Hey Guys! Sincere apologies for the delay. I know it's been a few nights but with my arm I really needed to pace myself with typing.

That being said:

HERE IT IS!

I PROMISE YOU WILL KNOW EVERYTHING BY THE TIME YOU HAVE READ THIS CHAPTER!

This is not the end of the book, there will be another chapter and an author's note before the end but this is the chapter with all the answers, the one you have all been waiting for.

Thank you to everyone who has theorized and theorized over the months and months and even the last few days. It has been such a pleasure writing the book but in particular this final part, the mystery to who exactly has been torturing everyone and how and why. If I have missed anything that you want the answer to please ask me and I will happily tell you, but I am pretty sure I managed to fit in everything!

So grab the popcorn, the candy, your drinks and whatever you need so that you do not have to move and prepare to read the answers to all of your questions.

Love and light,

FrancoisT

Xoxo.

A/N: Profanity.

Cold in the Rain.

Chapter Thirty-Five – Welcome…to my hell!

All 9 stared up at the throne as the long blonde hair and sleek body of Linds stepped forward wearing what could only be described as a long and stylish strapless dress. A navy blue satin evening the gown was beaded with stunning silver snowflakes in a line to create the image of an embroidered sash. Her hair was also done up as though she were off to the prom or even to take the place of a current princess. And atop her head was a stunning silver Quinceanera Tiara.

"Lindsay?" Mel asked, more surprised than anything else.

Linds slowly made her way to the throne and quite gracefully sat on it. Placing her hands in her lap she looked up at her clearly captivated audience.

"Good evening everyone," she smiled quite darkly. "And welcome…to my hell."

"You all seem so surprised," she continued, smiling even more darkly if that was possible.

"Well, I can't blame you. After all, who would expect a woman to pull all of this off." She chuckled slightly raising a now visible matching navy blue satin glove to her mouth.

"What have you done with Jay?!" Carmita yelled out, though a second later a gun was jabbed into her shoulder blade silencing her.

"All in good time my dear," Linds smiled. "All…in good time."

"No, for this all to make sense we need to go back. Back to the very beginning, back my friends, to Pittsburg."

"Oh here we go," Lauren started rolling her eyes.

"Quiet you!" said Edward from behind her.

"If you'd rather not here the story…" Linds started aloofly.

"No please, go on." Any interrupted. "Please."

"Well actually Andy it's partially because of you," Linds continued. "You and my dear wife that is. If you're looking to blame anyone blame them, for you see…"

By now everyone was intrigued. Despite their fears of what would happen once she was done and of course what Jay was possibly going through at this very moment, everyone seemed eager to hear her tale.

"Not the last time when Andy came to Pittsburg, but the time before, he had a discussion with my wife. I had asked her what the discussion was about but as per usual, especially with this one she had refused to tell me."

"Pfffft," Mel replied, looking away from Linds, she couldn't believe this moment had even come up.

"Some people," Mel continued glaring at Mel before moving on. "Think a little secret here and there is a good thing. A little white lie some call it, or as my wife might say an omission of the truth. But my friends nothing and I do mean nothing compares to being kept in the dark over and over again."

"So that excuses you t-" Ben started but was, like Carmita before him, also jabbed in the back with a gun halting the rest of that sentence.

"Honestly I don't know why you guys are so upset with me," Linds replied. "I mean it's not like anyone was truly hurt. Ok, well, except for Jay, but who cares about him."

Andy was half way out of his seat ready to lunge at her before the person behind him grabbed him roughly by the shoulders sitting him back down.

So Linds continued.

"After having had more than enough of these secrets I decided to go out for a walk and had come to the conclusion that Jay had cheated on Edward…"

"What?" Micah questioned, though rather quietly.

"Of course this had made me quite mad and it would be just like my own wife to not tell me something this big. Especially when it involved that inconsiderate little blonde, naturally she knew I would be upset with him. So what did I do, I went directly to the one man I knew I could trust, B."

"Figures," Ben nodded.

"Naturally," Linds replied. "Though he may not have done the same for the rest of you I knew at least he would tell me the truth. There is a fine line my friends between being an arrogant self-serving man who tells the truth to the point that it hurts and the man who is so nice and sweet to your face and yet can easily lie directly to it."

