—
"They're fancy people. They've had three governors in the family. They've run Charleston for, like, 300 years." Kie said.
Due to the lack of space in Pope's car, Kie had began to grow uncomfortable with squeezing in so she made the decision to sit in the backseat of Luca's car. Which also happened to lack space.
"These Kooks make our Kooks look like Pogues." JJ chuckled, "You hear that, Ev? You're poor."
The Connor girl rolled her eyes at her phone, where the Maybank's voice came from, "JJ, shut up."
"You sure this is the place, Pope?"
"Pretty sure."
"All right."
"'Pretty sure' is going to get us all killed." Luca spoke lowly, putting his car in park.
As they closed the car doors, the group of six met up the middle,
"I'm sure we'll be fine." Kirsten tried to lighten the mood, her soft eyes darting between her sister, best friend and best friend's boyfriend.
Kie seemed to agree, though Evelynn and Luca held back obvious expressions of uneasiness.
"We'll see."
JJ, unaware of their faces, looked around in awe, "Fat City, for sure."
"Twenty-seven King Street." Pope compared the address on the paper to the building in front of them.
"Talk about home security. Are those spikes to keep people out?"
"Doubt it."
Kie shook her head, "No."
"The slave quarters are over there." Pope sighed, "These spikes were to keep people in."
Evelynn hummed sarcastically, "Love that."
•••
"Do you think this many people will intimidate them?" JJ asked as they walked up the steps of the house.
Evelynn chuckled, "You aren't intimidating anyone, JJ, believe me."
"Oh, and you are?" He snapped back.
"More people than you have—"
Their argument was cut short by Pope knocking on the door. The knocks echoed loudly, startling Kirsten who hadn't expected it,
"You think that was too much?"
"It echoed the entire house. That's for sure. So they definitely heard it."
"Maybe nobody's home." Kie looked around for signs of human presence.
Pope knocked again, almost stumbling into the house as the door unexpectedly opened to reveal an older man.
He licked his lips as he looked between each of them, catching onto the way JJ and Luca forced their girlfriends behind them.
He pointed at the teen in the front, "You must be Pope."
"Um... Are you Mr. Limbrey—?"
"Ms. Limbrey was expecting you yesterday." He interrupted the Heyward.
"Oh. I'm... I'm sorry." Pope apologized, "My car broke down on the way up here."
"Carburetor blew up in the middle of Nowheresville. Sorry about that." JJ finished, picking up on Pope's nervous tone.
"Yeah, she was, uh, real upset when you didn't show up."
"We tried to call, but there's no number on the invitation." Kie added, "We got here as fast as we could."
"She also expected you to come alone."
"I mean, these are my friends. They helped find the Royal Merchant too. I—"
"The instructions were explicit. Your friends can stay outside."
"What? No way."
"Ev..." Luca stepped forward to stop her.
"He's not going in there alone, Luca." She crossed her arms.
JJ agreed with the girl, "Yeah, we're kind of a package deal, man."
"JJ. It's okay. I got this. I'll be good." Pope reassured his friend.
"Pope." Kirsten frowned, not liking the thought of leaving him by himself.
"I'm good. Promise." Pope turned to her.
Kie grabbed her sister's hand, "Yeah. We'll be right here."
"Keep the car running."
"Yep."
Luca locked eyes with the man waiting for Pope, his eyes narrowing slightly before he urged Evelynn to walked back towards the gate.
"Come on."
•••
"This is ridiculous." Kirsten lolled her head back against the seat, looking through the side mirror to make sure Evelynn and Luca were okay behind them.
Kie had decided to ride with them again, wanting to make things as easy as possible for everyone once Pope came out.
Kirsten was thankful that Evelynn put her dislike for Kie's rambling aside to help Pope.
But she knew it was only a matter of time before everything went left.
•••
"Look, if Limbrey is legit, then Ward gets arrested, and maybe Sarah gets the gold."
"That man's weird, I don't think there's anything legit about her." Luca said, looking out his window to see Pope, Limbrey and the man from before walking towards the back.
And from the looks of it, Pope didn't seem too thrilled.
•••
"Does that look voluntary?"
JJ shook his head at his girlfriend's question, "That would be a negative."
