All the way at the Chateau, the Pogues could hear Lane and Lawson screaming at each other from inside of their home. "What do you think they're yelling about?" JJ asks.
"I don't know, JJ, maybe the fact that he just told her that their parents were murdered?" Kie smacks him upside the head because that was probably the stupidest question any of them could ask right now.
"I can't believe he kept it from her for this long." John B whispers mostly to himself, wondering how his best friend was going to recover from this.
"I can't believe you kept this from me for this long!" Lane shouts at Lawson, running her hands through her hair in frustration.
"I told you it was for your own good." He's leaning against the kitchen counter, exhausted from having repeated himself over and over.
"How is this for my own good? How is keeping the biggest secret of my entire life for my own good?" She laughs, not because it was funny, but it was more in disbelief, "I've been living a lie all this time, Lawson. How could you do this to me?!"
"Me? How are you putting all the blame on me? I'm not the one who killed them!" He pushes off the counter and steps closer to her. This was dangerous territory, they both had awful tempers. Lane was better at hiding hers than Lawson was but once she got going it was hard for her to stop. "They wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for John."
"I'm not blaming you for their death, I'm angry because I should have been told the truth way sooner. And not in the way you just did it." She shakes her head at her older brother, "I mean, blurting it out in front of my friends because you're angry with me for acting my age? How about you act your fucking age, Lawson, and be honest with me."
"Well I am being honest with you and you're yelling at me." He turns around to grab a beer out of the fridge.
"You're trying to pin their death on the father of my best friend, someone who was more of a guardian to me than you will ever be." That digs into Lawson's skin and he pauses before opening his beer. He thought he was doing his best, doing what mom and dad would have wanted, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't contain Fallon. She was always larger than life, larger than The Cut. He was jealous of her if he was being honest, she always had a better connection with their parents because of her free spirit. He was always more practical, quiet, kept to himself. She got some of that from him, but there was always her underlying sense of adventure that he never inherited.
"Fuck you, Laney." Those are the only words he can manage to get out of his mouth, his back facing her as he sips his beer.
"Right, okay." She shakes her head, crossing her arms over her chest.
"If you're so disappointed with how I've been taking care of you, then you can leave." He finally turns to look at her, his face as serious as ever.
Fallon stares at him, in shock at first, "You're kicking me out?" She asks in disbelief.
"Until you can get rid of your attitude, yeah." He says simply.
"Fine," Lane starts to make her way back to her bedroom to pack up some of her things, "I don't want to live with someone who I can't trust, anyway." She walks into her bedroom and slams the door shut behind her, alone with her thoughts. She takes a moment to collect herself, catching her breath because she feels like she's been holding her breath this whole time. Her whole life was going to be different now. She had spent the whole time since her parent's death coming to terms with the fact that it was just a tragic accident that took them from her. But now, all of that changed. They were murdered, someone deliberately took their lives.
She grabs a duffel bag from her closet and starts throwing clothes into it, along with a couple of notebooks to fill while she was away. She didn't know where she would stay-maybe with John B or something-but either way, she had to get out of this house. Her mind was fuzzy, not sure of what to make of the information she had received tonight. There was only one thing that she knew.
She was going to find out who killed her parents.
"Hey, how'd it go?" John B asks as Lane walks back over to the group who's waiting outside the Chateau still. She gives them all a tight-lipped smile and drops her duffel bag onto the ground in front of her feet, "He kicked you out?" John B's jaw drops.
"Yeah, said until I fixed my attitude he doesn't want me there." She sighs deeply, sliding her hands into the pockets of her shorts.
"You can stay here." JB offers immediately, but Kie steps up.
"No offense, John B, but you have scary dudes with guns breaking into your house and tearing it apart at random moments." She reminds him, wrapping her arm around Lane's shoulders and pulling her close, "You can stay with me, you're sort of the only one of my friends my parents can tolerate anyway." The guys all make sounds of offense but shut up when they realize it's not the time to be talking about themselves.
"Thanks, Kie." Lane wraps her arm around her friend's waist, hugging her back.
JJ steps forward, his eyes locked with Lane's, "You gonna be okay?" He asks sincerely.
"Eventually," She smiles sadly at him, "It's just a lot to process right now." He nods in understanding and the group falls silent again, "Come on now, we all need to go home and get some rest." She grabs her bag, "We've got some gold to find tomorrow."
