MARA WOKE UP AROUND TEN TO A FRANTIC POUNDING ON HER DOOR.

"take some midol and come back!" she yelled, grabbing a pillow and pressing it over her face, the door slamming open, the girl groaning.

"mara?" john b asked, mara throwing the pillow across the room in the direction of his voice.

"you're such a bitch- let me sleep." she whined, rolling away from the door.

"mara, emery's gone." john b deadpanned, mara suddenly alert and sitting up to see john b, clearly panicking.

"are you serious?" mara asked, standing up as john b threw his hands in the air.

"why would i joke about this?" he asked in bewilderment, mara rolling her eyes.

"okay, go down to the kitchen- give me five minutes." mara stressed, motioning for john b to leave the room as she started to dig through the drawers of the dresser for new clothes. "how did you not notice she wasn't with you if you slept in the same bed?" mara asked suddenly.

"about that..." john b trailed off, mara turning towards him slowly and raising her eyebrows.

"john?" she asked lowly. "what did you do?"

"i went to the cameron's." he said, mara throwing her hands up and letting them fall to her side in disbelief.

"are you stupid?" she asked angrily, john b backing away from the door.

"we can talk about that later, just hurry up! i have no idea where emery is and she's not answering her phone." john b panicked, slamming the bedroom door so mara could change, the girl coming down the stairs a few minutes later in a black t-shirt and jean shorts.

"okay- john?" mara called- the routledge was standing, frozen, outside the open front door.

"you looking for emery?" a familiar voice asked. "or did you figure out she isn't in there? i told you so."

"what the hell are you doing here- was she in the house?" mara asked in shock as she walked to the front door to see john b, frozen in place, and cleo, who had worked on the boat with terrance.

"where's emery?" john b asked angrily, grabbing cleo by her shoulders.

"hands off." she said calmly, john b looking down to see the end of a knife handle pressed to his stomach. "i'll cut you."

"you better not have hurt her." john b said lowly.

"she's with the boss, man. he's been looking all over town for you." cleo said nonchalantly.

"tell me where she is, or i'll-" john b was cut off when cleo shoved him away harshly.

"i can take you guys to her." cleo said bluntly.

"just tell us where she's at." mara demanded, cleo being quick to pull her knife on the blonde, placing it on mara's throat, the girl lifting her arms in surrender.

"come on, girlie. you're both too pretty to cut. now, come along, we're gonna go on a little drive." cleo taunted, leading mara and john b to a white truck parked in front of the house, which both of them climbed into. cleo drove- quite haphazardly, to the point of mara questioning how she was even allowed into the neighborhood- through the open gate and out of town.

"you were on the boat, right?" john b asked.

"maybe. they call me cleo." she introduced herself.

"look, where are we going?" mara snapped suddenly. "where's emery at?"

"is she okay? cause if she isn't, there's gonna be hell to pay." john b added.

"come on, man." cleo whined. "they say you killed a cop. that true?"

"no." john b deadpanned.

"he's been framed." mara said bluntly, shoving her hair out of her face, the wind from the open windows blowing it around her face.

"that's too bad. they told me you were a killer. i was about to be afraid." cleo said casually, giving the two a small smile. "copper probably deserved it.

"no." john b repeated. "she didn't."

the look cleo gave to john b wasn't one of casual joking this time, instead, it was one of sympathy. like she felt bad for his situation. then again, it also looked like confusion, like she couldn't understand why anyone would pity the police. granted, due to the fact that she worked on a smuggling ship, she probably hadn't had the best experience with cops.

the truck pulled onto a dirt road lined with a forest on one side and fields on the other, the trio eventually arriving at a house tucked away in the countryside.

when they got out of the truck, cleo led them through the door and through the house, out to the back patio, where mara could barely see the back of emery's head, facing away from the door.

"boss, he's here." cleo announced. "hey, found your boyfriend." she said to emery.

"and me, i'm also here." mara added as she and john b walked through the door, emery turning as john b walked up to her.