"Come on." Kirsten began to move, only to get stopped by JJ.
"Wait, hold on, hold on."
"What? Hold on? Why hold on?" She stammered out.
"They're going into the alley."
"Go around back?"
"Yeah. We'll meet them on the other side." He started up the truck, his hand going out the window to single to the others behind them to follow.
•••
"Woah, hey, what's going on?" Kie sat up, leaning her hands against the two front seats.
Evelynn's phone vibrated, a text from Kirsten showing up on her screen.
around back
"Around back." She read, gesturing for Luca to follow the truck, "Go around back."
Luca rushed to turn on his car, turning his wheel to get out of the spot they were parked in.
"Hey, be chill. Be chill."
"Yeah, sure."
•••
"Wait."
"What?" Luca glanced at Evelynn before focusing his eyes back on the road.
"Don't follow them."
"What?!" Kie shouted out in confusion, "What are you talking about?"
"We don't know what's happening—"
"Even more of a reason to follow." Kiara said, pointing at the Antonio teen, "Luca, keep going."
"Luca, stop." Evelynn demanded.
Per her request, Luca pulled the car over, watching as JJ turned a corner that would lead them to Pope.
"Are you kidding me?"
"If you want to get out Kiara, go." Evelynn huffed, stepping out the vehicle to pull the seat back and allow the Carrera twin her exit.
The couple watched the girl run off to follow after Kirsten and JJ.
"Why did I stop?" Luca asked, still thoroughly confused on his girlfriend's mindset.
"There's no other road back there. A U-turn would have to be made and one of us would have gotten stuck."
Luca nodded along, now understanding her thought process.
"Got it." He turned his car around, keeping his foot on the pedal for when the others made it, fully prepared to lead the way away from this house, "God, you're so smart."
She hummed, looking over at him with a small smile, "I know."
•••
"Look, where did they go?"
"Scoot over."
"Is that Kie?" Kirsten sat up, watching her sister run to their vehicle.
"What the hell is she doing?!"
Kiara jumped into the car, landing on Pope's lap.
"Ow! Who were those people?"
Her question was left unanswered, "We're getting out of here."
"That was crazy. Let's get out of here."
The car tires squealed as JJ made a U-turn, exiting the back part of the Limbrey house, immediately seeing Luca's car in front of them.
"Oh, thank God."
"Here we go now!"
"I think he's following us."
"This is a one-way."
Kie suddenly came to the realization of why Evelynn made Luca stop, though she didn't say anything about it.
"Go left."
"I know."
"Go that way."
"This is a one-way!" Kie and Pope shouted.
"They're following us."
"Hey! There's another car! Turn now!"
"I'm following Luca!" JJ yelled back, only for his words to be thrown back in his face as Luca made the turn.
"Oh my god!" Kirsten watched in horror as Luca's car awkwardly turned to avoid hitting people who suddenly ran across the street.
"What the hell was that?!"
•••
"Careful!" Evelynn shouted, her hand reaching for the handle at the top of her seat to avoid sliding too much, "Jesus Christ!"
"I'm trying!"
His tires screech loudly as he turned another corner after avoiding whoever it was that ran across the street. He winced at the sound, noticing from the corner of his eye that Evelynn looked back to make sure the others were okay.
And though he was also concerned for everyone's safety, his car seemed to be at the top of his priority list,
"God, my dad's gonna kill me."
•••
"That was evasive driving technique right there, y'all."
"Where we going?" Pope asked, looking at JJ expectantly.
"I'll lose him."
Kirsten put a hand to her chest, blowing out a breath, "Oh, i'm gonna have a panick attack."
•••
"Turn here, turn here, turn here!" Evelynn urged, tapping her hand against the dashboard,
"I hear you!"
Luca rounded the corner, directing the group behind him into an alleyway in hopes they would lose them man
that was following them.
It took less than a second for him to realize that they might not make it through, "Oh, shit."
•••
"JJ!" Kirsten's face fell.
The car wasn't moving. They were in the middle of an alleyway with Evelynn and Luca not too far ahead of them and the truck stopped moving.
"Dude!" The Maybank groaned as the engine of the truck hissed, "You said he fixed the carburetor. You said he fixed it!"
