✓ 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑, 𝘫. 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬 ¹

52

JJ proudly grinned towards his girlfriend, wrapping his strong arm over her shoulder while pulling her over to his chest. She happily let him, and then sarcastically smiled towards Kie who was rolling her eyes in the front seat.

"When's the last time the police ever helped us?" Pope commented, and the blondes smiles faded at he seemed to continue the last conversation.

"Peterkin looked out for me, alright?" John B finally snapped, not in a mean way but more he was tired of arguing. "Tried to, at least. They need to know."

John B didn't wait for the rest of the crew to agree with him, or at least allow him to go inside, and instead swung open the van door and jumped out without another word. Lynn peered out the smokey window, thanks to JJ blunt, and watched as John B walked up the stairs towards the police station.

"I dunno guys," Lynn sighed, glancing back towards her friends instead of out the window, and she tried swallowing her nervous thoughts. "I got a bad feeling."

"We all do," Kie corrected, and the two anxiously looked at each other.

They sat in the van for a few minutes in silence, no one really knowing what to say. They wanted to talk about how completely shocked they're about the sheriff being shot by none other than Rafe, but the topic seemed too sensitive right now.

Lynn liked Peterkin, a lot more than any of the other adults in her life. She knew what Lynn goes through, and she wanted to help her, even if she didn't know how. Her heart hurt knowing that the woman could die any second, and it hurt more knowing that Rafe was the one who did it.

If Rafe had managed to get Lynn back to his house on the night of the beach party, while he had drugged her, then what could've happened?

JJ seemed to realize that Lynn's mind was bumbling with a thousand different things, so the boy carefully moved his seat so he would be sitting next to her by the window. She didn't really look up when he did so, so then he snaked his arm around her waist to gain her attention.

She glanced up to him with her soft, ocean eyes while his piercing blue ones stared right back at her. The two didn't say anything for a second, but then JJ smiled towards her happily.

"I love you, have I told you that before?" He questioned, perking his head to the side like a lost puppy.

"You know, I don't think you have," Lynn stated, pretending to ponder for a second while raising her hand to place it under her chin.

"Well, I'll say it for the rest of our lives so you'll never forget it."

Unconsciously, Lynn grinned like a goofball and her cheeks flushed a bit pink, but thankfully JJ couldn't see under the back light in the car.

Lynn thought about how life would be with JJ when they were older. When they graduated, when they were old enough to buy a house and a boat, of course, when they could have kids. She dreamed happily of a life where they weren't on the Cut, and had a nice, but not too nice, house on Figure Eight. They would have kids running in and out of the kitchen as Lynn made breakfast, since JJ would most definitely burn the house down trying.

"Rest of our lives, huh?" Lynn teased, trying to hide just how happy the sentence made her feel.

But just as she was about to talk about the possible dream she had would JJ, she was interrupted when she heard JoHn B"s screaming from behind the car.

"Kie! Start the car!"

Everyone was drawn out of their thoughts as they too heard the boy yelling, and they started yelling numerous things about what John B had possibly done in there where he would have to be running from the police station.

"What? John B, what did you do!?"

John B hopped back into his spot in the car, and then started waving at Kie for her to start the car. When she finally did, Lynn gasped as a female cop gripped the open window with her slender fingers.

"Foot on the goddamn gas!" Lynn shouted, and then she stood up behind John B to help him get the woman from holding onto their vehicle.

But they couldn't quite get her to shake off, because the woman was now jogging beside the slow moving van as they were trying.

"What did you do!?" Kie screamed from the front seat, but her eyes didn't leave the road, but no one was going to answer that right now.

"Open it!" Pope yelled, signaling for John B to pop the door open for the woman to finally let go of their car.

It worked, though, because when he swung it open, the woman plummeted on her butt as the green jeep then took off down the dirt road.

a/n: thank you guys for almost 85k wow i'm so shocked this book has grown so fast! (it's been like a month and a half?) i'm guessing they'll be around 60 chapters or at least that's the goal. i'll probably make the next few chapters longer to squeeze in every scene possible :)