"Oh my God."
The white FedEx envelope feels heavy in Lane's hands as she passes it through the hole, waiting for John B to grab it. Bird was something that only his dad called him, and usually was all he called him. Seeing that written on the envelope in this crypt in his dad's handwriting was very eerie. "That's not gold.' Pope is quick to express his disappointment as they start to examine the envelope under the flashlights. Lane starts to climb back through the hole, but no one is really paying attention or helping her.
"Holy Shit." She hears John B say before she gets her foot caught in the hold and then falls to the ground, scraping up her knee. Luckily, everyone was still distracted so she could recover without the major embarrassment. "This is from my dad."
JJ is standing off to the side, lighting a joint when he spots a vehicle approaching, "Code red. Code red. Square groupers! Square groupers!" The five of them rush to hide on the other side of the crypt, turning off all of their lights, "It's the guys who robbed your house." JJ whispers.
"Do you think it's them?" Kie asks as they all are crouched behind the crypt, blood now sliding down Lane's shin.
"Homie's got a gun," JJ says as he's looking around the corner.
"Screw this," Kie says, jumping up and starting to take off toward the gate where on the other side the van was parked. Everyone quickly follows suit, booking across the cemetery and climbing the stone wall to get to the other side. Pope takes a different route, deciding to climb the gate instead. Wrong move.
"Guys. Guys!" He panics after everyone else is trying to get into the van, "I'm stuck!" His shorts are caught on the top of the gate, of course.
"I gotcha," As John B and Kie start to run over to try and pull him down, JJ pulls his gun out, "Pope. Don't move, okay?"
"JJ, stop!" Lane smacks his shoulder, "Put the gun down."
"Wait, you're gonna rip me," Pope complains as Kie starts to pull him down, the sound of his shorts ripping very evident.
"It's fine!" She assures him, continuing to pull
"You're gonna rip me!" He repeats, really concerned about being in his underwear.
"You're fine!" Kie assures him again, and she gives one final yank before he comes free, his shorts still on the gate, leaving him in his boxers.
"Nice! Come on, dude." JJ laughs as they all jump into the van, Pope trying to cover his bulge.
"It's a little tootsie roll." John B giggles before they shut all of the doors and peel out of there, heading back to the Chateau to find out just exactly what Big John had left for John B.
Back at the house, Lane is sitting in a chair in the kitchen, her foot propped up on the counter as she cleans her fresh cut. It had bled a lot in the van but she was taking care of that now. JJ is making a sandwich a couple of feet away from her, "That bread had mold on it like three days ago." She reminds him as he smears peanut butter on a slice of white bread.
"I'll just pull off the bad parts." He says simply, "Plus, mold is good for you. It's just a natural organism." He argues.
"Gross," Lane whispers under her breath as she goes back to tending to her knee.
"JJ! Lane!" Kie calls them from the other room.
"I'll be in in a minute." Lane says back, "I'm listening." She didn't want to stand up until she had a bandage on.
"Hot damn!" JJ goes running in, "Let's do it." It's pretty quiet and she can't hear much as she unwraps the large bandaid.
"Dear Bird." The voice makes her freeze. It was John B's dad. Clear as day. She listens closely as she smooths the bandage on over her wound, her heart pounding out of her chest, "I hate to say 'I told you so' but, I told you so." She stands up, making her way into the room and standing in the doorway, still in shock that she was hearing him after all of this time. "And you doubted your old man. I suspect at this moment, you're filled with guilt and self-loathing over our last fight. But, don't kill yourself just yet, kid. I didn't expect to find the merchant either."
Lane's eyes scan over the map on the table as she stands behind John B. There was no fucking way he actually found it.
He had marked where the wreck was on the map with an X. X marks the spot. "Finish what I started," John finishes on the tape, "Go for the gold, kid. I love you, Bird, even if I didn't always act like it." She can see the pain in John B's eyes and her heart breaks for him, "I'll see you on the other side." The tape clicks off and John B stands up, looking like he's in a daze. It seems like he's going to walk out of the room, but Lane watches him and he doesn't make it past the doorway, collapsing against it as he breaks down.
She approaches him, leaning against him as her arms wrap around him from behind. Tears sting her eyes as well, Big John had been a lot like a second father to her before and after her parents died. "Holy shit, he did it!" She can hear JJ freaking out in the background, and it was something to be exciting about, but maybe just not the time to express it.