"hey, listen, i just-"

"you lied to me!" emery yelled, shoving him back and into another boy, who had also been on the boat. mara had heard him referred to as 'stubby' by terrance. he grabbed john b by the neck, holding him at arms length while the routledge struggled, lightly slapping his face helplessly.

"i wouldn't provoke him. tends not to go so well." terrence said calmly as he joined the group on the patio, mara moving to stand next to a still fuming emery. "you can run, but you can't hide, john b. i got eyes and ears everywhere."

stubby finally released john b, patting his shoulder and the side of his face, nodding to agree with terrance as he did, smiling down at the boy.

"took you long enough." terrance said to cleo, who glared at him.

"next time, get him yourself." she spat back.

"after all our hospitality, you left without saying goodbye." terrance said to the teens, pretending to be upset.

"yeah, maybe don't call the cops on us and try to trick us and that won't happen." mara replied bluntly. "we may be kids, but we aren't stupid."

"can't you just let us go?" emery asked, voice shaky.

"i got fifty thousand reasons why that ain't gonna happen." terrance replied shortly.

"he didn't kill anyone, i was there." the melville pleaded.

"maybe he did, maybe he didn't. i don't care." terrance said. "we let the courts decide." he added, cleo laughing.

"and what if, persay, i told the courts that we got here on your illegal cargo smuggling ship?" mara fired at the man, raising her eyebrows at him in question, cleo's laughter faltering.

"bring him to the proper authorities." terrance commanded, unfazed by mara's threat.

"what are you talking about?" john b asked as stubby grabbed him by his backpack and shoved him across the porch, stepping in front of him. "hey, no, no. listen, listen. i can pay. i can pay you."

"you got fifty k in your back pocket? if not, bye-bye." terrance told the boy bluntly, john b slowly taking off his backpack as emery's eyes moved from him to terrance rapidly.

stubby took the bag, unzipping the large pocket, but mara snatched it from his hands.

"easy, girlie." terrance taunted. mara unzipped the front pocket of the bag, reaching in slowly as her hands touched the cold metal of the gold, which she slowly removed and held up for the smugglers to see.

"what is that?" terrance asked.

"what do you think, genius?" mara snapped.

"give it to me." terrance demanded.

"give it to him!" stubby yelled, mara slowly handing the gold to terrance who bit into it skeptically.

"that's about a hundred and forty thousand reasons to let us go." the stevens girl said lowly.

"more than john b's bounty." emery added. terrace thought for a minute, passing the gold to cleo who hit it repeatedly with her knife.

"tell you what, that is your rescue fee, but i want my bounty too." he said.

"no! terrance! terrance! terrance!" john b shouted in protest as he was grabbed by stubby and pulled towards the door.

"you backstabbing whore!" mara yelled.

"that wasn't the deal!" emery shouted.

"just one!" john b yelled suddenly. "that's just one! hey! there's more!"

emery and mara's heads snapped over to him, the routledge boy was suddenly no longer struggling against stubby, who had let go of him.

"look, i went to paradise island." john b stated.

"no shit." mara muttered, but emery's eyes glossed over in betrayal.

"to a house her dad had access to." john b added, looking at emery. "there is hundreds of millions of dollars worth of that gold there. it is an empty, undefended house, and she's a genius. she can get the codes."

"blondie, is this true?" terrance asked emery.

"it's a friend of my stepdad's house." emery said, blinking back tears. "the gold is there. and if i try hard enough, i can get you to it."

MARA WAS CRAMMED IN THE FRONT OF THE TRUCK WITH JOHN B AND EMERY.

terrance, cleo, and stubby had all ridden in the back while the three who knew the neighborhood were seated in the front, john b driving with emery sitting as far away from him as possible.

"home sweet home." terrance mocked from the back as they approached the gate. "take us to the mansion, miss fancy pants."

"alright, this is it." john b said when they got to the gate, turning the truck and stopping in front of the security guard. in the back of the truck, terrance, cleo, and stubby were pulling themselves under a tarp.

"you lied to me." emery mumbled, hurt clear in her voice.

"i am very aware of that, and i am very sorry. and i shouldn't have gone." john b said bluntly.

