─☼☼☼─

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙂𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙋 𝙊𝙁 them hadn't wasted any time in going after the gold. 

Five minutes after Pope's announcement, they were flying down the road to the airstrip, each of them bubbling with nerves and excitement. 

Charlotte had managed to find someone to cover the restaurant for her while she was gone, using the excuse that she had a "big emergency to deal with." Technically, she wasn't lying. This was a pretty big emergency. 

"We go in there, guns a-blazin' and make Ward Cameron beg for mercy, abscond with as much gold as possible and vámonos, get the hell out of there." JJ had a box of ammunition sprawled out in front of him as he loaded his gun. 

"Send that shit right down the intercostal." John B added. 

Kiara picked up the next part of the plan. "Wait for the weather."

Pope finished it off. "Send it to Cuba."

"Cuba?" JJ challenged. "Nah, man. Send that shit straight to Xcalack, jewel of the Yucatan. Lobsters so thick, mangoes, and no word for money."

Charlotte was too preoccupied with the gun to even pay much notice to what they were saying. "Do you bring that thing with you wherever you go?" she wondered, uneasy with its presence. 

JJ grinned with a shrug. "You never know when you're gonna need the heat."

While the rest of the kids seemed eager to put Ward Cameron in his place, Charlotte couldn't help but worry. What if Sarah was there? What if Rafe was there? 

Ward Cameron was a horrible person, she knew that now, but it didn't extinguish the fact that he used to be like a second father to her. He had always been so good to Charlotte, and that made all of this ten times harder. 

"Char, what's wrong?" Kie wondered, catching onto her sister's off vibe. "You're not getting cold feet are you?"

Charlotte glanced up at her, giving a small shake of her head. "No." She promised. "But─but I just want to make it clear that we're not hurting anyone today."

"No promises, Charls." JJ chuckled, examining his gun. "Gotta do what you gotta do."

"Four hundred mil is going to mean absolutely nothing if we're all in jail." She shot back, shooting him a disapproving look. 

"Charley's right." John B agreed from the driver's seat. "I hate Ward Cameron with every fibre of my being, but we're doing this violence free, got it?"

JJ let out a disappointed sigh as he slipped the gun into his waistband. "Got it." He mumbled like a toddle who was just scolded. 

"Good." John B grinned, leaning forward slightly in anticipation. "Let's do this shit."

As they pulled up to the airstrip, Charlotte felt her heart jump in her chest. This was it. 

All of them piled out of the Twinkie, hurrying toward the fence that separated the forest from the airstrip. 

Charlotte went to follow, but someone caught her arm. Turning, she looked up at John B who was looking at her with a guilty expression. "Charley, before we go, I just want to say I'm sorry for before. You didn't deserve to be ripped apart like that...not at all."

She gave him a small smile as she took one of his hands, giving it a light squeeze. "All good, John B. I get it, you have a lot going on right now."

He nodded, glancing toward the airstrip for a moment. "Are you going to be able to do this? Because I know you have a past with Ward...if it's too much for you, you can sit it out."

"No." She argued firmly. "I'm good."

"Guys!" Kie called from the fence, waving them over. "Get over here."

Sharing one final sincere look, John B and Charlotte hurried toward where the other three were standing. 

"What's our plan?" Charlotte questioned, eyes landing on the Cameron's plane. It was too far away for her to see everything, but she could see that it was being loaded with something. 

A year ago, her and Rafe had come to this airstrip in the middle of the night with plans of leaving for the Bahamas. It had been an impromptu trip, and the best one of her entire life. 

Oh, how much life could change in a year. 

"I don't think we got that far." John B admitted. 

Pope, who was holding their only pair of binoculars, let out a small gasp. "They're loading the gold!"

A car horn sounded as John B snatched the binoculars from Pope. "Ward's here." He announced, slowly moving his eyes across the landscape. 

The rest of them did their best to see what was happening, but it was difficult without a magnifier. 

After a couple of moments, John B lowered the binoculars, a look of shock on his face which caused worry to bubble in Charlotte's chest. "What?" she demanded. 

He didn't answer her, just kept starring forward with sheer worry.

"What?" Charlotte repeated, this time more forceful. 

John B finally looked over at her. "It's Sarah."

No. 

That was exactly what Charlotte was worried about. Sarah being there made everything ten times harder. They had to protect her from all of this...they had to. 

"She's with him?" Pope breathed out. 

"Okay." Charlotte declared, shaking her head free of jumbled thoughts. "Here's out plan─Kie and I will get to Sarah. We'll convince her to come with us and we'll get the hell out of dodge. She doesn't need to see any of this go down. Once we're out of there, you three focus on Ward."

JJ, Pope, and Kie were nodding along with her plan, no one finding any space for objections. But John B still hadn't moved, the binoculars brought back up to his eyes. 

"Wait a minute─ he's hurting her!" he exclaimed, leaning forward slightly.

Everyone turned to him in a panic. Ward Cameron may have been a horrible person, but Charlotte never would have expected him to hurt Sarah in any capacity. 

"They're fighting." John B elaborated. "He's forcing her onto the plane."

Charlotte reached out and took the binoculars from him, John B putting up no fight at all as he turned from the fence. 

