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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲: 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘂𝗻𝘇𝗲𝗹

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John B laid at the end of his dock, his head resting on a life preserver. Kiara and JJ sat on two different railings, their hopes crushed after John B had told them that Ward found the gold and took every last bit of it.

"You sure he got everything?" Kiara asked solemnly as JJ smoked a joint.

"Every bar. The whole enchilada," John B drawled before he ripped his cast off, groaning. "Look, it's not like I expected a happy ending or some shit," he said as he tossed the cast away.

"John B—"

"What, Kie? It's a hairline fracture. Who cares?" John B interrupted with an annoyed tone.

"You should care. Your arm's gonna be messed up for life," Kiara told him.

John B held up his arm. "It's fine. See?" He wiggled his fingers to show her and she just looked down, shaking her head.

"Guys!" Pope yelled as he ran down the dock in his formal attire. "Guys! Ah, oh! Oh, God. I ran all the way here," he panted.

"You all right?" John B inquired.

"How was the interview, Pope?" JJ asked.

"Don't ask," he grunted.

John B muttered unenthusiastically, "Awesome."

"JB...Look, I'm sorry, dude. About everything," Pope apologized as he still tried to catch his breath.

"It's fine."

"But-but I don't have a lot of time, and-and I have information that is tactically relevant. So, before I had my interview, my dad said he was going down to the private airstrip to cut palms for Cameron's big plane. Because it was too heavy, it needed a longer landing strip to take off. So, I'm sitting in my interview, thinking to myself, 'Hm. Why would Cameron need a longer airstrip to take off?'" Pope explained as John B slowly sat up, his mouth parted. "'What could be so heavy to weight it down?'"

JJ pushed up from the wooden pillar he was leaning against. "Gold," he realized.

"That's right..." John B trailed off.

Pope did a little dance before he pointed at JJ. "Exactly! Guys, this is our chance, but it leaves tonight, and we have to go."

"Guys, we can't give up now," Kiara grinned as she hopped off the railing.

"Wait, wait, what about Cassie?" JJ quickly brought up, seeing as though she was not with them even though Kiara had told her to meet them back at the Château.

"Her mom probably has her on lock down since she hasn't been home in days," Kiara thought, knowing how Cassie's mom was.

"Yeah, we don't have time to get her. We have to do this now," Pope quickly said, not wanting to waste a second since he just ran out of his interview for this.

JJ scratched his head, pondering. He had dropped the girl off on a tense note last night after their argument, and then after Kiara and Pope's argument. He wondered if she really had been on lock down or purposely didn't want to come back to the Château because she was mad.

Or worse...she believed Ward.

He didn't want to believe that though. After spending the last few days with the girl, he knew how important friendship was for her. Although Ward had helped her and her mother, there was no way she would bail out on John B and them. Not without at least saying something. The girl never backed down from confrontation.

No matter how much they didn't like each other, he knew how much friendship had been important to the both of them. And after how they both reacted to Barry trying to steal the gold from them, he knew how far they would go for their friends.

But Pope was right, they didn't have enough time. They were just going to have to do this without her.

"What's the plan, big man?" JJ finally asked after a moment of thinking about Cassie. Why had even been thinking of her so much?

"We're gonna steal that shit back," John B announced as he began to smile, making them exchange excited glances.

Kiara, JJ, and Pope took off running down the dock as John B sent the ocean one last look. "Let's do this!" Pope whooped.

Kiara laughed, "Come on, boys!"

A little later in the day, Cassie paced around her room, starting to go crazy. She couldn't sleep last night, trying to go over everything that had happened in her mind.

Ward possibly killing John B's father, her mother possibly being in on it, and them knowing about the gold the whole entire time.

She didn't want to believe it but...she did.

The way her mother had reacted to her asking if Ward killed Big John was telling enough and all she wanted to do was crack open these damn locks and flee. She wanted to go back to the Pogues and she wanted to apologize to all of them for ever doubting John B.

But she couldn't. Not when she was trapped, like a goddamn modern day Rapunzel.

Cassie decided to turn on the television to pass the time, trying to keep her sanity by binge watching whatever show had been playing.

When she turned the television on, the news had been the first channel to pop up. "Good news for residents of the Outer Banks. Dominion Power says their underwater transmission line, which will restore power to 90% of the area, should be functional within 24 hours." Cassie had just been about to change the channel before the broadcaster continued, "And still, no arrest in the shooting death of Sheriff Susan Peterkin."

"What?" Cassie breathed out in shock, knitting her brows together as she continued to watch. Sheriff Peterkin is dead?

