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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻: 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮

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Cassie, JJ, and Kiara had been up in the air for a few hours now. Kiara had changed out of her Kitty Hawk outfit and put on her own clothes, not wanting to be reminded of the place or the fact her parents sent her there.

Kiara explained to them that when she went to home after leaving the Château, she was ambushed by two men who worked at Kitty Hawk. Her own parents watched as she was dragged off screaming into their car.

It was safe to say Cassie and JJ were horrified.

Cassie had known Kiara's parents for a while now and she knew how much they wanted to protect their daughter since Anna had gotten pregnant with a Pogue at just a young age. But resorting to forcing your own daughter off to a wilderness camp that would probably only make her worse? That was severely crossing the line and they knew it.

As Barracuda Mike continued to fly the plane, Cassie had been uneasy and a tiny bit queasy. With every shake or turn, she would fearfully grab onto something — usually JJ's bicep — before JJ would quickly assure her that everything was fine.

She felt small in comparison to everything as she dared to look out the windows of the plane. She didn't like to feel that way, so powerless. It was how she felt when she was falling in love with JJ, feeling herself slip away and into his arms instead.

But now that they were together, she felt as powerful as ever. First scared of love, but now wanting to give it back to those around her. Especially the one she clung so tightly to in this very moment.

She had come a long way from the girl who didn't want anything to do with the Pogues to now going all the way to South America with them. And even telling one she loved him in the process.

Start of the summer Cassie would have had a brain aneurysm.

They were currently flying over what appeared to be mountains full of trees and foliage, not any city in sight just yet. JJ pulled out a map, trying to explain where they would be going.

"We're gonna be landing about a couple hours out of Tres Rocas, at a f-farm. It's right here," he said as he pointed at the map.

"A couple of hours?" Kiara questioned, giving him a look.

"I'm not sure I could last a couple more hours on this thing," Cassie pointed out, her eyes going wide.

"Hey, hey, it's fine," JJ said to her gently and she licked her lips. "Barracuda Mike says there's a bus into town we should be able to catch, so..."

"And what if they're not there?" Cassie asked.

He looked at her for a second before he answered, "If they're not there...free vacation. You know, we're on an adventure, baby." He put his arm around her shoulder, squeezing her closer to him. "Come on now."

Cassie giggled and leaned her head on his shoulder, causing him to plant a kiss on the top of her head. That action made Cassie realize Kiara was still watching them so she quickly pulled away from him, spluttering, "O-Oh, sorry, Kie. Uh, sorry."

"Oh, shit, yeah..." JJ trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Kiara glanced between the two of them before she shook her head. "Guys, don't let me stop you from being a couple that should do couple things. I can deal with it. It would rude of me to try to stop you so...I won't. And I'm cool with it. Trust me."

Cassie smiled a little. "Thanks, Kiki."

Kiara saluted her before she walked off further down the plane, giving Cassie and JJ some alone time. Cassie watched her walk away before she turned to JJ, who had already been looking at her.

Cassie furrowed her brows. "What?"

"Just lookin' at you," he replied.

Cassie laughed a bit. "Why?" she asked slowly.

"Because you look pretty," JJ told her with a shrug and goofy smile. She scoffed at him, rolling her eyes. "What? I'm not allowed to say you're pretty. You're my girlfriend now, remember?"

Girlfriend. I'm his girlfriend. I'm still going to have to get used to that.

"No, I know. It's just...It's kinda hard to feel pretty when I haven't showered for over a day and I'm freaking out being in this plane. Or if you can even call it that," she explained, glancing away from him as she gestured around the noisy plane.

JJ tilted his head at her. "None of that matters. You're always pretty to me anyway," he admitted and she looked back over at him, blushing. "Even when I didn't like you...I always found you pretty."

She arched a brow at him. "Oh, really?"

"Hell yeah. Why else do you think I brought up your Midsummers dress when we were in the Cat's Ass?" he pointed out. "And now every time you wear pink...it does something to me." He then glanced down at her pink top. "Oh, would you look at that. You're wearing pink right now."

She felt her body heat up at his words as she watched his eyes flick back up to her face, eyeing her lips. He leaned in, but before his lips could connect with her's, she turned away.

