gibson and heightened security at the factory. Light a fire under them so Fiona thinks she has to steal the guitar then and there, or else we’ll get to it first. Suggest the police officers keep an overbearing watch in the first few rooms, but as she makes her move, we’ll call in an emergency elsewhere that will force the police to vacate. This
will allow her to make the switch without any fear of getting caught.

  Holy shit. They never got a chance to call in an emergency because I never made my move.

  I keep reading and then grow queasy when she guesses our plan for the book heist.

  With a glass room, alarmed glass cases, and the tour in a confined space, they can’t attempt to swipe the book in a stealthy way. They’ll have to cause chaos. Perhaps set off the alarm electronically so that everyone has to flee. They’ll use that as their distraction for Fiona to make the switch.

  My fingers go numb. That’s our exact plan.

  Recommendation: No FBI presence. Fiona needs to believe she’s solving the clue on her own since she’s the only one who will know where the clues lead once deciphered. We need her to act as bait and lure her mother out of hiding.

  I set the book on the nightstand, and Colin picks it up to peruse.

  I start pacing. I consider myself the queen of stealth, yet somehow Lakshmi managed to be stealthier than I am. She found time to write detailed notes without ever exposing said notebook to her three roommates. Maybe she hid it in a towel on the way to the bathroom and wrote furiously while the shower fogged up the mirror with steam. Or maybe she just wrote it during all those times I tried to avoid her, giving her ample time to chronicle everything she’s learned about me.

  And even at the amusement park, when I thought I’d gotten rid of her, she probably worked with her team of undercover agents to follow my every move. I’m sure she also snooped through our luggage the same way we just searched hers and filled in the rest of the details that way.

  No wonder the FBI didn’t catch us at the amusement park or at the checkpoint today. They didn’t want to catch us. They just wanted us to think they were getting close. Or maybe to smoke my mother out of hiding with strategically timed news articles indicating I’m making my way through her clues. That must be why they released the BOLO alerts but with the wrong photo of me.

  The world tilts, knocking reality askew and sending all my control cascading off the side of the planet. A blast of hot and cold alternates across my skin, feeling like sweltering icicles burning frostbitten fingers. “But … how’d she even know about the tour? We booked it only two days in advance, and only broke Colin out of house arrest twelve hours before.”

  Colin lets out a heavy, shuddering sigh and sets down the book. “I know how.”

  I whip my head to him, raising my brows. Tig stops zipping up Lakshmi’s suitcase.

  He bows his head, avoiding my eyes. “I struck an immunity deal and tipped off my dad about this whole plan the day you cut my anklet.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Colin’s confession about tipping off the FBI is a punch to my stomach, leaving me gasping. “What? Y-you sold us out?” My voice breaks. This can’t be right. I must have misheard. I must have.

  Tig shoots Colin both middle fingers, and Natalie backs away from him, shaking her head in denial, frizzy hair rattling.

  “You got me arrested! I was pissed!” Colin buries his fists against his sides, as though he’s preparing for a cage match.

  My knees get wobbly. A headache brews behind my eyes and blots out all thought. He’s staring at me, eyes big and wide, and waiting for me to say something. The way he ducks his chin like he’s taking cover indicates he expects me to explode. My fingers curl, itching to slap him across the cheek once again, this time with the kind of force behind my punch that would send him flying. Knock some sense into him. Push these horrible words back into his mouth and rewrite history so I never heard his betrayal.

  My jaw clenches. “I told you guys it was a bad idea to invite him into our crew.” My words are laced with a venom so poisonous, Colin slinks back.

  I violated the real number one rule of being a criminal, above anything else: Never let yourself be betrayed. And he got me twice! God, if my dad were here right now, he’d be angrier at me than at Colin. Well, okay, he’d be pretty angry at Colin. I started to trust him. I kissed him! And ugh, I liked it!

  Natalie marches to the window, yanks it open, and storms out into the fresh air on the balcony. She slams it shut again. Tig dons a look so fierce and jabs her fingers against her laptop with the hard strokes of a piano player. A moment later Colin’s phone lights up with gibberish before turning to black and letting off a faint sizzle sound.

  “I deserved that,” he says with a little laugh that sets my skin on edge.

  “When?” I grit my teeth, rage boiling deep in my gut. “When did you betray me?”

  He squeezes his eyes shut, and his shoulders give off a tiny shake. “When I went upstairs to get that picture of my mom. All it took was two quick texts to my dad, the first to ask for immunity in exchange for being a mole and the second, after he accepted, to give him the name of the tour.”

