Carson Keller used to think her biggest problem was their rivalry against the Kooks, but that was until buried secrets rose to the surface. Now her biggest problems included a dangerous treasure hunt and a hot-headed teenage boy.
✰ season 1-3 ✰
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JOHN B PULLED out the drawing of the site from his back pocket and laid it down on the table to show to Neville.
"I just have a few questions," he said. "Solana. You've been there, yeah?"
"That is a place of evil," Neville said. Carson and JJ locked eye contact for a brief moment, not particularly liking the sound of that. Everything they did involved some level of danger to it but "evil" was a whole other level.
"That stone piece right there. Me and my dad found the thing that goes in the center," John B continued.
"The gnomon," Neville clarified.
"What's a gnomon?" JJ asked. John B reassured them that he had it, not exactly having the time to explain what they had found when they needed more answers from Neville to truly figure it out.
"Listen to me. Now, there's some bad men who have taken my father to this place, and they're gonna kill him. So, I need your help to find this place, Neville," John B said.
"No, no, no, no," Neville said as he stood up.
"No?"
"The curse has already done enough," he said.
"No, no, no. Look, it's not a curse, okay?" John B said. "I understand that it's dangerous, but I need your help." Carson took a very small step forward to try to show she meant no harm but wanting him to realize the urgency in this.
"Listen, Neville, if you believe that it's a curse then I believe you," she said. "But you have to trust us just as much as we have to trust you. If there's any shot of getting his dad back then we need you to tell us where this place is."
"Carson," JJ said. She turned and he raised his finger to his lips to indicate for her to be quiet. When she stopped to listen she realized there was another boat coming down the river. "Hey, Neville, how much traffic do you get on this river?"
"Nothing." Almost on cue, an unfamiliar voice screamed Neville's name from outside. A gunshot cut through the silence and glass went flying towards them as the bullet shattered the window. JJ immediately threw his body over Carson's to shield her from the glass, his hand resting protectively on top of her head to hold her down as bullets kept flying into the boat. "Get the anchor!"
The three of them snuck out the back to climb into the water to get the anchor so they could escape. John B quietly snuck onto the other boat to snatch their key but the man with the gun whipped around. Before he could shoot it though, John B grabbed a hold of it to stop him. Carson rushed forward as they struggled and kicked the man as hard as she could in the groin. He let out a loud groan of pain and she used his moment of weakness to shove him hard in the chest until he felt back into the water. Unfortunately, during the fight, John B also happened to drop the keys into the water below.
They snuck back onto Neville's boat to get the move on, but John B was too slow and the other man pointed the gun at him and Carson. While he was distracted with the two of them, JJ snuck around back and grabbed him by the belt to throw him off the boat. John B cut the rope with the machete and Neville put the throttle full force ahead. Carson's body was full of adrenaline and she couldn't help the laugh that erupted from her mouth, partly out of relief and partly out of shock.
"Damn, we're getting pretty good at this."
✰
After Neville finally gave them the information that they needed and also the warning that the gold killed everyone that tried to find it, which was not very comforting for any of them to hear, they still decided the next move would be to collect the rest of the Pogues and let them in on what they had learned in order to make the trip down to South America. It's why they ended up at Kiara's parent's party to get her and Sarah.
"Do you think we're actually going to get it this time?" Carson asked. They put John B in charge of flagging down Sarah and Kiara while she and JJ waited in the boat.
"We have to try, right?" JJ said. "I mean, what else do we have to lose?"
"Our lives, for starters," she said. He laughed and nodded his head.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess that's true," he said. She sighed and put her head into her hands as she leaned on her elbows. She was mostly just exhausted but there was something else that was bothering her too. He must have recognized this because he reached over and rested his hand on her back. "You okay?"
"I just- I mean, we thought Big John was dead for so long that we kinda just accepted it, right? But then we find out he's actually been alive this whole time, which is a little bit fucked up, honestly," she admitted. She didn't want to be mad with him because at least he was alive, but she was mad at the fact that he didn't reach out to them sooner to let them know. They went through grieving him but there was no reason to actually be grieving in the first place. "But now he's been taken and is probably going to be killed. Just hard not to be mad at him right now."
"I know," he said. "But we'll get him back, okay? We always figure it out. That's what Pogues do." She smiled at him in appreciation of his words of encouragement, but her smile slowly dropped when she saw the look on John B's face as he approached them.
"What happened? Where's Sarah and Kie?" she asked.
"She cheated. That's what happened," he said.
"What?" Hearing that was the last thing she expected.
"After everything I've been going through, she's off hooking up with Topper?" he said. "I mean, what the hell?"
"I'm sorry. That's really shitty," she said. It definitely was not the most helpful response but she didn't quite know what to say. Sarah was her sister so it made it hard to take sides, but she did a messed up thing and Carson's loyalties just ran deeper to John B since they had been friends for much longer.
"Let's just get out of here. We don't need 'em," JJ said. They climbed into the boat but when they saw John B staring across the way, not making any sort of effort to get into the boat, they looked over to where his attention was directed and saw Sarah and Topper embraced in a hug. "John B, what are you doing? Don't even think about it, dude."
"It's not worth it, John B, not now," Carson said. She didn't blame him for wanting to confront Topper, but he was too full of anger and stress that it wasn't bound to end well. He just moved forward until he was pushing Topper back. At first it looked like Sarah was maybe going to be able to calm him and make him back down, but then John B turned and swung his fist directly into Topper's face. "Oh, shit." That wasn't the end though because he started to just keep throwing punches and didn't seem to have any intent of stopping. "JJ, you need to do something!" JJ ran forward to stop him but Kiara's dad was the first to get to John B to throw him off of Topper.
"Get out of here!" he screamed at them.
"You happy, Sarah?" John B called out. Carson grabbed a hold of John B's arm while JJ dragged him away by the front of his shirt.