"Lane, we can rain check if you don't-" Fallon holds her hand up, cutting him off.
"Don't be stupid, John B." She tells him, "If Lawson is telling the full truth, and my parents were trying to help your dad find the gold, I want to help you find it. For them." She says softly, her arm still around Kie.
"Alright," He smiles at her, almost in relief because he wasn't sure he would be able to do all of this without her. "I love you, Jo." He ruffles her hair, using his special nickname for her.
"Yeah yeah," She pushes his hands away, "Don't go soft on me, Johnny." She blushes as she tries to smooth down her unruly hair. "Now if you boys will excuse us," She looks at Kie, "I have a mansion to move into."
"See you, fellas, later." Kie wiggles her fingers at them before the two girls turn to walk toward Kie's car, "We should have a pillow fight!" She gasps in a high pitched voice, just to mess with the boys behind them.
Lane squeals, "In our underwear!"
JJ lets out a long groan, "Dammit, I wanna go to the sleepover."
"Yeah, you're really gonna miss your cuddle time with Lane now that you can't sneak into her room every night." Pope teases his blond friend, who in turn shoves Pope in the chest.
"Shut up." He mutters under his breath, not that Pope was far off from the truth.
The next morning is the big day. With Pope's dad's boat and the underwater camera on board, the crew set out to look for the Royal Merchan, Big John's coordinates on hand.
"How was your first night at Castle Carrera?" JJ asks Lane as she stands next to him at the wheel. The rest of the crew was out on the deck, watching the sky get more overcast as the day went on.
Lane chuckles, "I used garbage disposal for the first time." She tells him, "Now that was an experience."
JJ chuckles for a second but turns to her after with a quite serious look on his face, "I'm really sorry about everything that went down last night," He tells her, "I know that it was a lot and I just want to make sure that you know you can talk to me if you need to."
"Thanks, JJ." she smiles at him, leaning in a little closer, "You know, I am going to miss our sleepovers." She admits, fixing the hat on top of his head, "I love Kie and all but you're a way better cuddler." She winks at him.
"Hey JJ, pin it right here!" JJ doesn't have time to Lane's flirtatious advances because John B gives him an order.
"Roger that! X marks the spot." Lane walks out onto the deck of the boat, examining the water around them.
"Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen," John B grabs the drone that is connected to the long barrel of wire that they have, "To going full Kook." Kie, Pope, and Lane all watch with burning excitement as he slowly lowers the drone into the water and their search officially begins.
Kie starts feeding the wire down, watching the measurements pass as she does so. Pope is controlling the camera and John B and Lane are watching the monitor so they can see how close their boat is to being above the wreck, "Alright, JJ, we're right over it," Lane calls to him, "Ten seconds Northwest."
"Got it, ten seconds northwest." He repeats back to her, doing exactly as she says.
"100 feet," Kie informs the rest of them as she passes the red marker in the wire.
Pope gasps as he watches the camera, obviously seeing something. John B jumps up, rushing over to the screen, "What? What is it?" He asks urgently.
"It's nothing," Pope admits sheepishly, Lane rolls her eyes at him, "I'm sorry, okay? I thought I saw a giant squid!" He defends himself,
"You can't do that to me, man." JJ sighs, turning back to the front of the boat.
They all let it go as the drone goes down deeper into the water, "And to quote The Hobbit 'down, down, to Goblin Town. Down, down you go, my lad.'" Pope says in a weird voice.
Lane frowns over at him, "But why are we quoting the hobbit?" She shakes her head at him.
"Four hundred feet!" Kie announces, marking the milestone on the side of the boat with chalk. "The tides turning," she observes.
"Hey, JJ," John B says, watching the monitor, "Ten seconds easy, south-southeast, okay?"
"Got it!" JJ calls back and Lane walks over to stand by him, getting a view of the water from up there.
"JJ 20 seconds mid-speed, alright? South." JJ starts turning the wheel again and Lane can tell they're getting close by how specific the instructions are getting from John B.
"Copy that! Aye, aye." He struggles with the boat a little bit to get it exact and Lane watches him, trying to ignore how good he looked while doing it because this was a serious moment and it was not the time to be thinking about those kinds of things.
Everything was getting more intense, from the wind to the darkness of the clouds approaching and the thunder rumbling, to how everyone is yelling orders to different people. It was just a tale of how close they were getting, "Okay, seven hundred feet!" Kie calls. The storm is getting closer, waves crashing against the boat every couple of seconds, making it difficult for JJ to keep his balance at the wheel.