She then stood up from the throne and began elegantly pacing the room.

"B told me everything about the affair he had indulged in with Edward and admittedly I felt quite bad-"

"Pff yeah right," Lauren replied.

"Oh no my dear," Linds continued looking at the brunette. "There is way more forgiveness behind this face then even you could imagine."

She continued to pace the throne.

"So I went to bed that night feeling really bad for jumping to that conclusion and when I realized there was no way I was going to be getting any sleep I got up and walked right over to Edward's place. To think I had accused him of being the innocent by stander? Naturally, I was impressed!"

Every one of the nine seated there dropped their jaws in shock.

"I told him I had heard what had happened, high-fived him for finally giving that blonde bitch the treatment he had deserved and told him I had a plan to seek revenge on everyone who had ever done us wrong in the past. Naturally Edward was on board right away."

"Naturally," Edward replied from behind Rein, Jenny and Lauren, beaming up at his queen. "I had only just dealt with a totally unnecessary verbal bashing from this one."

He pointed directly to his left at Andy with his free hand and adopted a sarcastic impression of the boy.

"If you don't tell him right now, I will, myeah-myeah-myeah-myeah-myeah- myeah-myeah! I was so ready to take action and by now even more ready for Jay to leave me, actually by now I wanted him to leave."

Andy went completely white; he had no idea of any of this occurring. He figured all of this had started after he informed Mel about what happened at the diner. To hear that it had all begun before then, felt like a whole other story ago.

"You see Andy," Linds smiled maliciously. "Not everything is about you. You thought Jay left Edward because of you? Please! It was I who had told Edward to admit to everything and not fight one iota to keep him."

"I actually threw him out," Edward laughed. "And trust me; he so wanted to give me another chance."

"So after recruiting Edward, I knew I had to convince B to get onboard," Linds continued. "After all Jay is just…hmm…so…predictable. I just knew he'd run crying to his little love-god."

"The funny thing is," Edward interrupted laughing. "Andy's the one that actually pushed him into B!"

"That's right!" Linds smiled remembering Andy's big blunder. "That I did not expect, but thanks for the help Andy, really, it wasn't necessary but thank you."

"Bitch!" Andy spat, earning a whack from the person behind him.

"Sadly B took a little more persuading then I first thought and by the time Jay arrived into his gods arms I still hadn't had him convinced. But yet again, everything worked out when Jay told B how Andy had spilled the beans on how much he loved him. I just…I just…"

Uncontrollably Linds let out a very loud and very long laugh.

"You just can't make that up!" she cried out continuing the laughter which by now Edward had joined in on.

Debbie frowned at Linds, what she wouldn't have given right now to have a mallet in her hands to whack over Linds head.

"Of course all that needed to happen then was for B to act like B and Jay was on the next flight down to New Haven while B was now at last in my pocket."

"Plans were put in place from the moment he'd left," Linds continued. "The three of us sat around for quite some time figuring out ways to get back at each and every one of those who had gotten to us."

She paused to glance in Lauren and Rein's direction.

"Of course out of towner's you'll need to forgive me, I hadn't met you yet and so had no idea of how much more fun we were all going to have."

She then sat back down before continuing her tale.

"So with Jay gone, the first thing we had to do was hurt the person that started all of this…Andy."

Andy glared at the blonde woman he was feeling such a range of emotions that no words could really justify speaking.

"And what would be the best way to get to Andy…to hit him right here?" she placed a fist over her heart. "Why to take out Micah of course!"

"So, so…" Micah shook as he spoke. "The incident at Babylon?"

"Nothing is a coincidence my dear sweet naive Micah," Linds purred. "I told B to get you to the view-point because I knew it would have the most impact. Naturally he couldn't just toss you overboard like ruined chopped liver, so I advised him to rile you up over the whole stupid Jay incident, which of course by now meant nothing to him…"

She paused as though in deep thought.

"Honestly I'm surprised you bought his anger," she confessed. "When have you ever known B to care about anything?"

She then flicked her hand as through indicating she'd move on.

"And well…over you went."