  I spit hot air through my teeth. “God, I’m such an idiot.”

  “But I swear.” He holds out his palms as though he’s showing us all his cards. “I had no idea an undercover agent was on this trip. Honestly, I thought I was the only mole, but clearly my dad didn’t trust me enough, so he hired a babysitter.” His voice breaks on the last part, and he has to clear his throat to regain his composure. “Perhaps for good reason, because after a few days, I stopped giving him information. I guess he knows me well after all.”

  It feels like the room is caving in on me. “Yeah right. I’m not falling for your lies again.”

  “No, I swear.”

  I roll my eyes. “When? Right now, I assume?”

  “Right around the time I stopped hating you.” He moves into my line of vision, forcing me to look at him. “And started liking you instead.”

  The silence lingers for a moment, tension all around. Even Natalie steps back into the room and stews with us. These were words I craved once; even minutes ago that sentence would have triggered a smile so wide on my face it would have taken days to rub off. But now his words sound empty, just another attempt at charming someone he’s already fooled too many times.

  “Well, that’s not entirely true, either.” He swallows hard. “I’ve always liked you. From the first rumor I heard about you before I even started school. And then, once I met you, I liked that you challenged me. Kept me on my toes. Understood me in a way no one else did.” His shoulders go slack like all the tension he’s been carrying around has fled. “I got sidetracked for a bit when I was pissed at you and stewing alone for a month, but I quickly realized I was never on my dad’s side. I’ve always been on yours.”

  He looks at me with a heartbreakingly wounded expression on his face, and I flinch. Everything coming out of his mouth sounds genuine, but so did all the other lies he fed me. When he reaches for my arm, I stumble back, still reeling from the metaphorical knife plunged into my gut. “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because I think that’s why the FBI showed up today despite what Lakshmi wrote in the notebook. As a warning to me to start giving them info again, or else they’d take away my immunity deal. But I don’t care about that anymore. I only care about you. I want to help you find your mom.”

  “All we have is your word, and your word means shit,” Natalie says.

  “Okay. Well…” Colin rakes his hand over his scalp. “I’ll call my dad and try to extend my immunity deal to the rest of you?”

  I snort. “They’d never go for it. Why would they?” I pause. “Besides, they’d never extend it to my mom as well, and I can’t sell her out like that.”

  “Then I’ll tell you everything I know!” Colin says in a rush. He sucks down a big gulp of breath as though he’s about to give a big, important speech. “The FBI already looked at the human-skin book but couldn’t find a clue in it at all. They think there must be something in the existing text that only you’ll be able to find. Something your mom told you once or alluded to. They’ve essentially hit a dead end until you find it and decipher it.”

  The air whooshes from my lungs. “What about the clue from the guitar? Do they know that one?”


  He swallows again. “I’m guessing they do, but they haven’t told me it.”

  Natalie crosses her arms. “Wait, how do you know this? When did you even talk to the FBI?”

  “At every hotel there was a burner phone waiting for me at the front desk. I would sneak down and get it while everyone was getting ready for dinner each night. But shortly after the skull heist, I stopped picking up the burner or calling them.” He pleads with his eyes, his voice sincere. “I tried to tell you. That night with the book forgery? But I—” All the fight leaves his voice, like a balloon losing air. “I chickened out.”

  The walls curl in on me, cleaving me in two equal halves. One part of me laps up his words, soaks them in, replays the kiss between us and the way his hands gripped me so firmly, like he couldn’t let go, and believes the look on his face proves everything that happened between us was real. That the electric feeling zipping in my veins when I’m around him pumps through his body, too. But the other part of me retreats as reality shatters. The memory of the kiss gives way to his conniving smirk and all the traps he set that I fell right into.

  It’s a choice. Continue to be mad at Colin and assume he’s lying, that this whole charade is another con he’s pulling on us with his charm as the ultimate weapon. Or listen to the part of me … which might be my gut or might just be my dumb hormones … that believes he’s changed and will truly help me find my mom.

  But maybe that’s our advantage.

  I bolt upright as the idea zooms through me, skin tingling. But this idea requires a leap of faith. I have to choose him the same way he claims he chose me. “Girl huddle. Quickly. I have an idea.”

  Natalie races over to me, but Tig takes her time crossing the room, using the opportunity to glare at Colin menacingly. He backs up to give us space, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “Do you guys trust me?” I whisper.

  Natalie purses her lips. “Usually.”

  “I think I know how to use this to our advantage. But we have to be all in. Colin included.”