He leans over, looking up at the sky through the window in front of him, "JJ, keep it steady!" John B calls.
"Okay 900!"
"JJ we're gonna turtle in this storm."
"Yeah no shit, Pope!" Lane yells back to the three on the deck.
"920!"
"Crank it, north by northwest, ten seconds!" JJ cranks it as hard as he can, a look of concentration on his face as he does so.
"John B, there's too much current we're gonna lost it!" Kie exclaims, trying to keep hold of the wire as she yells. Lane rushes over to kneel beside her, grabbing a hold of the yellow wire with two hands and helping her keep hold of it.
"South southwest, JJ! Hard!" John B looks back down at the monitor, "Half speed, steady at this bearing, JJ!"
"Kiara!" Pope yells over to the two girls after the current has calmed down slightly and she continues to wind it down.
"960!" She calls back.
"Are you guys seeing anything?!" Lane turns around to look at Pope and John B.
"Nothing yet!" Pope yells back.
"970!" The drone keeps going lower and lower, "980!" There's no sign of anything and they're running out of length.
"I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!" Pope finally announces to everyone.
"Steady here, JJ!" John B calls to him, Lane and Kie rush over to look at the screen, "You should be seeing something here."
They all watch the screen for a couple of seconds before anyone sees it. Right there, where Big John said it would be.
The wreck of the Royal Merchant.
But the excitement is shortlived as the drone makes its way around the remains of the ship and there's no sign of the gold, "It's not here." John B mutters under his breath, "Shit." He steps away from the screen, obviously discouraged, "Just pull the drone up."
"We can do another pass," Pope says quickly, "recharge the battery."
"Guys, we've been over it three times there's nothing there!" JJ calls, still at the wheel.
"Shut up!" Kie yells at him.
"Just stop yelling!" Lane snaps at the two of them, running her fingers through her hair as she walks over to wire, starting the long process of pulling the drone up. She'd heard enough yelling over the last twelve hours.
"The gold could have been buried, we don't know!" Kie obviously ignores Lane's request and continues to yell.
"If it was there it would have been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B brings up a good point, "Somebody beat us to it." Lane keeps her mouth shut, continuing to pull the drone up, her eyes on the dark water below her as her mind wanders elsewhere.
What if all of this was for nothing? What if the gold was never here, Big John and her parents did all of this for nothing. It looks like she was going to be stuck working at the cafe for a while.
After one hell of a morning, Lane crawls back into her makeshift bed at Kie's house. It was the best air mattress she had ever slept on, it was almost more comfortable than her bed. She has the covers pulled over her head when Kie smacks a pillow on her back, waking her up from her peaceful slumber, "Laney, wake up." She groans.
"I can't. I'm dead." She says simply.
"We're going to the outdoor movie night. Pope and JJ are coming." She yanks the blankets off of her, "Come on."
Lane sits up, her eyes half open and her hair a mess, "What about Johnny?" She asks.
Kie shrugs, "I couldn't get a hold of him, figured he was sulking." Lane rubs her eyes, "I know this morning was a lot...and last night," She sits down next to Lane, who chuckles a little bit at her obvious statement, "But this will be good. We'll go out and have a fun, normal summer night."
Lane stares at her for about ten seconds before she gives in, "Okay, okay," she stands up, "Let's go pick up the dorks." If she knew how the night would actually turn out, she probably would have stayed in bed.
"I'm so glad they're still doing this," Kie says happily as the other three follow behind her, not as excited but at least they were here. "Keep calm, carry on. Back to normal, OBX life, you know?" She turns to look at them as they pick their perfect spot, "Aren't you guys glad I made you come?"
"Ecstatic," Pope says sarcastically.
JJ clears his throat, "My couch was pretty comfy." He admits as Lane spreads the blanket out and sits criss-cross on it. She was the only one who didn't bring a chair but she preferred it that way. She turns to Pope and JJ who are whispering frantically about something and she narrows her eyes at them in confusion. Kie goes to grab drinks at the concession stand and Lane fully turns to look at the two boys.
"What are you two freaking out about?" She asks them.
"Topper and Rafe are on my ass," Pope's eyes look panicked, "They know I sunk Topper's boat."
"So? They can't prove it." Lane reminds him, "You'll be fine, just deny, deny, deny."