"Jay, there's people around," she whispered. Although she wasn't keeping their relationship a secret this time around, she wasn't sure if she wanted to start making out when Kiara and Barracuda Mike would potentially be able to see them.

"They can deal with it," he said in a low voice, but Cassie kept her head turned away from him as she rolled her eyes playfully.

However, that didn't stop him. He leaned toward her again, but this time, toward her neck. He started to kiss her there, causing her eyes to widen for a second out of surprise before they shut from how good his lips felt on her skin.

She brought her hand up to the back of his head as he continued to kiss different parts of her neck before he decided to nip at her. She accidentally let out a soft moan before she put a hand up to her mouth and pushed JJ away, her eyes going wide once she realized where they were once again.

"Okay," she brought her hand down from her mouth, "okay, no, we're done." She shook her finger in his face. "I'm changing out of this top now."

JJ pouted. "You're no fun."

She gave him a look. "If you're gonna keep acting like that, then we're never gonna get to El Dorado," she pointed out as she reached over to grab her duffel bag, sifting through the different clothes she packed.

"Can I watch at least?" JJ asked and she gave him a blank stare. He chuckled nervously, "Kidding."

"You better be."

After Cassie changed out of her pink shirt and into a black one, the plane finally landed at the farm that JJ had been talking about before. The three Pogues climbed out, seeing a bunch of men start taking bags of drugs from different trucks and start loading them up in the plane.

"The ground, finally!" Cassie gushed, dropping her knees to the ground with a sigh. "Praise the lord."

Barracuda Mike narrowed his eyes at her before he looked at JJ. He whistled. "Hey, she didn't steal some of that, did she?" he questioned, gesturing over to the bags of weed the men were loading up.

"No, she just really likes the ground," JJ answered, giving Cassie a look to tell her to stand back up.

Cassie got up, wiping at her knees. "Yeah, flying's not my thing," she added. "But actually, could I have some of that, maybe?" Barracuda Mike gave her a once over before he walked off to go chat with some of his men. She shrugged. "Well, it was a worth a shot, right?"

"Yeah," Kiara replied, patting her on the shoulder. It honestly would have probably did them some good if they smoked a bit before getting to Tres Rocas. Just to ease their nerves by being in such a foreign place. But alas, Barracuda Mike wasn't about to give up his weed for free.

"Damn. Barracuda Mike's got this import-expert thing down," JJ commented before he noticed a bus with some locals surrounding it. "Oh, wait, yo, Barracuda. Is that our executive coach to Tres Rocas right there?" he asked, pointing at it.

"It is, smart-ass," Barracuda Mike replied with his hands on his hips. "Hey. We have a deal, remember? You still owe me for that lost load."

"I remember, all right?" JJ replied before the three of them began walking off toward the bus.

"Hey, JJ," Barracuda Mike called out before they left completely.

"What?"

"Word of advice."

"What?" JJ repeated as he looked over his shoulder at the man.

"This ain't Kildare. Try and lay low," Barracuda Mike suggested.

"Yeah, sure thing, chief."

Cassie swallowed hard because Barracuda Mike was right: this wasn't Kildare. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into and it wasn't like they even knew the land like they had back at the Outer Banks.

Sure, they've been in many different places now and had come out alive and just fine...but it could just take one fatal mistake to change that.

They would have to keep their guards up and put all their focus on finding the other Pogues so they would be able to get to El Dorado.

Shouldn't be too hard when they had no idea where anything was.

The three of them got on the bus, squishing together on one seat since there were a bunch of other people on it. The sweltering heat caused them to sweat and Cassie internally thanked herself for already tying her hair back into a braid.

The bus had been packed with people who only spoke Spanish. Luckily, one of Barracuda Mike's men had gone with them to help explain where they would be going since Barracuda Mike wanted to ensure JJ wouldn't be screwing him over.

"So right here, you have Tesoro," the man said as he drew them up a map with his finger. "Up here, Orinoco, right? And they say up here, El Dorado."

JJ looked at him. "Wait—"

"Who says?" Kiara asked, her brows furrowed.

"All the world," the man answered, gesturing around to the people sitting on the bus.

