Barbados: Day Two

JJs POV

We got the hell away from Vaux Hall, following Cleo after she told us she had a place we could hole up for the night. We ended up stealing some premade formula bottles from a corner store, which Emmy hates but it's better than nothing. God, I can't imagine how painful Willows tits are right now, she's usually in pain when Emmy puts off eating for an hour or so, it's been an entire day since she's nursed her. 

My beautiful Princess.. I miss her. 

"Cleo, do you actually know where you're going?" I breathlessly ask, my arm tired from carrying Emmy in her car seat for the past hour or so. "We can hole up here." Cleo points to an old windowless falling apart hotel, "It ain't the Taj Mahal, but..""It'll do." John B mutters. 

I sigh and follow them up the sandy path to the building. "Over there!" Guards shouting on the road below make us cower behind the walls.

Fuck, Portis was right, they're looking for us. "Go, go, go, go!" I whisper shout to everyone, pointing to the stairs so we can get to a higher level. "You sure this is safe?" John B asks. 

"You got a better idea?" Cleo pants while we enter a large terrace, "We can stay here. It's an old hotel, Terrance and I squatted here before.""Five stars." I breathe out, while setting Emmy down, Kie plops down next to me and rubs my back, "What are you doing?"

"You look stressed out, Jayj." 

I shuffle away and pull out a clean blanket for Emmy, "Do you want to do tummy time little Princess?" I take her out of her seat, smiling when she giggles at me, "You've been in that car seat too long, huh?"

"I can change her, if you want me to." Kie rummages through the diaper bag and grabs the cloth diaper stuff for me. 

"I'm good, thanks though." I lay Emmy down and change her before getting her onto her belly with toys in front of her so she can play. "Home sweet home." Sarah kicks rocks into a large hole in the ground. "We gotta get Willow out, guys." I stress, "Does anyone have anything?"Pope sits down across the room, "Well, we can't storm the fort. We can't call the cops." I run a hand through my hair, "That's not helping, Pope."

"We can't negotiate. We don't know what they want. It's got to be about the cross or the gold."

Cleo tuts, "Mm-mm. Guys like Singh, it's always about money." 

I sigh and pull out the phone I have tucked away in my pocket. 

Sarah slowly sits up with furrowed brows, "What is that?""This is a little souvenir that I plucked from Portis' house." I keep my eyes on the screen, searching for clues. "You have a phone?" 

"I forgot I had it." I pat my shorts, "It was in my back pocket. That's my bad."

"Oh my God, dude. Can we go anywhere without you stealing?""You know the answer to that, Pope."

"Let me see it." 

I get up and pass the phone to him. "Nice work, rude boy." Cleo exclaims. I smile, "I steal shit. That's my job."

"How'd you get this unlocked?"

"No passcode." I sit down close to Pope, "Portis keeps it loose.""What are you looking for?" Cleo asks. 

"The kidnapper.""Any information that'll help us negotiate with this guy." Pope adds. "The only problem is I don't see a Carlos Singh in the contacts. It's just a bunch of nicknames and shit."

Sarah looks at me, "Wait. Didn't Portis call him something else?"

"Right." I rub my face trying to remember, "Yeah, he called Singh something when we were jumping his ass. It was like Rockfish or..."

"Can't remember." Cleo looks down, lost in thought.

I glance over at Emmy, smiling when she looks up at me with her little dimples as she smiles back, "Hi Princess." 

"Fish something." Kie mutters while moving a toy around for Emmy to look at. 

"Catfish?" I shake my head when I realize that doesn't sound right, "What was it? Holy crap! Um..."John B rolls over, still half a sleep and looks at us with an annoyed look, "Kingfish."I point at him, "That was it. Kingfish."

"Kingfish." Pope agrees while scrolling through the contacts in the phone, "There he is, Kingfish."

"And we in business." I feel like a weights been lifted off my shoulders. One more step closer to seeing my girl again. "Alright, phase two. Text him, okay?"Pope furrows his brows, "And say what exactly?""You know, you said it. Negotiate, right? Pretend to be Portis, ask him to meet somewhere in private. That was... that's really important. Just solo. Bam!" I clap my hands together, "We jump his ass, tie him up, and then politely request for Willow in return for his life. That's the plan."

