Carefree || JJ Maybank

Chapter One Hundred Nine

For the whole flight, JJ caught Everleigh up on anything she missed, planting discreet kisses on her face, neck, and head any chance he got. He wanted to make the time they had alone worth it, because they had no idea what was going to happen when they landed. But, they had each other and that was all that mattered.

"We're gonna be landing about a couple hours out if Tres Rocas, at a farm." JJ points to a map. "It's right here." He smiles proudly.

"A couple of hours?" Everleigh asks. She knew that the longer they waited, the less of a chance her dad had at survival.

JJ looks at her eyes which were sad and lost in a daze towards the map. "Yeah, but Barracuda Mike says there's a bus into town we should be able to catch, so..."

"JJ, what if they're not there?" Everleigh asks finally locking eye contact with her boyfriend who looked extremely worried about her.

"If they're not there..." He hesitates, knowing that he'd have to choose his words carefully. "Free vacation. We'll go on an adventure, baby. Come on now." He smiles at her. But she doesn't smile back right away, making his breath hitch in his throat.

But the smile does eventually tug at her cheeks, making them pull into a smile. She nods and runs her thumb along the side of his face. "Surf trip."

JJ nods, looking his girlfriend up and down before kissing the hand that was on his face, making her pull away with a small laugh. "Oh, hey." He starts again, grabbing his backpack and reaching inside. "I don't think you wanna be walking around in a Kitty Hawk shirt. So, I grabbed your emergency clothes."

"My emergency clothes from the Twinkie? Like, the Twinkie that you used as a decoy." She jokes, taking the clothes from his hand. "I'm still not over that."

JJ chuckles and pulling the clothes out. "Do you want the clothes or not?"

Everleigh takes them from his hand and hides behind a piece of cargo so that no one on the plane could see her change. Of course JJ moved, leaning back so he could watch her while also watching to make sure no one else was watching.

She slid on the dusty red tank top that only fell to the middle of her rib cage. The high waisted black denim shorts fit perfectly around her waist. And a sigh of relief slipped from her mouth when he tosses her converse towards her.

"You really thought I didn't grab your converse?" JJ asks while she ties them, a smile never leaving her face.

"I was more worried that they were missing. You know, like my van."

JJ shakes his head while she crawls over to him. "You're never gonna let that go, are you?" He asks as if he didn't already know the answer.

She curls into his side and takes a deep breath. "Just wait until John B finds out."

They both tried to catch a little bit of sleep. JJ and Everleigh cuddled up as much as they could, trying to shut their eyes for even a couple seconds of sleep.

But that was all the next couple hours were, trying to fall asleep. Failing miserably. They both thought they had more time, but they realized they didn't when they felt the plane hit the ground in a landing.

The back opened up and JJ led Everleigh out, hopping out of the plane. JJ walks up to Everleigh and pulls her to his other side. She hadn't realized Mike was standing behind her. Apparently Barracuda Mike picked up on it too, because he walked away. "Damn. Barracuda Mike's got this import-export thing down." He looks around as Everleigh just nods. "Yo, Barracuda, is that our executive coach to Tres Rocas right there?"

Mike walks in front of JJ again. "It is, smartass. Hey. We have a deal, remember? You still owe me for that lost load." Mike speak lowly to JJ, thinking that Everleigh couldn't hear what he was saying.

"I remember, alright?" JJ responds, not giving Mike any eye contact.

Everleigh quickly steps up next to JJ and starts to "Hey, JJ." Mike calls for him one more time, making JJ turn around. "Word of advice. This ain't Kildare. Try and lay low."

"Yeah, sure thing, chief." JJ responds, holding Everleighs hand as they walk towards the crowded bus. Both of them shaking their heads.

They sat there for a couple minutes before the bus finally started moving. That is, much slower than they were really expecting.

About half way through the trip JJ pulled the map out again and asked a local at where they were actually going.

"So right here, you have Tesoro. Up here, Orinoco, right? And they say up here, El Dorado." The man explains as he points around the map.

"Who says?" Everleigh asks.

He looks at her like she was ridiculous. Like she was supposed to know something. "All the world."

Everleigh shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head. Her brows were furrowed in confusion and the bus was shaking roughly from the bumps in the road. "If all the world says it, why hasn't it been found?"

"Some people say it doesn't exist. Some people say it's hidden, and only one very special person can find it." The man continues, earning a sarcastic hum from JJ. "But most people say it's maldito."

"Maldito?" Everleigh questions him.

The man's eyes showed a little fear, but he still nodded towards her. "Cursed. Over the years, people that go up, they don't come back."

JJ chuckles and wraps his arm around Everleigh. He wasn't believing the story that the man was telling them, and he was staring to get bothered by the amount of people. "Funny." He says sarcastically, looking around as they felt like they were still in the middle of no where. "Funny."

Everleigh let her hand rest on his thigh. She could practically feel the uncomfortableness radiating off of his body. The way he pulled Everleigh closer to him and the way his entire body language changed told her everything she needed to know. When she turned and kissed his shoulder, she could tell she was only helping by being there with him. And when he rests his head on hers, they both just sigh and pray that John B and their friends would be there when they got there.