"That's funny because I've only heard of it recently," Cassie muttered under her breath. She had definitely heard about it prior to going on this treasure hunt, but she assumed it had been a place created by the movies or books. So when Singh had mentioned it to her back when she was kidnapped, she thought the man was psycho.

Well, he was still definitely psycho but not when it had to do with El Dorado apparently.

"If all the world says it, why hasn't it been found?" Kiara inquired with a shrug, not sure if they were going here for no reason.

"Some people say it doesn't exist. Some people say it's hidden, and only one very special person can find it," the man described.

"Uh-huh," JJ hummed, narrowing his eyes as he looked away. All of this just sounded fishy, uncertain. And they really needed some certainty on this. Especially JJ, whose life was pretty much on the line if he didn't repay Barracuda Mike for losing his load.

"But most people say it's maldito."

"Maldito?" Kiara repeated in confusion.

"Cursed," the man translated and Cassie blinked. Why was it every time they were in search for something, it always seemed to be cursed? "Over the years, people that go up, they don't come back," he revealed ominously before he turned away, facing forward in his seat.

JJ laughed nervously as he tried to get comfortable in his seat, placing his arm around Cassie. "Funny...Funny."

"Great. So either this place doesn't exist, only one person can find it, or we find it and it swallows us all whole," Cassie listed with a forced smile on her lips. "That all sounds amazing, doesn't it?"

"Thanks for doubling down on that, Cece. Made me feel a lot better," Kiara deadpanned and Cassie shrugged. "Let's just focus on getting to Tres Rocas first and finding the others before worrying about being...swallowed whole in a city of gold apparently."

"Easier said than done," Cassie muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest, leaning more into her boyfriend as the bus carried them to their destination.

After a few more hours of driving through grass hills in the heat of the packed bus, they finally reached their destination of Tres Rocas. Cassie looked around, noticing how this was definitely no city of gold. They were certainly nowhere near El Dorado just yet.

"Welcome to Tres Rocas. This place makes the Cut look like the Taj Mahal," JJ voiced as he looked outside the bus.

"All right, so how are we gonna find them?" Kiara queried.

"I'm working on it," JJ told her.

"Well you're gonna have to do better than just work on it, don't you think?" Cassie sassed, giving him a look.

JJ released a sigh. "Um, look, all right, Tres Rocas is fairly small, all right? Don't worry about it. We'll find them, okay?" he assured her before he looked outside the bus again. "You gotta be kidding me."

"What?" Cassie followed JJ's gaze outside the bus and saw none other than Pope and Cleo sprinting for their lives down the street. "What the hell?" she breathed out.

"We haven't been here for two minutes!" JJ exclaimed before he laughed and stuck his head out of the bus. "Cómo estás, amigos?" he greeted in Spanish, reaching his hand out towards them from the bus.

"What the f..." Pope trailed off, giving JJ a high-five as he ran past.

"Pope!" Cassie waved at him.

Pope met eyes with her, instinctively waving back even though he was fearing his life. "Hey!"

"We gotta go!" Cleo shouted at them.

"What?" Kiara spoke.

"Why?" Cassie asked.

"We gotta run!"

"You gotta be kidding me," JJ grumbled.

"Already? We just got here!" Kiara complained as they quickly made their way out of the bus. "What's happening?" she asked the two of them once they got out, seeing the frantic looks on their faces.

"Singh's men are right behind us. They're after us," Pope explained, trying to catch his breath.

"Fuck," Cassie cursed, stomping her foot down.

"We gotta think of a plan. Something, anything!" Pope declared in a frenzy.

"Okay, why don't we just hijack the bus?" JJ came up with, gesturing to it with his hand.

"This bus? That only goes ten miles an hour?" Kiara cut in, giving him a wide-eyed look.

"I'm just spitballing, Kie, okay?"

"Well, spitball better!" Cassie exclaimed before Singh's men pulled up in their black Jeep Wrangler, unbeknownst to her since she was busy looking at her boyfriend.

"Spitball better?!" JJ repeated, scoffing at his girlfriend.

"Yes, spitball—!"

"Guys!" Cleo warned urgently, interrupting their stupid, little couple argument.

"They're coming now! Hide!" Pope told them.