"Yaaaaaaaaa ker-spat!" Edward imitated from his right chuckling.

"Regrettably however, you survived. A set back admittedly. But fortunately you were badly enough hurt to get Andy back to Pittsburg which was all part of my plan." Linds confessed. "I knew that despite everything that was happening with Jay, Andy would drop everything in a New York minute for his precious Papa and that's exactly what he did."

"So much for hurting everyone," Mel scoffed. "So far you only wanted to hurt Andy."

"Oh that's where you're wrong Melly dear," Linds replied. "Why do you think I spoke to top attorneys during our separation? I knew, forgive me, that you would be lost without me and well pissed without your possessions."

She glanced away as though making a side note to herself.

"Plus of course I knew I'd need money to truly cause damage and well, we all know who won in arbitration don't we?"

Everyone seemed to turn to Mel at once. She hadn't divulged to anyone what had happened during arbitration other than to say it hadn't been going well.

"Oh, oh, ooooooooooooooh!" Linds beamed with ill-natured content. "You didn't tell them! More secrets hey?"

Linds then stood, too overjoyed to remain seated and began pacing again.

"Suffice it to say I won practically everything. The arbitrator granted me everything we owned including the house itself which I will of course rightfully claim once I get the hell out of this dump."

"Well that was mean!" Carmita stated.

"No," Mel replied. "It was smart. Having me distracted allowed for B to get to Andy without my being there."

This stopped Linds in her tracks.

"I knew you'd click eventually," Linds replied. "I mean hey, it took a while but bravo for finally working it out."

She quite fakely applauded Linds then continued to pace reveling in the moment once more.

"Andy coming to Pittsburg without Jay was a set-back as I said. I would have preferred to kill two birds with one stone after all and with Andy actually coping quite well with his Papa in hospital I realized I had underestimated his tolerance levels."

Andy smiled satisfied. It was nice to know that Linds had underestimated him, even if it was only his tolerance.

"So I got B liquored up and sent him to the diner. My plan was to get him to sleep with Andy initially thereby creating distrust between him and Jay. But no harm done, the molestation worked out so well."

Ben sprang out of his chair and lunged towards Linds at once, but before his could even get to her he felt a sharp pain in his leg as a bullet perfectly found its target.

"Naughty, naughty!" Linds said cheerfully. "Maybe that will teach you to sit still until the presentation is over."

Then as though he were completely invisible Linds continued on.

"I knew Andy would go to Mel and so naturally I gave B the heads-up. There was no way we were losing this hearing especially with Mel not advising B that it was taking place. Fortunately my wife seemed to forget I have connections at the court house."

"Fucking Brahms!" Mel spat.

"Yes David notified me the moment it was arranged," Linds smiled. "And so with that all we needed to do was make sure we had a good enough defense attorney and, wouldn't you know it, we had one."

From behind Andy and Micah the sound of a gun being placed on the ground could be heard and everyone turned towards the noise as someone stood up and removed the mask from their face.

"Money does make the world go round," said a very satisfied Ted.

"Ted?!" Micah screamed as everyone else gazed up at the man in complete and utter shock. "How could you even do that?!"

"Oh it was quite easy," Ted replied. "None of you ever really cared for me and Linds was actually willing to pay me."

"Be careful how you treat those around you," Linds smiled. "It always comes back to bite you sooner or later."

Again she sounded that annoying chuckle.

"The good news was that Jay actually came to the trial. Though I was quite surprised at this, it presented the opportunity I needed to get to them both and the plan was simple."

"Unlike the others you've had so far?" Lauren questioned sarcastically before being punched by Edward.

Linds however ignored her.

"What I didn't rely on was the pair leaving right away," she continued. "Abandoning your Papa in his time of need…? I almost didn't believe Ted when he told me Tsk tsk tsk."

"I didn't need the help!" Micah said, not knowing what to say but feeling the need to say something.

"Clearly," Linds spat. "So I knew I had to jump into over drive. Ted, if Mohammed will not stay at the mountain?"

"The mountain must go to Mohammed," he concluded.

