CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
brizo misses pope
"Oh, perfect. Rockfish. Yup. The place you go to bash beer bottles on people's heads! Love that for us!" John B says sarcastically as JJ parks the Twinkie in front of the bar.
"There's a guy here," JJ says, trying to make a point, "that's always here, moves a lot of weight. My dad worked for him."
"So your plan is to make a deal with a smuggler?" I scowl, waiting for any of them to slide the back door of the Twinkie open.
JJ climbs off our car while John B stays in his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "No, no, wait, wait. Please, don't say Barracuda Mike."
"Okay, I won't." JJ shrugs, walking to the bar.
John B walks out of the TWinkie with a heavy sigh, and slides the door open for me, giving me a hand, helping me off the car. He slides the door close behind me with a grunt.
We follow JJ inside the bar, and as we're about to step into the threshold of the place, John B grabs me by my elbow and pulls me closer towards him.
He leans down and whispers in my ear, "You stay close to me and JJ, got it?"
"Why?" I frown.
"Let's just say these guys aren't known exactly for being OBX's finest gentlemen, okay?"
A shiver goes down my spine as we walk inside. John B is right. These men aren't gentlemen at all. I can count three women in total inside this place, and the three of them are too busy to even notice me.
The men... well, they are something else. Each and every single one of them turns their head to me as soon as I step foot inside the bar. John B pushes me in front of him protectively so I don't get left behind.
JJ is walking in front of me, but that doesn't stop all these older men to eye me up and down and send smirks my way.
"I'm gonna be sick." I whisper to myself, trying not to gag.
John B pushes me to his left protectively when a dude that must be in his seventies tries to invite me for a beer. JJ gets defensive too, his back tenses and exchanges a challenging look with the man until he goes back to his stool.
"You sure there's no other option?" I mutter under my breath.
"There's not. It's all right, Bee." JJ looks at me apologetically.
"We got you." John B says, pushing me to walk while he keeps looking around us in case somebody else tries to approach me again.
"Come on, seriously, we don't have much time. You dad needs help right now, and this guy is gonna be the key to getting down to South America ASAP. Trust me on this one."
"We trust you." I speak for both my brother and me.
"All right. Let me do the talking, okay?" JJ braces himself, and inhales before stepping forward and plastering a smile on his face, "Yo, Mike!"
John B and I stay behind. We watch a tall big man with brown curly hair and a cap turn around. I'm guessing that must be the infamous Barracuda Mike.
"Yo!" JJ chuckles, "You remember me, right? It's on the tip of your tongue. J-"
"Luke's son!" Barracuda Mike sticks his machete into the wooden table outside, as his eyes travel from it to our faces.
"That works too." JJ nods, "Uh, also go by JJ, but this here is my good friend, John B," JJ says, gesturing towards JB who smiles awkwardly, "And this is his sister and my girlfriend, Brizo." He finally says, gesturing towards me, standing in front of my brother.
I wave my hand awkwardly at the fearsome group of men in front of me, "What up?"
Their faces morph into confusion. My brother curses under his breath behind me and JJ gives me the weirdest look he has ever given me since we've known each other.
"I'm sorry, yeah." I say, rolling my lips and crossing my arms on my chest.
"The Routledge twins." Barracuda Mike says, eyeing me and my brother.
"In the flesh. Yep." John B nods.
"Heard stories about you two."
Those words send a shiver down my spine as I gulp harshly. I'm not entirely sure if I want Barracuda Mike knowing me and stories about me. What stories has this man heard?
"I mean, my friend here, he's a stone-cold cop k-"JJ speaks, but stops and stutters as one of Mike's men comes from his side, "killer."
"No, I'm not." John B is quick to deny.
"Oh, God..." I say, closing my eyes as hard as I can and tilting my head down, not wanting to witness any of this horror.
"Mike, I'm gonna be honest about why we're here, okay?" JJ starts speaking, making me and John B look at him, "We're a little bit in a... a patch of trouble and we're trying to get down to South America if that's-"
"I'm sorry, slick, but I done sold the travel agency."
JJ forces a laugh, "Well, I mean, we're not looking for some free handout here, all right? We understand it's a two-way road. All right, symbiotic relationship."
