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It was right where he was supposed to be. Right where Rafe had said he would be. Cowering in the heart of Lisbonne. To be honest, for everyone involved, the details were a little hazy. They were all acting and moving on pure raw revenge so really, how they had gotten there and had now cornered Groff essentially didn't matter.
For Kiara, what mattered was the gun she was pointing at his face and the deafening silence caused by JJ's absence. Her vision had tunneled ever since that day. She could only see what forward offered : the prospect of vengeance in blood spilled. Backward only had JJ's smile that she would never get to enjoy and his eyes that were slowly fading from her memory.
That's what was making her hand shake but her fingers still held strong near the trigger. She couldn't remember JJ's eyes and the mischief in them. The glint of trouble was just a blur of color in her mind and it was driving a gap in her sanity. It was like walking on a very thin rope stretched above an abyss.
Holding her breath did nothing to steady her. She was but a shell of who she was. He had left with her too, the same way his last breath took her cries.
Now, Groff was on his knees, battered but alive, par for the course. He wasn't begging for his life, which Kie was grateful for. It wouldn't do him any good. She was faced with a problem now though. It seemed that the idea of revenge was nothing but a vague memory to the others. More than revenge, they wanted justice.
Death would be the easy way out and a dishonor to JJ's memory.
But Kiara knew. She knew JJ would have burned cities to the ground to reach completion had it been her buried in a desert in Morocco. So she didn't understand the self-righteousness now that the target was within reach.
John B, Pope and Cleo had doubt etched on their features. Rafe was just pure indifference but Kiara could see this need for blood, something he had had a taste for and could never quite quench without some fucking therapy. The only one who really mirrored her anger was Sarah.
Beautiful Sarah who she had heard cry at the dead of night on their travel to Lisbonne when she wasn't throwing up from morning sickness.
No one never really talked anymore. There was no reason to. Something was broken.
They were broken.
And Kiara was damaged.
She thought it would feel different, to hold a loaded gun to a man's head, regardless of who they were. But she felt nothing. Nothing but disgust for the waste of air in front of her. The one who had dared to utter JJ's name like he cared.
“Kie,” John B interjected. “Are you sure about what you're doing?”
“If you're getting cold feet, the door's right there. Nobody's stopping you.”
God, she felt so numb. It was like a cold fire. A bright night. Nothing made sense anymore.
“Kiara, John B's right,” Pope said. “Somehow it doesn't feel right. JJ wouldn't want this.”
“We don't know what JJ would have wanted because he's dead. But we know what he would do. This is me doing that.”
Groff's treacherous voice interrupted the forming argument between the Pogues. “I never meant for this to happen, it -”
Rising anger flared in Kiara's veins but it was Rafe who reacted faster. He had been the one holding the man down and keeping him there, where he belonged, with a knife close to his throat. The Cameron man dealt him a blow to the back of the head, making the old man grunt in pain.
“Shut the fuck up, motherfucker.”
He bypassed the rude advice. “Listen, just take the crown and...” Again, another hit. Another grunt. But this time, Rafe pulled his collar back so that he could whisper in his ear.
“You're the one who's going to listen. If it were up to me, you'd be lying dead in ditch already but see, I kinda owe them because you took something from them. So don't make the mistake of believing you're some kind of fucking cat with nine lives. You only get one life, and yours has reached a dead end.”
At least, that quieted Groff down. But not Pope.
“Shoupe is waiting for us to come back with him. He'll go to prison for what he did.”
Kiara scoffed. “Yeah because Shoupe is really known for bringing rich men to justice. He'll never take a Pogue's word for it. And I can't... I won't see him walk. You weren't there, you don't know what it's like.”
“We do know, girl,” Cleo said.
“No, you don't!” Kiara yelled in hysterics. “You're all acting like everything's fine, like enough time has passed. But he didn't die in yours arms, wasn't stabbed in front of you, didn't tell you his last words. I'm the one who carries that burden so that I can be the one to end it.”