"Precisely," Linds smiled. "Naturally I couldn't just send myself. No, no, that would be too obvious. And naturally sending Ted or even B would have done the same thing. But as luck would have it a good friend of mine knew a guy that just happened to be staying in New Haven who had heard of Andy and Jay and told me quite a bit of news! Andy do you take this one or shall I?"

Andy scrunched his eyebrows having no idea what she was on about.

"Take what?"

"Rick, Jay… eh-loooooove!" she mimicked.

"How'd you-?" Andy started. "Oh Edward."

"Edward?" Linds burst into laughter. "No, no my dear. I had an informant who, it turned out had his own informant. I simply couldn't believe how the information was just flying into my hands! A little cash here and there and an informant passed off an incredibly convincing relationship!"

As with earlier, the sound of another gun was placed on the ground and everyone turned to see the person standing behind Ben and Mel stand and remove their mask.

"Hey Rein, miss me?" came the devious gruff voice of her boyfriend Sam!

"Sam?! W-w-w-" she started.

"Wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh! Seriously for an IV League student you sure do stutter a lot," he interrupted.

"You leave my daughter alone," Lauren said through a clenched jaw.

"Oh gladly," Sam smiled. "I was only in it for the money after all."

He laughed and Rein felt sick to her stomach.

"I was just beginning to trust you!" she screamed.

"I know," he chuckled. "I'm good aren't I?"

"You're crazy is what you are!" Ben said now picking himself back up from the floor.

"But just having an informant on the inside was nowhere near enough," Linds went on drawing the attention back to herself. "So we got to thinking and we realized that by now we needed to turn up the heat. Things were going well but nothing seemed to really get to you guys and so modern day technology came into play."

With everyone captivatedly drawn to Linds story Edward left his post behind the three ladies and made his way up to the throne.

"I had remembered Andy telling me how much he loved a show whose villain cyber bullied its victims and so we decided to send a text and see how that would go," he said. "Naturally sending it to Andy would just make him laugh, so we sent it to Jay instead."

Andy recalled the text Jay had been sent after their make-up session and linking it to that very show Edward had been talking about.

"There was one thing you didn't count on though," he said confidently. "Jay showing me the text. We laughed it off actually."

In truth only Andy had laughed it off, but what these guys didn't know wouldn't hurt anything.

"Actually, we assumed as such," Edward replied. "Because Jay never responded."

"And we all know how quick he is to respond to any kind of attention," Linds added. "So we came up with a back-up plan."

Now it was Sam's turn to walk towards the throne. While Edward had moved to Linds' right Sam was headed directly to her left.

"By now I knew all about this wild card of a person who everyone just seemed to love-"

"Who?" interrupted Jenny.

"This…singer…" Sam replied almost snarling.

"Ha! If you can call her that!" Linds laughed imitating Carmita's voice in a most demeaning way. "Mid-deh-a-nighteh and usooo dancing ameeeeer! Urgh!"

She shuddered showing everyone just how much she couldn't stand the Latina's voice.

"It's Amore you bitch!" Carmita spat.

"Ah, more you ask? Indeed Sam continue," Linds laughed racistly.

"The luck we had on our side was that no one except for Andy knew her and so it fit just so perfectly into our plans!" Sam recalled.

"Exactly! And who better to gain inside access to her then a record manager?" Linds asked using air-quotation marks to make her point. "B fit in perfectly, she was basically putty in his hands!"

"You wouldn't believe the laugh we all had when he came back with a signed fake contract," Edward added.

"Oops, did you think that was legitimate Cheeeeka?" Linds asked drawing out the word.

Carmita crossed her legs angrily and looked as far away to the left as she could. There was nothing to be said or done. This woman was a bitch plain and simple.

"But what you didn't realize is that I found out B was coming!" Mel replied defiantly.

"Ph-yeah!" Edward replied. "But you had no idea where he was! You might as well have been advised he was in America somewhere."

Mel had no reply to that and so shut down rather quickly.

"Boys, boys!" Linds chuckled slightly as though sweetly calming down two children. "Save some of that energy for the best reveal yet!"

Neither guy said anything, but the smiles on their faces were so wide that everyone felt an ominous feeling wave over them.

