fire and gold | jj maybank

Six

From their view of the edge of Gavin's driveway, Pope watched as Gavin exited the house, determination in his movement as he walked to his car and started to pull out of the driveway.

"All right. Hey, here he comes. Stay down." Pope announced, gesturing for his friends to duck down.

"He didn't see us." JJ said as Gavin drove past the vehicle without a second glance. "He didn't see us. Hit it."

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. My seatbelt!" Pope urged Kiara to drive as his seatbelt locked in place while he tried to buckle.

"Seriously Pope?" Addison laughed at her friend while Kiara started the car. Of course, he would feel the need to buckle up when they were in hot pursuit of the only person who they might be able to get to clear John B's name.

"Are you seriously buckling up now?" JJ asked incredulously.

"Yes, I am." He said as the seatbelt locked into place.

"You don't need it now." Kiara stepped on the accelerator and closely followed behind Gavin.

"What if we have to make a quick escape from the vehicle, Pope? The seatbelt is only gonna slow you down." Addison questioned.

Only audible to the boy with the AirPods in his ears, Gavin's voice was present.

He held his pointer finger up to his lips, urging everyone to quiet down.

"Oh, Pope picked something up." Addison noted as she saw the concentrated look on Pope's face as he listened to the conversation that Gavin was having. "What is happening?"

"He's talking to Ward."

"It's Ward?" JJ questioned.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Get closer. I can't hear." Kie sped up, trailing the vehicle ahead of her. "He's talking about renegotiating something."

"Gavin's got the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin." Pope announced after listening for a moment.

"Holy shit." "Oh shit."

"I think he's trying to use it as extortion, as leverage."

"That gun is our key to clearing John B. We gotta get our hands on it and turn it in to Shoupe." Addison said.

Gavin's break lights lit up as he veered to the side of the road. "Shit. Wait, he's pulling over."

"Shit, he's panicking." Pope said as Gavin and Ward's argument came through the earbuds.

"Do I pull behind him? What do I do?" Kiara asked.

There was no way to pull behind him and make it look like they weren't on his tail. He'd surely suspect something was amiss if Kiara pulled up right behind him.

"Go around the block." JJ ordered.

"If we pull behind him, he'll get suspicious and our cover is blown."

"Yeah. Yeah, just go." Pope agreed.

"We're gonna lose him." Kiara said as she passed him.

"Go, go, go!" JJ demanded. He wanted his best friend to come home more than anything, and wasn't going to give up easily. Everyone wanted John B and Sarah to come home, a lot was riding on their wiretapping of Gavin.

"I'm going. I'm going."

"I can't hear anything, shit, I'm losing the signal. I can't hear him."

"What the hell is this?" JJ asked as he noticed that the road was blocked off

"Stop. Just stop and turn around now."

"Pull in here and back up."

"I'm just gonna back up."

"What are you doing?" "Are you kidding?" Addison and Kiara, respectively, exclaimed as they heard a beeping sound, and were blocked in by a truck.

"Road work at night? What the hell?" Addison added.

"Hey, we were just about to back up." JJ shouted as he opened his door and turned the man guiding the truck.

"What are you doing?"

"You literally had to do that now? Wait! Pope!" Pope slammed his car door shut and took off running.

"We gotta know where they're meeting." He yelled as he got further away. Addison and JJ both got out of the vehicle and Addison took off in a sprint after Pope.

"We're going after them, right?" JJ asked Kiara as Pope and Addison were out of view.

"Yep."

As Pope ran through someone's backyard, he triggered their motion sensor lights. Addison caught up to him with ease. The two of them hopped the fence that divided the two yards. Then they passed four of their classmates who were in their pool playing chicken. "Yo, Pope. Addi! Hey."

"Hey." Pope responded, turning his head towards them. Without paying attention to his surroundings ahead of him, he tripped over a swing-set and fell to the ground. "No, no, no, no, no." He panicked as he lost the AirPod.

"Right here." Addison said as she picked up the white earpiece from in front of him and handed it to him. Pope quickly put it back in his ear.

"Gavin, meet me now at the construction site near that surf shop. You understand? You bring the gun, I will bring you your money. And then, we're done. Are we good?" Ward's voice was clear in Pope's ear. "Yes, okay. All right, I'll, um, I'll see you there."

Kiara and JJ ran up to the two of them. "What does that mean?" Kie asked as she saw the look on Pope's face.

"Did you hear something?" JJ questioned.

"He heard something all right." Addison responded, she didn't know exactly what had been said but she knew Pope heard something of importance.

"He's meeting Ward right now. We gotta go." Pope turned on his heel and started to walk away from his friends. "We gotta get to the construction site next to the surf shop. But I have to make a pitstop at home."