XIV. nothing good starts in a getaway car

      Dylan still had yet to tell John B and Kiara about Rafe attacking her. All she could think about was how Kohn B would actually try to murder him and it terrified her. They already had so much going on. Rafe Cameron should be the least of her worries. And yet that's all she could think about was him and his anger. She'd known Rafe for years. He was always a little crazy, money hungry, thinking he was above everybody. But this? She never thought he would hurt her like he did.

Dylan was reluctant to leave Pope's side. She feared for his safety just as much as her own. And it wasn't like he minded either. Dylan and Pope were always protective of each other. It took everything in him to not kill both Topper and Rafe himself.

She wore a heavy amount of concealer to hide the marks on her face. JJ drove the boat to the middle of the ocean. The weather was somewhat good enough to bring the tether down and search for the ship wreck. Dylan sat beside JJ as he steered. He glanced at her occasionally. "You okay?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

JJ steered the wheel. "How did it go? Telling your parents?"

"It was. . . terrifying," she admitted. "I'm just happy Pope was there."

He reached over and patted her leg. "He's better than me. I was ready to beat the shit out of those assholes."

Dylan sighed. "You can't. You know what will happen if you do."

"I don't care, DJ," he said and glanced at her again. "You're my best friend. My sister. I'd go to war for you, you know that."

Dylan stopped frowning and looked at him with a smile. "I know."

"All right, JJ. Pin it here!" John B shouted.

"Roger that! X marks the spot!" Said JJ.

Dylan hopped out of the chair and walked out to where the rest of them were.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen. To going full kook." John B announced.

"Fuck Kooks," Dylan declared and stood beside Pope.

"Yeah, fuck Kooks!" JJ cheered from the steering wheel.

John B was observing the drone on the iPad. "All right, JJ, we're right over it. Ten seconds northwest."

"Got it! Ten seconds northwest!"

"100 feet!" Said Kiara.

Dylan observed the screen and her eyes scanned the deep waters. "Maybe after this, we can go searching for the Titanic."

Poor looked at her. "The Titanic was discovered in 1985,"

She shrugged. "Well yeah, but it's still there, isn't it?"

He hummed. "That's true. When should we go?"

She smiled at the way he said we. "Uh. . . after your scholarship interview?"

Pope grinned. "Sounds like a plan."

A shark swam by the camera and Dylan gasped. "Whoa!"

John B heard her and immediately ran over. "What? What, what, what, what?" He repeated and looked at the screen.

Pope shook his head. "It's nothing."

She winced. "Sorry, JB."

"Don't do that to me, DJ!" Shouted JJ.

"It was a shark!"

"And to quote The Hobbit, "Down,  down, to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go, my lad."  Pope quoted.

"I do believe the worst is behind us!"

They high fived.

Kiara continued to lower the tether farther and farther down.  "Four hundred feet!"

Thunder started to rumble.

"The tide's turning!"

"JJ, ten seconds away. South-southeast, all right?" John B shouted.

"Copy that!" The blonde said back and he steered the wheel.

Dylan started to feel anxious as she continued to watch the monitor. The further down the drone went, the darker and murkier the water was getting. There wasn't anything in sight. The sky was turning a deep grey and the thunder rumbled louder.

"Keep the tether out of the prop!"

"I'm trying!"

"I have a bad feeling about this." Dylan uttered.

"John B,  is that good?"

"We're good! We're good!"

"Okay, 700 feet!" Kiara told them as she continued to lower the teether.

The wind started to pick up and the waves became rougher, causing the boat to rock. Dylan's curls blew around her head. She grabbed Pope's arm.

"Okay, 900!"

"JJ, we'll turtle in this storm!" Shouted John B.

"920!"

"Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!"

"Why can't we see anything?" Dylan muttered, staring at the monitor.

"How are we going?" John B asked and looked over her and Pope.

"We're almost here." Pope answered.

"John B, there's too much current! We're gonna lose it!" Kiara shouted, fear raising in her voice.

He stared at the iPad intensely. "Half speed. Stead at this bearing, JJ! What do you got, Pope? Come on, man, what do you see?"

Dylan shook her head. "There's nothing."

"Nothin. A whole lot of nothin."

"You should be right above it, brother," John B pressured.

"Kiara!" Pope shouted to her.

"960!" She shouted back.

"Come on. Come on." Dylan muttered and chewed her nail.

"970. . . 980!"

"I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!" Pope shouted when the bottom of the ocean appeared on the monitor.

"Okay, steady here, JJ!" John B shouted to JJ. "Steady here. Quarter speed, all right?"

Dylan shook her head again as there was nothing that appeared. "There's still nothing."

"You should be seeing someone."

"I know, I know! Wait, wait." Pope exclaimed.

Suddenly, the worry washed away and she let out a breathy laugh when she saw the Royal Merchant ship appear on the screen. "There it is."