“Kie. I'm sorry you were alone for this.” There were tears in John B's warm brown eyes. “For all of it. And I know JJ would have just about wrecked the entire world to avenge anyone of us. But I also know that what he'd do for us, the hard stuff, was so neither of us would have to carry that burden. He would carry it all for us because that's who he was. Loyal to a fault, even if it meant disregarding his own safety. He wouldn't want us to become killers. Because we're better than Groff, Kie.”
She had tried her best throughout the long journey to Lisbonne, not to cry. But the truth in John B's words were a hard pill to swallow. She had to choose between two evils. Letting Groff alive or losing herself by pulling the trigger.
JJ's voice was echoing in her head. A melodic sound constituting of his laugh alongside her name on his lips. At this, her resolve dissolved. She just wished to be lulled to sleep by his voice and never wake up.
Rafe lost patience and he grabbed the gun forcefully. “Oh, this is ridiculous. If you want to keep your conscience clear, I'll do it. We all know it's not my first time.”
It was Sarah who finally spoke. “Rafe, wait !” She turned to Kie. “What do you want to do, Kie?”
She knew why she wanted it to be up to her but she wished, more than anything, to ease her burden. At the same time, this burden was comforting. It was the only bridge linking her to JJ still. And then she remembered those times JJ had been faced with a choice that involved both Luke and Groff. Times where the opportunity to kill them could have been so easy to free him from his torments.
That's what JJ was, however. Better than them in every way. Because it wasn't about taking the easy way out. JJ had fought for everything he had but had never walked over people to do so. He was the most deserving.
Her resolve was thawing like ice in the middle of summer. She wished her determination could be stronger than common sense. She knew that if she just let anger win, they'd just be burying another body tonight. But she had seen first hand what anger could do to people. It had destroyed JJ bit by bit, with marks on his body and scars in his mind.
He bore no ill will at the end. He had just wanted to be happy. He had wanted her to be happy. And she had made a promise to keep everyone safe. This vow didn't start with them having murder charges on their heads.
Kie sighed suddenly but the weight on her shoulders was still ever so present. “We're bringing him back to the Outer Banks. If the law doesn't do its job, then we will.”
“He's got nothing to his name,” Rafe added while shrugging. “No money, no future. He's not getting out of this anyways.”
John B, Pope and Cleo seemed to relax at the outcome. Sarah, however... Her anger was still burning bright. It came as a surprise to Rafe when she marched up to him and that she forcefully took the gun away from him.
Kie couldn't see a sign of hesitation on her face. She was still acting on pure rage. Kie couldn't lie and say she wasn't still tempted to paint the walls with Groff's brain, but she wanted to remember JJ with the memory of his strength. That was her only motivation. He was kindhearted and too forgiving for his own good.
“JJ was like a brother to me. You took my brother from me. You took our friend. You took her soulmate. You have nothing and you are nothing. The only thing of value you had was JJ and you disregarded him and for what? You better hope justice finds you guilty. Otherwise I'll be the one to find you and you'll find out my brother isn't the crazy one in this family.”
When she got up, she regarded Groff like he was an insect she could just step on. Rafe waited patiently for her to give him back the gun. Somehow, he felt uneasy to see her holding something so deadly. He didn't want his sister to become like him and continue life with regrets.
But rather than handing back the gun, she took a last look at Groff before aiming suddenly and pulling the trigger. The gunshot was echoing but barely startled Kie. The others winced at the loudness and attempted to intervene. The bullet lodged itself in his leg and the man howled in pain, clenching the wound desperately.
She nearly threw the gun at Rafe after that as Pope looked at her incredulously.
“What?” She asked nonchalantly. “We said we wouldn't kill him. We didn't say we would bring him in one piece. At least, if he tries to run, he won't go very far.”
She left the room and pride swelled in Kie's heart. In all honestly, Sarah's decision to regain a bit of the control they had lost when they had lost JJ pleased Kie. It was stupid, sure, because the gunshot would attract attention and they would have to go very soon, but Kie felt like someone was in her corner regarding all this.
And to Kie, Sarah Cameron had never been more of a Pogue than at this moment, following JJ's idiotic motto: Stupid things have a good outcome all the time.
A few days later.