Kie began to panick, "No, no, no!"
"He did!"
"Shit! Damn it! Okay, what now, Mario?"
"Number one rule. Never trust mechanics!"
•••
"What the hell is happening?" Luca looked in the rear view mirror to see smoke coming from Heyward's truck, "What the hell is going on?"
"Stop the car."
"They aren't gonna all fit in here, Evelynn." Luca said, watching the other pile out of Pope's father's vehicle.
"We gotta go."
His face fell, "What?"
"We need to leave."
"Evelynn, my car." Despite his protests, Luca followed his girlfriend's actions, getting out of his beloved Camaro.
"We gotta go, man!" JJ shouted, waving at the couple to run.
"My car." Luca exaggerated.
"Take the keys." Kiara told him, grabbing hold of Kirsten's hand to ensure the girl didn't get left behind.
"My car is still gonna be here."
"We can have someone come back and get it when we're back at the OBX." Kie ushered out as Evelynn reached to pull Luca along with them.
"Are you kidding me?!" His voice grew loud. Louder than any of them have ever heard him get.
"Luca, please."
"We gotta go around!"
Pope ran ahead, "Come on!"
"Go, go, go, go, go!"
Kie looked back for a split second, her next words only adding onto the others stress, "Guys, I think he has a gun!"
"Shit, get down!" JJ yelled out, his hand reaching out to grab at Kirsten who was falling behind.
"Come on, Kie."
"Stop looking back." Evelynn panted out when she noticed the way Kie turned around.
"Get to the alleyway. Come on!"
"Let's go. Come on!"
"I can breathe!"
"Hey! JJ! Pope! Kie!" A voice yelled out, one that got ignored as they were far too busy trying to get away, "Evelynn! Luca! Kirsten!"
"Guys!"
"I think I'm cramping." Pope groaned out, beginning to limp a bit.
Luca, who was gaining up on him, took hold of his arm to drag him forward before he and Evelynn passed him up.
"Go, go, go!"
"This way!"
"You guys are moving too fast!" Kirsten nearly stumbled whilst trying to catch up.
"We might have to split up! I don't know where to go, okay? We gotta lose them!"
The desperation in JJ's voice was prominent as he called to his friends behind him, Luca and Evelynn having a clearer idea of what he said as they were closer to him.
"We are not splitting up!"
"Whoa! Shit!"
In the blink of an eye, JJ was running into and shoving a mailman off the sidewalk they were running on, calling back a half assed apology as he led them through an alleyway and out the other side.
"Go! Go!" Pope yelled, catching up with the twins,
urging them forward.
"Right here. Here, here, here."
"Okay!"
"He's gaining, let's go!" Pope yelled.
"I am going, Pope. I know, I know. You guys gotta keep up."
As they finally make it through the alley, they come to an abrupt stop before running into a bike. Looking up, they were shocked to see John B and Sarah looking back at them with wide eyes.
Kirsten panted harshly before smiles took over everyone's faces.
"Hate to ruin the moment, but we need to go." Evelynn cut in, the smiles on the pogues faces falling slightly as they suddenly remember the situation they're in.
"You're right!" JJ spoke up, "Get in! Get in! Come on!"
"Get in!" Sarah repeated, the girls quickly sat themselves down as Luca, Pope and JJ moved to the back to give John B a good push so he could start pedaling.
"Push! Push!"
"I'm pushing!"
"Pedal faster, John B!" Sarah said, looking back just in time for the three boys to hop on the bike.
"Oh my God!"
"Go, John B! Go!"
"Oh shit!"
"Pedal, B! He's gaining!" JJ said, climbing onto the side
"I'm pedaling."
"He's gaining, man."
The man managed to catch up, grabbing onto the back of the bike before he was almost immediately shoved off by Kirsten and Evelynn, resulting in him falling on the ground.
"Get off!" Kie shouted.
The group of eight let out a shout of happiness as they managed to get away.
"See you later, alligator."
"See you later, asshole." Pope yelled, his voice cracking slightly, "Oh my God!"
"Blowin' you a little big kiss."
"Goodness, I can't breathe."
"Whoo!"
—