ONLY ANGEL | JJ MAYBANK

TEN... the luck of the draw

"Wait, wait, wait." JJ blurted out before Collins could give them her answer or ask what the heck they were going on about. His yell gave rise to synchronous groans and eye rolls from his friends. "Let's get Collins's input on my security paycheck. I proposed a 5% bump for providing all of you with the protection that we are oh-so going to need if we're gonna be snatching up that Royal Merchant treasure."

"Protection?" Collins asked for clarification and with a fair amount of fear in her voice. Of course, they'd already dealt with raiders, why wouldn't safety still be a problem? But back to the gold, she was still in complete and utter disbelief that she of all people would be getting a piece of the lost riches in their merry band. This was a joke, a game that they liked to play. Seriously, this whole time, every day that she'd spent with them had to have been just a big prank. Honestly, there were crazier things for her to believe in.

"Yes, Collins, protection for when we find the Royal Merchant that men have spent decades searching for. 400 million dollars worth of moolah in gold is just waiting for the taking, which of course will be taken by us, in minutes, might I add." JJ iterated more clearly. He couldn't blame her for asking silly questions, large quantities of money would make anyone go a little stupid. "Now listen, I've got the gun and YouTube how-to videos in my back pocket just so you know, therefore, I rest my case. JJ gets his 5%."

He crossed his arms finally like that was the end of their conversation, but the annoyed and exasperated expressions on his friend's faces were refusal enough.

"So, what about you?" Kie asked, ignoring JJ's antics once again.

Still grappling with the fact that 80 millions dollars was being set aside for her, Collins tried to wrack her brain for an answer. At first, it seemed obvious; she'd always thought about school being her biggest financial obstacle so much like Pope, she figured that's where her money would go. But 80 million was a lot of money; like a lot. She could pay off their mortgage, she could buy Charlie an actual car with four doors and seatbelts, she could buy them groceries without coupons. The list was endless.

Although, not everybody needed to know all that stuff. They were Pogues, and with the exception of Kie, they all sort of had money struggles of their own that they didn't care to divulge into conversation about. So there was no need for Collins to go into all that.

"I think Pope's got the right idea on this one." She finally replied, a small smile spreading across her face as the aforementioned boy raised his brows at the rest of them like she had just proved his point.

"See? She- Collins, she gets it." Pope pointed to her like she was a prime example which proved a point of his, then he held his hand up to give her a high-five and Collins returned it graciously.

"Nerds." John B groaned while throwing his head back, no doubt rolling his eyes from behind his sunglasses.

"And maybe I'd spend a summer studying abroad or just travel around the world in general with one of those international volunteer organizations. I could use the money to travel to other places on trains since everything's so close."

"That's better." JJ told her with a wink and a nod of approval.

Collins just smiled and turned back to help Pope with what he was doing, her mind still reeling with the good news. She was excited and grateful, that's as to be expected and it wasn't without reason, although there was a part of her that reminded her to not get her hopes up too high because they still hadn't actually found the gold. There was still plenty of time for things to go wrong.

After a few more minutes driving offshore, John B, who was in control of the map, signaled to JJ to stop. "We're good, JJ, pin it here."

"Roger that, X marks the spot." JJ called back in a sailor's voice. "Hear that, Collins? I can do the voices, too."