"The state police have issued a statement regarding a local person of interest, a juvenile from Kildare County, John Booker Routledge."

Cassie dropped the remote onto the floor, her hands starting to tremble at the broadcaster's words. John B...killed the sheriff?

She started to shake her head, not believing it. She knew that Peterkin had been trying to help him, there was no way John B would turn around and shoot her. Especially not when the person he was after was Ward Cameron.

She continued to stare at the television screen, seeing John B's pop up on it. She stared into the boy's eyes, releasing a shaky breath as tears started to form. Looking into them, albeit just on a screen, there was no way this teenage boy was capable of murder. It had to have been someone framing him.

And that someone had to be Ward.

Cassie snapped back to reality and bolted over to her door, banging on it. "MOM! PLEASE, MOM!" She bellowed, hoping her mother would adhere to her shouts. "MOM!"

She heard the sound of her mother's angry footsteps nearing the door. "What, Cassie?"

"Did you see?"

"See what?"

"Sheriff Peterkin...is dead."

There had been a long pause before Savannah answered, "Yes. I saw. And John B did it."

"No, no, no, no, Mom, no. There's no way he did it," Cassie denied. "You don't even know him. He would never do that."

"Well, who did, Cassie? Because that's what the fucking news keeps saying," Savannah seethed.

"Ward," Cassie croaked. "Peterkin, she-she found out he killed Big John so he shot her. That-that has to be what happened."

"Cassie, I'm done hearing this. You're crazy. Ward didn't kill Big John, and he sure as hell didn't kill the sheriff. Next time you call for me, it better be to tell me you changed your goddamn mind."

"FUCK YOU!" Cassie spat as she banged hard on the door, screaming in a fit of rage. She began to go over to her dresser, knocking everything off of it to let off some steam. Her car keys fell, her hair brushes fell, her jewelry fell — everything.

However, she had accidentally knocked over a picture frame with a picture her and her father inside of it. She paused once she realized before she picked up the frame, which had cracked a little.

The picture had been of the two of them when she was just a little girl and he had been holding her up, two happy smiles on her face. She never realized how much she had her father's eyes.

Her lip began to tremble. "I'm sorry, Dad," she whispered before she carefully placed it back on the dresser, releasing a deep breath.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

"Pope, you clocked that car, man!" JJ laughed from the backseat. They had been on the run ever since John B had been framed for killing Peterkin and now Pope had been speeding down the road due to all the weed in his system after he finally succumbed to his stress. "Like, that was so bad!"

"I'm just glad I'm not driving now," Pope joked as he continued to hold the joint in his hand, not keeping his eyes on the road.

Kiara looked between the two boys in frustration. "Pull over," she demanded and Pope swerved her truck, stopping the car. "JJ, it's not funny. He shouldn't be driving," she slammed the car down as she got out.

"Mama's mad," JJ commented before Pope handed him the joint to take a hit. "Where we goin'?" JJ asked the Carrera girl once she got in the driver's seat.

"The last place they're gonna look. The Cameron's," she told him.

"Ha! Last place they'll look because of how stupid it is," JJ retorted but Kiara just rolled her eyes. "Hey, has Cassie responded to any of your texts?" He inquired since Kiara was able to get few texts in for being in Kook territory.

Kiara shook her head. "No."

JJ arched a brow. "Don't you think that's a little weird?"

"Not after last night when y'all argued and you made her cry," Kiara pointed out.

"Oh, yeah. You did that. You did do that," Pope added quickly with a few rapid nods.

Kiara gave the boy a look, but elected to ignore him. "She probably doesn't want anything to do with us and who knows if her mom is even letting her out of the house with the whole John B thing 'cause it's all over the news," she continued.

JJ winced a little. He had made her cry last night. All because he had got mad at her for being confused. But it wasn't like her to just not show up and not respond to any of Kiara's texts. The Cassie he knew would have showed up out of spite to show him she didn't let his words get to her.

"Kie, drop me off at Cassie's," he blurted out.

"What?" Kiara questioned, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Why? She's probably safer at home and her mom is friends with Ward, what if—"

"Just drop me off," JJ interrupted. "It's just — It's not like her to just ditch us, okay? Something could be wrong."

"And how would you know? Shouldn't you be happy that she's ditching us?" Kiara responded. "You finally drove her away. Congrats, JJ, you got what you wanted."

His face twisted. "No, Kie, that's not—" He stopped himself, sucking in a breath since he really didn't feel like arguing. "Just drop me off. We'll meet back at The Wreck, okay?"

Kiara sighed, "Fine. I swear to God, you're so fucking weird."