I look at JJ with my face scrunched up, this being the first time I've heard him say symbiotic. And what's even more surprising, he used the word correctly.
"That's what we're trying to get at. We just need to parlee-"
"Parley." John B and I both cut in, correcting JJ. "Parley is what he's saying." I finish the sentence.
"Parley in, um... in private, if that's cool with you."
Barracuda Mike hesitates. He looks around at his men while he wipes his hands clean of fish blood. He then nods his head, and slowly walks further from the group.
"Just stay here." JJ tells us.
"No, you're not gonna do this." John B tries to stop him.
"JJ, you're not gonna leave us here!" I mutter under my breath at him as both JB and I watch him walk towards Barracuda Mike and leave us behind.
My brother and I are left alone with two of Mike's men. One of them, the one who startled JJ before, is a tall black man, very intimidating. Especially because of the bunch of knives hanging from his belt.
John B clears his throat, and leans on his hand, trying to look cool, "So, uhm, what you guys catch out here?"
"Money." The man simply answers.
"Okay, cool." I say, nodding my head slowly and elbowing my brother in his stomach discreetly.
"So you let your friend screw you lil sister, man?" The other guy says to my brother, tilting his chin as he points at me.
"He's not-"
"I'm not his little sister." I frown, getting specially offended.
"Oh, ya ain't the lil sis?" The man laughs, looking between me and my brother.
I force a fake laugh, and John B widens his eyes, poking my side with his finger, trying to get my attention.
"You think that's funny?" I keep fake-laughing. "What's funny about that?"
"Brizo..." John B warns, as he fakes a smile towards the tall black guy on our left.
Luckily for John B, JJ gets back and we're out of trouble. He grabs me by my shoulders, pushing me towards JJ who grabs me immediately and walks me fast to the exit.
"Nice to meet you fellas." JB says goodbye, waving his hand, following JJ and me outside.
When we're outside, JJ lets go of me and gives me a look, "Were you about to throw hands with a smuggler or was I just seeing things back there?"
"He said-!" I try to speak, but the boys cut me off.
"You were supposed to keep an eye on her, man!" JJ scolds my brother.
"What did you want me to do? She's fucking nuts, you know her, man!"
"Yo, boys!" I yell, making them whip their heads to me, "I'm right here!"
"Keep walking," John B pushes me forward.
"You're both idiots." I scoff.
"Okay, what do we gotta do?" John B asks JJ.
"Just a little something."
"A little something?"
"Yeah."
"Everytime you say a little something, it's never a little something."
"Just make peace with the fact that it is probably illegal and roll with the rest, JB."
"See? My girl gets it. Thank you, darling." JJ nods his head towards me, making John B roll his eyes. "It's literally the easiest job in the world, bro."
JB scoffs, looking exasperated between me and JJ. I honestly don't get why he's so pissed. It's not like we have any more options. Whatever deal JJ got us is probably better than, I don't know, stealing a plane or a boat or some shit like that- I don't know, all right, I'm spitballing here.
"We just unload it. You know what they do on planes? You know on Delta and United when they take the bags off the- That's what we're doing, okay?"
"Easy-peasy, bro." I plaster a big grin on my face that I know will piss off my brother.
"Once we do that, we punch our tickets, go on to South America, sipping on piña coladas, all right?"
"I don't like pineapple." I say, sliding the back door of the Twinkie and climbing inside.
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At 5:28 we leave the Twinkie on the side of the road. JJ leads the way, as he is the one feeling the most confident about all this.
"I... I don't know about this." John B mumbles.
"Too late, JB." I sigh.
"Bro, you're worrying way too much about this, okay?" JJ tries to calm my brother's anxiety about the whole plan, "It is just farmers who brought organic seeds from South America that we are gonna unload."
"That's... That's actually a very nice way to put it."
"It's a drug-smuggling operation, Brizo." My brother gives me a deadpan look.
"Do you wanna get your dad or not?" JJ intervenes.