"It's The Royal Merchant." John B laughed in amazement.

Kiara grabbed Dylan's arm and the girls squeezed each other's hands. They searched all around the ship wrecked for any sign of the gold but it wasn't there.  Dylan frowned. They were at the bottom of the ocean floor and there was still nothing. 

John B sighed. "It's not there. Look,  just—just pull the drone up."

"John B—" Dylan started.

"Look, we can do another pass," Pope said. "Recharge the battery. We can—we can go back down,"

"Guys, we've been through it three times. There's nothing there." JJ denied.

"Shut up!" Kiara shouted at him.

"What? It's true!"

"The gold could be buried. We don't know!"

"If it was there, it would've been found in the metal detector, okay? Somebody beat us to it." He argued with her.

Dylan sighed out of frustration and she ran her hands down her hair. She put one of them on Pope's shoulder and squeezed it. "Good try, P."

Everyone went silent. Their faces dropped with disappointment. Dylan walked over to where John B was and she sat beside him. She laid her head on his shoulder. "It's okay. It's okay."

Dylan walked alongside Pope through the marina. "I can't believe we did all of that for nothing." He sighed and walked into Heyward's Seafood.

"Maybe not all for nothing," Dylan shrugged and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "We still don't know. There's always hope." She followed him outside to the seating area. He started picking up plates that people left. "I mean, we found the shop wreck. How many people can say that?" She laughed.

Pope stood back up and turned around, smiling at her.  "Why are you always do hopeful?"

She walked behind him to go back inside. She shrugged again.  "If you don't have hope then you don't have anything. Do you believe in hope?"

Pope paused and turned around. "I do."

She smiled. "What do you believe in?" She slightly teased.

Pope stared into her eyes. Half of her face was bruised yet she still managed to smile. It only made him more angry at Rafe for trying to dim her light. "I'll tell you one day."

When they walked back outside, Dylan felt her blood go cold when her eyes landed on Topper and Rafe inside Topper's jeep. They were a few feet away and they were glaring daggers at Pope. Rafe smirked at Dylan and winked at her. "Pope."

Pope looked up from the table and saw what she was looking at his. His face fell drastically. Rafe puckered his lips at him and Pope grabbed Dylan's hand,  dragging her away. "Do they know?" She voiced shakily. "Pope, do they know?"

"I don't know, Dylan." He said quickly and dragged her out of the seafood shop. When he felt her hand start to shake, he stopped walking and turned around. "Hey, hey, don't worry."

"Pope, if they know then we can get into a lot of trouble!" She said with wide eyes. "Your scholarship—"

He grabbed her other hand. "Hey, don't worry about that right now, okay? We just have to go talk to JJ."

The two of them ventured off to JJ's house. Hearing gunshots, the pair ran into the backyard and found the blonde shooting a stuffed pair as a target. "JJ." Pope called out.

But JJ could hear anything because of the safety earmuffs. "JJ!" Dylan shouted his name.

"JJ!" 

JJ looked behind him and spotted the pair. "They know." Pope stated.

"What?"

"They know, JJ. Topper and Rafe know." Dylan clarified.

"All right, chill. They don't know shit," JJ dismissed.

"Topper knows I sunk his boat," Pope went on, his voice shaking slightly.

"How do you know they know?"

"Because they posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me!"

"It was like a stake out but for revenge purposes," Dylan added and starting pacing back and forth.

"Okay, will you calm down and get a grip, you two?They don't know shit." JJ repeated.

"They have cameras. They could've seen me."

"There was no power, Pope. How could they have seen you?"

"They're kooks, JJ. They have a way around everything." Dylan stated.

"They got generators!" Pope agreed. "They don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats. It's not a good look on my transcript."

"And Ivy leave colleges don't take students with criminal records," Dylan followed and fear etched her face.

"Okay, okay, enough with the regret!" JJ shouted and stood up. He looked between them. "Okay, Pope, they caved your face in and beat the shit out of Dylan. They hit us. We hit them. It's the law of the jungle. Now, if any Kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to em, look em right in the eye,  and. . ."

"Deny the living shit out of it." Pope finished.

"That's right! Deny, deny, deny. Right DJ?"

Dylan shook her head. "I can't lie, JJ. I get nervous,"

"You've watched Criminal Minds like 20 times. You can pick up ways to lie," he contradicted. "But just for safety, we can't go anywhere without protection."

When he pointed to the gun, Dylan's eyes widened. "You're insane."

"Oh, come on Dylan—"

"I'm already on edge because my father wants to bury Rafe six feet under. I don't think carrying a gun around is going to make me feel any better!"

"DJ," JJ declared again and grabbed her shoulders. "We're in this together, remember? Nothing is going to happen to you."

Panic flashed in her eyes and she glanced at Pope. They shared the same uneased expression. If she was the getaway car, Pope and JJ were the drivers.