Kiara dropped JJ off in front of the Blake household and JJ walked up to the door, knocking on it. He was starting to get major deja vu from when Kiara forced him to apologize. God, that felt like ages ago. Now John B was wanted for a murder he didn't commit and Ward had stolen the treasure they found.

He waited a bit before the door finally opened, revealing Savannah Blake. She narrowed her eyes. "JJ?"

"Mrs. Blake!" He greeted, a little too over to the top. "Hey, how are ya?"

"Good," she slowly answered. "What are you doing here? Again."

JJ cleared his throat. "Just was, uh, wondering where your daughter was. She hasn't been responding to any of our texts."

Savannah tilted her head. "She's not feeling very well."

JJ raised a brow. "So that means she can't answer our texts?"

Savannah blinked. "She's been sleeping."

"All day?" JJ prodded.

Savannah pursed her lips at the boy. "Look, JJ, it's really not a good time right now. You should leave."

It was JJ's turn to narrow his eyes. Why had she been so adamant on him not seeing her daughter? "See, I don't know if I can do that, Mrs. Blake."

"Well, you better before I call the police," she threatened. "Isn't your friend already wanted for murder? Don't think they need anything else on their plates. Especially when you've already been thrown in jail. You must be on parole, right?"

All JJ wanted to do was scream in her face and push past her, but he held his tongue. He knew doing that wasn't the best idea, especially when the cops already knew they were helping John B.

He forced a smile. "Alright, ma'am, fine. I'll leave."

"Good choice, JJ," Savannah replied before she shut the door in his face.

JJ's lip curled before he walked away, trying to think of what to do. He knew Savannah was hiding something. Even if Cassie had been sick, she would have never been ignoring Kiara's texts. Especially if she heard about John B. And if Savannah knew, Cassie definitely knew.

He had to think of something and fast. And that's when he remembered the balcony attached to Cassie's room.

Cassie laid back on her bed, trying to pass the time by just staring up at the ceiling. She began to think about how she didn't how much longer she could stay locked up forever before she did something stupid until she heard something hit the balcony door.

She slowly lifted herself up from her bed before she heard more soft pounding against the door. She looked over and furrowed her brows, getting up to go peer through since she had no idea what it was.

Another pebble hit the door and she looked down, seeing none other than JJ Maybank standing below her balcony. "JJ?" She whispered to herself in shock. What the fuck is he doing here? Wait, is he here to...save me?

He started to wave both his hands to her and she slowly waved back, still utterly confused. He began to shout something to her, but she couldn't hear him. She held finger up to ear and shook her head, signaling that she couldn't hear what he was saying.

He seemed to curse to himself before he motioned to open the door. "It's locked," she mouthed, pointing to the knob and then twisting it show she couldn't open it.

JJ cursed again before he thought of something. He tried to mimic unlocking a door with a Bobby pin like he had done the night of Midsummers, but it just kinda looks like he was doing a handjob to Cassie with the way his hand kept motioning forward and backwards.

"What the fuck?" She said, giving him a weird look. "I...don't...understand...what...you're...doing," she tried to tell him slowly with hand motions to go along with it.

JJ stopped and thought for a moment before he took his cap off, pointing to his hair. He then pretended he was taking something out of it before he began to do whatever that handjob motion was.

"What the— Wait." It finally clicked for her.

She quickly ran over to her vanity, pulling open the drawer that stored her Bobby pins. She didn't know how she didn't think of this before but even if she had, there was no way she was getting off that balcony by herself.

Once she grabbed a Bobby pin, she went back over to the door and jammed it inside the keyhole like JJ had done the night of Midsummers. After a few tries, she was able to get it open. She gasped before she looked back at her car keys she had hit onto the floor, swiping them just in case before she opened the door to the balcony.

"JJ!" She whisper-shouted down to him, leaning over the railing. There he was in all his glory, looking back up at her with a proud smile. She had no idea how he knew she was locked up, but this had been the first time she had ever been thankful to see JJ Maybank.

"Oh, princess! Let down your hair!" He jested before she shushed him, not wanting her mother to hear him. "Oh, come on, I was trying to be funny."

"Not the time!" She hissed before she thought for a moment. "Wait, how do you know Tangled?"

JJ just shrugged nonchalantly before he held his arms out. "Okay, hurry and get down here."

Cassie looked at how far down it was. It wasn't terribly far, but definitely not safe enough to jump down from. Normally, she wasn't scared of heights. She usually liked them. But she didn't want to accidentally break her ankle or leg when there was too much on the line. "Are you sure this is safe?" She questioned.

"No, but I'll catch you. I promise."