JJ smirks down at her, "I taught you so well." Lane rolls her eyes at him, turning back to the screen to hide her blush.
"Just saw Rafe," Kie says as she returns to the group. Lane's blood runs cold at the mention of his name, "He said, and I quote, 'tell your boy that we know what he did'." Lane presses her lips together and turns to look at Pope and JJ, "What is that?"
"Um...where is he?" JJ asks, trying to remain calm.
"Right there." Pope, JJ, and Lane all whip their heads around to see Topper, Rafe, and Kelce standing towards the back of the crowd and looking as smug as ever.
"The whole death squad. Ah!" Pope exclaims.
"Don't stare, bro." JJ advises.
"God, they're so annoying." Lane scoffs as she turns back around, pulling her hoodie over her head as the night breeze starts to set in.
"I'm just warning you two, if they corner me I'm coming out swinging, okay?" JJ says under her breath, "Slice and dicin'. I'm on edge right now." Lane runs her hands down her face, "If that doesn't work, I got this right here." He holds his bag up and Lane's eyes widen.
"JJ, please tell me you did not bring a gun here," Kie begs him, "JJ there are kids!"
"No, Kie, I didn't bring a gun, okay? Everything's fine." He assures her, but he's lying through his teeth and Kie can tell.
"Wow, thank you, that's really convincing. I love that, JJ." She says sarcastically. The three guilty teens stay quiet and that makes her angrier, "Founding principle guys. No secrets amongst Pogues. What is Rafe talking about?" She demands.
"Kie," Pope turns to her, "it might go down tonight."
"What does that mean? What did ya'll do?"
"Oh look, the movies starting." Lane laughs nervously, pointing to the screen, "Let's stop talking, hehe."
"Deny, deny, deny." She hears JJ whisper to Pope.
It was going well, really it was. The sun had set and the movie was playing. It was relaxing and nothing seemed to be happening. And then, Pope couldn't control his bladder and of course, JJ had to go with him in case he got jumped again, "What are you going to do, hold it for each other?" Kie asks in confusion as the two boys sneak away, "Seriously, what is going on with you three?" She asks Lane.
"It's a long story." Lane says, trying to see where the boys went because she was very nervous about what was going to happen, "Basically," She caves, "Rafe and Topper jumped Pope at the golf course the other day and to get revenge, Pope sank Topper's boat and now they know it was Pope and they're gonna beat the shit out of him if they get the chance." She explains, and they've been gone way too long for her liking. "I'm going to go check on them." She stands up.
"I'm coming with you." Lane can't stop Kie from getting up and following her in the direction that the boys went.
Much to their horror, the three stooges had already gotten to them and were, as Lane predicted, beating the shit out of them. Topper and Pope were going at it, and Kelce was holding JJ while Rafe gave him blow after blow to the stomach and face. "Kelce, let him go!" Lane yells as Kie runs over to jump on Topper's back, trying to fight him off of Pope. Lane is pulling on Kelce's arms and his shirt, trying everything to get him to let go of JJ. Rafe walks over and throws Kie off of Topper before turning back to JJ. Lane takes this as her opportunity and stands in his way, "Stop it, Rafe!" She pushes him back, but he comes back stronger, grabbing her face with his hand and holding her roughly.
"Don't touch me." He growls at her.
"Hey, let her go!" JJ struggles against Kelce's grasp but it's no use.
"Ohh," Rafe clicks his tongue, "I guess you've moved on to this punk over here, huh? Doesn't surprise me," he looks into her eyes, "I knew you were just a Pogue slut from the beginning." He shoves her to the ground and Lane rubs her cheeks where he grabbed her. She watches as Topper puts Pope in a chokehold, getting to her feet to do something, but she doesn't have to.
Kie grabs the lighter from JJ's bag and lights the movie screen on fire, forcing everyone on the other side to flee in horror and the kook assholes to flee because they didn't want to get in trouble. "Kelce, get off!" He's finally distracted enough that Lane can grab him and shove him away from JJ, watching him scurry off with his little friends. Lane makes sure that Kie is checking on Pope who's still regaining his breath before she walks over to JJ, grabbing his face to get a better look at it, "Are you okay?"
He places his hands on her waist, "I'm fine," he looks her over, "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch I can't believe he did that to you."
"Not if I kill him first for what he did to you." She leans down and grabs his hat off the ground, handing it to him. "Come on, we gotta get out of here."