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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫𝗧𝗬 𝗧𝗪𝗢
𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒔

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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

Tara and Rafe roamed through Barbados, trying to find a way off the island and back to Guadeloupe since they didn't exactly have any form of ID on them.

The Thornton girl had been enraged that the Carrera sisters had pushed them off Rafe's own boat, taking it for their own benefit when they had been kind enough not to kill them. But Tara was even more angry at the fact that Rafe had been so quick to trust the girls, even speaking to them with such high regards.

"I still can't believe they took your boat. I mean, first JJ sinks my boat and now Kyla and that idiotic sister of hers had to still yours? I mean, these fucking Pogues," Tara complained, like she had been doing the whole entire time, wanting to see Rafe's reaction to her words.

Rafe hummed in response, seeming to be too focused on something else to actually give her a proper reply back. "Are you fucking kidding me, Rafe?" Tara snapped impatiently.

Rafe looked down at her, a little surprised at her reaction. "What?" he asked, giving her a look.

"What the hell did Kyla say to you when you were forced to stay together in that room for almost a whole day? Because, to me, it seems like you've gone soft," she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest as she stopped walking.

Rafe stopped in front of her, furrowing his brows. "Wha — No, Ky didn't say anything to me. She refused to speak with me actually," he said even though it had been a lie. Even though Kyla did refuse to speak with him for the majority of the time, when she did talk with him...it seemed to resonate.

He thought about what she said about Tara and how she was a bad influence on him, always making him do more things that he shouldn't do. He didn't want to believe it since, well, he thought he loved the girl but...he had originally loved Kyla more.

"Then why are you calling her Ky?" Tara queried as her eyes widened, keeping eye contact with the man.

"Because that's her name — Just give me a fuckin' break Tara," Rafe said as he went to go start walking again, tired of her bullshit.

Tara face scrunched up in anger and she quickly grabbed his hand, pulling him back. "No, we're gonna fucking talk about this. Back there, on the truck, you were saying all this shit to Kiara and how you liked her because she was half Kook. And you were saying how it was good that you and Kyla worked together. I mean, hello? They are our fucking enemies that tried to take the cross from us. Do you not remember that or something?"

"Of course I remember that, Tara. I had to say those things to get them to trust us, all right? And it wasn't like they weren't helping us before they pushed us off the boat so there was no reason for us to hurt them," he argued, shaking his head.

Tara scoffed. "No reason for us to hurt them? Kyla broke my fucking nose and they've tried stealing the cross from us so many times."

"Well, we still have the cross and your nose is healed, so..." Rafe shrugged, just wanting to end the conversation since it was giving him a brain aneurysm.

Tara's mouth parted at his words, very offended by what he was saying. "Holy shit. She did say stuff you. She corrupted your fucking brain while only spending a day with you. What, did you sleep with her, too?" she pressed irritatedly, her nose flaring.

"Are you serious? No, I didn't fucking sleep with her. You're just making up stuff for no reason now," he said, waving his hand down.

Tara released a short sigh. "Fine. If she didn't do anything, then show me you can find us a way to get us off this damn island since there's no way we're gonna leave if we don't have some forms of ID."

Rafe looked down at her before he looked around, seeing that a blonde wife had handed her husband her wallet to hold for safekeeping with his. "Alright. Fine. If that's what you want me to do, I'll do it," he replied and she forced a grin, letting him do his thing.

He walked over to a guy wearing the hat. "Hey, man. Sorry. Sorry to bother you," Rafe greeted nicely as Tara watched from a few feet behind them.

"What's up?" the man replied.

"I have the perfect...I have the perfect gift for your wife. It's like a great price too," Rafe lied.

"Really?"

"So this, all through here, is where all the tourists shop, but, like, the real deal is right back here," Rafe told him, pointing to an alleyway. "It's a great local spot."

"I don't know..." the man trailed off.

"I'm just trying to help you out, man. Just real quick. You wanna?" Rafe urged.

"Okay," the guy shrugged before Rafe began to lead him over to the alleyway. Tara's fake smiled turned into a real one as she slowly started to follow them, a bit impressed.