"That's gonna work." Sarah sarcastically mutters. John B gets up and starts to pace, "Not a bad idea."

"Not a bad idea? It's terrific!""Okay, I'm gonna say it." Pope tries to reason, not liking my plans per usual, "We should think this through.""What's rule number one?" I use my hands to make my point, "Thinking never helps when you already have the idea.""No, hang on. I agree with Pope." Sarah argues, "This could make things ten times worse for us and Willow.""How much worse can it actually get?" John B argues back."I can think of a few ways."

He rolls his eyes, "Okay, great. While you're thinking, why don't you just let it rip?" He points at the phone. 

Finally someone's on board with my plan. "Thank you." I take the phone from Pope's hand as he stares at John B in disbelief. 

~~~~~

Willow's POV

"Okay so that went bad." I sit on the bed next to Rafe, trying to calm my heartrate after coming back in the room from trying to tell Portis that I could go home and get the diary for him, "The pogues are close by somewhere, they messaged Singh on Portis' phone saying he caught John B and Sarah and want to exchange them for us. Singh is going to go after them."

"This is our chance to get out of here." Rafe whispers, his hands in my hair on the sides of my head. 

"Okay, but Rafey..." I whisper back, "we have to get out of this alive, I have Emmy and our baby to think about, so we have to think this through. I want to trust that you'll protect me."

His eyes soften, "I'll protect you Brookie. You can still trust me, alright? We can do this together."

His plan isn't the best plan, but it's our only option at this point so I fearfully agree.

We decided to fake an argument and act like Rafe is hurting me, which wasn't too hard to fake considering I am terrified of him, especially since my jaw is black and blue from him punching me last night, which helps our case since the guards eyed me with alarmed faces this morning, now they know what Rafe is capable of. 

"You're choosing him over me, Willow." Rafe yells from a couple feet away, "You promised it would always be me." 

I scoff, "I'm not doing anything wrong! I told you what I wanted." 

"Yes you are, come here--" Rafe shakes the bed so it sounds like we're physically fighting. 

I stifle my laugh, this whole fake argument is actually comical to me, and the fact that he's trying not to laugh too while faking being mad at me is making it really hard for me not to blow our cover. 

"Go to the bathroom." Rafe whispers.

I nod and run to the tub, laying out so I look dead, while he dips behind the bathroom door, both of us completely silent now. 

An excruciatingly slow minute goes by before one of the guards cautiously makes his way inside our room. I keep my eyes shut, listening to his footsteps get closer and closer to me. I can hear his heavy breath now, knowing he's got to be near Rafe now.

My eyes pop open when I hear the guard yell out in pain, sliding forward in the tub to watch Rafe attack this guy from behind. Normally I'd be terrified of seeing a fight like this go down, but right now I feel safe. I really believe Rafe will get me out of here safely, I am carrying his baby after all. He might be a monster in my life, but I have a feeling he wouldn't be for our child. I've seen him around Emmy, he didn't look like he could hurt her, he actually seemed fatherly to her. Which he isn't anywhere close to being, but his actions made me think he wanted that, like he really would be a dad to her if he had me the way he wants. If I were to be his. 

Once Rafe finally knocks the guard out, I scramble out of the tub and join him in the room, watching him bend down to take the phone off of him. I notice something black on the ground partially under the bed when I turn to follow Rafe out of the room. I discreetly kneel down and grab it, my eyes adjust to the metal gun in my hands, giving me another sense of safety. I want be strong, I can handle this. 

Rafe rushes me through the house, trying to find a way out without being seen by a guard. I grab his arm when we pass a painting on the wall that I recognize from my dads research, quietly I exchange the gun for the phone he had and snap a photo of the painting. Pope might want to see this later so I quickly send it to his email. 

"Come on, baby." Rafe slips his hand in mine, "Stay close, alright?"

"I will," I wrap my extra hand around his bicep so I won't lag behind him, "I don't like this." 

"I know, but we're almost out of here." He stops at the corner of a wall and peaks around it, "Alright there's a door over there. Lets go." 

We slip outside, noticing there aren't any guards nearby. My heartrate has to be so high right now, I can hear the loud beating in my ears while we run across the yard towards the road where a landscaping truck is about to leave the property. 

Rafe grabs my waist and hoists me into the bed of the truck, jumping in behind me, "Fuck that was close." 

"Willow."

My head snaps up, an armed lawn worker stares back at me, then he jumps up from his seated position in front of us. Rafe twists around me and grabs the guard by his shirt, throwing him out of the truck, his body making a loud thud sound on the road behind us.

 That was close.

"We need to hide, baby." Rafe helps me lay down before pulling a tarp over us. I nod when he signals to stay quiet, we can hear the workers in the cab of the truck talking to the guards at the security gate, a few minutes later we're driving away from the Singh property. 

We finally sit up and breathe in the fresh air around us, Rafe shuffles next to me, leaning his head back against the cab of the truck and softly smiles at me, "I have a boat at the main docks, we can take that to get out of here."

I nod, "I'm just glad we're out of that damn house."

"You and me both."

We fall into silence while the town passes us by, my eyes start to get heavy, so I lean into Rafe, letting myself drift off to sleep.