"that sounds so legit." mara commented sarcastically.

"is the gold even at the house?" emery asked.

"uh... i think so." john b said, attempting to sound confident, but failing miserably.

"you think so?" emery repeated in disbelief.

"we're gonna get shot." mara breathed. john b just pulled forward behind the car in front of him, stopping at the security booth where the guard was talking to someone on the phone about ms. finley's dog.

"hey there. how are you?" john b asked, the guard turning towards him. "i'm actually just coming to pick up my leaf blower from..."

"bayline." emery whispered annoyedly.

"bayline. do a lot of work over there." john b explained, attempting to make his story believable, but he, in all honesty, could probably have just told the security guard that he was going to rob a house there and he still would have been allowed in, because he was let through without a second glance.

john b pulled through the gate, cruising past emery's house where they had been the previous morning and stopping at the end of the cul-de-sac, a large, glowing fountain in front of the house.

"gotta be pretty rich to have a waterfall in your front yard." terrance commented. "full of surprises, aren't you, blondie?"

"not even my house." emery mumbled, shaking a spare key out of a seashell, the place she had learned the cameron's hid their key one year when she was in nassau at the same time as them, sarah telling her so she could get in the house.

"i absolutely love what they've done with the landscaping." terrance continued as emery unlocked the door, pushing it open and waiting for a reaction. "get in, we don't have all night. go."

emery nodded her head for the group to follow her, and they went to the back yard, where the safe was in the same spot as it had been last time she was in the cameron's house. she kneeled down in front of the door, sighing and opening the keypad.

"okay, let's see..." she mumbled, typing in the digits of wards birthday, which she knew due to it being the door lock for tannyhill as well.

"you best remember that combo." terrance threatened.

however, the safe beeped an error pattern, and the door jammed.

"i knew i should've never listened to you." terrance said bluntly.

"typically ward uses his birthday." she breathed, typing it again, but the safe still jammed.

"try jackson's." mara encouraged, emery typing in the melville man's birthday, but the safe beeped as an error again, the door still jammed.

chop chop. let's go." terrance said annoyedly.

"shut up, i'm trying." emery snapped.

"try yours." john b suggesting, emery shrugging and typing her own birthday into the safe. much to her surprise, the light flashed green, and the door opened, a hiss of air escaping as it did. slowly, emery pulled the door open, revealing an entire wall of golden bricks.

"bingo, good job, blondie." terrance praised, kneeling down and grabbing one of the bricks.

"wow." cleo breathed.

"i'll be damned." terrance said in amazement.

"i need shades." cleo commented happily.

"go get the bags, stubbs." terrance told the boy. "go get the damn duffel bags!"

"yeah. yeah. yeah." stubby said, snapping out of the shock of seeing the gold and running back to the front of the house to the truck. terrance began to grab handfuls of gold, but stubby stopped, speaking up again. "guys. security's here!"

car doors could be heard slamming as well as multiple voices overlapping, radios beeping as the guards talked to each other, the bright lights from the cars shining into the back yard.

"let's get outta here." terrance rushed, already moving towards the door. "should've never let you talk me into this."

"rent-a-cops, incoming." cleo announced as security began banging on the door, john b shutting the safe as cleo and stubby ran after terrance.

"come on, come on!" stubby urged, motioning for the group to hurry out the door, more and more cars of security approaching the house.

"hey, hey, you did great, we can come back." the routledge assured emery as he twisted the knob shut, pulling her and mara after the smugglers. however, the door slammed in their face, emery smacking the glass.

"backstabbing asshole!" she yelled.

"terrance, what are you doing?" john b panicked, the older man locking the door from the outside.

"you're the bait that's gonna slow 'em down. see you later." he said smugly, walking away from the door, emery and mara pounding on the glass.

"you bitch!" mara screamed.

"terrance, open the door!" john b yelled.

"john b." emery whispered, the voices of the security guards moving closer, indicating that they were inside the house. "john b, they're coming. come on."

the trio ran from the door, ducking behind a couch across from the safe.

