Carefree || JJ Maybank

Chapter One Hundred Eleven

The Pogues drove in the boat for a little while longer, following the other boat from a far distance. It felt like forever as they were so eager to get to their friends who may already be in need of saving.

Kiara stands up for the first time in a while, spotting the city that they were approaching. "Okay, guys, I think this is El Tesoro." She comments, making Everleigh look back at her and then forward again. "The trailhead to the mountain is supposed to start here."

But then JJ sees something else. A man on the dock. And he was wearing the same colors that all of Singh's army were wearing. "Ah, shit." He whispers. "That's one of Singh's guys. What are we gonna do?"

Everleigh yawns and lets go of JJ, turning around to the rest of the group. "We gotta get past them somehow." She stresses, fidgeting with the promise ring on her finger.

"I've got it." Cleo says, standing and moving JJ away from the helm and taking the wheel herself. She slows the boat and cruises it over to an empty looking house. The teens all rush out, climbing into the house. "Fireworks, baby."

All of the Pogues look around unsurely. "Don't you think setting off fireworks would tell them where we are?" Kiara asks, turning to look at Cleo who had a piece of paper and a fishing rod. She was writing a note with a slight smirk on her face.

"Look, it's great that you have a plan and all." Pope starts to speak. Cleo rolls her eyes and looks up at Pope in annoyance. "It would help if you could tell us what it is, maybe so we can help?"

Cleo nods, hooking the note that she'd written on the rusty, old, and clearly overused fishhook. "Now which one of you are the good fisherman."

JJ takes a step forward and runs his hand through his hair before taking a bow. "That would be me. Yours truly."

"No time for games." Cleo responds, instantly killing the pride in JJ's body language. "The note is telling them to leave, cast it onto the boat." She turns and points at a box of fireworks with a gun next to it. "I fire the gun, if they don't run right away, we throw fireworks at them."

Everleigh's jaw drops. "You want to throw fireworks at people?"

"Are we saving your brother or not?" Cleo quickly fires back. "Either you're in or out."

JJ releases the line on the rod, waiting for the go ahead. Everleigh reacher her hand out to JJ and he looks at her confused. "I know you have your lighter on you."

JJ quickly fishes through his pockets. When he feels it, he smiles and tosses it to her. "Don't burn yourself." JJ warns her. "None of you burn yourselves, I don't have time to rush you to a hospital."

Everyone chuckles, still trying to stay as quiet as possible so that no one would hear them from their hiding spot. Cleo hushes them just as quickly, nodding towards JJ.

He was so comfortable with a fishing rod, he probably could've casted it perfectly with his eyes closed. He releases the line and casts it towards the man on the boat, ducking with Everleigh after it lands directly on the man's chest. Everleigh smirks and does the Pogue handshake with JJ proudly.

Then Pope chucks a firework in the direction of the boat, his throwing skills much better than when he was trying to warn the teens at the motel. Everleigh spent a few hours teaching him how to throw, and now it was paying off. "They're buying it." JJ smiles, standing up and helping Everleigh to her feet.

They could hear the man on the boat start to panic and scramble around. Only Cleo was really watching though, everyone else tried their best to stay hidden.

"Oh, shit." Kiara says quickly, getting everyone's attention. "Get down!"

She ducks behind the window and everyone else ducks aswell, confused as to what she was talking about. But, the confusion didn't last long. Gunshots were fired in their direction. "Pope, return fire."

Pope lights another firework, throwing it over the top of the wall yet again. This one landed right in the middle of all the docks, making the other man start to panic as well. A boat engine revved as they started to flee, trying their best to get out of the trouble they were stuck in.

JJ takes another firework and lights it, throwing it at the boat that was already leaving. Everleigh quickly stepped up, placing her hands on his chest. "They're leaving. We're good."

JJ looks down at the girl and couldn't help but smile proudly. She couldn't help it either, she smiles at him and lightly punches him in the gut. JJ lightly hits her back in the shoulder, but she doesn't fight back. She just turns around and leans her back up against his torso, making him wrap an arm around her tightly. "I think we're getting better at this." JJ smiles at Pope, now doing the Pogue handshake with him.

"Oh yeah." Pope agrees, then doing the handshake with Everleigh.

It's not long before they were interrupted. And it wasn't surprising that it was Cleo who was approaching them. "Hey, hey. Ain't no time for celebrating. We didn't do nothing yet." She tells them, staring JJ down as she rudely walked between the three friends.

Kiara was only a step behind Cleo. "That's fair."

JJ shook his head slightly as Everleigh stepped out of his grip. Her, JJ, and Pope all looked at each other for a second before they all silently smiled at one another. "I thought we did something." JJ repeats, high-fiving Pope and wrapping his arm around Everleigh's shoulders.

"We did." Pope agrees for a second time with a large smile on his face.

"It was all Cleo's ideas." Everleigh giggles as she walks between JJ and Pope. "But we were the ones to pull it off, therefore, yes we did."

"Well done, soldiers." JJ jokes as they walk quicker to catch up to Kiara and Cleo, who had no intentions on stopping and waiting for the other three Pogues.