CHAPTER THREE,
fool me once, shame on you.

     TO SAY THAT Jaylene was annoyed was by far the biggest understatement of the freaking century.

The blood that road through her body felt as if it was boiling, her anger only managing to increase as time passed by.

She sat in silence on a couch located on the patio of what she assumed was Terrance's home, her arms crossed like a child with her foot anxiously bouncing on the ground as she waited and waited, avoiding Marleen who had made one too many attempts at talking to her. There was a voice inside of her head telling her to make a run for it, but she was under the supervision of both: Terrance and Stubbs. Though she could easily outsmart Stubbs, who couldn't possibly hold the capacity to realize he was falling under her trap, there was still Terrance to deal with which was most definitely not something she wanted to do, so all she could do now was wait for whatever mess came next.

"Here." Marleen's voice snapped her from her thoughts, extending a water bottle out towards her which Jaylene refused, being far too angry to deal with her mother right now. "Oh, will you stop being a child-"

A stifled laugh left Jaylene's lips, her eyes rolling. "I spent so much time defending you when people said you were unhinged, but I'm beginning to realize that they were right all along." She bitterly spoke, staring at the plants in front of her, not daring to make eye contact with her mother who was standing by the doorframe.

"That ain't no way to speak to your mother." Terrance intervened, pouring himself another cup of whiskey from the mini-bar he had set outside his patio.

"No one asked for your opinion, Terrance!" Jaylene spat, far too annoyed with the fact that he had quite literally kidnapped her and brought her here where she was being forced to deal with Marleen despite trying to avoid her. She did wonder when the blonde-haired woman had revealed that she actually was her daughter, but she didn't care enough about that right now. "You're the one who told me to make a run for it. Did you just change your mind and suddenly decide that you needed to have me kidnapped?" She turned her attention towards Marleen, making eye contact with her just so she could send a death glare in her direction

"I'm trying to protect you." Marleen made an attempt to reason with her furious teenage daughter, unsure how to talk to her after all these years of being away from her. Last she'd seen her, the eldest Rosewood child was easier to deal with, but since then, the hormones had kicked in and they sure were making her life hell right now.

"Oh, you're protecting me?" Jaylene knew that the sentence had triggered something inside of her, forcing her teeth to sink down into her bottom lip as she slammed her hands down on the couch, standing to her full height.  "Where the hell were you to protect me all those other times? When I swallowed a bunch of pills, sniffed cocaine out of a dirty dollar bill? Where the hell were you when I overdosed on pills that were laced by that psychotic bitch that dad married after you left us?" She could feel herself holding back the tears, her voice becoming hoarse from the shouting. "I needed you! I needed my mother and instead of fighting for Nathaniel and me, you left!"

Marleen could've sworn her heart dropped to her stomach at the revelation of what Jaylene's life had been like. She'd always assumed that she'd done good by leaving her children in the care of the wealthy businessman that was Henderson Rosewood. Now come to find out that he didn't know a damn thing about parenting two teenagers and that he'd married some said psychopath caused her conscience to grow guilty—guiltier, that is.

     But before anything else could be said, the patio door opened, revealing John b with Cleo following close behind him, her sharp knife twirling in her hand which only caused Jaylene to turn her head away before making eye contact with her boyfriend.

     "Found him wandering around lookin' for you." Cleo's accent traveled through the air, a hint of amusement trailing in her tone which nearly set Jaylene off the rails.

     Slowly, she turned her head in his direction, resisting the urge to slap him across the face for his stupidity that had landed them here to begin with. When he tried to get near her, she shoved him off of her, pointing a steady finger at him to express how infuriated she was. "Don't touch me! You so much as look at me and I'll literally gauge your eyeballs out!" She threatened him, staring deep into his eyes with her eyes formed into slits as she watched him stumble back into Stubbs, the stronger boy gripping a hand around John B's neck. If it wasn't for the rage setting her body ablaze, she might've tried to help him, but instead, she just watched him struggle, watching him gasp for air as he extended his arm out, attempting to wrap it around Stubbs' neck to make this a fair fight.

     "Best not to provoke him. Never ends well." Terrance hid a laugh beneath his words, pouring himself another drink.

     "Geez, your liver probably hates you right now," Jaylene muttered under her breath at the amount of whiskey he'd drank since she'd been here.

     Terrance glanced over at her, choosing to pretend as if he hadn't heard her snarky comment because he was in no mood to deal with her. "You can run, but you can't hide, John B. I've got eyes and ears everywhere." He watched Stubbs shove the breathless boy onto one of the nearby patio chairs, swishing his drink around. "Took you long enough." He glanced over at an irritated Cleo, watching her teeth clench.

     "Next time, get him yourself." Cleo shrugged in response, not caring much about what Terrance had to say.

     "After all our hospitality, you left without saying goodbye."

     "You offered us disgusting crap that you called soup and had us chased down the moment we docked." Jaylene rolled her eyes in annoyance, allowing her body to fall back into a chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "If we're calling that hospitality, then I should write a thank you letter to the rehab center I was shipped off to cause that food was far from edible and don't even get me started on the security guards. Those sons of bitches sure know how to chase you down." She crinkled her face in disgust, further annoying the captain with her unwanted comments.