JJ leaned toward Charlotte. "Wait. So he─"

He cut himself off as the sound of car door slamming met their ears. The remaining four of them turned to see John B in the driver's seat of the Twinkie.

"John B!"

"What are you doing?"

"Stop!"

"Just wait!"

The jumbled screams of Pope, JJ, Kiara, and Charlotte filled the air as they all rushed away from the fence and toward the Twinkie. They could not let him leave by himself, if they did, it wasn't going to end well.

Their screams continued as John B revved up the engine and hit the gas, sending the Twinkie lurching forward. 

Charlotte and the others were forced to jump out of the way as the Twinkie barrelled through the security fence and onto the airstrip. 

"What the fuck!" Charlotte screamed in complete and utter disarray.

JJ raced after John B, as if he had any capacity to catch him. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? COME BACK!"

JJ and Charlotte gripped onto each other, Pope and Kiara doing the same as they watched the Twinkie race down the airstrip toward the plane that was gearing up for departure. They had no idea what John B was planning...how he thought he was going to stop this. 

"What is he doing?" Charlotte demanded, her eyes widening as John B pulled the Twinkie ahead of the plane. She was asking a question she already knew the answer to...he was trying to cut them off. 

If he was successful, it would be a miracle. If he failed, he'd probably be dead. Charlotte couldn't afford to picture that scenario. 

Clamping her eyes shut, she could hear the screeching of tires on pavement. She prayed that it was the plane she was hearing. Prayed that one of her best friends was not about to be killed by her ex-boyfriend's father. 

And then...silence. 

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes. And what she saw almost caused her to collapsed in sheer relief. The plane had been stopped, mere feet from where John B had stopped the Twinkie. 

JJ let out a sigh of relief from next to her as they all tried to watch what was going to happen next. The plane was even further from them at this point, all they could see was slight movement as someone exited from the plane. 

The next thing they heard was the sound of sirens. 

Untangling herself from JJ, Charlotte listened closely. "They're getting closer." She whispered...they were on their way here. 

Pope pulled away from Kiara. "I can't get arrested."

"Neither can I." Charlotte added. 

JJ gave a small, reluctant, nod. "I'm on probation."

"Look, we're no good if we're all in jail." Kie declared. And she was right, them standing here did absolutely nothing. John B was going to need their help, and they could only give him that help if they didn't get caught.

"Okay." Charlotte breathed, grabbing onto JJ to pull him away from the scene. "Let's go."

And so they did. The four of them took off running, trying to put as much distance between themselves and that airstrip as they could. 

So many thoughts were racing through Charlotte's mind as they ran, she wasn't even sure she could keep a single one straight. 

Where did they go from here? The cops were never going to believe John B over Ward Cameron. He was going to win...just like he always did. 

They had just ducked into to an abandon storage garage when Charlotte's phone began ringing. As if she needed another thing to deal with right now. 

When she pulled it out, she saw the name of the assistant manager of The Wreck flash across her screen. "Fuck." She muttered, looking down at it.

"What?" Pope demanded as he collapsed onto an abandon couch. "What now?"

"It's Trevor." She explained, hitting the accept button and bringing the phone up to her ear. "Listen, Trevor, if we're out of ice again, just send one of the bus boys to get some. I really don't have time for this today."

Trevor sounded a mixture of excitement and terror as he spoke. "Charlotte, my wife is in labour."

"God damnit."

"What?"

She gritted her teeth for a moment. "I mean, congratulations, Trev. Is she─is she in labour like right now? Or is it like a 'oh this baby won't come for a few hours, might as well finish my shift' kinda deal."

He was quiet for a moment. "You're kidding, right?"

"Totally." Charlotte lied, forcing out a string of fake laughter. "Go. I'll head right over and finish off the day. Thanks for covering for me this afternoon. And good luck with the baby...remember that Charlotte is always a good name."

She couldn't see him on the other end, but knew he was rolling his eyes. "Thanks, Charlotte. I'll send you baby pictures when she gets here."

"Great." Charlotte gritted. Maybe baby pictures would make this shit-show a little bit better. 

The moment she hung up the phone, JJ was stepping toward her. "You can't leave!"

"What do you want me to do?" Charlotte challenged, shoving her phone back into her pocket. "None of this matters if my parents kill me for leaving the restaurant unattended."

"Charley's right." Kie agreed. "There's nothing we can do but wait right now anyway."

Pope had dropped his head into his hands, shaking his head. "This is so fucked up...so fucked."

Charlotte glanced between the other two, dropping her voice. "Take care of him...please."

It was rare to see Pope so defeated, so upset. That made Charlotte bailing out on them even harder. But she had to do this. She'd promised her parents that she would take care of things while they were gone, and this was her way to do so. 

"We'll figure all of this okay?" When all they did was give her defeated looks, Charlotte took a step toward them. "Okay?"

JJ kicked at something in front of him, clear upset also present on his face. "Okay."

"Good." Charlotte breathed, looking at the three of them. "Be careful...all of you. I'll see you tonight."

Little did Charlotte know, her shit storm was about to get one hundred times worse. 

─☼☼☼─