There was a beep as a key card slipped into the door, and a smack as the deadbolt prevented the door from opening. Someone was pounding on the door.

Elena groaned and walked to the door. Damon and Stefan were there.

"Morning, babe." he kissed her. He glanced over at Katherine. She had a knack for showing up unexpectedly. "Morning, twin-face."

Katherine dragged herself out of bed and gave Damon a hug, then pulled Stefan in for a longer one. "Boys! I haven't seen you since Rio. How've you been treating my sister?"

Stefan blushed a little. Caroline wasn't with them for the Rio trip. Did something happen between Stefan and Katherine?

Damon jumped up on her bed. "Wake up, Barbie!" He was in a good mood. Last night's deal must have gone very well.

She glared at him and pulled herself out of the sheets. He looked at the carefully bandaged gash on her knee.

"Get into a fight last night?"

"I fell."

"Well good thing someone patched you up. We don't roll with broken barbies. Who bandaged this? They did a really good job."

"Elena." she lied

He raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend "How come you don't ever play sexy nurse for me?"

"Halloween" she reminded him.

"How could I forget. Hey, do you guys think there's a costume shop somewhere on this island? because I 'cough cough' think I'm coming down with something and I could really use a nurse to take care of me."

Elena threw a pillow at him.

Caroline looked for some jeans in her bag. "I'm going to go see Tyler."

"Actually, I'm on my way to meet with him about some numbers. But I won't keep him long, I have an appointment with a very naughty nurse this afternoon."

Elena ignored the last comment. she wasn't quite as open as he was about telling other people about that kind of stuff. "I'm going to check out Katherine's room while you're doing that. Wanna come with, Care?"

"Actually, I was going to ask Caroline if she wanted to get breakfast with me" Stefan interjected. "I don't need to be at this meeting and I could use the company."

Caroline smiled "The place with the good coffee?"

Stefan nodded.

It had been a long time since Caroline had a close male friend and sex didn't get in the way. Either she liked them or they liked her. But with Stefan, she had an instant friendship, and it never got weird. When she first started traveling with Tyler, it was the three of them, Damon and Elena were off on another trip. Tyler would spend more time stressing over work and she and Stefan would just hang out, watching tv and talking. Other than Elena, he was her best friend.

"Damon and I have been talking lately, and I want you to know something."

She sat up straighter. Stefan was using his serious voice.

"Caroline, you know you're important to us. Not just because you're Tyler's girlfriend. You're part of the team."

Hardly, she thought. She and Elena rarely participated in anything that had to do with their work. The boys trained them in a few basic cons, mostly acting as distraction so they could slip past without someone seeing. Her main job title with them was 'little blonde distraction'. Occasionally they would go out to dinners and clubs with clients. Certain types wanted to see beautiful girls with the men they bought their product from. One middle aged man who wore too many gold chains had once whispered in her ear "I always know where to get the best product. I look for the man with the prettiest girl on his arm."

"I like the team." she smiled

"Anyway, Care. We love you. All of us. I just want you to know, that if something happens, If you decide not to be with Tyler anymore, I still want you to be with us. Damon and Elena feel the same way."

Did Elena say something to him? Did he know about Nik? No, it was impossible. Maybe Tyler was going to break up with her. It would explain how he had been acting.

"Stefan, whats going on? Did Tyler say something to you? Does he want to break up?"

"No, Care. Its just... Look, you have to promise me you won't tell Tyler about this conversation, ok?"

She nodded in agreement. "I promise"

"Tyler's... He's my friend and my business partner. But you're my friend too. and I think you'd be happier without him. But I guess I'm selfish, because I like having you with us. So I just want you to know, if you need to get away from him or end things, you can come to me. And you can still be part of this team."

"You think I should break up with him? He'd kill me. It's not an option, Stefan."

"Your first reason for not breaking up with him is that you're afraid of what he'll do. Not that you love him or want to be with him. Interesting."

"Stefan, sometimes I really hate how well you know me."

He gave her a sad smile and sipped his coffee.

"Just give me some time to process this, ok?" she asked.

He handed her the keycard to the room she had shared with Elena. She had left it on the table when they left. she had her bags sent back to the Penthouse, where she was planning on going right after her breakfast with Stefan.

"Damon rented the room out for the whole time we're here. If you ever feel like you're not safe around Tyler or you need to get away, just go back to this room and contact one of us. Tyler doesn't know we still have it."

"Stefan, what aren't you telling me?"

"Just be careful, Caroline."

She was worried. There was something he wasn't telling her, but she knew she wouldn't be able to pull it out of him when he was being all cryptic.

"So you and Katherine, huh?"

"That was a long time ago."

"Do you still like her?"

"She's a basket case. I'm not interested in going there again. Besides..." He stopped at took a sip of his coffee. "So this is really good coffee, right? We should get a few bags of it before we leave."

"Besides what, Stef?"

"It's not a big deal."

"Tell me, tell me!"

"I was trying to keep it secret but, theres this girl."

Caroline let out a high pitched squeal. She was a sucker for romantic stories and it had been a long time since Stefan had a girl in his life for more than a weekend.

"I met her at a party when we were in New York last month. She's a college student, really smart. We got to talking, and we realized that we were in the same second grade class, but her family moved away after that."

"She was from Mystic Falls too? Isn't that town like crazy small?"

"Yeah, it was a really weird coincidence. We just connected really well, so we've been in contact ever since. I talk to her on Skype or the phone pretty much every day."

"Does she know, what we do?"

"Of course not. She thinks I'm in pharmaceutical sales."

"Thats another way of saying it..."