     Side-eyeing her, Terrance looked back over at John B, knitting his eyebrows. "You two ain't going nowhere, so get comfortable. I sure am." He chuckled to himself, lifting his glass cup as he leaned back on a chair.

     "Are you stupid? Like genuinely fucking stupid?" Jaylene twirled a piece of her hair around her index finger, leaning her body forward. She looked in Terrance's direction, making sure that he knew just how little he scared her. "Even if you turn him in, you do realize that wanted posters are just for show, right? The chances of you getting that money are one in a million. You turn him in and then what? You seriously think they're just gonna have fifty grand waiting for you?" She cocked an eyebrow upwards, heaving an amused laugh as she watched the grin fall from his face. "And what if they find out about all the contraband you smuggled onto the island? Still think you're gonna get that reward money?"

"Jaylene—" Marleen tried to intervene, a hand moving towards Jaylene's shoulder which was quickly shaken off by the brunette.

"What's your plan, huh?" Jaylene was genuinely curious, knowing damn well that the man and his crew hadn't thought this far through. "I mean, he didn't do shit. He didn't kill anyone. And me? You so much as lay a finger on me and I'll send your ass—"

"I can pay you." John B cut her off mid-sentence, not thinking his words through which only set a match to the fire burning inside of Jaylene.

"I'm done with your threats." Terrance carelessly swung his gun around, pointing it upwards with the safety off. He turned towards John B: who was yet again getting shoved by Stubbs. "You got 50k in your pocket? If not, I don't wanna hear it."

Jaylene had to hold herself down at this point. She had always been able to talk her way out of dangerous situations she'd landed herself into, but John B wasn't being much help right now. He was terrified, she had picked up on that when he first walked in, but that didn't mean that she wasn't. Truth? She didn't know whether they were making it out of here, but she needed to make an effort.

John B reached for his backpack, feeling it get torn from his back by Stubbs who was quick to unzip it, tossing it towards Jaylene who was quick with her reflexes.

She looked towards Terrance, remaining calm despite the goosebumps that lined her skin at the gun that was pointed in her direction. Carefully, she unzipped the small pocked, reaching her hand into the backpack, except when her hand came back up, she pretended to have a gun in it, finding some sort of amusement as she watched the older man fiddle with the gun in his hand.

"You're supposed to remove the safety before firing that thing, T," Jaylene mumbled, reaching into the bag again to reveal the horrible melt job that Kiara had done on the bars of gold.

Growing annoyed with her chaotic sense of humor, Terrance examined the item in her hand. "What is that?"

From afar, Marleen's eyes widened in disbelief. She spotted the wheat symbol on it before anything else, her heart racing rapidly. They'd found the damn gold. She remembered receiving a call from John Routledge close to a year ago, but she'd been busy at work, so all she heard was a voicemail he'd left for her.

"What's it look like?" Jaylene continued to question these people's intelligence, her voice flat as she spoke.

"Give it to me." He demanded, holding his hand out towards her.

"Give it to him!" Stubbs ordered in a much louder tone, staring at the shiny clump of gold that rested in the palm of the Rosewood girl's hand.

"How 'bout I chuck it at your head instead? Maybe it'll fix the lobotomy someone gave you as a child!" Jaylene had fully lost her temper at this point, tired of having to take orders from these people.

What she didn't expect was to hear the safety of the gun clicking, her breath hitching in her throat at the sudden realization that it was hovering above her forehead now. The cold metal sent chills down her spine, her entire body frozen in place at this situation her big mouth had landed her into. Luckily for her, Marleen rushed to her defense, a gun of her own planted on the base of Terrance's skull.

"Hey, man, get that away from her!" John B made an attempt to rush to her defense, only to be setback by Stubbs who shoved him back, preventing him from getting much further.

"Put it down!" Marleen ordered, her finger directly on the trigger which only required the slightest amount of pressure for her to set it off, blowing the man's brain out in the process. And she kept it there until he slowly set the gun down, placing the safety back on. "You point that thing in her direction again and I swear to god, I will kill you and feed you to the fish, ya hear me?" Her voice held a menacing tone, signifying that she meant every word, which in all honesty, terrified Jaylene a bit more than the gun that had previously been pointed at her. When she didn't receive a response, her finger pressed down onto the trigger, not enough to set it off, but enough to scare the man. "I said—"

"I hear ya, Mar," Terrance spoke through gritted teeth, glaring at the woman beside him who lowered her gun down, inching it away from his face.

"I think the whole island heard ya." Cleo snickered in amusement, the terrified expression on Terrance's face a few seconds ago making her wish she had a camera to capture the moment. "Man, you should've seen his face. He was all ahh don't shoot me." She clapped her hands together, mocking his expression as she laughed to herself while everyone else watched, still on the edge about what had just happened.