"B was sent to New Haven to get in with Carmita, but what he found was so much better!" Linds said smiling deviously. "You recall I'm sure, how I was just saying it comes down to how you treat people right? That Karma comes back to bite you Andy?"

Andy whose head at this point was looking down at the ground helplessly shot right back up nervously to look at Linds.

"Well," she smiled so evilly as though knowing this was her biggest triumphant moment. "The one person it would have been almost impossible to do this without was…"

Everyone darted their heads in the direction of the last person left standing in a mask, the person behind Carmita and Debbie. Since there was no need for guns anymore this masked person had already placed theirs down and was very slowly revealing their identity.

From behind the mask came the face of a boy whose chin was down and eyes were up with a look that screamed naught but evil…

"Me," said Rick.

Eyes darted across the room as everyone looked at each other. Carmita screamed while Andy almost jumped into the air with fright. Not only was Rick not dead…he was siding with Linds! Not to mention looking like someone who had just become possessed by Satan himself.

"I knew it!" Lauren whispered to Rein and Jenny.

"Seriously?" Mel replied shocked.

Slowly Rick pushed his chin back out so that his head sat naturally and as calmly and confidently as villain addressing a chained-up victim he spoke.

"B came to me not too long after I had fled the Dètendez-Vouz with Carmita. Everyone seemed to either hate me, want me gone or even want me dead. But B saw something in me," he continued his voice as soft and confident as silk.

"I'm sure he did," Mel laughed.

No one expected what happened next but as he was now just passing Mel and Ben, Rick ferociously hissed at her bearing his teeth ominously. In a normal situation people might have laughed at him, but in this moment everyone drew back very, very much afraid.

"I could snap you in a second," he said in that same calm confident voice getting closer to her face with every word. "Don't-push-me."

Mel's eyes widened in fear.

It was one thing for Linds to be talking about everything that happened and another for the men to be carrying guns, but something about that hiss and his calmly confident nature struck fear in her. Fear of the lengths to which he would go if she indeed did push him and so very quickly she closed her mouth.

"He made me an offer," Rick continued walking towards Linds. "Locate Jay for him and join the dark-side. I admit…"

He stopped for a moment as though talking normally.

"I did consider saying no," but then that same evil tone was back. "But Carmita asked me a very powerful question."

"Do you trust him?" she whispered in horror recalling that very moment on Christmas Eve.

"Precisely," Rick replied. "And tell them Carmita, what you told me when I said that I did."

"That's n-" Carmita started.

"TELL THEM!" Rick screamed out so darkly it freaked everyone out.

"I..I said…" Carmita started, tears coming out of her eyes. "…do it."

The others gasped at hearing this news while Rick continued to walk towards the throne.

"It was then that my mind was truly made up. I was sick of people treating me like the scum they find on the bottom of their shoe. Tossing me aside like I'm worthless. Me, always looking up to people, but always being looked down upon. And then," he smiled pausing mid-step and looking at everyone.

"Oh, the most perfect timing," he closed his eyes for a brief moment smiling and then re-opened them. "Andy called me inviting me to Christmas the next day with him and who… Jay! It was…way too perfect!"

Content with leaving his story there, Rick, quite boldly sat at the top most step leading to the throne, directly in front of Linds' feet. His chin was once again down and his eyes were up smiling that same dark smile from earlier. It was almost like a human-like panther ready to pounce on its pray at any moment.

"It was even more perfect then we thought!" Linds now jumped in smiling adoringly at her number one helper.

"After playing the role of 'I love you honey, please take me back' so well that Mel actually did…"

Mel shot Linds a very dark look.

"All of us except for Edward and Sam, and of course B, got into this Christmas Party hosted by Lauren," she smiled gesturing to the brunette. "And what a gracious hostess you were allowing us to hide in such plain sight. We could eat and drink merrily while waiting in anticipation for what we all knew was about to happen!"

"Of course no one invited Carmita, are you getting the picture sweetie?" Rick sniggered. "But I needed to get her limo there so B would have a getaway the moment Jay came out to meet him."

"Everything from that moment on went flawlessly!" Linds finished with a satisfied smile.

"There was one tiny moment when I wondered about B," Rick laughed slightly remembering the moment as though a joyous present he had received one Christmas.

