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❝ you give blondes a bad reputation ❞
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𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

Pope and John B tie the pair of guards up and JJ pulls out the phone as Sarah enters the room, checking around to make sure we're all okay. I give her a reassuring smile and she relaxes her shoulders, coming to my side.

"All right, y'all, let me see those mugs. This is going to your boss. Smile" JJ teases the guards as he takes a picture of them "For the record, they thought this plan wasn't going to work"

JJ raises from his crouched position and he winks at me, causing me to shake my head as my lips pull up at one corner.

"All right, just send that to your boss" JJ declares and the phone chimes "Time for stage three. Hostage swap"

"We're gonna give your boss a little ring-a-ling, so hang tight" He tells the guards as he clicks on Singh's number and it starts ringing.

"Mr. Portis. Do you have Ms. Carrera's friends?" Carlos Singh speaks when he answers.

"J?" John B whispers when JJ freezes up and takes the phone from him to reply "Yeah. Yeah, we- we found them"

Cleo signals John B to continue speaking and I wrap my arms around JJ, causing him to do the same as he presses a kiss to my head.

"Listen, my name is John Booker Routledge" John B declares confidently "We have your men tied up, and they're in for a really...really, really harsh time if you don't give us Kiara back right now. Like right now. And I mean that"

"Kill them" Carlos laughs and I look at the phone in surprise.

"What?" John B questions.

"Kill them" Carlos repeats himself "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"

Sarah, JJ and I dart to the window and I'm met with the sight of a huge group of guards making their way towards the hotel.

"We gotta go" Sarah warns the others.

"Yeah" JJ agrees.

"We gotta go right now!" Sarah stresses.

"You don't have to tell me twice" I quip, immediately sprinting towards the door with John B  at my side.

"Go, go!" Encourages us to turn left and we scramble out onto a ledge that causes my anxiety to spike severely.

"Fuck that shit" I declare, moving back away from the edge.

"Balcony. Uh, balcony. Bad, so bad" John B agrees with me and we push the others back.

"Go, go, go!" JJ leads us back "Go back to the main entrance!"

But we hear them coming through the front and we're left stood in the hallway, trying to find a way out of this mess.

"Hold this" Pope passes the gun in his hand to me.

"What are you thinking, Pope?" JJ questions as he helps the boy heave open the metal barred door to the elevator shaft.

"Gotta be a better option, right?" John B almost pleads.

"Uh... that's a drop" Pope states and I glance down the hole, my eyes widening considerably.

"This is like the Hawk's Nest part two. I'm not doing this. Nope" John B declares, leaping away from the edge and pacing in fear.

"I think we need to think about this from a risk-reward perspective" Pope shrugs.

"Well, we're risking possibly breaking every bone in our body on impact and the reward is that if you don't die then we might be able to get away" I say matter of factly.

"Not helping" Pope shoots a glare at me.

"How about you go first and cushion my fall?" JJ suggests to Pope.

"How about no?" The Heyward boy snaps in annoyance.

"Yeah, whatever. Forget this shit!" Cleo shouts, pushing JJ and Pope apart.

I watch in horror as she runs forward and jumps off the ledge, grabbing onto a hanging rope. My heart thumps rapidly in my chest and my breathing quickens as my anxiety takes a hold of me.

"No, no, no! Sarah!" I hear John B beg and I turn my head to see Sarah jump after Cleo.

"Sarah!" I gasp, holding my breath while I watch my sister grab a hold of the rope.

Letting out a relieved breath I lean over the edge, my eyes passing the descending Sarah and Cleo before zeroing in on the huge drop.

"You go first, all right?" JJ tells the other boy.

"What? No. You go" Pope retorts.

I try to summon up even half of my twin's bravery, taking a couple steps away from the boys and they stop bickering when they notice.

"Sylvie, no" John B warns me but I'm already running "Vie!"

My feet spring off the ledge and as my hands grip onto the rope in front of me I hear yelling from the boys. JJ is suddenly hanging from the rope next to me with a worried look on his face and I look at him in surprise.

"Did you just jump after me?" I question, a smile tugging at my lips.

"Don't ever scare me like that again" He narrows his eyes at me with a deep frown.

"Come on, drama queen" I snort, some of my anxiety crumbling away.

"Come on, guys!" Cleo hollers from below us and I glance down to see them on the ground.

"Where's John B?" Sarah questions.

I look up to see that Pope is above us and climbing down, but John B still hasn't jumped yet.

"John B, hurry up, man!" JJ shouts.

"You can do it, Johnny!" I assure him as he stares down at us nervously.

"John B! John B!" Sarah yells up at him.

"Come on, hurry!" JJ stresses to his best friend.

John B finally works up the courage and throws his body over the ledge, grabbing a hold of the rope. Before I can call out any congratulations, I hear the sound of the guards bursting into the room and finding John B still visible on the rope.

"Hey! They're up here!" The guards shout and the sound of gunshots make my blood run cold.

One of the gunshots manage to snap the rope that John B is clinging to and I look up at the scene in horror as my friend comes tumbling down towards us.

"Whoa!" Pope grunts when John B hits him, knocking the rope out his hands.

A scream leaves my lips when both boys come barreling towards JJ and I. An elbow crashing into my jaw is the first thing that I feel before my hands are ripped away from the rope I was holding and we're sent scrambling towards the girls.

It feels as though time slows down and I'm falling down this elevator shaft in slow motion. My eyes gaze down at the girls as they leap out of the way and my whole body is turned away, a body shielding my own.

The four of us hit the floor with a loud bang and we all groan in pain, I can imagine the boys much more than myself. Speaking of, I drag myself up into sitting position to see JJ looking up at me with a grimaced smile and my heart swells at the action.

"You okay, John B? We gotta go!" Cleo shouts as we all pull ourselves up to our feet as quickly as we can.

"John B! Come on!" Sarah calls out.

"We gotta go!" Pope rushes us out onto the landing "Come on, let's go"

"Go, go, go!" John B orders and gunshots echo down the drop, causing us to scream.

"Oh my God" Sarah cries out "Run!"

"Okay, go" John B ushers us down the hallway, but I notice JJ shooting back up to the guards with his gun.

"Idiots like you give blondes a bad reputation" I huff out in irritation, grabbing his shirt and dragging the pouting boy down the hallway "Come on, hot stuff"

JJ and I reach up to the others and we swiftly make our way through the hotel until we come out of the side.

"Shit!" Cleo hisses, taking a sharp left into some hedges.

"Okay" Pope murmurs before we follow her.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Cleo stops abruptly and we all bump into her.

"Whoa!" JJ stumbles into my back but my eyes are on the guard standing at the bottom of the steps that we need to go down.

"One second. Hold on" John B whispers and I turn to look at him in confusion.

John B walks up to the small wall that looks over onto the lower road and he throws over a discarded glass bottle.

The bottle shatters in the guards peripheral and he runs off to check out the noise while John B runs back to us.

"Let's go, come on" JJ rushes us down the stairs and right away into the streets of Nassau.