"One hundred and forty-three thousand. That's how much that stupid thing is worth." Jaylene cleared her throat, shoving aside everything that had just occurred. She just wanted to get out of her with her brain still intact. "You keep it and you let us go. That's the deal. It's worth more than the bounty you're after."

Looking back up at her, Terrance gave her a hesitant look, passing the heavy chunk of gold over to Cleo who briefly examined it, tapping it slightly.

"Tell you what. That's your rescue fee. But I want my bounty too." He showed no mercy towards the brown-haired boy, watching Stubbs hold him back to prevent him from getting away despite his pleas for help.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that we were negotiating." Jaylene scoffed, her snarky comments returning which only caused her mother to send her a look of disapproval.

"That's just one! There's more!" John B shouted before he could be dragged away, his words being enough to stop Stubbs from pulling him away from the rest. "I went to Paradise Island. There are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of that gold there. It is an empty, defenseless house. She has the entry codes."

Jaylene had to swallow thickly, avoiding John B's stares. She did know the codes to many things in that house, but only because once upon a time, she and Rafe Cameron had been the good ol' snow bunnies who snorted coke together occasionally, but John B didn't need to know that what he'd said wasn't an entire lie.

"He lyin'?" Terrance quirked a brow up at her, anticipating her response.

With a shake of her head, Jaylene parted her lips. "It's a family friend's house. I spent a few summers there before, but that's beside the point." She cleared her throat again, sniffing in the process. "The gold is in that house. I can and will get you to it, but you are on your own after that."

________________

WHEN NIGHT APPROACHED, the humidity had grown thicker, the disgusting warmth clinging onto Jaylene's skin which caused her face to twist in disgust. She sat beside John B inside of the truck he was driving, her gaze never meeting his as she looked up at the night sky, the stars twinkling billions of miles away which helped calm her frantic mind. Her entire body felt tense, the thought of going into someone else's home without their knowing making her grow severely uncomfortable. It didn't matter that it was the Cameron household and they were going after the gold that Ward Cameron had stolen from right beneath their noses; something about it didn't feel right, she just couldn't place her finger on it just yet.

It didn't help that Marleen had stayed behind for this part. Jaylene had noticed her change in body language when the infamous Cameron last name was brought up. As much as she would've loved to know why that reaction had been brought out, she figured it was best not to ask. Right now was about tackling one situation at a time.

"How long is this silent treatment gonna go on?" The sound of John B's voice forced her attention to turn towards him, his eyes set on the road ahead.

Jaylene rolled her eyes, scooting closer to the door to avoid being near him. She pressed her head against the glass window, the speed bumps proving themselves to be a pain in the ass. Instead of replying to him, she sighed, rotating her body slightly to open the window that looked into the trunk where three bodies were lying under a large tarp. "I have to ask: have you miraculously come up with a plan yet or are you gonna pull one out of your ass?" She questioned no one in particular, dragging her tongue across her bottom lip with her eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"Held a gun to girlie's head and she still don't know how to keep her mouth shut." She heard Terrance's muffled voice from beneath the thin barrier separating them.

"It's a piece of tarp, T, I can hear everything you're saying," Jaylene muttered, bringing her hand back up to the small sliding window to shut it closed again.

"It's best you don't know," Cleo replied to the girl's previous question before the thicker barrier between them was shut.

"Seriously, Jay. How long do you plan on staying mad at me?" John B made another attempt to talk to the girl seated in the passenger seat, watching her eyes roll for what felt like the billionth time now.

Looking towards the window beside her, Jaylene made sure it was fully closed before reaching her hand out to slap John B's arm. "I can pay you." She deepened her voice to imitate his, watching him shoot her a look. "Are you out of your fucking mind, John B? Do you realize how deep you've buried us?"

"He had a gun to your head—"

"And my dear mother came to the rescue before he could blow my brains out, so what's your point?!" She raised her voice at him, knowing that this would be one of the many fights they'd be having so long as they stayed on this island. "I was handling it and then here comes John B to the rescue, blabbing his mouth like a freaking nine-year-old going through a sugar rush!"

"You're mad at me for worrying about you? You're kidding, right?" John B stared at her in disbelief, momentarily taking his eyes off the road to focus them on Jaylene. "You were the one provoking him!"

"Because he won't fucking shoot me, John B! I have my mom here to fend for me, and unlike you, I'm not a fugitive! If my face ends up on a poster, it'll be a missing poster, meaning people will care if I come back alive, but you—" Jaylene had to stop herself mid-sentence, realizing how hurtful her words sounded. If it hadn't been for the moonlight shining down on them, she wouldn't have been able to see the hurt expression that plastered itself onto John B's face, making her feel awful about everything she'd just said. "Shit, no. No, I didn't mean that."

     This time he ignored her, rolling down his own window as they approached the main gate that led to the neighborhood. He tried to offer the security guard a smile, the man far too busy to even listen to John B's made-up lie before opening the gate for them, making this a lot easier than any of them originally expected.

     The rest of the ride to the Cameron household was hauntingly silent, Jaylene's regret threatening to