Protecting John (earlier: Bad Boy Needs Protection)

CHaPTeR FoRTY Two

Jules and I took a pizza and some drinks with us as we climbed out into the fire escape of the building. Settling down into the blankets we had spread out earlier, I opened the box of pizza and started plucking out pieces of pineapples from my slices and deposited them onto hers. Not because I don't like them, but because Jules wants something healthy to go into her stomach with all the junk she inhales.

"Did you find the payphone you were looking for?" I asked Jules.

"We did! I cannot believe that they stopped keeping those things at every corner nowadays. Its just so convenient! I mean, I know that even children have cell phones now but its just a disrespect to all the great stories these payphones must have been a part of! Do you think that.."

"Jules," I cut her off before she continued into what I know must be a lengthy, well prepared speech about payphones and cell phones but I needed other answers. "Did you get to speak with John's family?"

"Oh yeah, that. John dialled the number but Mary picked it up and said that Anthony was in a meeting or something. I spoke with her and she told me that everyone was fine and that she would send us the location of our next hideout by tomorrow along with some other details. We need to look out for a black coloured envelope which we'll find at the same payphone by tomorrow evening."

"Okay, she seemed to have planned this in great detail. I hope they got some answers out of the guy we caught at Ankitha's place. I cannot wait to go back hope and sleep in my own bed."

Jules chuckled. "You would think that sleeping on bare concrete for three days straight while being a captive of the mafia will help you create endurance for rock-hard sofas but I'd still kill for my own bed."

I nodded and laughed, thinking of how Jules had tried to negotiate with the goons assigned to keep an eye on us after we were caught by the mafia. One of her offers included a free lollipop she had hidden in her boot in exchange for a pillow. Soon, the last offer was made. She wouldn't slice open the neck of the guy she had caught in exchange for freedom. Some offers are too hard to say no to.

"Speaking of hard concrete floors, you had to be there with us today, Q! John tripped on some pebbles today and fell nose-first onto the pavement. I laughed my butt off and fell onto the ground myself and a kind, old man came and gave a hand to John and gave me a Hershey's chocolate bar for me to stop crying. He thought I was crying!" she burst out laughing.

I was about to take a bite of my pizza but stopped midway. It couldn't be a coincidence, right?

"Jules, I may be wrong but I think-"

"Hey Q! Jules!" Daniel interrupted me, shouting for us to come in. Both of us looked at each other for a second, wide-eyed and tossed aside everything on our laps to run inside, only to find both the boys sitting on the floor around a small table placed in the middle of the room with the rest of the food we bought today.

"What's wrong?" I asked them, subtly scanning the room to find anything out of place.

"Nothing," John shrugged his shoulders before taking a long sip of his soda.

"We're just bored. Come, tell us some stories. I know you guys have a lot!" Daniel clapped his hands like an excited little child and Jules did the same, pulling me into the circle and sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"So, last year we were assigned a case to intercept some smugglers smuggling diamonds on a cruise..."

I sighed and sat back while Jules continued with her story and exaggerated my dive into the ocean filled with sharks to catch the guys who had some diamonds taped to his body and how I fought a shark with my bare hands.

This is going to be a long night.