"It's okay." She whispers, her cheek pressed against his back as he cries and she holds him tighter.
"I miss him so much." He sobs, turning to look at her.
"I know." Her eyes well up and she wraps her arms around him again, holding him as he cries, "I know you do." There's not much you can say at times like these, "He loved you. So much." She rubs his back as he rests his forehead against her shoulder. He wasn't much taller than her, but he still had to slouch a little bit to do this.
"Wait, there's something else in here." JJ reaches into the envelope after John B has gotten up and moved to the doorway, letting his tears flow freely as Lane holds him from behind. "Uh, Lane," JJ says gently and she turns around to look at him, her eyes widening when she sees what he's holding.
Her mom had a necklace that she always wore when she died Lane just assumed that it was buried with her, but here it was in JJ's hand. The necklace was gold, a small sort of coin pendant on the bottom with a design printed on it. Lane was never sure why her mom wore it, because the design looked like a bunch of wheat tied together, and as far as she knew this had no significance to her mom, but it definitely met something to her because she never took it off.
Lane lets go of John B reluctantly as she walks over to JJ, taking the necklace from him carefully, "This was in there?" She whispers, not looking away from the necklace now in the palm of her hand.
"Yeah," Pope says, "There's a note, too." He pulls out the piece of paper, words written in John's handwriting.
"What does it say?" Kie asks from where she moved to take Lane's place of comforting John B.
"It's from John," She says, "Uh, this necklace was my mom's and he was supposed to give it to me on my sixteenth birthday but…he disappeared before that so he left it in here for us to find." She says, chewing on her bottom lip. "He said that, my parents helped him a lot with his Royal Merchant research before they died." She swallows.
"Are you okay?" JJ watches her face. Tears were stinging the back of her eyes but she didn't want to let them fall, not right now.
"Yeah." She nods quickly, "Yeah I'm good." She looks at him, "Will you help me with this?" She asks, holding the necklace around her neck.
"Yeah, sure." He clasps the necklace together, his fingers brushing the back of her neck, giving her goosebumps. She locks eyes with John B as this is happening, the same pain in their eyes. They needed each other now more than ever.
Kie is strumming on her ukulele as they're all sitting in comfortable silence, listening to the sounds of the summer evening. Lane is perched on the railing of the dock like everyone else, one of her legs tucked underneath her and the other dangling off the side as she swings it back and forth, facing JJ who is the first to speak up, "How much was it again?" He asks, referring to the gold.
"Four hundred mil." Pope reminds him.
"Alright, let's talk the split." JJ says, turning to face everyone, "Now, before we say evenly, may I remind you that I am the only one who can properly defend us from those groupers that were after us." He holds his gun up for the second time that night. "Protection? Not cheap." Lane sighs, grabbing his wrist and lowering the gun.
"You haven't trained, you've done zero training." Pope criticizes.
"Youtube, bro!" JJ defends, "That's at least a five percent bump right there. Any objections? Didn't think so." There are plenty of objections but it's not like he would listen.
"What are you gonna do with your 80 mil, Pope?" Kie asks
"Pay for college in advance." He says, "and also textbooks, those are expensive." Lane smiles at him. Always so logical.
"What about you, Kie?" Lane asks, "What does a socialist do when she's rich?" She teases.
"I just wanna make a double album." She shrugs, "About OBX, the Pogues." She smiles, "You know, the way Catch a Fire is about Kingston." She looks down at her hands shyly, "Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing."
"Peter Tosh is-" Kie cuts Pope off.
"Peter Tosh is dead, I know." She says, "The spirit of Peter Tosh will never die." She raises her beer can to that.
"I know what I'm gonna do," JJ speaks up, "I'm gonna buy a big ass house on figure eight and go full kook." He says firmly
"You're gonna go full kook?" Pope asks with a laugh.
"Yup. Gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond." JJ says, oddly specifically which makes Lane think he's thought about it before. "What about you, Laney bug?" JJ pokes her leg.
"I'm gonna quit my job." She says immediately, "And then I'm gonna open my own coffee shop, bookstore hybrid. And then I'm going to get three dogs and be JJ's neighbor." She grins at JJ who grins right back. "Then I'm going to write many books, obviously."
"What are you gonna do, JB?" Pope looks up at their friend who has been very quiet this whole time.
