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— • — • — • — ꧁꧂ — • — • — • —
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 — 𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑙𝑜𝑤
JOHN B AND Pope docked the HMS Pogue and the group walked onto the docks, finding Lana Grubbs sobbing over someone on a stretcher. "Who's that?" John B asked a random girl next to him.
"It's Scooter Grubs. He was out during the storm. Check out this pic I got. Dead body." she said, showing her phone to the group. Leilani cringed when she saw it.
"Insane." Kie said and Leilani looked up to JJ, who had been uncharacteristically quiet. He was holding onto a support beam, his arm muscles clenched.
"What kind of boat did he have?" JJ asked the girl and Leilani averted her eyes from him just as he looked down at her.
"Somehow that dirtbag copped a brand new Grady-White. Everyone's out looking for it." at the girl's words, the group of five looked amongst themselves, all thinking the same thing.
They dropped Scout off at Leilani's house, the girl ducking back into the boat as soon as Rachel opened the door. The Pogues had more serious things to discuss than Leilani's surf shack that had taken over the garage. John B docked the boat at the Chateau, and the group assembled on the front porch. JJ sat down on the couch with Leilani on the floor slightly in front of him, playing with his lighter. John B played with a beer bottle when Pope stormed into the porch.
"Okay. So, um... we didn't see anything, we don't know anything. We need to have complete and total amnesia." Pope said, stressed. He took a seat on the couch beside Kie.
"Actually, Pope's right for once." JJ said, sitting up.
"That's mean." Leilani mumbled, playing with her bracelets.
JJ stood up. "See, I agree with you sometimes. Deny, deny, deny." he walked carefully over Leilani's legs to get to John B.
"Guys, we can't keep that money." Kie spoke up as Leilani took JJ's old seat, crossing her legs beneath her.
"Okay, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." JJ said, and Leilani understood what he was saying. Kie thought it was fun to be a Pogue only because she's never had to worry about money. Leilani might live on Figure Eight now, but for a long time she and her father were barely scrapping by, barely eating and working multiple jobs just to afford rent. Being a Pogue wasn't some fun group, it was hard, and Kie didn't understand that.
"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise, it's bad karma." Kie reasoned.
"Karma isn't real, but jail-time is." Leilani added, her dark hair covering her shoulders.
Pope agreed. "We gotta go dark." JJ walked over to him, taking the money.
"If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree." he walked back over to stand beside John B, who hadn't said anything.
John B grabbed JJ's shoulder as he moved past him. "I don't agree."
"What? Why?" JJ asked, following him through the porch.
"Just think about it. This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas," John B arrived next to the chair Leilani sat in. "We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than forty bucks in his pocket, and all of the sudden he's got a Grady-White? Just sayin'."
Leilani frowned. "I don't get it." she said. The Polynesian girl had always struggled with comprehension, making her the exact opposite of JJ.
JJ sighed, turning towards her. "He wasn't rich, and he had an expensive boat. That doesn't happen." JJ explained simply, waiting for the classic result of Leilani understanding something; her eyes lighting up. Once they did, JJ smiled.
John B moved the group down to the dock where Pope and JJ were fishing, Leilani sitting on the edge of the railing with her feet dangling towards the water. "All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?" John B asked Pope.
"Prostitution." Pope said simply.
"Drug dealing times a thousand." Leilani added, adjusting her glasses. She knew she had a spare pair of contacts somewhere in John B's bathroom that she would find later.
John B shook his head at both of them. "Square groupers, bro. Okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?" John B pointed at his best friend.
"They were straight smugglin'." JJ said, adjusting his fishing pole. He knew how much Leilani hated fishing and he didn't do it too often around her.
"Smugglin'," John B affirmed. "And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck." he looked at the two girls. One was convinced and one was not.
"Hell, yeah," JJ agreed, before he jerked his rod up at the presence of a fish. "Fish on!" Leilani immediately jumped off of the railing and practically ran over to John B, avoiding the fish that JJ was reeling in.
John B looked at the sea bass JJ was holding. "Leila, it's just a bass." he said, chuckling.
"I don't care. He didn't kill it, did he?" Leilani asked, her eyes closed and her back to JJ. Leilani adored sea life, and she could barely be around people when they were fishing.
JJ threw the fish back in. "Just in the lip. He swam away, he's fine." JJ assured her, not telling Leilani that the hook had punctured the poor fish's eye for her comfort.
They gathered again in John B's bedroom. Pope and Leilani sat on the bed, John B and JJ on windowsills and Kie at his desk. Pope took the money. "For the record, if that it a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it, it probably belongs to someone else." Pope said, Leilani agreeing with him.
"Minor details." Kie brushed off.
Pope handed the money to Leilani. "People could come looking for it. Taking that shit would be astonishingly stupid." Leilani said, the calculations formulating through her brain.
JJ leant forward, gently taking the money from the girl. "Right. Well, stupid things, have good outcomes all the time," he fanned the cash in front of Leila's face, knowing how desperately she needed money to buy a new surfboard. "All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then we just lay low, act normal." JJ said, sending a wink Leilani's way.
"Right. And how exactly do we do that?" Pope asked, him and Leilani temporarily agreeing to the plan.