"Yeah, yeah. It's got, like, some of the best, like, custom jewelry on the island. It's incredible," Rafe sold him more lies as he led the man to the alley. "Uh, just right back here."

"Through here?"

"Yeah."

Tara followed them into the alleyway to see Rafe punch the guy in the face, immediately knocking the guy out cold. He then quickly grabbed his hat and the wallets, placing the hat on his head.

He then looked over at Tara, who now had a smirk on her face. "That work for you?" Rafe questioned, raising his brows.

"Nice job," she grinned, satisfied, as she walked over from him, taking the wife's wallet. "I think this could work," she voiced as she looked at her ID, seeing that she could pass as the woman.

"Mhm," Rafe hummed before he pointed to the boat that had been leaving soon. "This way."

"All right. Come on, folks, all aboard to Guadeloupe," the man checking ID's announced as Rafe and Tara walked up to him.

"How you doing, boss?" Rafe greeted nicely, taking his hat off.

"Good. How are you?"

"Oh, living the dream with my girl," Rafe told him, which made Tara give him a loving smile. He then handed the guy his ID.

"You got some sun since you took this photo, man," the man commented before Tara gave him her ID. "And I see you've gotten a haircut."

"I needed a change, you know?" Tara shrugged, playing the role.

"There you go, Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins. Enjoy Guadeloupe," the man said as he gave them back their stolen IDs, letting them onto the boat.

"We did it, baby," Tara spoke once they boarded, turning towards him and giving him a kiss on the lips. It seemed like she had forgotten all about their argument once she saw something Rafe do something violent; not that surprising, to be honest.

Rafe forced a smile once she pulled away, continuing to think about everything Kyla had said to him. "Yup...We did."

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

Kyla stayed near the wheel, making sure the boat was going the right away even though she wasn't exactly a master at driving boats. Being born a Kook, she had some experience in the area to make her partially qualified to steer the boat, so it wasn't a big deal.

JJ had them come up to talk with her after he had calmed down about the John B thing, wanting to apologize for his outburst. "Hey, Ky," he spoke, giving her an awkward wave.

Kyla glanced over at him. "Hello," she responded, waiting for what he had to say since it was obvious he wanted to talk about something.

"Look...I'm sorry about before. With all the yelling. It's just...John B is like a brother to me at this point and I couldn't deal with the fact we were leaving him behind, you know? I know I shouldn't have taken it out on you and I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely.

Kyla's lips twitched up into a small smile. "It's okay, JJ. I understand why you were acting that way," she accepted the apology almost immediately. "Trust me, we all didn't want to leave him but it was the only choice we had if we wanted to be alive right now. It's just better to try to remain calm in moments like those, though, you know?" she shrugged.

JJ stared at her, not liking the fact that she had accepted his apology so easily. It was like she was used to that kind of behavior and how to deal with it like it wasn't a big deal. Oh, wait... he realized, thinking about how she used to be with Rafe.

The blonde then cleared his throat, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I'll try to remember that," he replied, releasing a breathless laugh. "You sure you're okay, though? They really didn't do anything to hurt you or Kie?"

Now's probably a good time to tell him about Rafe and Tara, Kyla thought, preparing for another outburst. "No, they didn't hurt us. But..." she trailed off, thinking of a way on how to word it.

"But what?" JJ immediately cut in, stepping closer to where she was.

"Rafe and Tara were there," she revealed.

JJ's eyes widened. "Rafe and Tara? What the — Why the hell were they there?" he questioned, his jaw clenching.

"Apparently, Singh tricked them into coming by setting a fake deal to buy the cross. He thought that they knew about the Denmark's diary, or that we did, since we both had the cross at different points," Kyla explained and JJ sucked in a breath. "I, uh...I had to share a room with Rafe while Kie shared a room with Tara."

"What?!" JJ forcefully said.

"It was forced, so I wasn't allowed to choose who I wanted to be with," she quickly clarified, holding her hands up in defense. "Rafe didn't do anything to me, I promise. He just kinda...broke down."

