"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" POPE ASKED FRANTICALLY. They had found a place that was hidden where they could talk and map out their plan to save Kiara. The rest of them were sitting, but Pope was pacing back and forth. "Why would they want to kidnap Kiara? It doesn't make any sense."

"It's called bait," JJ informed him from where he was leaning up against a shed next to the Callaway girl.

She told them, "What I don't get is why they would take that Mateo dude if he and Jimmy were working for them. Aren't they on the same side?"

"I am so sick of this," Sarah groaned as she leaned back against the canoe that the others were sitting on. "Do you think there's any way we could trust the cops?"

The Maybank boy scoffed in disbelief, reminding them all of the experiences they had had in the past with the police. All of them had been more or less unpleasant. "The cops? You're joking, right? You seriously think your daddy hasn't called them already?"

"JJ," Bree warned, not wanting him to say something impulsive that started another fight between the group. They needed to work together not tear each other apart. That would not help Kiara at all.

"I have a crazy idea," the Heyward boy announced, causing all of them to turn to him, awaiting his next words. "Why don't we call my parents?"

John B raised his eyebrows at his friend and wondered aloud, "And say what, Pope?" They had not been able to contact anyone for a month, and they were all pretty sure that they had just been presumed dead.

"And say we're alive. I haven't seen my family in...I don't know how long. They're probably worried sick about me," Pope explained, and Bree could tell that he really missed his parents. To be honest, she missed his parents as well. "We can just call and maybe ask them to wire us some money or something."

The Routledge boy, ever the optimist, scoffed, "And put them in danger?"

"I got a better idea. And faster," the blonde boy said to them, and when he stood up, the brunette next to him did as well. He pulled something out of his pocket and held it up so that they could see what it was.

It was a wallet, and it had some cash on a clip on the outside and some cards on the inside. Sarah looked at him in confusion. "Whose is that?"

"You think I'm gonna go through someone's backpack and not pinch their wallet?" JJ asked them with raised eyebrows before pulling out a card that appeared to be some sort of ID. "'Jimmy Portis, 101 Cattle Wash.' I bet that's where they got Kiara. All right? That's where we're going."

"That's conceivable. But can we at least think this through?" Pope questioned.

But the blonde was already walking away, expecting them to follow him. "You got a better idea, Pope? Come on, 101 Cattle Wash. That's where we're going." Once they got there, they realized that none of the houses were numbered. "Really helps there's no names on the streets."

"Just let me handle it," Cleo told them, and she walked over to a group of people that were in another one of the houses. They seemed to be having a party on the porch. "101 Cattle Wash? Blue house? Thanks, I appreciate you."

JJ followed the directions and led them to a house across the street. "Let's do it. This is it. Let's go around back."

"Window?" the brunette boy asked when they got to the back, gesturing to the window above them. It was about a story above them, so he would have to hoist himself up. JJ nodded, and he got to work.

Speaking of the chaotic boy, he started yelling and hollering his head off when the crabs that were in the yard started climbing on his shoes. "Whoa. Yo, get off! Get off! Get off! Dude, get o—" He tried to push one off, but it pinched his finger.

"Shh! Hey! Shh! What are you doing?" Pope asked him, smacking him on the back of the head to get him to quiet down. "Does the element of surprise mean nothing to you?"

"It turned my thumb purple!" he exclaimed.

Cleo just pulled him down and tried to shut him up, acting like he was being a big baby. It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that he needed to shut the fuck up. "Shh. Relax. It's just a crab, man."

"I'm being surrounded right now," he groaned, and just leaned against the wall while holding his finger. "Goddamn it. Damn little sea spider."

"I'll take the front. Take the back," Cleo said once they got into the house. Sarah immediately went to the other rooms while the boys and Bree searched around the main room of the house.

They searched all of the rooms, but there was no sign of Kiara or anything that would tell them where she was. "Okay. Well, if she's not here, where is she?"

"John B. John B?" Pope called, and the boy in question walked over to him along with Bree and JJ to see him staring at a picture on the wall. It was a picture of a boat on fire, and the Callaway girl furrowed her eyebrows because it looked kind of familiar. "Recognize that?"

"Holy shit," the Routledge boy muttered.

The Maybank boy looked at them with a confused expression because he had no clue why the picture was so 'holy shit' worthy. "It's a burning boat."

"This is San Jose. It's from Denmark's diary," Pope explained to him, and it all came flooding back to Bree. She remembered seeing it in the diary. It was the boat that Limbrey's ancestor was on. "This is the ship that Captain Limbrey stole the cross from."