He's quiet for just a little bit longer before he turns to them all and smiles, "To going full kook."
They all stand up and cheers each other with their beer cans, "To going full kook!"
The next day, it's decided that they would all head to a hotel on Figure Eight where they actually had power and internet. This was because they wanted to figure out exactly where they needed to go to find the wreck of the Royal Merchant. "Alright, keep a lookout." JJ says as they pull into a parking spot in front of the hotel, "We're behind enemy lines." He says, leaning forward to take his gun out of the glove box.
"Yo, come on man, just put it back." John B sighs.
"You can never be too careful," JJ says simply, holding the gun as he props his elbow against the window, basically flashing it for everyone at the hotel to see.
"Hey," Pope leans against his door as he and Lane hop out of the van, "I predict that bringing a weapon to a four-star hotel will likely cause more problems than they solve."
"Thank you, Pope." John be says
"I swear to God, I'm gonna throw that thing in the ocean, JJ." Kie pokes her head between the driver's and passenger's seat, "Put it back." John B reaches over and grabs the gun out of JJ's hand roughly, putting it back into the glove box.
"Lane likes my gun," JJ sighs as he grabs the badge that's gonna get them into the employee entrance, he worked there as a busboy. "She gets all blushy when I pull it out." He winks at her as he hops out of the car.
"JJ, that isn't a blush that's my face being red from anxiety," Lane tells him. But...maybe it was a blush. What? The gun was hot.
"So, where are we going now?" Pope asks as they head to the building.
"We're getting on the internet because only rich people have electricity." JJ explains, "This way." He leads them into the building, a backway through the kitchen that was bustling. He greets a couple of people as they walk through, trying to steal food off of a plate but failing miserably.
He finally leads them into the room with all the computers, luckily it was empty, "Sweet Lord, the internet. I've missed you." Pope says dramatically, planting himself in front of one of the computers.
"Let me get in there," JJ says, "Gotta check on my insta models." Lane rolls her eyes at him.
"We don't have time for that." Kie scolds as John B digs through his backpack for the information they need. He grabs the map and reads the coordinates to Pope while he types them into the satellite software on the computer.
"Boom, continental shelf right there." John B says as the website puts a little red pin right in the ocean.
"Well, if it's off the deep end, it's not gonna be much of a treasure hunt is it?" Pope looks over at him.
"Come on, baby, come on," JJ says while Pope starts to zoom in on the location, trying to hurry as there are people walking by outside and they couldn't get caught in here.
"Hey, it's on the high side." Lane points as he gets in closer, "Only...900 feet." She says slowly, realizing that 'only' was not the right word.
"That's not too deep," JJ says
"Is that doable or something?" Kie looks up at him like he's stupid because that was often how she looked at him.
"Yeah, totally doable," JJ says simply
"Okay, will we be taking your personal submarine?" Pope turns around in his chair to ask him sarcastically.
"No no," JJ holds his hands up, "The salvage yard." He explains, "They got a drone that can drop 1,000. It had a 360 camera and everything. It's for, like, deep dives and stuff. It's exactly what we need."
"And can your dad get his grimy little hands on it?" John B asks him
"Well, my dad's grimy little hands got his ass fired." JJ explains, "I guess the salvage captain frowns upon showing up shitfaced, turns out." Lane's face scrunches up. He was deflecting with humor, his usual tactic. "But the drones there, it's in the impound yard outback."
"How much did you say was on the Royal Merchant again?" Kie asks John B.
"400 mil." He reminds her and JJ also says it at the same time.
"400 million dollars?" Kie clarifies as Pope runs up to block the door.
"No, absolutely not." He protests.
"Pope, move." Lane tugs on his arms, pushing them away from the door so they can open it.
"Guys that's too-" Lane cuts him off
"400 million, Pope." She snaps at him, making him shut up and step back, "And I have a plan, so shut up and let's go."
"I love it when you yell at Pope, it's so hot," JJ whispers to her as they all start to walk to the van.
"Shut up, JJ." She pushes him lightly.
Lane's plan was simple, really. Kie and here would distract the guard with the good old flat tire excuse and the boys would sneak in, grab the drone and make it out without causing any issues. Easy, right?
Since this was a Pogue plan, of course, it would never end up being easy.
"Excuse me." Kie waves her hand as the two girls approach the gate, smiling and batting their eyelashes.
