003; I Was Under Duress!
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Adria walked down the street, plastic bag in hand thankful that she decided to braid her hair because of the hot sun already hitting her skin. She was planning on meeting Kiara at the beach but those plans quickly changed as a familiar horn honking caught her attention.
The dark haired girl looked over her shoulder, John B and JJ pull up beside her in the Twinkie.
She raises her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. squinting slightly as she looks between the two.
Adria whistles "just you two, so" she tsks "Something bad is gonna happen" she gives them a playful smile.
John B fake laughs "funny" Adria waves him off with a smile "where are you going?" he asks
"supposed to meet Kie at the Beach" Adria replies as her eyes narrow at the two "where are you two going?"
"We're going to talk to Lana Grubbs" JJ answered .
Adria makes an 'O' shape with her mouth as she nods the two Pogues immediately notice the look in her eyes, Adria Monroe was a girl who chased adventure and you could see it in her eyes.
shrugged and began to walk towards the Twinkie as she opens the back door and climbs in "change of plans, I want to see how this plays out" she shuts the door, tossing the bag filled with drinks and snacks on the floor and leans her head in between the front seats her arms resting on them with a smile.
John B nods as he begins to drive again "I seen that coming"
Adria scoffs "No you didn't"
"I did, it's like the motel again" John B glances at her "you Adria Monroe, are too curious for your own good"
JJ nodded and looked to her "yeah besides, you also like, get this like glint in your eyes"
her brows raised "a glint in my eyes? You notice a glint in my eyes?" the blonde nods "yeah" he answers as if it was obvious.
A small smile rests on her face as she looks at the boy.
"you know what that means" John B said his eyes still on the road in front of him "You're turning full Pogue"
"well that's scary, my mother might kill me" she jokes with a chuckle leaning back into the seat a small smile still on her face.
After awhile JJ started going on about how he's certain Kiara likes John B "I'm just saying, I don't understand why you don't at least try with Kiara, she clearly likes you"
The blonde looks over his shoulder "back me up, Drea"
Adria raises her hands "Oh, I'm not gonna get involved, if she likes you, she likes you, if she doesn't, she doesn't"
She shrugs "besides if I did know, which I don't" she sternly looks at the two "I wouldn't rat my Cousin out"
JJ waves her off "she's like 'Oh John B' " he raises his voice to sound like Kie causing Adria's face to contort at his impression.
John B looks at his friend with a raised brow "is that what she does?"
"She's sketching about you diving, then she kissed you, bro" JJ looks at the brunette, his feet resting on the dash of the car.
John B looked back to the road "she kissed me on the cheek, it's not like we were making out"
"Low-hanging fruit bro" John B tosses his head back.
"See, I never like to agree with JJ, but lets be honest we've all thought about making out with someone in the group" she shrugs.
The two boys almost simultaneously look at her Brows furrowed, She bunches her shoulders "What? JJ tried hitting on Kiara, Pope clearly has a thing for her, as well as you JB. Me and JJ flirt back and forth it doesn't necessarily mean anything"
JJ hummed before looking back at John B "Don't pretend you don't notice, I see it in your eyes. You're like 'I kinda like that, ' and you start blushing and shit" he changes the subject back to the previous conversation because JJ must prove his point.
"I blush?" John B asks getting fed up with his friend.
JJ nods "Yeah"
Adria leans in between the two seats tilting her head "you do blush"
JJ gestures to Adria "see, my point exactly"
The blonde leans forward as he grabs the compass- Adria swore he was ADHD or something by the way he could just switch tasks like that.
John B reaches forward to take it from him but JJ smacks his hand away "I'm just looking at it"
"I got to admit, your father's compass in Scooter's boat, that's freaky" JJ spoke as he looked over the compass.
Adria nods "yeah, I second that"
John B looks between the two "Yeah. That's why we're going to talk to Ms. Lana, and figure this whole thing out"
"and I'm sure she would just love to talk to us," JJ said sarcastically "it's not like her husband just drowned or anything"
Adria reaches forward and takes the compass from JJ's hand as she looks at it, she hopped she'd find some weird clue that leads them on a scavenger hunt- like in the movies, but with out the life threatening and trauma inducing events.
