Salty Summer | JJ Maybank

Chapter Four

Intruders

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The West family had gathered for breakfast, but the atmosphere was tense. Marley was lost in thought about the compass and was absentmindedly playing with the straw in her smoothie. Meanwhile, her sister Charlotte was absorbed in her phone reading messages from Rafe.

Suddenly, Marley rose from her seat, placed her dish on the counter, and headed toward the front door. "I'm heading out, not sure when I'll be back." She said as she grabbed her key.

"Going to hang out with the Pogues? In the marsh again? You know Scooter Grubbs was found dead there the other day." Charlotte queried but only received a shrug from her sister.

Their mother spoke up, her voice gentle "You were in the marsh?"

"Yeah." Marley spoke as she unlocked the door.

"Did you find anything?" Her mother questioned with a look of suspicion.

"No, nothing. I'm gonna go now." Marley lied.

"Marley, you know I don't like when you go out with them." Stephanie exclaimed sternly, shaking her head. Ever since Stephanie went through a divorce and John B's dad went missing, she's become more cautious about Marley hanging out with the Pogues. She started setting curfews and being more protective.

"Kie is gonna be there!" Marley countered.

Her mother snapped, "Kiara is a bad influence on you!"

"I'll see you later" Marley changed the subject as she shut the door and walked away from her home. She couldn't help but feel frustrated by her mother's disapproval of her friends. Slowly, she made her way to the château, unsure of what was going to happen next.

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A while later Marley arrived at the Château. She sat beside Kie while JJ explained the events of what had happened at Ms. Lana's. John B stood silently of to the side. "And we were right outside like this. And all we hear is just, Bam! Bam! Bam! Knocking paint the wall, G! From the inside. All right? And I'm just looking at him, like- wait first off, look at this shit." JJ rushed over to Pope and Marley brushing his hands roughly through his hair all over them.

"That's just dandruff." Pope stated while Marley pulled a face.

"Okay, okay, we see."

"Look at all that. All right? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death." JJ described.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right? Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" Pope interrogated.

"Yeah anything about them?"  Kiara added.

"Anything from Ms. Lana?"  Marley questioned.

"Burly." JJ replied "you know like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers. But I can tell you with full confidence, that these boys, theses killers."
He paused to take a hit from his vape, "they are square groupers."

"Square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope stated as he held his head in his hands.