The outcome wasn't exceptionally good but at the very least, they had made it back to the Outer Banks in one piece. It seemed everyone and their mothers had learned about their arrival because the docks were filled with cops, the Pogues' families and the peanut gallery of Kooks with Topper and Ruthie in front wearing a cocky grin on their faces.
Shoupe was the one to welcome them on the docks. He looked at them and their grim expression. Rafe pushed Groff in front of him. The man was limping and his hands were bound tightly. He barely met anyone's eyes but John B saw Shoupe's gaze fall to his injured leg.
“What happened there?” Groff kept silent. At least he had learned when to take a knee.
“He tripped,” John B said.
No one cared what Shoupe believed. They were done caring. They were tired, hungry, angry and most of all, still grieving.
“On what?” the Sheriff inquired.
“Hey, look, Shoupe, we got you Groff like you wanted so...” Rafe started. Shoupe's eyes ran through every member of the group before he frowned.
“Where's JJ? I know what we agreed on but he still needs to go through the motion.”
Right behind Shoupe, everyone's interest was picked at the mention of JJ. Sarah saw Ruthie start to sneer and whisper something to Topper before snickering. Kiara tensed when she saw Luke, her parents and Heyward close by and she fought every instinct in her not to lunge at the Maybank man who had started this downfall to hell.
When no one answered him, Shoupe looked aggravated, smoothing his mustache with his fingers. “You can't just hide him away.”
Sarah pushed past Rafe and Groff, and shoved a map in Shoupe's chest until the man grabbed it with shock. “X marks the spot. You'll find JJ there.”
He opened the map curiously. “In the middle of a desert in Morocco?”
“We'd appreciate it if you could bring him back to be put to rest with his mom, somewhere we'd be able to commune with ourselves.”
He looked at her in barely disguised shock now. The words were cruel and cold and so unlike Sarah. Pope was pretty sure he had heard a few gasp from the people watching behind. Luke has taken a step forward, mouth agape.
“Put to rest... You can't mean...” Shoupe stuttered.
“We just want rude boy home so that anyone can pay proper respect. And that also starts with taking care of the culprit.” Cleo's glare towards Groff was venomous. Pope had rarely seen Shoupe be so stunned and the news seemed to be a hard pill to swallow.
It was an even bigger pill to swallow for Luke who marched up to them only to try charging at Groff. He was stopped by a few deputies who clearly struggled to restrain him.
“Did you kill my son?” He accused Groff loudly.
And that was it for Kiara. This time it was her turn to lunge at someone, and Luke was her victim. The deputies startled back, visibly shaken by the reaction. Too shaken that they didn't know how to react when Kiara began to hit, scratch and yell profanities at the older man. He was trying to push her back without hurting her without much avail.
A group of people started to get closer, all faces that the Pogues were familiar with. Sarah heard Ruthie laugh, saying something about 'one less dirty Pogue to deal with', and the blond saw red. Her fist met the brunette's nose before she could dodge and she plumelled her to no end.
It was liberating to release her pent-up anger finally. It almost brought a smile on her lips. By the time she felt hands trying to push her away, she was straddling Ruthie.
John B stepped in when he saw Topper try to remove Sarah. He needed to be careful. One wrong thing and he would explode too.
“Don't touch her, man!” He yelled at Topper. He kept an eye on Ruthie who was too out of it to retaliate. But he highly disliked the way Topper was trying to lift Sarah off of his girlfriend. He kept his hands on the blond girl.
“I said don't touch her ! She's pregnant !” That seemed to help because Topper let go of her like she had burned him and the shock on his face brought John B a deep satisfaction.
Cops tried to intervene to stop the chaos ensuing but John B took matter into his own hands, whispering soothing words into Sarah's ear, compelling her to think about her well-being and the baby's. Only at that did she stop, shell-shocked at the amount of agression she had unleashed.
When John B turned around with Sarah in his arms, Pope and Cleo had managed to get Kiara under control and Shoupe, still looking upset at the news ordered his deputies to stand down and to arrest Groff for an obscenely amount of charges for the little amount of time that had passed.
Kiara's will deflated when she heard the last charge. The statement sounded resigned and sad.
“... And for suspicion of the murder of JJ Maybank.”
