"—les? Riley?" JJ's soft voice woke me up, his fingers brushing through my hair.
"JJ?" I opened my eyes, squinting as the sun shone brightly.
He smiled, "Hey, Ri. How are you feeling?"
"Better,"
He helped me sit up and he handed me a glass of water. "Here. Drink something."
"Thanks, JJ." I took the glass from him and took a small sip. "How long was I out for?"
"Two days. You gave us all a good scare." He replied, taking a seat on the bed next to me and looking at the wall in front of us.
"I'm sorry, JJ. I didn't mean to."
"It's alright, Riley. As long as you promise me you won't do something reckless like that again."
"I will when you start."
He chuckled and dragged a hand through his hair. "Unlikely,"
I smiled softly and set the glass of water down on the coffee table. "Help me up?"
JJ stood up and held out his hand, taking mine and slowly helping me stand up, placing a hand on my back so I didn't fall from being light-headed.
We walked outside and met up with KeKe and Pope, but no John B or Kiara.
"Where's John B?" I asked.
"Out to return the gear we borrowed from Ward's boat." Pope answered, "Glad you're up."
"Yeah. You gave JJ here a heart attack. You should have seen him being all depressed and worried for you." KeKe said, looking at the blonde's hand on my back.
"KeKe!" JJ said, obviously embarrassed.
"It was adorable. Every spare moment when he got away from John B, he would go inside and check on you—" she said.
"Are you trying to kill me?" JJ asked her, his face going red.
"Of course not, Blondie. She knows I'm only allowed to do that." I said to JJ.
"Well, that makes me feel a little bit better. You're most likely going to be the death of me, anyways."
"Not true," I said.
"You guys can flirt later. John B just came back, and you know he's not gonna be happy when he sees you flirting with his sister." Pope told us.
"But he lets you flirt with her?" JJ asked Pope.
"There's a reason. We told him and he's cool with it." Pope said.
"And what's the reason?" JJ asked, looking between me and Pope.
"We'll tell you once you stop flunking History." I told him.
———
"I'm just saying, I don't understand why you don't at least try with Kiara. She clearly likes you." JJ told my brother as we drove down the road in my brother's van.
"She's all like "oh, John B." I said dramatically, making JJ turn around from the passenger's seat and smile at me.
"Is that what she does?" John B asked.
"She's sketchy of you diving and then she kissed you." JJ said.
"She kissed me on the cheek." He corrected, "it's not like we were makin' out."
"Low-hanging fruit, bro." JJ said, "don't pretend you didn't notice. I see it in your eyes."
"He's right. You are like "I kinda like that" and you start blushing." I added.
"I blush? Really?" My brother asked.
"Yeah," we both answered.
"I'm surprised you don't try with Kie. You're the one always flirting with her." John B said.
JJ shrugged and glanced back at me with a smile. "Nah. I've got my eyes set on another beautiful person."
I smiled and looked back at him.
"Hey, hey, hey. Rule number one!" John B told us once he caught our intense staring contest.
"Yeah, we get it, B." I said and took the compass out of my back pocket, looking at it for a bit before handing to JJ to look at.
"I gotta admit, your guys' father's compass in Scooter's boat, that's freaky." He said.
"Which is why we're going to talk to Ms. Lana about it." John B said.
"Yeah, I'm sure she'd love to talk to us. It's not like her husband just drowned or anything." I said, earning a frown from my brother.
We drove into the small grassy opening leading to her house and stopped the car, turning the ignition off and getting out of the van.
"You wanna know what this house looks like?" JJ asked, looking back at us as we walked closer to the pink-red colored house. "Whoever lives here smokes too much weed."
"Then why aren't you living here?" I joked, quickening my pace to walk beside him.
"Ha ha, very funny." JJ said, pushing my head lightly and smiling.
"Guys, shut up. I hear something." John B said, grabbing our arms and pulling us up against the house's wall as we heard the sounds of glass breaking and crashing inside the house.
"Still think we should stay?" JJ asked John B.
"Shh," I shushed them.
"The compass wasn't in the boat! Where is it, Lana?!" A man shouted, smashing something and having paint fall into our hair.
"Is that paint?" JJ asked, brushing the paint out of his hair.
