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Caroline hummed quietly listening to music sitting on the beach painting her legs with washable paint as JJ walked down to the beach spotting her on the sand, he smiled rushing over to her plopping down besides her making her look over and smile at him.
"what're you doing?" he asked looking at the sunflowers and waves she had painted.
"painting. it's more fun to paint on yourself than on paper." she chuckled cleaning the paint brush on the towel she was sitting on.
"can i try?" he asked.
Caroline looked at him nodding her head handing him the brush, JJ grinned sitting up grabbing the brush from her hand dipping it into the orange paint immediately painting patterns on her arm. her eyes stayed on JJ watching him focus on what he was painting, his brows were furrowed, his tongue stuck out running over his top lip.
"that's not so bad." he says setting the brush down admiring the work he had done.
Caroline looked at her arm seeing the sun he had drawn with few details around it.
"it's amazing, J." she smiled at him.
"okay, my turn. do something cool like, a shark right here." JJ took off his shirt laying on his back patting his chest making Caroline laugh.
the sound of the plane starting snapped Caroline out of her daydream looking around the plane with her legs up to her chest, she leaned her head over looking at John B who sent her a reassuring nod.
"so what were you doing all the way out here?" JJ asks Jimmy who was doing some stuff to his plane.
"i got a little guide outfit in Saint Vincent. i was spotting fish." Jimmy answered.
"what were you spotting?"
"you know, the usual. wahoo. i'd hang onto something. gets a little spicy on takeoff." Jimmy tells the group who already we're reaching out for something to hold onto.
Caroline looked over at JJ who was looking at her nodding his head in reassurance letting her know everything was going to be okay, she nodded back moving her eyes out the window watching the island that was her home for a month fade away. silence filled the plane for a while until JJ looked at his friends giving them a signal to come closer, Caroline slowly made her way over kneeling down beside him.
"wahoo don't run in September. ever. all right? so whoever this man is, he's not a fisherman." JJ lowly tells his friends, out of everyone in the group the one who knew all about fishing was JJ.
"maybe the run just starts earlier out here." Pope tells the blonde.
"are you sure about that? in the Caribbean?" JJ asked Pope.
"no, i know what this is. he's working for my dad, and he's probably been looking for us the entire time." Sarah says.
"all right, we gotta find out. start looking for some sort of.. clues." JJ started to say until his eyes found the bag right in front of him motioning to John B getting an idea.
"hey, Jimmy." John B cleared his throat leaning over to the man, "yeah. what's up?"
"how long you had this bird?" John B asked him.
"oh, about ten years now." Portis answered as JJ carefully reached into his bag rummaging around, "how long you've been flying?"
"i've been flying all my life."
"uh, who's that lovely lady right there?" John B pointed to a photo making Portis laugh, "that right there? that's Cynthia. yeah."
JJ pulled out a few things from the bag which Pope and Caroline helped look through a few stuff seeing a book of El Dorado, JJ showed it to Caroline who spotted something sticking out reaching over opening the book seeing a photo of the same ship they were on a month ago.
Sarah snatched the paper from JJ taking a look at the photo, "the Coastal Venture. oh my God. this is the boat we were on. with Eberhimi and the cross."
"so he was looking for us?" Cleo looked at her new friends.
"exactly." JJ said.
"shit." Caroline whispered.
"he's working for my dad." Sarah confirmed as the plane started to shake.
"hey, y'all better grab a hold something. we got some unexpected turbulence up here." Portis yelled out making the Pogues hold on tightly.
"guys, whatever it is, it's happening fast. look." Kie sat up looking out the window as everyone turned their attention out the window.
"that looks like Barbados. i've been there with Terrance." Cleo confirmed the location recognizing the island.
"okay," JJ whispered, "there's seven of us, one of him. you know my vote. we storm the cockpit."
"no, who's gonna fly the plane, dumbass?" John B stares at his best friend.
"i've seen Pope fly simulators." JJ said.
"i crop-dusted for my uncle last summer. this is not the same thing." Pope says.
