EMERY WAS TIRED.

the hms pogue was slowly cruising through the outlet at shem creek, the hot outer banks sun burning into her skin, the girl's lack of sunscreen evident as her tan was slowly turning red.

"you see that?" jj said to the group, gesturing toward the red boat coming toward them. "that's the malibu mxz, the worlds finest wakesetter. number one in luxury, quality, and performance."

"we picked the wrong parents." pope said.

"speak for yourselves, i'm very well off." emery replied.

"i hate to break it to you guys, but that's topper and his girlfriend." kiara mentioned, and upon closer consideration emery and mara realized it was, in fact, topper and sarah.

"not even gonna say hello to your future sister-in-law, ainsley?" emery asked loud enough so everyone on the boat could hear.

"whatre you talking about?" pope asked.

"do you want to tell them, or should i?" emery asked ainsley, who's eyes were wide. "please, who are you disappearing for days on end with?"

"it's none of your business, emery." ainsley replied, trying to sound assertive, but her voice was shaking.

"your little lap dog isn't here to bail you out, tell them or i will." emery threatened. "it's bad enough that you want to stab us in the back and now you want to lie about it?"

"ains, what is she talking about?" mara asked, ainsley shaking her head.

"i don't know?"

"oh, you don't? so you're not going out with rafe cameron? my brothers a liar?" emery asked, pretending to be clueless as topper and sarah stopped next to them.

"ems, lay off her." topper said flatly.

"why are you even here?" emery asked bitterly.

"because ainsley is our friend!" sarah spoke up, mara holding her hand up at the girl and shaking her head.

"no one asked you, barbie." mara told the girl annoyedly.

"don't talk to her like that!" topper yelled, turning to ainsley. "come on, ains, let's go."

ainsley didn't hesitate to get up, following topper into his boat and giving emery a nasty glare over her shoulder. sarah had backed down to her previous spot, staring a hole through emery as she put her arm back around topper's waist, her eyes following the girl in a dark look as the boat cruised away.

"don't act like the rest of us don't exist, bitches." levi called after the retreating boat.

"i saw that one coming." emery said, mostly to john b, who nodded. "i was right to call her out, right?"

"absolutely." he replied. "she tried to lie about it after you did because she knew we'd be pissed at her, after everything rafe's done to you and lee, i can't believe she'd go out with him."

rafe had done too much to levi and emery to ever be properly forgiven by either, and while levi would be civil enough with rafe to be a decent person, emery's hatred went deeper, the melville girl swallowing thickly at the thought of what happened two summers ago in her own house.

when emery was fourteen, jj and john b were over at the same time as rafe and topper. at one point, jj and john b left the basement where they were hanging out with emery to go get food from upstairs, and rafe took the opportunity to sneak down into the basement.

when he got there, he shut the door and locked it from the inside. amelia wasn't home that day and jackson had left years before. rafe was beyond angry at emery, the two had had a falling out, emery leaving the kooks entirely for the pogues. however, he didn't stop at words, no. why would he stop there when one smack across the face that was the source of blind rage made the person he wanted to see suffer cry?

rafe could claim to be chivalrous all he wanted to, but emery knew, he landed kick after kick to her ribs smack after smack to her face. all while jj and john b were yelling for levi because the door was locked and they could hear emery screaming inside.

eventually, the three boys kicked the door down, completely off its hinge, terrified by what they saw when they walked inside the basement. emery was coughing up blood, attempting to catch a breath, wincing at every movement from multiple broken ribs and an abdomen bruised beyond belief, her face already a horrible shade of dark purple.

john b went to help the girl while rafe tried to slink out the basement door, but jj and levi wouldn't let him. emery and john b watched while jj and levi beat rafe just as mercilessly as he had heated emery, the boy ending up as a crumpled heap of limbs on the ground.

the boys eventually got emery into the back of a car- toppers- and to the hospital, where she was declared to have eight broken ribs, a shattered nose, and a fractured collarbone. while levi never fully forgave rafe for the incident, the two negotiated favorable terms under which they could be civil again, said term only being that rafe stayed the hell away from emery.

levi talked to emery first, of course, and waited to do so until she was mostly off her anxiety medication- she still took it, just far smaller doses- and the nightmares had died off entirely. emery said she was fine with levi being friends with rafe if he backed off her and left her alone, staying away from her entirely would've also been great.

emery still had to see rafe, he lived on the island. and while he apologized to her relentlessly, claiming he was only upset, that a minor inconvenience from earlier that day had put him into a blind rage and that emery was the closest person to him to take that anger out on, emery didn't buy it. she knew rafe went downstairs with a plan, and even though he'd never admit it, she knew he wanted her dead, even still.

and now, ainsley was going out with him. emery and mara both knew that if you didn't want ainsley to ruin your life, you had to stay five steps ahead, and constantly look over your shoulder to watch her.

lucky for emery, she was experienced in the field.

after all, she had been watching over her shoulder for rafe for two years now.

THE COUNTRY CLUB WAS PACKED.

emery had suggested the group come to the country club, she, mara, and levi all being members and jj being an employee, the group could get in with ease and use the internet, looking at a map on a much larger scale than on her phone. also, amelia was having exterminators at the house to clear out the mice and bugs that had gone into the melville house in the aftermath of the storm, so they couldn't be there.

"gotta keep an eye out for the traitor, the homie hopper, the lap dog, and the psychopath." mara mentioned to the group as the twinkie skidded to a stop, jj reaching into the glove box in front of him, the blonde boy sitting up front this time opposed to emery.

"we're behind enemy lines." he added, pulling the gun out, emery rolling her eyes.

"this is an elite country club and you're with three of its most respected members, nothing is going to happen to you." she said sarcastically.