Adria looks up, feeling someone's gaze on her "What?"
the blonde Pogue shakes his head as he frowns with a shrug "nothing"
Adria narrows her eyes at him before handing the compass back to John B.
. . .
John B parked the Twinkie as the three climb out of the van and begin to walk towards Lana's house.
"now that's a colourful house" Adria muttered as she looked at the brightly painted walls that the paint was beginning to chip off.
"you know what this house looks like?" JJ turns to her as she hums and raises her brows "whoever lives here smokes too much weed"
Adria chuckles softly as they get closer to the house but her laughs soon faded away when glass shattering filled her ears, causing her to jump ever so slightly.
The three start to slow as more banging and crashes came from Lana's house "Bullshit!" a mans voice was heard.
"maybe we should come back" JJ spoke
John B shook his head "No, no, shut up JJ"
"John B" Adria uttered as the crouch down slightly, hopeful the Routledge would come to his senses and leave but that didn't seem to change.
"tell me where it is or I'll fuck you up" the mans voice was heard again along with Lana's sobs "I'll sink you in the fucking-" a loud crash came from the house as Adria flinches as the three duck slightly.
Lana let out a scream "you're hurting me"
"Guys" Adria whispered but John B shushed her "come on" the three run up beside the house.
"where the fuck is it!" the man yelled once again "I don't know!" Lana screamed through her sobs as stuff continued to crash down as what sounded like two men trashed her home.
"is it here in this house!"
"or is it somewhere else!" Adria's breath grew shaky as she heard Lana's sobs "I- I didn't--"
JJ runs up and pulls John B down from the window as he whispers something to him but John B raises his finger "shut up" he whisper yelled.
Another loud bang was heard causing Adria to squeeze her eyes shut "still think we should stay?" JJ gave his friend a questioning look.
Adria shakes her head "I don't" she comments her eyes opening and her pleading gaze lands on John B.
"where is it, the compass wasn't in the boat so where is it Lana!" the mans voice boomed.
"I don't know!" she continued to sob, Glass shattered once again with a loud thud, chipping paint began to fall from the outside of the house onto them.
The banging of the men trashing Lana's house continued.
Adria stared at the grass beneath her before her eyes close once again. it felt as if the whole wall was shaking from the commotion inside the house.
When she was younger her parents had split up for a short time considering they weren't married when they had her and barley in their twenties so arguments between the young couple would break out.
But during that time while they had split her mother had boyfriends that would come and go and let's just say she knew how to pick them. All of them either had some problem with drinking or some serious anger issues which did not go unnoticed by Adria.
Adria snapped out of her trance when she felt JJ's hand on hers and his worried eyes scanning over her features. Adria pressed her lips together and gave him a reassuring nod.
Lana continued to sob "let's get the hell out of here, man"
John B walked around them as the stood up still standing low enough so they wouldn't be seen through the window "we should just go. he's got smuggler--"
"Shut up" John B cut off JJ off, he peered around the house he quickly ducked back behind the wall.
Adria watches carefully, the men walk towards their boat her brows furrowing ever so slightly at the familiarity of the men.
"Dude, those were the guys that shot at us" JJ whispered.
"go back, go back, go back" John B ushered as they swiftly move down the house.
The motor of a boat filled the teens ears before the two men drive off.
Once they were gone Adria and JJ follow John B as they walk up and through the open door to the Grubbs house.
Adria grabbed John B's arm stopping him before he got too far into the house "JB, we should just go" she whispered but John B just shrugged her off and continued through the house.
"Mrs. Lana?" John B called out as they moved through the house.
Adria's eyes drift over the trashed house, broken glass and lose papers scattered the floor, bookshelves and end tables knocked over.
Adria's heart sank at the sight of the sobbing Lana Grubbs who held her legs close to her chest as she sat on the floor. Adria felt almost in a sense guilty about not doing anything.