"Fruit stands! Duck, duck, duck!" Cleo instructed as they started to push past people to get to the fruit stands.

"Sorry!" JJ apologized as they hit into people's shoulders.

"Excuse me, sorry!" Kiara expressed.

"¡Ay, mi pie! [Ow, my foot!]" a man yelped after Cassie accidentally stomped on his foot.

"Whoops, my bad, sir! Uh, I mean, lo siento!" Cassie shouted back as she kept on running.

They made it to the fruit stands, ducking behind them in hopes they wouldn't be found. Cassie felt JJ's hand wrap around her waist as he pulled her closer to him protectively and she glanced at him, meeting his worried eyes.

They watched as Singh's men, wearing bullet proof vests and strapped with rifles, got out of the Jeep Wrangler. The others recognized one of the men to be Singh's right-hand man, Ryan, while Cassie recognized the other guy to be Fenton, the one that was guarding her door back at Vaux Hall. And the one her and Rafe tied up so they could escape.

She definitely would have to not get caught by him because he without a doubt wanted to give her a piece of his mind after that.

They heard the men go over and talk with Barracuda Mike's guy Cassie, JJ, and Kiara were talking to back on the bus. Although they couldn't understand what they were saying since they were speaking Spanish, they assumed they were demanding him to tell them where they went.

They watched as the man denied knowing who the teens were or where they went. "All right, go this way," Ryan instructed Fenton as they walked away from the man.

"Move aside! Move!" Fenton demanded as he walked through the crowd of people. "Get out the way!"

"All right, Fenny! Come on! Let's go! Let's check down the alley!" Ryan called out after him once their search left them empty handed. They got back into the Jeep Wrangler and drove off. Cassie let out a breath of relief, sharing a look with JJ.

"Welcome to South America," Cleo joked, but she was just meant with blank stares from all of them. "Right...okay..."

"Okay, where's John B and Sarah?" Cassie quickly asked, seeing as though they weren't with them and it was clear it wasn't safe here.

Cleo and Pope shared a look with one another before the latter delved into explaining everything.

Apparently, as they were waiting for Cassie, JJ, and Kiara to arrive at the tarmac, Rafe pulled up instead with an injured Ward. Rafe forced them to let his father onto the plane, since it was his plane after all, while he would stick back to deal with the cops since they were called to the tarmac right after the plane took off.

However, once the Pogues landed, they forced Ward to stay on the plane since none of them trusted him. Not even Sarah.

Once they made it to Tres Rocas, they were in search for a man named Jose who would take them across the Orinoco river to the dig site in order to continue their journey. That's when they divided into pairs to try to find this Jose guy.

But then Singh's men appeared and Cleo and Pope took off running, which meant they had no idea where Sarah and John B were.

And now they were here.

Kiara hummed after Pope's explanation of everything, blinking before she shared a glance with Cassie. "So that's..." Kiara trailed off.

"Great," Cassie finished for her, but her tone sounded anything but ecstatic. "So if we can't find Sarah and John B, and let's say they found this Jose dude to take them across the water, how the hell are we getting to El Dorado?" she asked no in particular.

"That's a good question, Cassie. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that," Pope replied, pursing his lips and nodding his head as he pointed at her.

"If Pope doesn't have an answer, you know we're screwed," Kiara pointed out and Cassie groaned.

"Actually...I have an idea," JJ piped up and they all looked toward him apprehensively.

"And if rude boy over here has an idea, we're double-screwed," Cleo quipped.

JJ glowered at her and Cleo held her hands up in defense. "I mean, she's right, JJ. Your track record for ideas is..." Pope trailed off with a slow shrug, agreeing with Cleo.

"No, this is a good one," JJ argued, looking around at all of them. "Trust me."

"Okay, well, what is it?" Cassie inquired, wanting to give him a chance. Their idea to break Kiara out of Kitty Hawk had worked, right? Maybe he'd be on a roll.

"It may have to do Barracuda Mike again."

authors note!
cassie and jj are FREAKS LMFAOO
it's mostly jj tbh but idk i think it's
kinda cute that jj expresses that
stuff to her. like imo ur man should
always be finding u hot. i wouldn't
know bc ive never had a man which
is exactly why i write fics like these!