"Yes, I do! Okay? Look, this has to work out, all right? I doubted him, and I blamed him. And all this time, he was just trying to protect us. And now he's been abducted, so I kinda need-"
"When will you get it in your thick skull, John B, that dad isn't a miraculously blessed little angel and that you don't have to keep defending him till the end of your life." I groan, getting tired of JB rambling again.
"No, don't start that again, Bee-"
"Listen, he's not a good person. It's okay. You can say it. He still is our father. He can be both things." I shrug.
"Well, maybe he'll be better when this is all over! That is why we can't mess this up," He turns to JJ, "I really, really really need this to work, JJ. Because if-"
"No, no. Hey, listen, listen!" JJ stops my brother putting both of his hands on each of my brother's shoulders. He looks him in the eye, "You know who you're gonna have to trust right now? Papa J," He pats his own chest.
"Papa J?" I exchange a weirded look with my brother.
"I got this, 100%"
"I mean, 60% would be good, honestly." John B says as we start moving again.
"Also, please, don't ever call yourself Papa J ever again." I scrunch up my nose.
"Why? You can call me da-"
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence." John B points his finger at JJ aggressively.
"All right, bro."
I shake my head while rolling my eyes. I can't believe I've been stuck with these two alone for two days now. Where is Pope when you need him?
I'm actually missing Pope right now. I bet he would've gotten us down to South America safely by now. Or at least him and I could be in the Twinkie right now, waiting patiently while these two finish their smuggling quest.
And Cleo, ugh, I miss her so much. She would've ended Barracuda Mike in the blink of an eye. We wouldn't be here surely if she was around.
Sarah and Kie... I miss them too. But I'm not sure if I should say that out loud, given the situation right now.
"Holy shit, look at that thing."
In front of us there's something that looks like a plane, but I'm not entirely sure that it can actually fly. If I had to describe it, I would say it looks like an old man that is out of breath when he coughs. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
"Yeah, dude. It's like an RV with wings."
"Guys," I say, when I notice Mike's crew is already unloading the plane, "Are we late?"
"Oh, shit." JJ mutters under his breath. Then he spots Mike, next to an U-Haul truck, "Yo! We aren't late, are we?"
"No," The man answers, "there was a change of plan, though."
"Oh, uh, okay." JJ says confused.
"You are gonna drive the truck up to Elizabeth City to make the drop."
Mike's words hit us three like a truck. I see it in JJ's eyes, the way his whole plan crumbles down and makes a whole new one. Same way I see the fear and hesitation in my brother's eyes, who clearly wants to run as fast and far away as he can.
"The address is in the truck. There'll be a dummy car for you to use to come back. The plane'll still be waiting."
"Right. Okay, so, um... you just want us to drive the truck?"
"Correct." Barracuda Mike offers JJ the key to the truck, tapping his chest slightly with it.
He eyes the keys, and when he's about to take them, John B grabs him and takes him apart, asking Mike for just a second. I force a smile when Mike looks down at me, and hurry to follow the boys.
"This is not what we talked about. This is way more dangerous."
"We have no choice, JB." I say through gritted teeth, tilting my head back, towards Mike and his crew.
"It don't matter what we talked about. In for a penny, in for a pound." Mr Barracuda says, clearly hearing our every word. "You do this, you get your ride."
"Yeah, it's just that-"
"If not..." He cuts JJ off, "you know how this works, right?"
The way he lowers his voice... It makes all the blood in my body freeze. If we weren't in for a deadly exchange before, we sure are in it now. I swallow down the saliva in my mouth, feeling it drier each second we spend under the eyes of this group of dangerous people.
I can feel my pulse in my ears when Mike keeps speaking, "Now, Highway Patrol is changing shifts as we speak. This is the window. Take it to the drop house on Prospect."
Out of the corner of my eye I see my brother standing on JJ's right, anxiously glancing at me for support. I widen my eyes for less than a second, trying to tell him to keep it cool. He licks his lips, inhaling harshly flaring his nostrils.
"Directions are in the truck. Any luck we'll have you back before sundown." Barracuda Mike chuckles. "Come on, take the key."
And so does JJ.
"Yeah, no problem. Get in the truck," He gives an order to JJ and I as his hand flies to the small of my back, guiding me further away from Mike.