𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊, 𝗃𝗈𝗁𝗇 𝖻 𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗍𝗅𝖾𝖽𝗀𝖾

9: 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜

The Maybank siblings and John B found themselves on John B's porch with Kie and Pope, all of them listening to JJ go full out, explaining about their time at Lana Grubbs residence. Y/n and John B stood side by side as they listened to her brother.

"And then we were right outside like this. And all we hear is just, "Bam! Bam! Bam!" Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm just looking at him and trying to keep Y/n safe, like-" JJ rambles, then suddenly cutting himself off. "Wait, first off, look at this shit."

He walks over to Kie and Pope, bending down as he starts to ruffle his blonde hair, the specks of paint falling out.

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kie comments.

"Look at all that. Alright?" JJ stands back up. "That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death."

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asks, getting a nod in response. "Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like? Anything we can bring to a police report?"

"Burly." JJ responds.

"Burly?" Pope repeats.

"That's not very helpful." Kie informs.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at our dad's garage." JJ says, gesturing between him and Y/n. "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers. I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers... they're square groupers."

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope questions.

"Yeah, man." JJ nods, taking a hit of his vape.

"You guys," Kie begins. "not everything is a kingpin movie."

"Okay, what does this square grouper look like? Specifically?" Pope asks. "Because apparently you don't know what to look for!"

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental polaroids the entire time, man. I was under duress, okay?" JJ exclaims. "But I can tell you... I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man. It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

"Okay, why would they want the compass?" Kie questions.

"That thing's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." Pope pauses, looking up at the brunette. "No offense, John B. I know it's in your family-"

"The office." John B interrupts.

"What?" Pope murmurs.

"My dad. My dad's office." John B responds, walking into the house, the others following. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him all the time about it, like he was actually gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it."

"Yeah, for when he gets back." Y/n responds, nodding as they stop outside of his office.

At her words, Pope, Kie, and JJ all share a little glance with each other. Y/n notices and gives them a look, as to which silently telling them not to say anything about the sensitive topic. However, John B doesn't notice, instead, fiddling with the lock before opening the door to his father's office.

"I've slept over here like six hundred times," Pope begins as they walk in. "and I've never seen this door opened."

"Here, look." John B places a pin board in front of them. "This is the original owner, right here."