The guard comes down from his little box and frowns at them through the gate, "Can I help you two?"
"Hi," Lane grins, "Um, we actually have a flat tire." She points over her shoulder to Kie's car that the HMS Pogue is attached to, "We were wondering if maybe you could help us out? We're kinda clueless when it comes to that stuff."
He looks around, making sure the coast is clear before he agrees, "Yeah." He says, going back into his office.
"Too easy," Kie mumbles once he's out of sight.
"How have men even evolved this far?" Lane shakes her head in disbelief.
The guys are watching them from a distance, crouched down while they wait for the coast to be clear, "How's it going with Kiara?" JJ asks John B, referring to the kiss that the two of them shared that finished in John B being severely friend-zoned.
"It's not awkward, weird, or anything." John B jokes and JJ snorts.
"Honestly I did not think you were going to listen to me." JJ laughs, "I was 100 percent sure she was into you, Pope would agree."
"Ehh..." Pope speaks up, tilting his head back and forth.
"Okay, well what about you and Lane?" John B turns to JJ, his eyebrows raised.
"What do you mean? There's no 'me and Lane'." JJ shakes his head, still watching the girls from a distance.
"Yeah, right." Pope shakes his head, "There's so much sexual tension between you guys that I feel like anytime you make eye contact you're just gonna jump each other."
"You know I'd be down for that any day." JJ says, "But I don't want things to be awkward. Plus, she probably isn't even into me. She likes older guys with, like, tattoos and who can speak french and shit." He shakes his head, "I don't wanna end up getting the Heisman like JB over here."
"Maybe Kie is just into someone else," Pope speaks up randomly, a valid suggestion but neither of the other boys sees it coming as they turn to give him an odd look.
"It's just this back one right here." Back over with the girls, Kie directs the guy to the back wheel of the boat. "I mean, it must have been a slow leak or something."
"Probably just been sitting in the yard too long?" The guard offers as the two girls lean against the boat.
"Yeah." Lane nods, smiling at him.
"I got this." The guard assures them and the girls both thank him before looking around and giving each other a slightly nervous look when he's not paying attention. It's about a couple more minutes off him filling the tire with air and giving the girls some creepy glances before they're interrupted by the sound of a dog barking in the distance, "Do you hear that?" He asks.
"Hear what?" Kie asks casually.
"Oh, Tebow's got something." He stands up, looking towards the salvage yard.
"It might just be a raccoon or something." Lane assures him, "Right? Nothin' to worry about." She shrugs. That seems to appease him and he goes back to work on the tire. The girls can sense that they're going to need a little bit more time so Kie heads to the other side of the boat, taking out her hair clip to let some air out of the other tire, hopefully buying them more time. Lane is keeping an eye on the guard, making sure he doesn't think anything else is up, flashing him many smiles.
"Where'd your friend go?" He asks after a minute.
"Hm?" Lane asks, but the tire hissing on the other side of the boat was too loud and she couldn't stop him.
"What are you doing?" He demands when he sees Kie stabbing the tire with her pin.
"This one looked...a little low, too." She tries to play it off but there was no going back now, especially with the dog still barking in the background, "Wait! Wait!" Both the girls call after him but he's already off.
"Shit." Kie unlocks the car and they both hop in, "What do we do?" Lane asks, panicking.
"I don't know," Kie says, her hands on the steering wheel and she turns on her car, just in case they have to peel. Finally, the boys come out of the salvage yard, luckily with the drone also in tow so they didn't have to go through all of this again. Those three get into the van and the girls drive Kie's car and the boat, going to meet them back at John B's.
"Thank God they didn't fuck that up," Lane remarks as they start to pull away from the salvage yard.
Their eventful day is ended with them at The Wreck because as Kie so accurately remarked, "Stealing drones makes you hungry." After she begged her dad, he gave them leftover food from the day so they could all recover from their long day of thievery. It's a good time, they eat, laugh, and dance. Some of them dance closer than others. But Lane is fading fast and she had to work the next morning.
"I hate to break up the party," She says, looking at John B, "But I need a ride home." She sticks her bottom lip out and gives him puppy dog eyes.
"Yeah, okay." He sighs, putting his cup down, "Let's go, you big baby." He teases her.
"Uh," JJ stops her from getting up from her chair next to him and she leans in a little so she can hear what he's saying, "Can I stay at yours tonight?" He asks her.