"And the Merchant gold," John B added, and the brunette girl could tell that the anger that he felt when Ward stole it from them was rushing back as well.

"Great, whatever. It's just about the gold. It's not about Kiara. It doesn't help us," JJ said, but when he realized that they were still thinking about it, he rolled his eyes. "Just let it go. That's not why we're here."

Cleo, who was looking at something at the window, interrupted their conversation with an urgent voice. "Guys, guys, guys. Shit. It's Portis."

"Yo, he's back," the blonde boy repeated since the other guys had not seemed to be paying attention, and they all ducked into hiding places to wait for Jimmy to come inside so that they could ask him about Kiara.

He spotted a crab when he walked in, and he started talking to it and getting ready to catch it and bring it back outside. All of a sudden, John B dove into him. He almost fell over, but he was able to push the boy away. He tried to run the other way, but Pope popped out and punched him in the stomach. He climbed to his feet and tried to go out the door he came in, but JJ stepped out and tripped it before grabbing him and slammed him against the table outside. "I got him."

"You guys really shouldn't be here right now," the man told them as Bree took out her pocket knife — one of the only things that had survived that long with her — and held it up to his throat.

She pressed it into his skin just hard enough for him to know that she was serious but not so hard that it drew blood. She raised her eyebrows threateningly. "Where is she, Jimmy?"

"Answer the woman!" Cleo ordered, trying to back her friend up when he refused to answer after a moment.

He shook his head, trying to look down at the knife before looking back up at the six teenagers staring down at him with hatred spread across their faces. "You really don't wanna know."

"Talk. Who took her?" Sarah asked, leaning forward to glare at him. "Was it Ward?"

"Ward? Who's Ward? You guys really don't understand who you're messing with," he answered, and he seemed more terrified of the person that he was talking about than the girl pressing a knife to his throat.

The Cameron girl scoffed, trying to sound as menacing as possibly when she said, "We'll call the cops." Calling the cops would probably not be the best idea since they were breaking and entering and threatening the guy, but he needed to believe that they would do it.

"Sure, call the cops. See how far that gets you. This guy owns the cops," he responded, almost laughing at the suggestion. This guy that he was talking about did kind of seem like Ward Cameron, having the cops wrapped around his finger just like Sarah's dad did. "He's got eyes all over the island looking for you. All of you. He's a big man, the Kingfish."

"Hey! What's this?" Pope asked. He had been looking through Jimmy's bag, and he had found an envelope. He walked back over to the table and held it up.

As Pope began to open the package, the pilot began to struggle against Cleo and JJ holding him down, but Bree quickly shut him up by pushing the blade a little further. "Hey, take your hands off my shit."

"What is it?" the Maybank boy questioned. The Heyward boy pulled out a huge wad of cash, and they all turned back to the man. "What's that, Jimmy? Is that the payoff? Is that the payoff for Kiara, Jimmy? Is it? Talk!"

"Hey, what's Vaux Hall?" Pope quizzed, reading the crest on the envelope with raised eyebrows. It seemed important, and it was the place that was paying Jimmy for bringing them to whoever the hell he was talking about.

The pilot shook his head frantically, squirming in the arms of the blonde boy. They all looked at him with confused expressions. "You really don't want to go there, man. That's the lion's den."

"That's it. That's where Kie is," John B said, since it was pretty obvious by the way Jimmy was acting, He patted the Heyward boy on the shoulder. "Come on, Pope."

"You really don't want to go there!" Jimmy yelled at them as they all headed toward the front door to leave and taking the letter and money with them. Who knew when they were going to need it?

Cleo scoffed as she finally let him go roughly. She leaned into his ear and muttered, "Do we look afraid?"

"You should be."

《✵》

"POPE, ARE YOU SURE YOU GOT THE RIGHT ADDRESS?" JJ ASKED. They had been wandering around Barbados and trying to find Vaux Hall based on maps and shit, but it kind of seemed that they were hitting a dead end.

The Heyward boy looked at him in disbelief, thinking about the numerous times that JJ had gotten them lost, and how he could not even find the street address of Jimmy's House. All Pope was working with was the name of the place. "I know you aren't talking to me about having the right address. Look, the place says Vaux Hall. Vaux Hall, it's on the map."

"We don't know if that's where we are," the blonde boy argued as his friend pointed at the wooden map on a post in front of them. They were on a road and surrounded by fields.

Pope scoffed since he had gotten them pretty far with little to know information. "It's in the general vicinity."