~~~~~

I wasn't very surprised that Rafe's boat is massive and probably costs lots of money, and I also wasn't surprised when he told me to take my shoes off before getting on, it did make me chuckle though.

"Okay, we should have enough juice to get us to Saint Lucia, no problem." Rafe calls out while getting things turned on at the steering column. "Can you help me with the bowline?"I glance around, wishing JJ would pop up and take me home, "Alright." I kneel down next to where the rope is tied to the boat and pretend to struggle with it, "Hey, uh, I... I can't get it. I'm too shaky, I haven't eaten in so long."Rafe stops what he's doing to look at me, "What?" "I need some help!" I point to the line, "I'm too weak."He huffs, "Goddamn, do I have to do everything?" He rushes over to where I am and slings his leg over the metal rail, "Move baby." 

I step back and contemplate my next move, before I can sike myself out, I shove him overboard. 

Rafe gasps when he surfaces the water, "Brookie!" 

My hands shake while I quickly finish untying the boat and pull away before he can swim to the back, "I'm sorry, Rafe." 

"Baby, come on. I'm sorry I hurt you!" Rafe yells, "Brookie, where are you going?"

"I've gotta help my friends! I have to find Emmy and JJ." I look back at him, seeing he's swimming for the dock, getting smaller as I drive away. "You don't know what you're doing! Hey! Shit! I'll find you, Brookie! I'll find you like I always do! Baby, you're gonna regret this shit.... Willow! You're done!" 

My heart drops to my stomach, I really pissed him off this time. I don't doubt he will find me, especially since I'm pregnant with his baby now. 

