ᴍʏ ᴘᴀʀᴀᴍᴏᴜʀ | ꜱ.ᴄᴀᴍᴇʀᴏɴ

eight.

Marley groaned at the heat radiating at this moment. You'd think someone living in the heat year-round would adjust, but at this moment, Marley despised it. After the Lana encounter, the trio returned to the chateau to explain to Pope and Kiara. While the explanations were underway, Marley had Kiara do some Dutch braids on her hair to keep it from sticking to her neck.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at JJ's dramatics every now and then as he explained the story to his friends. However, she also couldn't help but smile, throwing in some sarcastic insults to humble her brother. Marley grinned at Kiara once the girl tapped her shoulder, signaling that she was done. She made her way to a seat as JJ began explaining the paint falling on the trio, ruffling his hair to show the white bits that fell from it.

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kiara muttered, making a face toward the boy as she continued to watch him ruffle his hair. Marley couldn't help but stifle a laugh at this.

"Okay, thank you." Pope awkwardly smiled as he pushed JJ's head away from his face.

"Look at all that. All right?" He exclaimed as he watched what fell out of his hair land on the floor, "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 asked, his hands in his head.

"It was them." Marley chimed in with a nod.

"Did you get a description of them?" Pope questioned, looking towards the twins, "What did they look like?"

"Anythings, helpful." Kie added.

Pope nodded at the girls words, "Anything we can bring to a police record."

"Burly." JJ voiced with confidence, looking at his sister for reassurance, to which she shrugged with a nod.

"Burly?" Pope looked at the boy as if he was serious, then towards Marley with the same look. It wasn't exactly the word she would use.

"Yeah, you know, like-" He attempted to convey the meaning by using gestures with his body.

"That's not very helpful," Kie pointed out.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at our dad's garage," Motioning towards Marley as he explained, "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know." Kiara nodded, noting the change in the boy's voice at the mention of his dad.

"I can tell you in full confidence, these boys, these killers..." He paused, leaning against the brick wall of the chateau, taking a hit of his vape. He exhaled the smoke before continuing, "They're square groupers."

Marley nodded in agreement with JJ's assessment, her gaze focused on the lingering smoke from his vape. "Yeah, JJ's got a point. Those guys are definitely square groupers," she affirmed, sharing a subtle glance with her brother.

"They're square groupers, like narco square groupers, like Pablo Escobar square groupers?" Pope questioned with disbelief, particularly directed at Marley, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing from both siblings.

"Yeah, man." JJ nodded, exhaling from his vape once more.

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kiara glanced between the twins.

"What does a square grouper look like?" Pope's question came across as quite harsh, at least in Marley's eyes, "Specifically?"

"You weren't there, bro." JJ shook his head.

"Apparently, you guys don't know what to look for." Pope conveyed frustration in his tone as he spoke, gesturing with his hands.

"Dude! We weren't taking mental polaroids the entire time, man. I was under duress, okay?" JJ explained, his voice raising a bit, a hint of crack evident, "But I can tell you...I can tell you the way that Ms.Lana was screaming...that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."