"Why don't we just ask someone?" Cleo questioned, and she turned to a large vehicle that was driving slowly down the road. The man driving it stopped so that she could talk to him. "Hey! Pardon I. You know where we can find Vaux Hall?"

"You kidding me, right? Everything you can see all around you is all Vaux Hall," the man informed them, gesturing to their entire surroundings.

JJ seemed confused about that, looking around. He was probably expecting to see some sort of hall or at least building of some sort. "Wait, what do you mean? Like..."

"All this, all this, all this," the guy clarified, pointing to the fields all around them. There was so much grass around them, and it seemed almost endless.

The blonde boy nodded and sighed, realizing that he meant the whole freaking piece of land that they were on. That was going to be fun. "Oh, everywhere."

"Okay, so who lives up there?" Pope asked, pointing down the road to where he had assumed a house was based on the drawings in the map.

"Carlos Singh. Just on the other side of that wall," the man answered before shooting them a warning look. "But take it from me, he's no one you want to get to know."

They went over to the wall that he had been talking about and climbed over it. Bree was not as stealthy as she had hoped to be, but she made it over with just a scrape on her knee, so she considered that a win. They ducked down behind a patch of tall grass to examine the building. There were men with bulletproof vests and dogs and guns walking around everywhere. "Okay. Portis wasn't kidding."

"No, that's a fortress," John B agreed with Pope. There was so much freaking security that the Callaway girl wondered what was worth guarding this much. "This is much bigger than Ward."

"We got two towers, patrollers, ATVs, possibly snipers," JJ informed them as he scanned the field for everything dangerous there was for them out there. It was going to be a fun ride.

Sarah groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "There's no way we're getting past that."

"We gotta help her," Bree told them. She was not leaving Kiara in there with who knows what to deal with. That was her friend, her best friend. She needed her. She pulled the Hawaiian shirt that she had stolen from Jimmy further around her to stop the grass from scratching her stomach where her tank top was ripped.

Cleo grabbed her arm and informed her, "We can take them if we stay towards the tree line."

"No, Bree! Cleo!" the others whisper-yelled, but the two girls had already stood up and were headed toward the trees and ducking behind grass. The rest of the group had no choice but to follow them.

"Hey. There's an opening down that way," Cleo told them, pointing at a path in front of them. "As soon as the guards turn around, we just sneak in through the back. Come on. Go, it's this way."

JJ turned to Bree who was walking beside him, trying to convince her that there was sa much better way. "Wait, you know what we should be doing? Go down, take the sewers up..."

"What sewers?" she asked. They were in the middle of a field. There were no sewers.

"This is all grassland," Pope backed her up, shaking his head with a sigh at the blonde boy's antics and need to take the weirdest route possible. "There's no sewers."

They continued to walk until, suddenly, they heard something beep twice and then click loudly. Sarah whipped around as they all tensed up. "What was that? What was that?"

"I know that sound. Hold on. All right, all right," the Maybank boy said, and he turned to a patch of grass and moved some blades aside to reveal some sort of device. "Wait, what is that?"

"It's a game cam," Pope groaned out, and Bree used her critical thinking skills to figure out that it was a kind of motion sensored camera that was normally used to find animals. Apparently it worked on humans as well.

Cleo grabbed it and threw it on the ground, ready to step on it. "Mash it up. Mash it up. Put it on the ground."

"No! Stop it. Give me that," Pope yelled, grabbing it and tinkering with it for a second, using his smart boy magic to try and stop the message from transmitting. "Pull the battery."

"Quick, before it transmits," John B urged him as he continued to play with it.

He finally got the battery and paused, stopping to see if anything happened before dropping the game cam. Sarah asked, "Do you think we got it before it transmitted?"

"No," Bree answered, and they all looked at her to see her pointing down the hill to where men and dogs and trucks were all heading toward them at full speed.

"Dogs, dogs," the Routledge boy yelled, and he started sprinting back toward the wall that they had come over to get there. "We gotta go. Go, go, go, go!"

"B, come on," JJ shouted when he noticed that the girl had not moved. He grabbed her arm and yanked her with him as he ran alongside everyone else. She finally snapped out of the shock and started moving herself.

They just barely made it over the wall as one of the dogs jumped up and tried to bite JOhn B's leg. He panted as he leaned against the wall on their side. "Okay. Ah, cool. Series of bad decisions."

"What are we gonna do about Kiara?" the Cameron girl quizzed, looking up at each of them and waiting for someone to have an idea.

Bree was the one to speak up as she tried to catch her breath. "We'll think of something, but we're not leaving her there."