John B rushed over to her "hey, hey, are you Okay?"
Lana gasped slightly when John B touched her "hey, it's okay"
"dude she's tweaking" Adria glanced at JJ as she finally walked over to the two.
"do you need a doctor?" John B asked the woman before looking to JJ and Adria "let's call the Sheriff's department"
"No" Lana looked between the three as her head shook "no cops, please"
"Mm" JJ hummed "that's not good, come on dude, let's just go"
Lana shook her head, her gaze on John B "you shouldn't be here"
JJ shrugged "that's enough for me. Come on" the blonde placed his hand on Adria's shoulder and began to guide her out.
"Just wait, wait" John B grabbed him
Adria tilted her head "John B" she murmured but the brunette waved her off once again causing her to sigh.
"what do you know about these guys" he asks Lana.
"they were looking for something" she spoke her voice cracking slightly.
John B searched through his pockets before pulling out the compass "does it have anything to do with this?" Lana's face quickly fell which didn't go unmissed by Adria.
"do you know anything about this?" he questions "this was my fathers and Scooter had it, why?"
Lana took a shaky breath "Scooter didn't have it Okay, don't tell anyone you have that, they can't know that you have that!" her voice raises slightly "you gotta get out of here!"
"what do you know about the compass?" John B asked firmly as he kept persisting the woman.
Lana shook her head "go! get out!" she hollers at the teens.
JJ grabs his friends arm "We gotta go, let's go"
John B reluctantly left the house following JJ and Adria as they head back to the Twinkie.
Adria's eyes close as she takes a deep breath "I should've met up with Kie" she muttered under her breath before hoping into the vehicle.
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"And then we were right outside like this, and all we here is just Bam! Bam! Bam! knocking paint off the wall G, from the inside" JJ explains to the group after everyone was called over to John B's and of course after Adria had to explain why she bailed on Kiara.
"and I was just looking at him like-- wait first off, look at this shit" he takes a step forward and runs his hands through his hair knocking out pieces of the paint mixed with dandruff.
Kie looks at him with furrowed brows "that's dandruff "
Pope pushes him away "Okay, thank you"
JJ stands straight "look at all that, that's paint just look at Adria's hair" he points to her, she glances up to the blonde then to the rest of the group as she pulled out a piece of paint that she missed from her hair, that was no longer braided.
"at that point I was just like. ." JJ paused "I'm waiting for death"
Pope's hands were on his temples "Okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?"
JJ nodded as he paced back and forth "yeah"
"um, did" Pope looks up to the blonde "Did you get a good description of them? what they look like"
"yeah, anything, anything's helpful" Kiara adds with a nod.
Pope nods "anything we can give to a police report maybe?"
JJ pauses for a moment as he looks deep in thought "Burly"
"Burly" Pope recites with raised brows
"yeah" JJ nods "you know like--"
"that's not very helpful" Kiara rests her head on her hands.
"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dads garage, I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers" JJ looks at the group
Kie nods "yeah, we know"
"alright so I can tell you, with full confidence guys. . These boys, these killers" JJ leans against the wall "They're square groupers"
Pope looks up to the blonde "they're square groupers, like narco square groupers, like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"
JJ nods "yeah, man"
"Guys" Kiara looks between the two "not everything's a kingpin movie"
"Okay, so what does this square grouper look like, specifically?" Pope questioned.
"you weren't there bro!" JJ's voice raised.
"because apparently you don't know what to look for!" Pope hollers back.
"dude I wasn't taking little mental polaroid's the entire time I was under duress, Okay?" JJ's voice raised "But I can tell you . . . I can tell you by the way Ms. Lana was screaming that these guys are serious, serious Hombres, man"
Kie glances at Adria then to John B who was holding the compass "it's a heavy vibe right now, okay" Adria's attention turns back to JJ "I'm not liking this very much"
"Okay, why do they want the compass?" Kiara questions with a shrug.
"that things a piece of shit, you couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to" Pope comments before swiftly looking at John B "No offence John B, I know it's like in your family"
"the office" John B spoke cutting Pope off.
