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“Kildare County Sheriff’s Department.”

John B pulled open one of the windows and held up the blinds, quickly climbing out before holding out his free hand for Eli. “Careful, the ledge is narrow,” he whispered as she climbed out, shimmying to the right side whilst John B moved to the left. 

JJ climbed out immediately after, gently releasing the blinds and pulling down the window to avoid being detected. Unfortunately, as he finally dropped it shut there was a thud, and all they could do was pray that they didn’t alert the cops of their presence. 

The blonde shuffled to the right side where the girl was, meaning Eli was now awkwardly leaning against the wall with JJ’s arms caging her in, his chest pressing into her back.

She turned her head to find Pope and Kiara in the HMS Pogue, with the boy waving his arms in question.

“What are you guys doing!” was what Eli was assuming he was saying, and to be completely honest, she had no idea. 

JJ suddenly moved from behind Eli, sending something clattering down the roof and onto the floor. Eli felt her stomach drop in fear.

“What the fuck was that?” Eli whisper-shouted as the trio attempted to push themselves further into the wall, with Eli gulping as she felt JJ's chin rest on her shoulder as he tried to stay out of view. Their paranoia only grew as they heard the sound of the blinds being fully lifted.  

If Eli’s adrenaline wasn’t so high, she would currently be spluttering and turning completely red  over what was happening. She closed her eyes and leant her forehead against the wall, trying not to take notice of how it felt to be in such a compromising position with the blonde boy.

“Nobody here,” they faintly heard after a few moments, causing a collective sigh of relief. “Let’s go.”

The trio waited until Pope and Kie gave the all clear, before they clambered back into the room and immediately left through the door to get back to the HMS Pogue. 

Eli watched with a confused expression as JJ momentarily ran to the area below the window they were stranded by, dropping her jaw in shock as he picked up a gun. 

“That’s what you dropped!?” she exclaimed as they walked to the boat, with John B shaking his head in disbelief. “Jesus.”

“Well, that was fun,” JJ announced as they finally got back into the boat. “Could have warned us sooner though.”

“We would have..” Kie trailed off, “..except Pope was on the math team.”

“You were on the math team?”

“Why are you surprised,” Eli questioned. “It’s Pope. He was probably on a chemistry team, a physics team, a-”

“The cops took everything like it was a crime scene,” Pope cut off.  “Did you guys find anything?”

“Well, there was no dead body, for starters,” Eli answered.

“Did we find anything?” JJ spoke as he shoved his hands into his pockets, pulling out a stack of cash and the gun. “No, I don’t think so. Oh, yeah we did.”

“What the hell,” Pope exclaimed with his hands on his head. Eli and John B chose to hide their faces behind their hands, not wanting to get chewed out for not babysitting JJ like they were supposed to.

“Dude, what?” Kie added on in disbelief.

“Dude, chill. Come on,” JJ said as he tried to calm down a freaking out Pope by walking closer to him.

“Why would you take that from a crime scene!”

“Better than the cops having it!”

Once again, John B and Eli pretended to look away.

“Lovely weather we’re having today, JB,” Eli said with an awkward laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right, EV,” John B played along. “Perfect day for a swim I think.”

Kie kicked Eli and John B’s feet. “Are you guys serious?”

Eli and John B shrugged in unison, as if they had nothing to do with this. Technically, they didn’t. 

“I’m gonna lose my merit scholarship,” Pope panicked.

“Hey, hey, hey. Sh, sh, sh. Sh, sh,” JJ tried to cut off as he slung his arm around Pope. “At least you have us, right?”

“I’m living the nightmare.”

The Pogues aimlessly made their way down the water in the boat, with the intention of getting back to the chateau. However, the commotion around the dock with police, the coast guard, and a huge crowd caused them to quickly tie up the boat to the dock before heading to the crowd.

“Oh my god,” Eli breathed out with a shocked hand to the mouth, taking in the sight of a dead body that was being laid onto a table.

“Who’s that?” John B asked one of the onlookers.

“It’s Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm,” a girl answered. “Check out this pic I got.”

The group leaned over to take a look.

“I’m gonna have nightmares,” Eli murmured to Kie, who nodded in agreement.

“What kind of boat did he have?” JJ questioned.

“Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand-new Grady-White. Everyone’s out looking for it.”

The group shared a knowing look. 

They knew exactly where it was.

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The Pogues finally made it back to the Chateau, all sitting or standing around in silence on the veranda as they processed everything that had happened in the last few hours.

How did a guy who lived on The Cut all his life and couldn’t afford a decent hotel room, end up with a Grady-White? A brand-new one at that.

“Okay,” Pope began as he sat down on one of the couches next to Eli. “So, um… we didn’t see anything. We don’t know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia.”

“Actually, Pope’s right for once,” JJ stated as he flicked his lighter shut, pointing one finger at Pope. “See, I agree with you sometimes,” he said as he stood up and started walking. “Deny, deny, deny.”

“Guys, we can’t keep that money,” Kie added. 

“Okay. Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara, Eliana.”

The two girls shared an awkward look.

 Kie shrugged. “We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise it’s bad karma.”

“Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too,” Pope continued. “We gotta go dark.”

“If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree,” JJ shrugged. 

“We can’t exactly hand this over,” Eli tried to reason, to which JJ nodded enthusiastically, glad to have someone on his side. “They’ll ask too many questions about why and how we have it. I say we just spend it in small chunks so it doesn’t raise suspicion. That way we won’t be holding onto it either.”

John B sighed as he pushed himself off the wall. “I don’t agree,” he countered as he patted JJ on the back, causing the blonde boy to groan.

“Why?”

“Just think about it,” John B tried to explain. “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.” 

He threw his hands in the air as he continued his frantic explanation. “We’re talking about a dirtbag marina rat who’s never had more than forty bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he’s got a Grady-White? Just sayin’.”

Eli groaned into a cushion. She was getting a headache.

“Look, just think about it, Pope,” John B spoke as he continued his spiel. “How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?”

“Prostitution,” Pope responded without batting an eye, causing Eli to keel over in laughter.

“Square groupers, bro,” John B continued, completely serious. “Okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don’t do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?”

“They were straight smugglin’” the blonde replied.

“Smugglin’” John B repeated as he turned back towards Pope. “And I guarantee there’s a serious amount of contraband in that wreck.”

“Hell, yeah,” JJ hollered, to which Kie and Eli threw him a look of disbelief.

“I don’t like where this is going,” Eli mumbled to herself. 

“For the record, if that is a smuggling ship, with illegal contraband on the inside of it… it probably belongs to someone else-”

“Minor details,” Kie cut off.

“- and they could come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid.”

“He has a point,” Eli agreed. “I mean smugglers in movies are scary and carry even scarier guns. I don’t wanna be on the receiving end, personally.”

“Right.” JJ spoke up as he fanned out the hundred dollar bills. “Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time. 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. Just act normal.”

“Right. And how exactly do we do that?” Pope questioned, still unconvinced.

Kie shrugged. “Kegger?”

The group shared a look. 

Kegger it is.

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eli and john b are a cute lil duo i love them

Nova x