"Broke down?"

"Yeah. He was saying stuff about he wanted to get better and he didn't mean to do some of the things he did, which I don't know true if its but he was pretty upset when he told me. So, I told them that the only way he would get better is if Tara was out of the picture," she told him. "I thought that maybe he would listen and it would be better for us in the long run."

JJ's eyebrows knitted together. "You don't think Rafe took that the wrong way, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, you don't think he thought that you wanted Tara out of the way so you could have him...right? Because I wouldn't be surprised," he said.

Kyla blinked, not expecting that question. "Uh, no, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure Rafe knows by now that I hate his guts even if he did want me back, which highly unlikely since he cheated on me. Many times," she assured him.

JJ nodded slowly, hoping that were true. "Good, 'cause I don't want him in our lives anymore."

"Yeah, I don't really think that's controllable at this point," Kyla joked even though it wasn't exactly funny with everything that he and Tara had put them through. Tara had almost killed JJ and her, and Rafe had almost killed everyone else so it was safe to say their presence wasn't something to be taken lightly.

The blonde let out a short laugh, shrugging and nodding at that. "So, you sure you didn't tell Singh where the diary is?" JJ changed the subject, not wanting to talk about her crazy ex-boyfriend anymore.

"Kie told him we'd seen it, but she didn't tell him where," Kyla told him.

"So why does Singh want it so much?"

"Singh said that he thinks the diary has a clue to the location of some city of gold — El Dorado, I think he said. Like the gold on the Merchant was just a small part of it," she explained.

"Okay, so the diary we have leads to a 500-year-old treasure that no one's ever found?" he asked, trying to get a better understanding of it all.

"Pretty much."

JJ thought about it for a moment before he said, "I'm in. It's kind of like my only option at this point, so...Definitely beats sitting in geometry class."

"Yeah, beats sitting at the Kook academy with all of those stuck up pricks," she added, not wanting to go back there at all once they returned back to the Outer Banks. She would have to convince her parents into letting her go to Kildare County High School, even though she knew they probably wouldn't take that likely after they pulled Kiara from the Kook Academy.

"I mean, I don't even know what's gonna happen when we get back get back to the OBX. Nothing good. I can tell you that. Nothing good," he shook his head, thinking about how horrible life would be as soon as he stepped foot there.

"Yeah...I really can't wait for my parents wanting to kill me," she spoke sarcastically, releasing a sigh.

"At least you don't got a restitution, though. No job. No parents," he listed off, making Kyla frown a bit. "Yeah, arrows are going to be coming in hot. But you know what we do when arrows come flying?" he queried before he started to pretend to dodge arrows. "Bing! Ding, ding, ding! Ding!"

"Oh, is that what we do now?" Kyla teased as she laughed at his antics, a smile returning back to her tanned face.

He nodded. "And you shoot right back at them. And that spear comes at you, you plant, grab, disarm, straight into the jugular, finish them off like, ahh!" JJ demonstrated before he lost his balance due to the boat rocking, making him almost fall into Kyla.

She quickly caught him, staring into his blue eyes with a smile on her face. "Just one by one. We'll defeat them all," he finished, glancing back and forth between her lips and her eyes.

Kyla noticed his eye movements toward her lips, but didn't want to be the one to initiate the kiss just yet. "You know, whatever happens, we're gonna handle it together. Like we always do," she assured him, giving him a meaningful look.

JJ's heart dropped at that, thinking about all the danger he and the Pogues had put her in and how she definitely didn't deserve it. "Ky..." he trailed off.

"Hey," Pope called out, making them pull apart and look over at him. "Oh, sorry for interrupting, uh..." he spoke awkwardly, "just wanted to let you guys know that we should probably stop for gas."

"Right. Yeah. Good idea, Pope," JJ said and Pope nodded, walking away to let them go back to whatever they were about to do. JJ turned back to his girlfriend and she gave him another smile, but all she got in a return was a few nods before he shuffled away.

She furrowed her brows at that, but didn't say anything about it; instead, she focused on finally getting back home.