"what?" Pope asks with furrowed brows.
"My dad, my dads office, he always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his royal merchant research" he walked towards the door, the group sharing looks before following after him.
"I mean we used to laugh at him about it like he was gonna find it, but now that he's gone, I've just kind of . . I just left it as he kept it" John B spoke as he searched for the key.
Kiara nods "yeah, for when he gets back" she raises brows at the others as Adria begins to nod.
"yeah" John B utters as he unlocks the door to the office and walks in.
Pope looks around the room "wow, I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened"
Adria nods with a hum as she looks at the walls that were filled with everything and anything about the Royal Merchant.
"here look" John B's voice caught her attention as she joined the others.
He sets down a cork board "here, look. This is the original owner, right here" he points to a picture with a man in a military uniform
"Okay. Robert Q. Routledge, 1880 to 1920" Kie reads out.
Adria looks at the picture from beside her as she points "there's the lucky compass, right there"
"actually Um" Adria's gaze falls on John B "he was shot after he bought it, then the compass was shipped back to Henry. Henry was killed in a crop dusting accident when he had the compass, after he died, the compass was given to Stephan, Stephan had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam"
"let me guess he died in action right" JJ glanced to his friend.
John B tilts his head slightly "sort of, Uh . . Actually, he was killed by a banana truck in-- in country. Anyways after that Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad"
Adria made an o shape with her mouth as she looked between John B and the pictures with slightly furrowed brows.
"Hm, sounds like a reoccurring theme here" JJ spoke up.
"yeah um, you have a death compass" Pope deadpans.
John B gives him a look "No, I do not have a death compass"
"you have a death compass" Pope said once again.
"seriously dude get rid of it" JJ adds "it's cursed and it's made it's way back to you"
Adria nods in agreement "I mean it's a little sketchy how people in your family died with the compass"
"look" John B sits down in the chair "my dad used to talk about this compartment in here" he begins to twist the bottom off the compass "soldiers used to hide secret notes" the bottom comes off as he shakes the compass but nothing falls out.
"what's that" Kie points to the other part of the compass with writing on it from where she stood behind him.
John B's brows raise "that wasn't there before" he muttered before looking at his friends "this is my dads handwriting"
Pope had an unconvinced look on his face "how can you know that?"
John B holds up the compass "cause he does these weird R's with the-- see it"
"can I see it?" JJ asks as John B shows him the compass Adria beside him.
"red-- Rout-- No I think that's an A--" JJ spoke to himself as he tries to read the handwriting
"It's says Redfield" Kiara deadpans looking at the blonde.
He nods "right"
"Okay, well what does Redfield mean?" Kiara questions
"besides the most common name in the country" Adria gave Pope a look at his words.
John B sighs as he leans back in the chair "maybe it's a clue, maybe it's a clue where he's hiding"
"A clue come on that's--" Pope trailed off seeing the look on Kie's face his expression changed "well if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"
John B points to him as he swiftly gets up from his seat "yes. Perfect. Anagram. you need paper" he grabs a piece of paper setting it down in front of Pope.
Adria looks towards the window as the rooster crows once again, like it had been almost the entire time they had arrived there.
"How can you concentrate with that thing constantly crowing at you?" Pope questioned as he looked at the paper.
"JJ loves the rooster" John B simply said with a shrug.
"I love the rooster" Kie adds and Adria nods in a agreement "yeah, why don't you love the rooster, Pope?"
Pope glanced at her "Okay, well I didn't say that"
"yeah, well I'm just screwing with you" Adria lightly smacks his arm with a smile.
Pope shakes his head with a half smile looking back at the paper "Okay, let me think . . . Dedfield. colours-- that's stupid"
"what about Ritalin" JJ suggests
Adria's brows furrow "Dreidel?"
"What about Fiddler?" Kiara adds
The four stood trying to re-arrange the words to a different one before getting pulled away by John B's voice "Guys, Guys! somebody's here"
They make their way over to John B looking out at the window, Adria's eyes land on a black truck in front of the house her face fell at the sight of the two men as her heart began to race.