"i predict that bringing a weapon into a four-star resort will cause more problems than it solves." pope told the boy as though he was stupid.

"i swear to god i'm gonna throw that thing in the ocean, jj, put it back!" kiara snapped.

"that's not very eco friendly of you." mara replied as the carrera girl climbed out of the van in front of her. john b impatiently grabbed the gun by the barrel, tossing it into the glove compartment.

"you can't grab a gun like that, man." jj complained, grabbing his badge off the dash.

"you literally don't need that." emery deadpanned, levi waving their family's membership card in the air, jj rolling his eyes as he clipped the badge to his shorts.

"i'm a professional busboy." he said, motioning for the group to follow him to the back door, levi rolling his eyes.

"dude, are you always this stupid?" he called as the walked through the back door, mara turning to the boy and nodding to answer his question. they followed jj through the back door through the restaurant.

"andrew!" jj called, nodding at the boy across the room in greeting before walking past a table, where john b gasped at the sight of a shrimp platter being prepared, jj attempting to grab a piece while dragging out the name of the woman preparing it, but she slapped his hand away and scolded him.

"so why did we not just go to my house?" mara asked, emery shrugging.

"because your mom hates everyone, especially my brother." she replied, opening the double doors to the computer room, ushering the others in before pulling them shut and locking them.

"sweet lord, the internet!" pope gasped. "i've missed you."

"let me in there, gotta check out my insta models." jj added, john b shaking his head as pope pulled up the coordinate map, looking at john b.

"coordinates?" pope asked, john b reading them off as pope punched them into the computer, the point showing up on the screen.

"continental shelf, this is promising." emery said as she looked at the computer.

"if it's on the deep side. this isn't going to be much of a treasure hunt, is it?" pope asked, zooming into the map.

"shit, it's on the high side." john b exclaimed. "it's only nine hundred feet."

"is that like... doable or something?" kiara asked.

"yeah, totally doable." jj replied, everyone looking at him skeptically.

"will we be taking your personal submarine?" jj asked.

"i'm rich and don't even have one of those." levi added.

"the salvage yard." jj explained. "they have a drone that can do a thousand, got a three-sixty camera and everything."

"and can your dad get his grimy little hands on that?" john b asked as emery smacked him sharply on the shoulder.

"yeah, well, my dads grimy little hands got his ass fired." jj told the group. "apparently the salvage captain frowns upon showing up shitfaced."

"so how exactly do we get the drone because you've just promised us nothing." mara asked.

"how much was it again?" kiara asked.

"four hundred mil." emery replied. "and with ainsley out that gets us about fifty seven mil a piece. plus change, of course."

"fifty seven million?" mara asked, pope blocking the door as she and jj shoved past him.

"guys, no!" pope exclaimed.

"just come on." emery deadpanned, levi and john b right on her heels while kiara pulled pope.

"can't we do anything legal for money?" he mumbled.

"have you met jj?" emery asked, the boy flipping her off and starting toward the kitchen, mara grabbing him by the back of the shirt and pulling him toward the door.

"this isn't a john wick movie, stop trying to be edgy." she deadpanned as she scanned her country club card on the door everyone following her and jj out.

emery had fallen to the back of the group and was about to walk outside when someone grabbed her wrist firmly, making her flinch. she turned to see who it was, her heart dropping to her stomach and the color leaving her face.

rafe.

ainsley was standing slightly behind him, a satisfied look on her face as emery yanked her arm away from rafe's, looking out the door to see no one had noticed her disappearance.

"you think you can humiliate someone in front of their friends and get away with it?" rafe threatened.

"what're you gonna do?" emery asked. "beat the shit out of me again? i'm not scared of you, rafe. i'm sure as hell not scared of her." she said, motioning towards ainsley, who's face fell slightly.

"watch your back." rafe said threateningly.

"my timbers are shivered." the melville girl replied sarcastically folding her arms. "i'm not a kid anymore, rafe, and you aren't either. you can catch a charge if you try anything now, and your little girlfriend doesn't have the guts to do anything herself." emery added. rafe stepping towards emery, but someone pulled her back and a familiar green and pink hawaiian shirt stepped in front of her.

"back up." john b threatened lowly.

"no, i think i'll get up close and personal with her, actually." rafe replied, and before john b or emery could process what he was doing, he had shoved john b out of the way and smacked emery across the face, making her head snap to the side, the girl fighting the urge to clutch her cheek in pain.

john b was moving towards rafe, but emery stopped him. she grabbed the brunette's shirt, shoving him back as rafe made a snarky comment to ainsley, who was smirking at the comment. emery foster the front of the boy's shirt in her hand, and just as he turned back, punched him square in the nose, feeling the crack of bones and a rush of blood under her hand.

"what the hell, emery!" ainsley yelled, no longer smirking, on the contrary, looking horrified as rafe clutched his nose.

"watch your back." she repeated rafe's words back to them, grabbing john b by the wrist and pulling him out of the club.

"what did you do?" john b asked exasperatedly.

"karma." she replied simply, climbing in the back of the twinkie, levi immediately taking notice to the smear of red on her hand.

"who's blood is that?" he asked, immediately concerned.

"i cracked rafe cameron's nose like a glow stick." emery said proudly, mara patting the girl on the back.

"please tell me ainsley was there." she begged, emery nodding.

"of course she was, had a shit-eating smirk on her face until i hit him." emery replied.

"when did you run into rafe?" jj asked.

"after you all walked out he grabbed my wrist, told me to watch my back."

"then what?" pope asked.

"he learned to watch his."

kens speaks 🪐

emery solos all

i updated on my own accord? mara didn't update first? this is wild.