"And that's why I told you to stop calling as he did still need you," Linds laughed back. "Was it worth it in the end?"

"Totally," Rick replied, slipping right back into the evil look he'd had moments earlier.

"So what the fuck did you do with Jay then?" Andy asked impatiently.

"Ah yes Jay," Linds recalled fondly. "I recall B bringing him here to my castle that very first night as though it were yesterday."

The three men surrounding her sniggered in unison.

"Oh you know, the usual torture. Hot, cold, sharp, blunt; you name it, it was a blast!"

"You sick freak!" Jenny screeched. "How dare you?!"

"How dare I?" Linds asked "How dare I? After the way you all had treated me, the secrets you all kept, the torture you put me through. You have the gall to ask how dare I?!"

No one dared to utter a word.

"So now that Jay was finally in our clutches," Linds moved on. "I needed an excuse to get away so that I could be here with B to carry out the rest of our plans. With Sam finding this perfect torture castle-" she started.

"Sam?!" Rein blurted out horrified.

"Not as dumb as I look huh?" he sniggered.

"Not at all my fine friend," Linds replied. "It's amazing the things people can share with you when you give them what they need Rein."

Rein was horrified at Linds' taunt, but said nothing.

"As I said, with Sam finding this perfect torture castle well equipped with every little nightmare fantasy brought to life all we needed was time to learn and fully understand the maze and the rest…as they say…is history," Linds finished.

"History?!" Andy screamed and everyone started yelling in scattered motion.

"What was with all the friggen clues?" Lauren asked.

"Mind torture," Sam replied simply.

"You tried to gas me," Ben said pissed that she did yet pleased that he had managed to escape.

"Oh that was my invention," Ted said still standing behind Andy and Micah. "Fun huh?"

"So where's Emmett huh?" Mel asked glaring at him "I found the note in his pocket as you know."

"Guilty," Ted confessed. "Put it there myself and made sure he left it there to throw off the scent."

"You told me Rick was dead!" Carmita screamed joining in everyone else's rage.

"One of my finer moments," Linds smiled, with Rick turning his head towards her and smiling in agreeance.

"So how did I end up in the maze?!" Lauren demanded.

"Oh that was me," Edward replied. "I spiked my coffee while you were sleeping I knew you wouldn't be able to resist."

"I thought I could trust you!" Micah yelled out to Rick.

"Because I planned it that way," Rick snarled. "How else would I get you to tell me every teensy detail about Andy? Fluffy shorts indeed!"

Andy went red realizing his papa must have innocently divulged a secret about a night he'd had with an ex.

"You could have KILLED ME!" Mel screamed standing up. "I'm your damn wife and you nearly sawed me in half!"

This stopped the commotion at once as everyone realized just how painfully true and evil that was.

"I know!" Linds chuckled. "Ben sort of spoiled the show on that one, but oh well I can fix that now."

And reaching inside what now seemed to be a false back to the throne Linds pulled out a hand gun and pointed it directly at Mel.

"I promise," she started slowing walking towards her. "To disgrace, neglect and…defy."

And with that everyone jumped as the sound of a bullet shot out of the gun.

"*"

So there you have it! Linds was the leader of Team-Evil with Edward, B, Sam, Ted and Rick by her side.

Edward was the first she got onboard, but in the end Rick was her number one go to person.

And it all started because Mel kept Andy's secret in Fighting for no Reward!

What did you all think? I so cannot wait to hear! And if there is anything you still need answered please just ask and I will tell you, but I think I covered it all.

Next time on the finale of Cold in the Rain.

Beat, Beat, Beat…will they get out of the throne room?

(Lauren) "It's ok, it's over."

Or will they be trapped forever?

(Andy) "Shit!"

With nowhere to run.

(Rein) "Help!"

And nowhere left to hide.

(Gunshot & Carmita Screams).

Will Lindsay triumph?

(Linds) "All in a day's work."/ (Rick) "Naturally".

Or will she fall?

(Linds) "Wait, what?"

Only one thing is for sure…SOMEONE-WILL-DIE!

But who?

Cold in the Rain's conclusion next week!