Cassie debated it for a moment before she swung her legs over the balcony, slowly lowering herself down until she had just been hanging on by her hands. She then felt JJ be able to grab her ankles.

"Okay, let go. You can trust me."

Could she trust him? She guessed she was about to find out.

Cassie let go of the balcony and let JJ catch her by the waist before he slowly lowered her down to the ground. Her eyes widened as she turned around to face him, her eyes wide.

"Holy shit," she breathed out.

"See, I told you. You can trust me," he smirked a bit, his hands still on her waist before he realized and slowly took them away.

She began to shake her head. "You have no idea what happened to me in there."

"You have no idea what happened out here," he replied breathlessly.

"No, no, I know. Sheriff Peterkin is-is dead and the news is saying it's John B, but I know it's not him. It can't be. No, no, I confronted my mom about Ward and I think he killed Big John and my mom may be a part of it, too. And I think Ward killed Peterkin," she rambled, not caring if she had made sense or not.

"Wait, wait, wait...you're saying Savannah, your mom, knows that Ward killed Big John?" JJ slowly asked and Cassie nodded rapidly. "Shit."

"I know, I know. We-we gotta get out of here. I got my car keys if we need a ride. I—"

"Cass, hey, hey, wait," he stopped her, placing his hands on her shoulders before she could turn around. She stopped and blinked quickly at him, seeing the serious expression on his face. "There's something else that you need to know."

"What?"

"Ward didn't kill Peterkin. It was...Rafe."

Cassie felt her blood run cold. "What?" She squeaked. "Rafe did...what?"

"He shot her. Ward was taking the gold and Sarah on a plane, and Peterkin showed up to arrest him. But Rafe just came and shot her, and now they're framing John B because he was there to witness the whole thing," JJ quickly explained.

However, as he explained the brief story to her, he didn't realize until after how the girl in front of him had froze up and how it had looked like she had seen a ghost. "Hey, Cassie? Are-are you okay?"

The girl didn't respond as she tried to process his words. Rafe Cameron, the son of possible murderer Ward Cameron, the boy she had hooked up with earlier in the week, the boy who had slut shamed her, and the boy who had choked her at Midsummers...killed Sheriff Peterkin?

She had felt the bile rise at the back of her throat and her face had become pale, growing disgusted with the boy and even more disgusted with herself at the fact she was ever with him at one point in time even if she never actually liked him.

JJ shook her a bit since he still had his hands on her shoulders. "Cass...are you okay?" He slowly asked, growing worried.

She slowly stated to shake her head, blinking rapidly as she began to breathe heavily. "Rafe, he-he killed her? Rafe?" She questioned, still in shock. "This can't — No. He killed her? No, no, no, this-this can't be real. JJ, this can't be..." She breathed out, staring into his eyes.

"I know, I know," JJ tried to soothe her, realizing why she had been acting this way. Because of her secret only the two of them knew. "It's okay."

"No, no, it's not okay," she said as tears started to form in her eyes, the acceptance of it setting in. "He k-killed her. How could he— How could I— How?" She started to sob and before she knew it, JJ had been pulling her into him to envelop in her a hug. At first, she tensed up a bit at his warm touch before she melted into his body and started to cry into his shoulder.

Right then and there, she had forgotten how much she had hated JJ Maybank. She had forgotten when she had let his warm hands encase her back and make her feel the safest she had ever felt in a while. She didn't know why, but the way the boy had held her made her feel so...holy. Like she had been sacred to him and only to him.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I got you, it's okay," he whispered, letting her stay like that for a few moments.

"How could I have—" She choked on her words. How could I have slept with him? How could I have slept with a murderer?

"Shhh, shhh. I know, I know," he continued to soothe, feeling the way her body shook as she sobbed in his arms. Once he had felt her start to calm down, he voiced, "We have to get out of here, okay? Before your mom knows you're gone."

Cassie slowly pulled away before she sniffled, nodding. "O-Okay. Yeah. I-I have my keys," she said through her tears before she led JJ to her car, getting in the driver's seat. However, when she tried putting the keys into the ignition, she had kept missing due to the way her hands had been shaking tremendously.

JJ had never seen her like this. Not even at Midsummers was she like this. He quickly grabbed her hand, making her look over at him through her teary eyes. She noticed that his hands had been warm, which had contrasted the way his cold rings felt on her skin.

"Cass, let me drive, okay? You can't right now," he told her gently as he slowly took the keys from her hand. She shut her eyes and nodded slowly, switching seats with him to let him drive her to The Wreck.

authors note!
this was like one of the first scenes
i planned out when i got the idea for
this book so im so glad i finally got to
the chapter hehehe hope y'all enjoyed!