"It just sucks. I can't do anything about it. She's there and I'm always somewhere else, and I can't even tell her the truth."

"You should fly her out here. It would be so romantic, I could just die. Please, Stefan? It would be the cutest thing ever."

"No way. She's too sweet for all this. And she's had a lot of bad stuff happen to her already. I don't want to make her life worse."

"You won't, Stefan. You're great and you deserve to be happy."

"I could say the same about you, Caroline."

"I am happy" she answered weakly, not really believing it.

Damon watched Vicky walk out of the penthouse. It was a brazen move, inviting someone from a rival group into their room. Tyler was too confident, or he was starting to get sloppy. She paused to fix her skirt and smooth out her hair. Well that answers the question of if she was there for business or pleasure. She stopped again to check inside her purse, and he saw her handle a small vial of clear liquid. Both Damon thought.

Tyler was robbing them blind and giving their secret formulas to a rival. When they went on a trip without him, he had dosed the product with something poisonous. If they hadn't been watching him, they would have unknowingly killed everyone who took it. The customer was a powerful man, and an arms dealer. If they gave him the product Tyler had handed them, the Salvatore brothers would have been tortured and killed. The look of horror on his face when they came back from that trip alive only confirmed it. He was trying to get them killed. He had betrayed the Salvatore brothers in every way possible. It wasn't enough to kick him out. He had to die.

Damon waited a few minutes before entering the Penthouse. He didn't want Tyler to know he saw Vicky. Tyler was in the shower when he got in. He poked his head in Tyler's room and saw condom wrappers strewn on the floor. He better get rid of those before Caroline shows up Damon thought.

They had their brief meeting and parted ways. Tyler was sweating and jittery. He was using way too much, and he was getting paranoid. He sensed that something was coming for him.

"Emily" he answered the phone.

"Hey, Nik. How's the Caribbean sun treating you."

"Heavenly. Why can't all my jobs be in places like this?"

"Glad to hear it. Just wanted to go over a few quick details."

"Right."

"I talked to the client again today. They made it very clear that you are only to take out L. Under no circumstances are you to harm anyone else, specifically the two young ladies who are also living in his Penthouse. A Caroline and an Elena. The client was very very insistent that I call to remind you this."

"Of course. I understand. I've actually already met the girls, and they seem lovely. No need to worry."

"You work fast."

"I learned from the best"

"Alright, be careful baby." Emily reminded him.

She had been like a mother to him since the day he showed up on her doorstep. More than a mother, she was his teacher. Ayanna must have know what he did when he showed up at her house with Becca, and she knew he couldn't stay in the mainstream world after that. He could have ended up in jail, she knew there was no way to prove Mikel was the one who was really responsible. He was so young, but Emily was his best option. Ayanna knew she could protect Becca and Kol, but Niklaus could never have a normal life again.

Emily was part of a very elite group of assassins. She was the absolute best. Her sister had marked the scared little boy, letting her know that he was ready to be trained. She had trained him well. He was ready to follow her on jobs by the time he was 16 and when he turned 18 he did his first solo mission. He was her pride and joy, her baby. He was the boy she raised to become one of the world's top earning killers. Her government contacts had been requesting him for years. The two of them slipped into palaces in the Middle East and private yachts in the Mediterranean, and took out people the government didn't want the general public to know ever existed. They were a perfect team.

"Hey Emily?"

"Yes, baby?"

"Who is the client?"

"Two guys, looked like brothers. The one who gave me the deposit introduced himself as Damon. I ran a check. They're the Salvatore brother's, Lockwood's partners."

"Hmm." he said. He remembered their pictures from the files. He liked having a face to attach to the person who was paying him to kill someone.

"Don't let your conscience creep up on you, baby. I did the research. A quick hit is merciful considering what this asshole did to them. Trust me, you're on the right side."

"Ok"

"Bye, Nik. And be careful."

"Bye"

Caroline bounced into the hotel room, trying to be cheerful. She was going to give today her best shot at having a good time with Tyler. She didn't want to rush into any decisions and she needed to remind herself why she was with him in the first place. They used to have so much fun, she just needed a glimpse of it to know the man she fell in love with was still there.

He was pacing around. He looked pale and jittery.

"Tyler! I missed you."

She pulled him into a kiss, and he didn't even try to kiss back.

"Missed me? I saw you yesterday."

"Yeah but..." She noticed his eyes. Slightly glazed and the pupils were dilated. He was using. She sighed. The Tyler she loved wouldn't be making an appearance today. She walked over to the mini fridge and pulled out a snickers bar. She flopped on the bed and tossed the wrapper in the garbage. Something else in the garbage can caught her eye. The little square wrapper wasn't the same brand they used. Her stomach turned and she wanted to throw up the candy bar she had just eaten. She felt a lump in her throat, and curled on her side, hiding her face from him. There was a long brown hair on the sheets next to her. It was much lighter than Elena's hair but darker than hers. She had suspected for a long time, but now it was real.

"I don't think we should be together anymore" she whispered.

He looked at her, stunned.

She slowly got up from the bed. She just wanted her purse. It had the key to the room. Then she would call Stefan and he would help her get the rest of her stuff. She was inching towards it, out the door, when everything happened in a flash.

"You're not breaking up with me."

"Yes. I am."

The shock turned to rage and she felt the world spin around her as hot pain suddenly met her face. She was on the floor. His hands around her neck. Her chest was burning from lack of air. Everything was fading.

Suddenly, Stefan was there. She scrambled to stand up.

"Caroline, run! Go!"

She grabbed her purse and tore out of there.