"what're we gonna do?" emery whispered, john b shushing her.

"search the whole place. they're in there somewhere." a security guard ordered, the sound of footsteps approaching the couch.

"i'm gonna go upstairs and distract them." john b whispered.

"you can't, you'll get caught." emery said immediately, mara raising her eyebrows.

"you are arguably the least athletic out of all of us, why are you the one trying to run?" she shot, john b rolling his eyes at the girl.

"what other choice to we have?" he asked.

"son of a bitch." emery whispered. "if you go upstairs, there's a boat here, it's in the cove out back. sarah told me where the keys are, meet us there the first chance you get."

"okay." john b whispered, quickly kissing the top of emery's head and running around the side of the house towards the staircase as emery and mara went out the side door, pausing as a guard walked past them down the hall, john b whooping and yelling behind them to get the attention of the guards, who didn't notice the two girls standing in the hallway.

as the two girls around the back of the house, they looked up to see john b running down the balcony. emery led mara down the stairs on the back side of the house, where the cameron's boat could be seen bobbing on the crystal blue water below them.

"this thing has gas and works, right?" mara asked as emery started to feel around the tree where sarah had shown her that her family kept the keys, emery nodding.

"ward has someone drain the tank and put new fuel in it every month so the gas doesn't sit." emery explained as she felt the cold metal of the keys on her hand, grasping them tightly and pulling them off the nail that they hung on on the other side of the tree.

"shit, emery." mara mumbled, the melville turning to see terrance, with cleo and stubby behind him, holding a gun.

"give me the keys." he demanded. "don't play with me blondie. give me the keys!"

"no!" emery yelled, clasping into the red keychain the keys hung from tightly, holding her arm behind her back. "you have the truck, you can take it."

"you don't wanna do that." terrance threatened. "play stupid games, you'll win stupid prizes, now don't try me and give me the damn keys, now." he demanded, cleo looking between terrance and the girls with a look similar to that which she gave john b in the car when she took him and mara to terrance the first time that day.

"get the keys, stubbs." terrance ordered, stubby stepping towards emery and grabbing her arm, attempting to pull it away from behind her back.

"no- let go of me!" emery yelled.

"get off her!" mara shouted, but stubby had pulled emery's arm around and began prying at the girl's fingers, trying to get her to let go of they keys.

"get them out of her hand, let's go!" terrance shouted, stubby finally getting the keys out of emery's grasp and shoving the girl to the side, tossing the small object to terrance. both girls looked at cleo, betrayal flooding their gaze as they stared her down.

"i'm sorry." cleo apologized, the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice sounding genuine, like she actually felt bad for leaving them. but still, she turned, running towards the water to get into the boat once terrance shouted for her to do so, wading knee deep into the water as the girls shook their heads in disbelief at the fact terrance had thrown them under the bus not once, but twice in the same night after they had attempted to help him.

"shit." mara whispered, she and emery turning and running back up the stairs to find john b, the two girls winded by the time they reached the top of the stairs. much to their horror, they watched through the railing that surrounded the edge of the yard as john b was dragged across the yard by two security guards.

"john b." emery whispered, rushing the rest of the way up the stairs and going to the side of the house where the guards were taking john b, standing around the corner from where they had john b on the ground with his hands on his head.

"what's the plan?" mara asked.

"your name is ariana and you don't speak english." emery said quickly, looking around the corner at the guards and john b, who was now looking up at one of them after being grabbed by the hair and having his head yanked upwards.

"let me see his face, put the camera on his face." ward demanded over the phone, emery realizing the security guards had called him once john b was captured.

"hold his head up." one of the guards demanded, emery turning on her heel to the panel that rafe had told her years ago controlled the sprinklers in the yard.

"what's going on?" mara asked as emery opened the panels, scanning over the buttons and smirking.

"play stupid games, win stupid prizes." emery quoted terrance as she hit a couple buttons on the panel, hearing the sprinklers in front of the house turn on as the guards yelled in protest.