There's no escaping him. This is my life now. 

~~~~~

JJs POV

"Kie, you have to keep her safe, okay? I'm trusting you to protect her for me." I place my hands on her shoulders, "Don't let anyone get near her. Stay where I told you to go, don't try to come to us, we'll come to you." 

"I won't let anything happen to Emmy, Jayj, I promise." She presses a kiss to my cheek, catching me off guard, I quickly turn away when my face heats up. 

The fuck was that? She doesn't just kiss people, I mean, she did kiss John B when he was diving, maybe she's just worried about me like she was for him. So that was normal for her, we're close friends, it's fine. My eyes stay off the surprised expressions of our friends, and John Bs pissed off look. Whatever, I didn't do anything wrong. Kie is a good friend, we aren't like that, she knows that. 

My heart races when I see Kie run down the road with Emmy in her car seat, we all decided keeping her away from the fight with Singh was our safest option, but now I'm wishing I opted to be the baby keeper. But I know I have to be apart of this, it's my girl we're fighting for. 

It doesn't take long for Singh and his guards to show up, we all take our positions through out the house like I planned, my spot being a wall at the bottom of the stairs.

"Portis! Are you in here?" One of Singh's men's voices echo through the abandoned building. 

"Yo, I got them up here!" I yell back, disguising my voice just in case, "There's two of them!""I'm going up." I can hear footsteps coming my way, "Where you at, mate?"

I quietly run up the steps, getting him to follow me. Fuck this has to work, I have to get my girl back, I have to get Emmys Mama back to her. "Portis?"

"Yeah, yeah! Take a left at the hallway." I turn down the hallway, almost running into Pope, "He's coming. Y'all ready?"

He nods, glancing back at Cleo, "Yeah, we're ready.""Portis!""Up here!" I call back while running through another room, "One more flight of stairs now! You're almost there!" Silence. I stop on the stairs to level my breath, "You're coming, right?"

"Yeah!" "Okay!" I take off up the next flight of stairs, my girls on my mind while I pray this shit works. 

If I end up dead, then.. shit don't think like that. "Portis?""Oh yeah! No, I'm still here. You just gotta come right in here!" I hide behind a wall out of view, waiting for the guard to go into the room where the next part of the plan will play out. "Alright, Portis.""Come on in!"

"I'm coming in!""Please untie us." Sarah begs the guard. 

I lean my head back on the wall behind me, focusing on breathing. 

"Help." John B unconvincingly pleads.

Come on bro, gotta sell it. "Alright. Keep your hands still." The guard demands.

I can hear him take a couple steps and then the sound of wood cracking and a loud crash, I smile and take off for the stairs to get to the lower level where the guard hit the ground."Hey!" Cleo's voice yells from the room I'm headed for. 

The sound of a gun shot makes me panic, "Oh shit." I run faster now, not wanting my friends to get killed because of my crazy plan. 

 "Okay, I'm coming!" I huff out while I barrel into the room, "Let's tie him... Oh." I stop dead in my tracks when I see the gun pointed in my direction.

No.. I got my girls to live for. FUCK. 

"Don't move! Hold it!" The guard yells."Okay." I pant, keeping my hands up, my eyes flickering down to the gun on the ground a few feet away from me. "Don't even think about it." 

The room goes silent, all of us staring at each other. Pope and Cleo on one side of the room, me on the other, the guard on the floor with a guard standing behind him. This is not how things were supposed to go. Before I can lunge for the gun, John B drops from the hole in the ceiling, straight on the guard with the gun. 

They grunt and roll around fighting for the gun, while I quickly run forward and grab the other guards gun from the floor, "Hey, now! Hey, now! Easy!" I point the gun at the guards, letting John B get to his feet. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would take it nice and slow now. It's time for y'all to freeze." I hand Pope the twine in my hand, "Tie them up." 

After Pope ties them to a pillar, I whip the phone out and turn on the camera, "Alright, y'all, let me see those mugs. This is going to your boss. Smile." I take the picture and stand up,  "Alright, just sent that to your boss. Time for stage three. Hostage swap. We're gonna give your boss a little ring-a-ling, so hang tight." 

I dial the contact for Kingfish. 

"Mr. Portis." Singh's voice sounds through the speaker phone. "Do you have Ms. Routledge's friends?"My breath goes heavy, panic flooding my system. I can't.. I can't fuck this up and get Willow hurt. I can't be the reason something happens to her. I can't do this. "Jay?" John B whispers, a grimace crosses my face when I shake my head at him, he nods in understanding and quickly grabs the phone from me, "Yeah. Yeah, we... we found them. Listen, my name is John Booker Routledge. I'm Willow's brother. We have your men tied up, and they're in for a really...really, really harsh time if you don't give us Willow back right now. Like right now. And I mean that."Singh laughs, "Kill them.""What?" John B stares at the guards nervous expressions, my heart clenches. 

This dude wants his own men dead instead of handing a 17 year old girl over..."Kill them. Go ahead and kill them, John Booker Routledge. It doesn't matter to me, you know. Just know that if you do, the hotel is surrounded, you know. All of you inside will die.""We gotta go." Sarah and I look over the edge of the building, watching a shit ton of guards running up to the building, "We gotta go right now!"We all take off running together, panicking as the sound of footsteps echo in the lower level of the building. 

"What are you thinking, Pope?" I ask, he ignores me and opens the metal gate to the elevator shaft, looking down at the big ass drop to the ground floor level.

"Gotta be a better option, right?"

Pope looks up at me with a weary expression, "Uh... that's a drop."

"This is like the Hawk's Nest part two." John B stresses, "I'm not doing this.""I think we need to think about this from a risk-reward perspective." Pope mutters, his eyes trained on the drop. I pat his back, "How about you go first and cushion my fall?""How about no?"

"Yeah, whatever. Forget this shit!" Cleo runs forward, jumping into the opening, her hands grabbing the metal cables, she slides down, grunting in pain the entire time. Sarah rushes up next, jumping onto the second wire, "No, no, no! Sarah!" John B yells but its too late.

"You go first, alright?"

He nudges me forward, "What? No. You go.""Clear the next floor!" A guard screams, "Go, go! This way!""Same time." Pope asks.

I nod, "Same time." 

We both run forward and jump onto the cables, my hands burning as I try to slowly go down while not panicking over the guards currently running through the building towards our location. Right as I look up at the sound of a gun shot, John Bs body collides into mine, sending us flying down the elevator shaft. My girls pop into my mind, my body suspended in the air until I hit the ground with a loud thud, pain shooting through every nerve and muscle inside of me. 

I groan and roll John B off of me. "You okay? We gotta go!" Cleo helps us stand up.

I whip the gun out and start shooting in every direction before we escape out the side of the building, heading for the place we told Kie to hide. 

"Go where we talked about." I yell to the others.

