SWEET NICOTINE | pope heyward

13, the stowaways

"I told you I had a surprise right?" John B looked to Cleo as she took in the sight in front of her. Not only three but five stowaways.

"Who is she? What's going on? John B?" Kiara continued to try to get some answers and John B turned back to her.

"Hey, hey. Kie, relax. Relax" He held his hands up slightly. "Remember I told you about the girl we met in the Bahamas that saved us?" John B asked her.

"uh, Cleo, yeah?" Kiara let out and John B nodded before looking back up to the girl who came in through the vent with them, making the introduction quite obvious.

"Cleo, she's gonna help us all right?" The boy explained.

"Next time, ask me" Cleo scoffed at the boy, bringing herself down off the crates by the vent.

Ward still being alive wasn't something that affected AJ as much as it did the others. "it was all a setup, blowing up the boat, the confession to Shoupe. Think about it. That was to clear Rafe's name. And he does what? Goes to the druthers. And what's on the druthers?" John B rambled, the question he posed answered by Kiara.

"scuba"

"bingo" He nodded and JJ shook his head.

"so Wards alive huh? And he has the gold and the cross and Sarah" JJ lists off, making AJ sigh and lean her head back.

"Thanks for rubbing that in," Kiara rolled her eyes at the boy.

"So he's just gonna get away with everything again, huh? Not happening. We're not watching this movie again, right Pope? You said we need the win. And with her" JJ motioned over to Cleo "We're going to the bridge and we're gonna take it right now. You with me?" JJ asked.

"Let's do it" John B agreed and AJ shrugged, not really opposed to getting Sarah back and safe.

"I'm with you, and I wanna be the one to take that bridge. AJ too" Pope let out and Cleo chuckled.

"He's gonna take the bridge? He couldn't even take me. Her, maybe, with a bit of help but him? No freakin' way"

"Okay, first of all, I was going easy on you," Pope argued with the girl.

"I went easy on you," Cleo corrected him before they were both shushed.

"Relax, all of you"

"If you're really with us, if we use that knife, we can go up into the bridge, hold it against the captain's neck, and then we get on the intercom and make him tell the rest of the crew to meet up in the forward hull. Once they're in the same place, bam, we lock them in there and we take back what's ours" JJ explained his plan and AJ nodded.

"I like it. It could work" Pope spoke. It was the only plan they had so it needed to.

"Are you with us then?" JJ asked, turning back to Cleo.

"no" She scoffed before looking over to John B. "this is stupid" As soon as the words left her lips they could hear workers outside of the containers.

"all right, let's open these things up!" One shouted and AJ turned to Pope.

"they're checking the containers" Worry flashed on Kiara's face. Cleo held her hand up to stop the others from following and pried the vent from the wall

"what are you doing?" Kiara asked before she was shushed. Cleo was out of the container and Kiara put the vent back up.

"she's gonna tell them. Shit" Pope cursed.

"did you set them off?" AJ turned to John B with her whisper.

"potentially"

"What the hell does that mean?" AJ swung her hands up