"Of course." She smiles, taking his hat off the table and putting it on her head, "Let's go." She stands up, ruffling his hair. She hugs Kie and Pope before her and the two boys hop in the van and head back to Lane's house.
Lawson's truck is in the driveway when they get there, so it's back to crawling through the window for Lane and JJ. "Fuck-" JJ's foot gets stuck when he's climbing in after her and he falls headfirst onto her floor.
"shhhh-" Lane is trying to tell him to keep quiet but she can't help but laugh at him. "Dude," She helps him up from the floor, "you're like a clumsy puppy sometimes." She chuckles, her hands on his shoulders after he's stood up and stable.
"Look who's talking." He reminds her, pointing at the large bandage on her knee.
"Okay, good point." She laughs, sitting on her floor to untie her shoes, and JJ collapses on her bed.
"Your bed is better than any bed I've ever laid on in my life." He groans, his voice muffled by her pillow.
"That's a big claim, you've slept in a lot of beds." She teases him, kicking her shoes off and jumping onto her bed.
"More than you have?" He questions, lifting his head up from her pillow to look at her. It was of a teasing nature, but she could tell he really wanted an answer.
"Mmm, probably not." She chuckles, her cheeks tinged pink.
"What's the most comfortable bed you've slept in?" He raises his eyebrows at her, now more interested than ever.
"Okay. that I am not going to tell you." She holds her hand up to him.
"Oh come on." He laughs, "I'm not going to judge you." He sits up so they're eye level.
"You'll definitely judge me if I tell you." She mumbles under her breath, "And you'll probably get all angry and...JJ-y."
"JJ-y?" He frowns at her
"You know like-" She sighs, flexing her biceps, "Urrg, me angry and going to...punch." She lowers her voice to a deep raspy tone.
JJ busts out laughing, "Is that your impression of me?" He asks her, "There's only a couple of people that would make me do that." He informs her and Lane nods slowly, "Please don't tell me it's a kook."
"See?!" She points to his face, "That's the look you get when you're getting JJ-y." She tells him.
"Okay, well I want to know exactly who it is now." He crosses his arms over his chest, "Because I gotta know who I need to keep an eye on if I see them in public." He holds his hands up in defense.
Lane sighs, running her hands down her face. She knew him, and she knew he wasn't going to let it go until he had an answer, "Rafe." She says simply, her hands still covering her face but she already knows how he's looking at her, "Just twice!" She says quickly, holding up two fingers, "And then I ghosted him."
His face is scrunched up in disgust, "RAFE CAMERON?!"
"TWICE!" She says again, "And then I never talked to him again." She sighs, "Don't blow it up okay?"
His jaw is clenched as he looks at her, "Fine." He says simply, "I will not blow it up." He says slowly, "But, it does make sense." He says.
"It does?" Lane frowns at him.
"We never understood why he hated you the most out of all of us." He reminds her.
"Yeah..." She sighs, "So now when he calls me a whore you know that it's coming from a place of deep pain for him." She jokes.
"And I can firmly punch him in the throat," JJ says, making her laugh again but she knows he would actually do it. She fiddles with the necklace around her neck, sort of like it's a habit already, "It's pretty crazy John B's dad had that necklace the whole time." JJ remarks, watching her fingers play with it, "How do you feel about finding it?" He asks, his eyes moving back to hers.
"I...don't know." She admits, "It's a lot to take in. I had almost forgotten it even existed and now here it is around my neck." Lane sighs, chewing on her lip in thought, "It kind of makes me wonder what else Big John knew about my parents that he didn't have time to tell me."
JJ is silent for a minute, silently agreeing with what she said with the nod of his head, "I mean, they probably wouldn't approve of you sleeping with Rafe Cameron-" Lane cuts him off, smacking him with one of her pillows.
"Shut up," She scolds, "They probably wouldn't like you sleeping in my bed either."
JJ places a hand over his heart, "Your parents would love me." He defends, "Especially your mom, if she's anything like you." He winks at her.
Lane blushes, "I'm going to change," She stands up from her bed, "when I come back you better be asleep because I don't want to hear you talk anymore tonight." She points a finger at him.
"Yes, ma'am." He holds his hands up in defense but is smirking at her all the while, his dimples showing.
Lane walks out of her bedroom and closes the door behind her, leaning against it as she catches her breath. She was so screwed.