~~~~~

Minutes felt like hours, but seeing my smiley daughters face when I run into the tack room of the horse stables we found the day before, seeing that she's safe. God it feels good. 

"Hi little Princess." I take her from Kie's arms and wrap her in a gentle hug, kissing her face as she squeals in excitement.

"She just ate and she's freshly changed." Kie tells me, "She was a happy girl."

"I'm glad." I side hug her, while keeping my eyes on Emmy, "Thank you, Kie."

"Of course." She sighs and walks over to our friends when I sit down and cuddle Emmy. 

"So what's the plan now? What's our plan B?" I raise my voice, "We just kicked the hornet's nest. We gotta think of something quick. I can't let anything happen to her, guys, I have to get her back."

"Calm down, JJ."

"Calm down, Pope? We do something to their guys, they're gonna do something to Willow."

"That was your idea!" Sarah points at me, her other hand on her hip.

"Yeah, I know that was my idea Barbie, okay?""Shh!" Cleo shushes me and looks at Emmy in my arms. 

"My bad! That one's on me!" I lower my voice so I don't scare Emmy, "Why did we leave that island? Ooh, ooh, wait, wait. I got something. What if I offer myself up as a hostage?" Everyone groans, "No. Hear me out, hear me out. What if I got inside the walls, did the Trojan horse type thing?""No, no." Pope argues.

"That's how wars are won!" I argue back. "That's not how a Trojan horse even works!" "Okay. Fine. What do you got? This is usually where you got the moves, bro, alright? Remember Spock? We could really use him right now." I panic, "She's going to get fucking hurt because we pulled that shit back there, and then it'd be my fault, you know?" I harshly wipe my tears and look away, "Fuck it's always my fault."

"Jayj," Kie sits down next to me and rests her hand on my thigh, "It's okay."

I furrow my brows and look at her hand, then up at my friends confused expressions, "I, uh, yeah. I just need to find her." I stand up and rock Emmy, my thoughts wandering to why Kie is being so.. touchy now that Willow isn't around. 

She couldn't like.. like me, right?

That can't be because that means I was a dick for snapping at Willow when she brought up me hanging out with Kie more, I told her not to make things awkward, as if she was the one causing issues. Fuck, that means I probably shot down realistic concerns of hers and probably made her feel like shit about it for no reason. 

Why am I such an asshole? I know no one listens to her and then I proved her right. 

