riptide- outer banks

sixty | leverage

So instead of meeting somewhere clandestine, Singh was coming to them. Full swinging, guns-a-blazing. He was on his way to them as they argued, ready to negotiate since he thought he was texting Jimmy Portis— not a bunch of dumb, reckless teenagers.

"Okay, we gotta figure something out." John B voiced, panic settling in the air.

"And quick, if we don't want our heads ripped off by rabid canines." Kori retorted, head craning back as a breath expelled from her lips.

"They're not—" Logan chose to stop, turning back to the others. "Plan. We need a plan."

"Well, I know you guys don't wanna hear it," JJ began, standing back up as he placed a bucket hat on top of his head. "But we got home-field advantage. We can turn this around. We're gonna booby-trap this shit."

Logan nodded his head, eyes closing. "So this is Mission Impossible."

"Look, we're not running from this dude. This is our best chance at getting Kiara back. It's gonna work, all right? We got ten minutes. Let's go!"

With that, they got to work. There was really nothing else they could do. Singh had tracked their location and was probably already on his way, an army of men behind him. They had no other choice than to hold their ground, fight back, and win.

In the span of ten minutes, John B and Sarah had been posted on one of the upper levels, tied to a beam in the center of the room. The rest of them had split into pairs while JJ would draw the men out. Pope was with Cleo and Kori was with Logan, the four of them hiding in two different places to give them the upperhand.

It would work. It had to.

Kori glanced over at Logan from the adjacent wall she was hiding behind as the sound of tires screeched on the asphalt. Singh's men were here. She strained her hearing, eyes narrowing as multiple car doors slammed shut. It was only a matter of time.

There was a brief moment of silence.

Then came the voice of a man, accent sounding through the building. "Portis! Are you in here?"

"Yo, I got 'em up here!" JJ shouted, tone coming out in a lower octave. "There's two of them!"

"Where you at, mate?" There was a pause. "Portis?"

"Yeah, yeah. Take a left at the hallway."

Logan glanced over at Kori, slowly exhaling. She met his gaze, head nodding once. Before he turned back to peer around the wall, he couldn't help but notice the pocket knife held in her fingertips. He had a metal rod for a weapon, heart rapidly beating inside his chest. This was crazy. This was absolutely batshit—

Wood splintering and the deafening sound of boards snapping echoed through the air, abruptly interrupting his thoughts. Then there was yelling. It came from Cleo and Pope as they attacked, the irrefutable sound of a gunshot coming next.

"Stop! Freeze!"

Kori's gaze flickered up to Logan's, that one look being all they needed. Without another thought, the blonde flew around the corner, racing down the hallway.

"Don't move! Hold it!" The voice yelled again.

All that she felt as she lunged into the room and jumped onto the man's back was sheer, irrational determination to save her friends. Taken by surprise, another shot rang through the air as the man's finger squoze down on the trigger, gun ultimately popping out of his grasp. Kori grunted, leaning back as far as she could as John B fell from the floor above them, landing on the other guard who'd been reaching for his weapon. She slammed her elbow into the space between the collarbone and shoulder blade of the man she was on, grunt tearing from his throat.