𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚋𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 | 𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚜

spitting cobra

—

They gathered in a circle, fire illuminating their faces as they waited for John B to sit down.

"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me." Pope said, "So what's this mandatory meeting about?"

Evelynn smiled at her friend, running a hand through Luca's hair as he sat on the ground by her leg.

John B gave JJ a look, the blonde shrugging his shoulders, "Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed."

"You ready for this?" John B asked, looking around at the confused teens in front of them.

The twins nodded, "Yeah."

"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant—"

Evelynn rolled her eyes, however, Pope was the one to speak up, "Oh, my God. Here we go again with this."

"No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?" JJ quickly stopped the complaining, sending Kirsten a reassuring look when she turned to look at him.

"It's been here the whole time. It's on the island."

Kie made a face, "Are you serious?"

"Oh, my God."

"Actually?" Kirsten followed, sharing a look with Evelynn, who didn't look too convinced.

Pope sat up, "I'd like to voice my skepticism."

"I'm sure you would, Pope, but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?"

"Proceed." Pope waved a hand, Luca chuckling at the action.

"All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." John B told them, walking over to the bag to pull out a note.

"Who the hell's that?"

"No doubt a dead man." Evelynn snorted.

"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck." Luca informed them, cheeks unexpectedly warming up as the all turned look at him, not expecting him to know that.

Evelynn leaned down, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug.

"That is correct." John pointed to him, "Check this out." John B gave Kie a paper to pass around.

"What?"

"Here you go."

The note got passed to Kirsten, who read over it with a crease in between her brows. JJ couldn't stop himself from staring at her long enough until the her frown disappeared. Unknown to him, he did that quite a lot. Simply watching the way she reacted to certain things, wanting to know how she felt at all times.

"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest."

Evelynn gently took the paper from Kirsten's hand, not bothering to even look at it before she gave it to her boyfriend who took his time to read.