"turn it off!" one of the guards demanded, emery and mara quickly moving to hide in the cabinet against the wall, the two girls holding their breath as they heard the panel beeping, emery grabbing the can of insect fogger on the shelf next to her while she waited for the guard to walk away. when his footsteps retreated, she and mara climbed out of the cabinet.

"what now?" mara asked.

"showtime." emery whispered, walking around the corner, mara behind her. "what are you guys doing?" she yelled, the guards turning and pointing their guns at her, emery raising her hands in surrender as mara did the same.

"who are you?" they asked angrily.

"im adelaide, i'm a housekeeper for the cameron's." she explained.

"you live here?" they asked.

"no, i'm a housekeeper." emery repeated.

"who's that?" they asked as they motioned to mara.

"that's ariana, she's new, doesn't speak any english." emery explained.

"we caught this guy trying to break in." they said, motioning towards john b again, who looked over that the girls helplessly.

"oh, i know him!" emery exclaimed. "he washes their neighbor's boats."

"which neighbors?" the man asked suspiciously.

"the melville's down the street." emery replied, a little too quickly.

"what's his name?" they asked.

"arlo." emery answered, less quickly this time. "i think he's from moscow..." she trailed off before spraying the man in the face with the fogger, doing the same to the others.

"come on!" mara called to john b, the routledge standing up and following the girls to the front of the house. emery and mara jumped into the bed of the truck, john b climbing in the front, emery hitting the side of the bed repeatedly as a security guard approached the truck.

go, go, go!" she yelled, she and mara pressing themselves as close to the cab as possible. "faster!"

"i'm going, i'm going." john b replied. the guard grabbed ahold of emery's leg, the girl starting to kick his arm repeatedly.

"get off me!" she shouted, mara sitting up and moving forward, kicking the man in the face, making him let go of emery and topple out of the truck into the road.

"oh shit!" john b exclaimed from inside the truck as he sped out of the neighborhood. "guys, you good?"

"we're fine." mara snapped, she and emery breathing heavily as they leaned against the side of the truck bed.

when they got far enough away from the neighborhood, john b stopped the truck, climbing out of the front as emery and mara jumped out of the back.

"i have never loved you more, ems." john b exclaimed. "and mar, you straight up kicked that dude-"

"you liar!" emery yelled, shoving john b away from her.

"what're you talking about? we're fine!"

"no we aren't!" mara yelled. "what the hell, dude? you said you weren't going to the cameron's."

"we're not fine!" emery shouted. "you lost all the money we had, you almost got us caught or shot- how do you think that that is okay?"

"i'm about to become a child of divorce on family vacation." mara breathed, walking back over to the truck and leaning against the door.

"i am proactively admitting that i screwed up, and-"

"we aren't asking you to admit you're a dumbass, we just wanted you to not be a dumbass." mara cut him off.

"and proactively admitting doesn't undo all this shit- john, i was kidnapped this morning because i was walking down the street looking for you!" emery yelled. "i have lost everything for you, john b. i lost levi, jj, my mom, ainsley, pope, kie- im not losing you or mara because you can't keep yourself under control!"

"you're not gonna lose us." john b tried to assure, but emery shook her head.

"you can't promise that, and if you keep doing stupid shit, eventually, i will." emery snapped.

"look, it won't happen again." john b assured, sounding genuine.

"im calling the shots now." emery said firmly.

"what about me?" mara asked.

"we're calling the shots now." emery corrected herself. "and to start- since mara can't drive stick- i'm driving."

"got it." john b whispered, climbing into the passenger seat while mara got back in the middle.

"so... the wedding?" mara asked, emery rolling her eyes.

"you little snoop." she exclaimed.

"you guys were practically yelling, i have to lock in my third wheel status, don't you know?"

"maybe when emery doesn't want to kill me?" john b suggested, emery glaring at him. "okay, still not in the mood.

"for you." mara corrected. "she's in the mood for me."

"i'm always in the mood for mara." emery said immediately.

"am i being cheated on?" john b questioned, emery glaring at him again.

"loser." mara whispered, john b flipping her off.

kens speaks 🪐

holy shit this is long.

4k words in the longest chapter i've every written for this book