BRIZO | 𝐉𝐉 𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

THIRTY-FIVE (II)

CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE - POGUES PLUS ONE

"You seriously didn't grab nothing, not one single gun?" JJ scoffs, his voice sounding tired and monotonous.

"We tr... we tried, okay? I got attacked."

"This is why I should've gone with."

"Yeah, if JJ and I had been out there, we'd be armed to the teeth right now." I say, fist-bumping JJ who nods agreeing with me and winking.

"Let me get this straight." Cleo cuts us off. "You five, with no weapons, decided you were gonna hijack this tramp steamer on your own?"

I shrug. "I mean, if you put it like that..."

"Do you have any idea who these people are?" Cleo scoffs. "Eberhimi, if he catch you, he's gonna kill you. Dead. Cut off your fingers." She slides her knife through her fingers, not really cutting them.

"Okay. What about waiting until we get to port?" Kie suggests. "At least then, if something goes wrong, we have a place to run."

"And spend God knows how many more hours trapped here?" I scrunch up my nose.

"No. No, we can't do that." Pope shakes his head.

"Why?"

"Because I've run the scenario over 1,000 times in my head," He explains, "and our best chances are on this ship. There's 15 crew members and five of us. Three-to-one odds."

"All right, man. But three of them are like five of us. They're stronger and probably way more dangerous." I snort.

"Best it'll get, Bee." Pope shrugs, "We wait till we get there, they'll trap us."

"We have no chance." Kiara sighs.

"No, Kie, there's something else." John B says.

My brother's face falls, and he looks down to his shoes with a defeated look. He sighs, and I wait for him to drop the news that has him looking like that. For a second I brace myself for the worst, like hearing Blondie's dead or something like that.

"Ward's alive." He says, dead serious, looking at us one by one, leaving me the last. "He's alive, and he's on this boat."

"Is this a joke?" I ask, frowning, and feeling my body tense up.

That bastard can't be alive. There's no way in hell he can be alive. No. No. No! He died. He's dead. He's rotting in hell for what he did to my family.

"You gotta be kidding me." JJ mutters from behind me, putting his hand on my hip, and rubbing circles on the exposed skin with his thumb. His touch actually makes me feel better, and I relax my shoulders.

"Are you serious?" Pope says under his breath, shocked.

"It was all a setup, blowing up the boat, the confession to Shoupe. Think about it. That was to clear Rafe's name. And he does what? Goes to the Druthers. And what's on the Druthers?" John B raises his eyebrows speaking the last part.