The words rang into John B's ears. Suspicion. Murder. JJ. Dead.
His best friend was dead.
He would never see him again.
Never hear him crack another awful joke.
Never be able to be Uncle JJ to his kid.
It was all so wrong. And the negative emotions he had let win over his rationality began to overwhelm him like a wave on a particularly bad weather.
They had all broke at some point but their grief was different for each of them. Sarah and Kie were angry. Cleo was sad but, sadly, she was too familiar with loss. Pope had kept to himself and mourning JJ was a scar on his soul. For John B, who had been his best friend for years, the loss was like missing a limb and still feeling phantom pain.
That day in Lisbonne, he had called upon reason because above all, he wanted Groff to suffer for the rest of his life. Now that they were back in the Outer Banks it all felt so final because without JJ it was like roaming the night without a light.
John B had had no time to process it all in all the running and the chasing. He would never wake up with JJ sleeping on the couch at the Chateau or go surf with him. What was the point of being in the Outer Banks now, without everyone's anchor to hold them together?
Amidst the chaos, the cop near John B barely felt it when the young Routledge grabbed the gun from his holster and fired one warning shot that created even more chaos. Most of the public began to scatter like ants but the Pogues' close ones remained. So did the cops obviously. They all aimed their weapons at John B who was pointing his at Groff.
Shoupe raised an appeasing hand with his other on his holster. His gun was still safely tucked away though.
“Everyone stand down. Do not shoot !” He ordered. “John B. Son, give me the gun. Don't do anything stupid.”
No good outcomes now.
“It's not suspicion!” He yelled out. It was getting harder to keep his breathing under control. “He killed him in front of Kie!”
“We'll investigate, John B. We'll do everything we can!”
“Like you investigated Ward and all those time we went to you for help?! My best friend is buried in a desert because we couldn't take him with us. The thing he feared the most was to end up alone and we had to leave him in a desert because of Groff.”
There were big tears falling down his cheeks and only the presence of Sarah was keeping him from crashing down. He appreciated that she wasn't trying to stop him. The decision was entirely up to him this time. The Pogues were frozen in place and whatever choice he made, it would be the right one.
Luke, who was sitting on the ground, a little worse for wear after Kie's assault began to sob at John B's words. No one expected much from him which is why it shocked Kiara and the cops when he stood up and stumbled towards John B. The gun, which was pointed directly at him, didn't seem to register in his mind.
John B's thoughts were racing. Groff was still in sight and Shoupe was still talking, as were Heyward and Kie's parents but there was a ringing in his ears that drowned every voice.
Luke stopped in front of John B, the gun pressed on his chest.
“Was he scared? At the end.”
It was like the question didn't register in John B's mind. So Sarah took it upon herself to answer.
“Kiara said... She said that he wasn't scared at the end. He said he had everything he needed and that he didn't wish for anything else.”
Luke nodded with regret and guilt etched on his features.
“That's good,” he whispered. “That's good. Thank you. For being his family when I couldn't.”
In a twist of events that shocked John B out of his stupor, Luke Maybank did the first father-like thing he ever did in his life since the Pogues could remember. He grabbed the gun and without leaving room for arguments, he shot Groff straight through the heart.
The look of sheer shock and almost betrayal was comical to Kie. The man who had committed atrocities still thought he deserved more than what he gave.
Shoupe yelled at his men instantly to hold their fire. The fight left Luke instantly and he dropped the gun, raising his hands in surrender.
It was panic all around, between trying to deal with the dying man at Rafe's feet and the surrendering one at John B's.
Kiara's eyes were glued on Groff. As soon as he breathed his last breath, Kiara felt like she breathed for the first time since JJ died. The weight crushing her chest lifted and she fell to her knees, crying for what she lost in Morocco.
She felt her parents' arms around her shaking form as the cries wrecked her.
One thing every one of them knew for certain. The Outer Banks would never be the same.
Weeks went by of grief and the desire to leave this place.
It was at the beach that Kiara could find peace. Facing the sea reflecting the blue of JJ's eyes she had started to remember.
Bit by bit, she allowed grief to be a sign of love and remembrance.
P4L, JJ Maybank.