"Yes, it's paint." John B answered.
The shouting continued for a while longer, and I glanced at JJ to see his face pale.
I felt around for his hand and laced our fingers together, squeezing reassuringly and making him smile softly at me and nod slightly.
"Let's go!" The same man shouted, the door slamming open and two guys walked out and got into a white boat parked by the river's end.
"Dude. Those were the guys that shot at us." JJ said.
We waited in the dark side of the house until the men in the boat left, before walking into Ms Lana's house; the inside was trashed. Doors were ripped off it's hinges and glass was smashed, and chairs broken.
"Ms. Lana?" I asked, looking around and seeing her leaning back against a wall, sobbing softly.
"Ms. Lana. Hey, hey. You okay?" I asked, kneeling down next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder as she looked at me.
"Riley, she's—" JJ started to say.
"JJ, shut up." I told him, turning back to Ms, Lana. "Do you need a doctor? B, call the sheriffs department."
She shook her head. "No cope. No cops, please."
"Mmh, that's not good. Let's go. Let's just go." JJ told us.
"JJ, please just be quiet and let me handle this." I told him again, having him nod.
I turned back to Ms. Lana. "What do you know about these guys?"
"They we're looking for something. A compass." She said.
"B . . ." I looked at my brother, standing up and going by JJ as my brother took out the compass to show her.
"This compass?" He asked.
Ms. Lana looked at it for a while. "Don't tell anyone you have that."
"Okay, dude, I think it's time to go." I told my brother, grabbing his arm and walking the three of us out.
We got into the van and drove out of her place.
———
"And all we here is, "Bam! Bam! Bam!" JJ told our friends as we all get here's around the porch. "Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside."And I'm just looking at him like" he walked over to Pope and shook the paint from his hair.
"Look at this. Look at it." He said.
"That's dandruff." KeKe said.
"Okay, thank you." Pope said, pushing his friend away.
"Look at all that. All right? That's pain. At that point, I was just, like . . . I'm waiting for death." JJ said.
"Okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us?" Pope asked.
"Yeah," all three of us answered.
"Did you get a good description of them?" Kiara asked.
"Burly," JJ answered.
"Burly? That's not very helpful." Pope said.
"Like, the type of guys that work at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cards hides for drug smugglers." He added.
"Yeah, aside from being a crap father." I muttered, making him look at me.
"I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers . . . they're square groupers."
"They're square groupers? Like narco square groupers? Like Pablo Escobar square groupers?" Pope asked.
"Yeah," he answered.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "Okay, give me that. I need a hit." I snatched the cigarette from his hands and took a hit of it.
"Since when do you smoke?" JJ asked.
"Since now. I'm stressed and I do stupid things when I'm stressed, okay?" I asked him.
"Okay then," he answered, holding up his hands in surrender.
"Dude! Do you have anything else to give us on these men? Because you don't know what to look for apparently!" Pope asked.
"I wasn't taking mental Polaroid the entire time, okay? I was under duress." JJ told Pope.
"But I can tell you . . . I can tell you by the was Ms. Lana was screaming . . . these guys are serious hombres. It's a heavy vibe right now. I'm not liking it this much."
"Okay, why would they want the compass?" KeKe asked.
"Yeah. It's a piece of—"
"Pope." I stopped him with a glare.
"The office," John B said, looking at me.
"The office." I repeated, standing up and walking inside with everyone to where a door was padlocked. "B, you got the key?"
"Yeah. Yeah, here." He handed me the key and I put it in the lock, turning it and taking the lock off, heading in with the others and putting the key back in my brother's pocket.
"I've slept over like 600 times and I've never seen this door opened." Pope said.
"Same," the Carrera siblings agreed.
"Here, look, this is the original owner." My brother pulled down a board and set it on the table for us to see.
"Robert Q. Routledge, 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass, right there." Kiara pointed at the bottom of the photograph.
"Actually . . . he was shot after he bought it." I told her, "then the compass was shipped back to Henry. He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he dies, the compass went to Stephen. Stephen had the when he died in Vietnam."
"Let me guess, he died in action, right?" Pope asked.
"Sort of. Actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In the country. Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to our dad." John B finished for me.
"Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here. You have a death compass." JJ told us.
