Carefree || JJ Maybank

Chapter Eighty-Seven

They sat around a table in plastic chairs. Everleigh's legs bouncing up in down. All she wanted to do was talk to JJ, but at the same time she didn't want to say a single word to him. Communication was always good between them, but since they'd gotten home from the Bahamas, everything's gone to shit. So, she sat silently, between Sarah and Pope, listening to the group talk. More specifically, JJ at the moment.

"Honestly, the hardest part is gonna be security, alright? So most of the guys are gonna be at the rail yard." He explains. He only looked down at his hands, and even when Everleigh would try to make eye contact with him, he wouldn't look up.

"Right, so we're gonna need to find some place and guard it and maybe a little further down the line, like a whistle stop." Pope agrees, adding to the plan.

Cleo smiles to herself, "You guys are getting ahead of yourselves per usual."

"I second that." Everleigh mumbles, but the attention is turned away by Sarah snapping her head back to the table.

"Oh my god." She mumbles, covering her face.

"Oh my god, what?" Cleo questions, but everyone was looking to see what Sarah was freaking about.

"Is that Topper?" Pope asks, finally spotting him at the bar.

Kiara spins back around with a look of annoyance. "Why is he... everywhere?"

"Perfect." Pope smiles, making Everleigh furrows her brows at her. "Hey, J, I bet you Topper has a way to transport the cross."

"Actually, Pope's right." Everleigh smiles, earning a silent thank you from Pope. "He does have a pretty fine rig."

"No." Sarah quickly denies.

"Yes." JJ responds just as quickly.

"No. Absolutely not." She continues to fight for herself.

"Sarah, you already got him whipped anyways." JJ mentioned. "So why don't you just take one for the team." JJ was one to talk. If it were Everleigh suggested in the idea, he would have an instant problem even though she'd be on board. But since it wasn't her, he'd willingly throw Sarah into Topper's arms for a little help.

"And what will John B say?" Sarah asks, looking at Everleigh for help but she thought the plan was a good idea as well.

"I'll be honest." She nods, looking at the table. "I think John B will completely understand. Think about the circumstances. It's about treasure."

"We can handle John B." Kiara reassures Sarah. "Just talk to him."

Finally, Sarah gives in and they all watch her as she talks to Topper. While they watched, Everleigh caught JJ quickly looking at her, but when she looked at him, he spun his head in the opposite direction. Everleigh just nodded not even bothering to understand the mind of JJ. Her train of thought is interrupted when she sees Sarah let herself into Toppers arms, giving him a hug. The group celebrates silently and they all take their spots back in their chairs. Pope and Cleo chatted while Sarah and Everleigh talked to Topper. Kiara and JJ were quiet though and it came to no surprise.

"Well, there's like a thousand trains here." Sarah draws her lips into a straight line.

Everleigh looks around and nods. "Thanks captain obvious."

"Well, we know it's car 750X on the track to Raleigh." Pope explains as they all stood atop a train.

"Yeah, so now we just gotta find it." JJ states the obvious.

"Well, news flash." Kiara begins to talk, turning and looking at the group. "We're not getting out of here unnoticed with a giant cross."

"We don't have to." Pope tells her, explaining the more in depth version of his plan. "We can nab it somewhere further in the country. We just gotta figure out how to stop the train."

"Right." Kiara mumbles.

JJ speaks up now too, "Leave that to me."

"How are you gonna do that?" Cleo is first to question him as always.

"I got an uncle up in New Bern, right? When he got tipsy, he'd just throw an old chain across the tracks, just for shits and giggles." He smiles as he tells the story. Everleigh remembered when he first told her about this a while ago, while they waxed their surfboards. "And that old little chain would stop all the train traffic in coastal Carolina."

"A chain." Kiara asks him, thinking that the chain idea wouldn't work.

"He's actually right." Pope admits. "There's a low-voltage current that runs across all rail tracks. You throw a chain on it, you close that circuit. It would read as another chain. Crossing lights come down. Science is actually pretty sound." He smiles.

"Science. I know my science." JJ gleams proudly.

"Yeah, well we don't have a chain, geniuses." Everleigh cuts them off, making both of their smiles fade pretty quickly.

"No, no, no, but I bet Topper's dad has jumper cables in the truck. Would that work?" Sarah asks, turning to look at Pope for an answer.

They hear a car door shut behind them and they all turn around to see Topper outside his truck. "Yo, what's going on? Are we doing this or what?" He shouts, tossing his arms in the air.

"Alright, you all wait here." Cleo starts to make calls, making the whole group listen to her. "Me and Pope will go look for it and send a signal once we find it.

"Do we actually have a plan right now?" Sarah smiles.

"I think we do." JJ also smiles, starting to climb down from off of the train.

Everleigh also turns to get off the train. "A first and probably a last time so let's soak it in." She jokes.

They all hide behind the train, and wait for their signal to come through. Everleigh looked at Sarah and they smiled at one another, but then she looked at her other side, only to meet JJ's eyes. He looked away, but he looked as if he had something to say to her. But the fact that he couldn't just talk to her angered her and she just shook her head.