season two ; episode six { My Druthers }
chapter sixty-four
"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE RELATED TO DENMARK TANNY," John B says after Pope finally tells them what he and his great grandmother discussed. Apparently Denmark Tanny is related to him which is why Limbrey is so interested in the boy. "Are we in the presence of a royal?"
"A king?" JJ says, stepping forward to Pope. "We shall crown him. All hail the lord of Tannyhill," he says in a British accent, pretending to place a fake crown on Pope's head.
"Can we all relax?"
"Relocate to Cat's Ass, question mark?" Sarah asked.
"I'm with that."
"How soon can we move in?" Kiara asked
"'Cause I don't have a place to stay," JJ says, turning to Kiara.
"Me either. Bunk beds?"
"Bunk bed. Cheers to that," JJ and Kiara clinked beer cans and Brooklyn smiled, glad to see that they were okay with one another after all the crap that's happened.
"I just keep thinking about the letter, the one that Limbrey sent," Pope says. "It had the wheat symbol on it. That must mean it has something to do with the Royal Merchant."
"Yeah. Something seems fishy."
"But if we find that cross, we can split it like we are gonna split the gold," Pope told them.
"Yeah. I'm with that."
"And live happily ever after?"
They all turned to see Limbrey and her... whoever that was. Her bodyguard? Helper? Who knows? She pulled herself along with her crutches. She looked from Brooklyn and John B to Pope who stepped up and said, "You assaulted my father."
The guy who was with her, the guy that tried to kidnap Pope stepped up and pushed the boy back. "Don't touch him," Brooklyn pushed his arm away.
"Oh, I didn't assault anyone," Limbrey says.
"He can identify the psycho from a mile away," Kiara commented.
"Why would my employee a... a... assault your father?" She turned to the man, finding it hard to believe but nobody caught her innocent act. "That's absurd," she laughed. "Listen, we can keep on negotiating, but the fact is that I want the key," Pope tried to step up to her again but Brooklyn was holding his arm back and her "employee" was pushing him away. "And I won't stop until I have it. I don't have a choice, which means you don't either."
John B pulled the key out of his pocket. How did he have it? Didn't Pope have it? "It's Limbrey, right? Is that right?"
"Yes."
"Is this what you're looking for?" He asked, fiddling with the key in his hand.
"Yes, it is."
"Looking at the tide right now, I'd say it's about twenty feet deep out there," he paused, smiling to himself. "So, if I just threw it in the channel, the probability of you finding it again is slim to none. You wanna give it a shot? Ready?" He stepped over to the side, ready to throw it over.
"No. Hey!" Limbrey gasped when she thought the boy had done it. "Please don't do that."
Brooklyn noticed her employee was a lot closer to attacking John B if anything so she stepped up and said, "Get him to back the hell up."
"Of course," she turned to him. "Back up." He stepped behind Limbrey while she pulled herself forward. "As I have told you from the beginning, I am willing to be reasonable."
Pope looked over at John B and said, "Okay."
"Okay?"
"I'll give you the key, but I want the tape," Pope says.
"Of course. Of course."
"Pope. Hey, hey, hey, hey. You don't have to do this, okay?" John B stepped over to the boy.
"No, it's okay," Pope reassured him.
"No, dude, this is your family."
"Hey, it's fine. It's okay. It's about your dad," Pope looked between John B and Brooklyn, holding out his hand for John B to put the key in. "That's more important."
John B looked back at Limbrey and placed the fake key in Pope's hand. "Oh, you're a good friend," Limbrey said.
"The tape."
"Yes, give him the tape," Her employee smacked the tape down into Pope's palm while he handed off the fake key to Limbrey. "You know, I wish that you'd come to this decision earlier. We could have avoided all this unpleasantness."
Limbrey stepped away with the employee who turned back to say one last thing, "See you around, Pope."
"Just go."
"How long do you think we have until she realises she has your father's old key?" JJ said which made everyone turn their heads to the boys.
"Ten minutes," John B replied.
"Whose idea was the fake key?" Pope asked, looking at the two boys.
"Shockingly, not mine," Kiara says.
John B wrapped an arm around JJ's shoulders. "Hmm, I don't know. Should we tell him?"
"I'm impressed," Brooklyn says. "Maybe you are good for something."
"Did hell freeze over?"
"Even a blind pig can find an acorn at times," JJ says as Pope steps forward to the boys, wrapping one arm around JJ to shake him. "I actually don't know what that means, but I saw it on Reddit."
"We gotta take the tape to Shoupe," John B says.
"Yes, sir. Ward Cameron, we're coming for you, big boy," JJ commented. "Shotgun!"
"It's Ward's turn now!" Pope laughed.
"You okay?" Brooklyn asks Sarah who's face expression had changed to gloomy and distant.
"I'm fine," she says, her arm falling around Brooklyn's shoulders. Brooklyn leans forward and takes Kiara's shoulder to pull her back. She pulls both girls into her and they walk along behind the boys talking and laughing with each other.
She really hoped Sarah was okay.
—
Sarah sat with her head on Brooklyn's shoulder and one of her arms around her torso. She could see that Sarah wasn't okay. It must feel weird to have a dad who had killed and was now going to jail, the only parental figure she had in her life was her father... well, she had Rose but she probably didn't sign up to the whole mother thing.