"No, we don't." John B and I answered.
"Get rid of it. It's cursed and it's made it's way back to the both of you." KeKe told us.
"Our dad used to talk about this compartment in here. Soldiers used to hide secret notes." I took the compass from my brother's hands and unscrewed the copper top, seeing a smooth surface.
"What's that?" Kiara asked, pointing to the unscrewed top where something was carved into it.
"This is Dad's handwriting." I told John B, showing him the compass. "See the R?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I see it." He nodded.
JJ looked over my shoulder. "Red—Rout—"
"Redfield, I answered him.
"What's Redfield?" Kiara asked.
"That's the most common name in the country." Pope answered.
"Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding." I said, looking at my brother.
"Maybe it's an anagram?" KeKe suggested helpfully.
"Yes. Perfect. You need paper." I took a piece of paper and handed it to KeKe and Pope as we all gathered around the small table as they wrote possible things on it.
"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" Pope asked at the rooster crowed again.
"Hey, don't hate in Frank." I told him.
"Frank? I thought it was Henry." JJ asked.
"No, it's Frank, remember? You told me I could name him." I argued with him.
"Okay, whatever it's name is, it's annoying." Pope said.
I walked over to the end of the room with my brother as the others tried to figure it out, seeing a black car pull up through the window.
"Guys! Someone's here." I shouted.
"Is that them?" KeKe asked.
"No," JJ said in disbelief, walking away. "I told you—"
"Where's the gun?" John B asked him.
"Gun? I, uh, I can't—"
"Now you don't have the gun when we need it?" Kiara asked.
"It was in my backpack and then I—" JJ said, trying to remember.
"The porch! It's on the porch!" I told him, suddenly remembering.
JJ looked around at us before running out to get it, running back in empty-handed and shutting the door as shouts could he heard.
"John Routledge! Riley Routledge! Come on out!" A man shouted from inside the house.
"Over my dead body." JJ replied, pushing my slightly behind him.
"We gotta leave." I told the others.
"Window, window." KeKe said as we all ran to the window, seeing it painted shut.
JJ and Pope tried opening it, but it didn't work, so I got a sharp letter opener and handed it to JJ.
He took it from me and started chipping away at the dried paint.
———
"I mean, it's obvious, right? A family heirloom? What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was going to get back to us." John B told me as he looked in the mirror to where I sat in the back next to JJ.
"Yeah, it's possible." I said,
"It's also possible that you're both concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with the sad feelings." Pope added.
"Pope? Shut up." I told my friend.
"You know how I process my sad feelings?" JJ asked.
"Weed?" I answered.
"Bingo."
"We're not concocting, okay? Our dad's trying to give us a message." John B told the others.
"Whatever you guys want to believe." KeKe said.
"Look, we don't need a therapy session. We're not trippin' out." John B said.
"It's okay to trip, bro, but—" JJ told John B.
"Look, our dad is missing, okay? Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish. And then have no idea what happened." John B said, looking at me. "Besides you, Riley.
"It's been almost a year." Kiara said.
"Hey, he could have been kidnapped. That's always a possibility." JJ said, trying to lighten the mood.
"J, I love you, but now's really not the time." I said to the blond.
"You love me?" He asked.
"You know what I meant." I replied without looking at him, having KeKe smile at me knowingly.
We pulled into Redfield Lighthouse—out dad's favorite place—then parked just outside a long white fence and got out.
"Okay, you guys keep watch. Me, KeKe, and Kiara will go up there and find out what's up." John B said, "then we meet back up a JJ's house."
"Cool," Kiara nodded.
I grabbed into my brother's wrist. "Be careful. This place hasn't been operational for years. And take care of the girls for me, because I will kill you if you don't."
He smiled and hugged me, handing the keys to JJ. "I will. Same goes for you and the boys."
I nodded and watched as the three of them left to go to the lighthouse as the three of us stayed behind.
"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship and try to keep the felonies a minimum." Pope said as he walked over to a tree far away from us.
JJ got out a red bouncy ball and tossed it to me. "Wanna toss it around or something?"
"Bored?" I asked, tossing it back to him.
"Just a little. You don't happen to have any weed on you, do you?" He asked, tossing the ball in his hands.