"we don't have time to pretend that's a real option." Kie stared at JJ.
"do you have an idea?" he asked.
"something safe." Caroline whispered.
"why don't we just wait until the plane lands somewhere safe, and then we sneak out. and if somebody comes to mess with us, we mad-dog them." Pope gives his idea which seemed like the best one so far.
"i like the mad-dogging part." JJ agreed as Caroline handed him the book she had grabbed to him, "put this back." she whispered.
"be cool." Kie whispered watching JJ slowly put everything back in Jimmy while John B started distracting him again until her turned around catching JJ.
"hey, man! what the hell are you doing?" Jimmy pushed JJ back letting go of the wheel fighting with JJ.
"fly the plane!" Sarah yelled at the man.
"it's my book. give it back." Jimmy argued.
"hello! fly the plane, dude!" Caroline yelled holding onto the straps tightly watching the plane slowly go down.
"please fly the plane, please fly the plane!" Pope yelled shutting his eyes.
everyone screamed holding on as tight as they could as the plane landed onto the water, everyone flew forward landing on top of each other groaning in pain and coughing out the water that quickly filled the plane.
"guys. guys." Kie says.
"is everybody good?" Pope asked his friends, "JJ! wake up, man. we gotta get out."
Caroline quickly moved up seeing JJ getting pulled up from John B, "J?"
"i'm okay, i'm okay." JJ turned his head to Caroline seeing the look of worry on her face, "we gotta get out before it sinks."
John B kicked the door open seeing multiple men rush over to the plane, "oh no. they don't look friendly."
"no, they look very unfriendly." Pope adds.
"Kie, you okay?" Caroline turned to her friend who nodded, "yeah, come on. let's get out of here."
"Kie, Ace, let's go." John B tells the girls.
"we're coming. go!"
"Ace, Kie, get out before it sinks!" JJ yelled out to the two.
"wait, Ace. we can't leave him here." Kie turned to Portis who was unconscious.
Caroline turned around seeing him nodding her head to Kiara, "hang on!"
"no, no, no, Caroline, Kiara, come on!" John B yelled to the girls.
"Ace!" JJ yelled to his girlfriend.
"Kiara, Caroline, come on. you gotta hurry." Sarah calls out.
the two girls made their way to the front of the plane pulling the man out together trying to wake him up, Caroline grabbed ahold of his legs pushing him out as Kiara pulled him out. once Caroline was out of the plane she swam towards Kiara grabbing Portis by his other arm helping him to shore with Kie. reaching shore multiple people from the island ran over helping Portis as Kie and Caroline sat up catching their breath watching the man wake up.
"thank you."
"you lied to us. who are you?" Kie asked him.
the sound of ATV's started getting closer to the beach making the three look to where the sound was coming from, "you two should get out of here."
"shit." Kiara stood up pulling Caroline with her.
"run. run. come on." Caroline stood up taking Kiara's hand as the two ran off as fast as they could seeing they were surrounded.
Kiara tugged Caroline under a boat hiding under seeing the men approach and look around, the girls looked at each other in worry when a man looked through the gap seeing the two girls reaching for them as Caroline kicked him through the gap and crawled out of the boat with Kiara when three more men approached the girls.
"no!" Caroline grunted kicking the man who picked her up.
"get off!" Kiara yelled fighting back.
"let me go!" Caroline snapped at the men doing her best to push them away but it was no use, she and Kiara were already in the bed on the truck sitting besides each other shaking as Portis walked over to the girls.
"we saved your life." Kiara tells him.
"i know. i know. i'm sorry. i'm gonna try to help you, okay? i swear, i didn't know it was gonna be like this. look, if you don't fight, if you just do what the say, these guys prob.. probably won't hurt you." Portis explains to the girls.
"what did Ward promise you?" Caroline looked at the man who had a look of confusion
"who? hey, just take my advice, do what they say. good luck." with that Portis left the girls as two security guards climbed into the back of the truck.
"all right, let's go."
Caroline looked at Kiara linking her arm with hers tightly, all they had was each other right now and they needed to stick together no matter what.