But maybe I'm just reading too much into this, I mean Kie is Willow's ex girlfriend and one of her friends. There's no way Kie would jump from her, to Rafe and then to me. She's not like that, she wouldn't do that to Willow, she wouldn't be a homewrecker. Then again, her lingering stares and constant need to be close to me every minute of the day is starting to make me feel really uncomfortable, more so than before when I thought she was just being overly friendly, now it feels like more than that. 

I should have listened to Willow. God, she's always right. 

~~~~~

Willow's POV

I sent a pin to Jimmy Portis' contact, hoping the pogues still have his phone. This being my only option in finding them without searching the whole damn town. I am too exhausted to do all of that, my heartrate is high, I need food, I feel like my boobs are three sizes bigger and ready to explode. Everything hurts, is what I'm getting at. 

"Willow?" JJs voice pulls me from my thoughts.

I stand up from my seat and smile when I see him standing on the dock with a gun in hand, "Jay?"

Oh how I missed him. Those ocean blue eyes, round cheeks, fluffy hair. I scramble down the side of the boat and run into his arms, "JJ." I breathe out, sobs racking my body.

"I'm so glad you're safe." He murmurs in my ear.

I pull away and place my hands on either side of his neck, "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

"Yeah, but I'm here now," He wraps me in a hug again, "Okay? Its alright, it's aright." He cries into my neck, kissing me every few seconds, "I'm sorry, baby, so so so sorry."

My face lights up when I hear Emmy and my friends, they barrel into me, giving me a group hug.

When we pull away I take Emmy from Kie, "Hi sweet girl, I missed you." Emmy clings to me when she starts to cry, her face buried against my chest, "I'm sorry, Emmy, Mama's sorry."

"Hold up," John B turns my face towards him, "Who hurt you? Singh did this?"

"No," I turn my face back to Emmy and hug her, tears steadily running down my face, "I wasn't the only person kidnapped."

"What do you mean?" JJ runs his finger along my bruised jaw, "Did they do this because of us?"

"Singh kidnapped Rafe too, he made us share a room." My teeth nibble on my lip when his face drops, "I may have pissed him off last night."

JJ inhales sharply, "You were locked in a room the entire night with him? Did he--"

"No." I kiss Emmys head, "I need to nurse her, has she been eating anything?"

"Yeah, we got her formula." Kie gestures to the small box Cleo is holding, "She didn't like it but she ate enough to be okay."

"Thank you." I cry, "I was so scared. I thought you were still on the island, and that Emmy would starve."

"She was safe," JJ wraps me into his arms, "I was scared for you."

"So who's boat is this?" John B asks.

I chuckle and pull away from JJ, "I may have pushed Rafe in the water and stole it from him. He's definitely out to get me now." 

JJ sighs and helps me onto the boat, "I'm getting real fucking tired of him."

"You and me both."

JJ stays on the dock and starts to untie us, "Yeah, so I have just a couple of questions." He smiles up at me and points at the boat, "A Lagoon with twin Volvos? You understand we can go anywhere with this thing, right?"

"I know, kind of a piece of shit."

"Way to be discreet, by the way." He looks up at me with a serious expression, "What did they want anyway?""You're not gonna guess what Singh wanted from me." I lean forward and rest one of my hands on the boat, clutching Emmy to my chest, starting to get lightheaded while the sun beats down on us, "Denmark's Diary."He furrows his brows, "Why?"

I shrug, "Said it leads to a treasure that's a lot bigger than the Merchant."He climbs up to me and wraps his arms around my waist, "You're saying there's a bigger treasure?" I chuckle and nod, "Then, sign me up."

I freeze when I notice a familiar sound, when I look over at the church in the distance, the bells chime in the same way my dad used to do our bell at home when he'd call us in. When I hear shuffling I turn to see John B running down the dock with a phone in his hand. 

Probably headed for the church. Go find him, Johnny. 

Cause it sure as hell won't be me that drags our dad home, if it's him, which I have a feeling it is, since I am always right about these things. 

"Usually." 

Yup.

-