"I may or may not have snuck into your room at our house and gotten a pack." I said, walking to the car and stepping up onto the silver spokes on the tire and reached in through the open window, pulling out a single cigarette.
"I got a lighter." He took out a lighter and put the flame up to the end, having it light.
I put it in my mouth and took it back out, a trail of smoke escaping my lips.
"Okay, no need to be a hog. Give me." He took the cigarette from my hand and took a smoke, leaning back against the tree as I leaned next to him, both of us sharing the cigarette and staying in comfortable silence until sirens of a police car could be heard.
I grabbed the keys from JJ's pocket and we ran into the van, starting up the car and peeling out of there.
"Dude! You left your brother!" Pope said.
"He can take care of himself!" I shouted back, tearing down the streets and pulling to a halt at JJ's front yard.
"Is your dad home?" I asked JJ.
"No. Working." He answered.
"Good," I answered. "You guys get out. I'll get the car back to my house for John B and the girls, then I'll come back here."
"Okay," the boys nodded and got out.
———
I sat around the fire with the boys, watching from my foldable beach chair as they roughhoused.
"Why do I feel like a mom?" I asked the two teens once they were both winded from fighting and sat on either sides of me.
"You're not gonna be one for a while." JJ commented, reaching over and patting my stomach while making baby gurling noises.
I took his hand away. "Okay, first of all, that was only a bit weird. And second of all, ouch."
JJ laughed and shrugged. "I'm kidding. You'd make a great mother. One day. In the very very far future, preferably."
"I'll take that into account, J." I said, a car horn honking and drawing our attention to where my brother was in the van, waving at us.
I put the fire out and we all got into the van, with JJ in the passengers seat and Pope sitting next to me; we drove to The Wreck.
Pope got out of the van and walked into the small restaurant, coming back out a moment later.
"She says she's not coming. Neither is KeKe. Pope said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"What did you do to her John B?" JJ asked, looking at John B.
"Ten bucks says he kissed her." I told JJ as my brother got out of the car and went to talk to the two girls.
Moment later, both girls and John B came back out and got in the car again, Pope closing the door once we were all in, and drove off.
"Do you mind if I sit this one out? It's been a long day and a lot of weird stuff has gone down. I'm just gonna lay low. Oh do you want a hit of this?" JJ asked KeKe and Pope.
"Uh, I'm good, JJ. Thanks, though." KeKe answered.
"I keep the signal clear." Pope said.
JJ sighed and looked my way. "What about you, darling?"
"I'll have it if you stop calling me that." I told him, taking it from him.
"Aw, don't pretend that you don't like it." JJ teased.
"Shut up, dude." I chuckled, smoke coming from my lips.
"Look, I know I was wrong about the lighthouse, and pretty much everything else that was going on. But I was right about one thing. Our dad is trying to tell us something." John B said, pulling up outside a graveyard and all of us getting out.
"Well, this isn't creepy at all." I said as we all turned on our flashlights and started our trek through the graveyard.
"Shush, Riley. Okay, so you know when you can't remember the name of a song? Redfield, at first I thought it was a place, but it's not a place." John B said, holding up his lantern to show 'Redfield' along a tombstone.
"Nana Livvy." I said,
"Nana Livvy?" KeKe asked, looking at me with confusion.
"Yeah. Our great-great-grandma Olivia Redfield. That was her maiden name." John B clarified.
"Help me with the door. Come on." He said, him and Pope getting to one side and pushing, only getting a fraction of an inch before a moccasin snake fell out and slithered away.
"This thing isn't budging. We should just go." Pope said.
"I can get through." Kiara answered, making us all look at her.
"You're gonna fit through that hole?" I asked.
"This is about your guys' dad. And honestly, I don't really believe in it, but you serve to know the truth." She said, handing her sister the flashlight and letting JJ boost her up as she disappeared through the hole.
"KeKe, flashlight." She said, having KeKe walk forward and push the flashlight into the hole, having her sister catch it.
"Do you see anything?" John B asked.
"I see . . something." She answered.
"Something good or something bad?" I asked.
"It's looks like . . . a package."
Hey. So so sorry for the long wait for an update, but I hope this long chapter will make up for it.