"guys, guys, is that them?" Kiara's voice was laced with worry as she looks between the three Pogues "is that them?"
As soon as Kiara's eyes seen Adria's expression the panic immediately set in those were the guys who had shot at them the previous day, and those were the guys at Lana Grubbs.
JJ walked away from the window running a hand through his hair "John B, I told you, why does it always─"
"JJ, hey!" John B grabbed his friends shoulders as he practically rams his friend into the wall "where's the gun?"
"Gun, I-, Uh, I can't─"
Kiara's eyes widen "Now you don't have the gun, The one time we need a gun?" her voice wavered
Adria's eyes fall closed, her hand on her chest as she try's to calm her rapid heart beat and unsteady breathing.
JJ's brows cinch together as he try's to remember where the gun was last "It was in my backpack, and then I─"
"Backpack" John B cut him off "it's on the porch"
JJ's eyes fly open "the porch!" he rushes towards the door exiting the room
"John Booker Routledge!" the man's voice echoed through the house, causing shivers to run up Adria's spine.
Adria was never sure that she had felt real fear until now, in this very moment with those two men storming through the house.
JJ stumbled back rushing into the room shutting the door quickly behind him "where's the compass?"
"Where's the gun?" John B fires back
JJ takes a breath "they're on the front porch"
Adria jumps at the loud bang came from outside the door.
"Guys we need to get out of here" Kiara whispered as she looked around the room "window, guys the window"
JJ and Pope rushed towards the window as they try to pull it open but it wouldn't budge.
"what's happening, why's it taking so long" Kiara questioned with her panicked tone as she and Adria approached the two
"It's painted shut, okay" the blonde answers before he and Pope continue to try and pry the window open.
Adria rushed over to a desk in the room pulling open one of the drawers as she rummages through the junk before pulling out a small knife used for opening letters.
she walks back over to the two boys "here, move" she places it down on the paint as she tries to limit the shakiness of her hands and begins to cut through the paint.
"Come on, Come one" JJ whispered.
Adria takes a breath glancing over her shoulder "I'm going as fast as I can"
hushes came from Pope and John B who were leaning against the door, Adria stopped what she was doing and looked at the two.
the room was silent for a moment, Adria's eyes dart to the door handle as it jiggled before it got pounded on "You better not be in there!" the mans voice boomed.
Adria's eyes widen as she turns to the window once again, her trembling hands didn't ease as she runs the knife over the paint once more.
"try it now" she spoke as she steps back from the window.
The banging on the door continued, the men trying to kick the door in as Pope and John B rushed next to the window as JJ tried desperately to open it.
Kiara stood close next Adria taking her hand as they watched the door, Adria flinched as a gunshot filed her ears.
the window opened as they began to pile out, Adria began to climb out the window trying to go as quickly as she could but without any of her limbs giving out on her from the shear panic coursing through her veins.
Her hands rested on the edge of the window as she slid down and letting go, her feet hitting the ground.
The teens rushed towards the chicken coop, as they all piled into the small space, Adria got as close to the wall as she possibly could.
Her eyes squeeze shut as the rooster crows once again from the five teens basically sitting in it'S 'house'
"do something Pope, shut it up" JJ whispers to him.
Pope had a dumbfounded expression on his face "What do you want me to do?"
"pet it, talk to it. I don't know" Kiara added her voice cracking, tears running down her face.
The rooster continued to crow, and the panic continued to build inside the teens.
"you do something" Pope whispered.
JJ got up as he grabbed ahold of the chicken, his hands wrapping around its neck. Adria looked away from the scene closing her eyes.
A snap filled her ears, she uses her hand to cover her mouth as tears begin to run down her face as the different possibilities rush through her mind.
After what felt like an eternity, the sound of the truck starting filled the teens ears as they watch through the cracks of the Chicken coop, the men finally driving away, the panic and fear slowly starting to leave.
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A/N: I swear I'm gonna be more consistent with updates but anyways Hope you all enjoyed Love you all!!
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