Brooklyn wanted her to feel better, to feel okay but the boys inside the Château weren't making it exactly easy. "Ladies and gentlemen, Ward Cameron, king of Kooks, is going to jail!" JJ cheered while his boys cheered.
"Goodbye! Goodbye!"
"Adios! He out of there! Adios!"
Kiara smiled at the boys happiness before turning her gaze back to Sarah and Brooklyn. "Do you regret it?" Kiara asked.
"No. He deserves all of it, and I know that," she replies.
"He's your dad. I get it," Kiara says. "I'm sure iy sucks to be in the middle."
Her phone began to ring and she reached over to see it was Topper who was calling. "Sorry." She stepped up, moving away from Brooklyn and moving away from the girls.
"You okay, Kie?" Brooklyn asked.
"I guess," she looked back at Pope. "Pope is just mad and I feel guilty for breaking his heart or whatever but... I don't know."
"Listen, Kie—"
"We need to go. Now," Sarah says once off the phone with Topper.
And not minutes later, they were speeding down the road to get to Ward who was bound to be arrested once he was found. Police cars were going in the exact same direction as them and John B only sped up to catch up.
He was clearly eager to see Ward get arrested.
"Can you please hurry? I need to be there for Wheezie," Sarah says as John B takes a sharp turn to follow the police.
"You think I wanna miss this?" John B replies.
Bit harsh.
The police pulled up in front of Sarah's home, thinking he would be in there but they found him to be at the Druthers. When John B pulled up, everyone was quick to climb out of the van and see where the cops were going.
"I can't see," JJ says when Pope stepped in front of him.
JJ steps in front of Pope, blocking his view. "Now, I can't see." JJ stepped over to stand behind Brooklyn who was small enough for him to stand up behind.
"Screw it. I'm going over," John B says, pulling himself up over the wall.
"Right behind you."
JJ helped the girls get up and over the fence and once they were over, they all chased after Shoupe and the other cops to find where Ward was.
They found Ward standing by the railing around the Druthers, the railing that Brooklyn remembered being pushed from. All she remembered was how bad things went down on that boat, what happened on that day when she discovered that Ward was involved with killing her father.
Her father. Her father would want to see this.
They all rushed out to the deck to see Ward was talking with the cops, he was clearly emotional as his voice sounded so sad from so far.
"Dad!" Sarah yelled.
"Hey, hey. You gotta let us through," John B pushed past the cops, clearly eager for this front seat view.
"What are you doing here, Sarah?" Ward yelled.
"Dad! What are you doing?"
"Vic, you gotta get her out of here! She can't be here right now!" Ward was begging, begging for his own daughter to leave.
"Just come on in, and you... you... you can talk to her!"
"Sarah, I'm so sorry, baby. I can't!" Ward told her, stepping back from the railing.
"What are you doing!"
"Ward, this ain't gonna end the way you want it to!" Shoupe told him as cops began to race in on boats to get closer to him. "You don't need her seeing this."
"Dad, don't leave! Where are you going?"
"I love you!"
"Turn around and get back here!" Shoupe yelled just as he fell down to the other level to escape into the hatch. "Ward!"
"Please don't leave!"
And as all fell silent, Brooklyn could see what was about to erupt. Literally. The Druthers, the boat that she and John B thought they were going to die on, the boat that made them realise that Ward Cameron was an evil man. My Druthers.
The explosion sounded Brooklyn's eardrums and the shock of it made her stumble back. The fire was warm against her skin, the smoke in the air was a thick black and Brooklyn had never seen such a fire, such an explosion like this one.
She remembered when she was a kid she and John B would go and explode stuff outside with their father but it had never been like this. Those explosions she saw as a kid were fun but this, this was painful, this was really heart hitting and loud. The explosion would be heard from all over OBX. It was the kind of explosion you would go sleep and think about and not in a good way.
When she heard a gasp leave Sarah's lips she knew that this wasn't going to be easy for her. Brooklyn could feel the hurt in Sarah's voice, the pain she was feeling deep down when she heard her scream for her dad, begging for him to come back. She felt tears prickle in her own eyes because it felt awfully similar to when her dad died, when Ward killed her dad, Sarah's pain reflected her pain she felt so she did what anyone would of done for her.
Brooklyn opened up her arms, letting the girl stumble back. Both her and Sarah looked up at John B to see he wasn't interested in helping Sarah, didn't give a care in the world that she was in pain and Brooklyn had never been more pissed off at him.
Sarah fell into Brooklyn, grabbing onto her arms and pulling her face into her chest while she cried. Heavy, hurtful cries that Brooklyn wanted to clean up but they were falling too fast. Brooklyn wrapped her arms around Sarah's body, lifting her up ever so slightly so she could pull her closer.
"Shush. I got you. I got you," Brooklyn whispered softly, brushing her hair out of her face. Sarah clung onto Brooklyn like her life depended on it. One thing she was always told to do was to never panic so she told Sarah the same thing, "Don't panic. You're okay. I'm here. You're okay. You're okay," she repeated over and over again until Sarah could hear her words over her cries.
Brooklyn looked up at her group who were looking down at her and Sarah. She realised Topper was stood there so she signalled for him to come and hold her while she picked herself up off the floor.
She stood up straight next to her brother and said, "You're an asshole."