Brother's Best Friend || JJ Maybank

Episode 1. Pilot | 4

Julianne Bailey Routledge

When we returned, there was a heap of people surrounding a person on a stretcher. We spotted a girl from our school, deciding to ask her what was going on.

"Who's that?" John B asked her.

She turned to us, "It's Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm." She pulled out her phone, "Check out this pic I got." I thought I was going to throw up at the image, turning away, "Dead body."

"Holy shit." John B breathed out.

JJ leaned over me, holding onto a pole, "What kind of boat did he have?" My eyes grew wide, looking up at him. Please tell me she wasn't going to say what I thought she was.

She turned to us, "Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand new Grady-White." Yep. I was going to throw up, "Everyone's out looking for it."

JJ looked down at me and tears brimmed my eyes. We really were at a crime scene. We messed up.

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The second we arrived back at home, I threw myself on my bed, willing myself not to freak out. Kie, JJ, Pope, and John B were all out on the patio, but I couldn't bring myself to see anyone. I don't care if I was acting like a baby, they all knew how I felt about this kind of thing.

My whole life, I have loved being in the shadows and there was no way that I was going to go to jail for this. I flung myself up, throwing my bedroom door open, and made my way towards the patio.

I opened the door, everyone's eyes snapping up at me, "Okay. We didn't see anything. We don't know anything." I sat down next to Kiara, "We need to have total and complete amnesia."

JJ sat up in his chair, "Actually, Jules is right for once." I looked over at him, "See, I agree with you sometimes." He stood up, "Deny, deny, deny."

Kie shook her head, "Guys, we can't keep that money."

JJ leaned on the railing, "Okay. Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara."

Kie didn't give his comment any attention, "We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise it's bad karma."

"Bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too." Pope finally spoke up.

"We gotta go dark." I stated.

"If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree." JJ said.

John B patted JJ's shoulder, "I don't agree."

JJ looked at him, "What? Why?"

"Just think about it." John began, "This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about, right? Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole."

"One time, I saw him begging for change at a Save-A-lot parking lot because he needed gas." I added, catching onto what he was saying.

John B pointed at me, agreeing, "We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket and all of a sudden he's got a Grady-White? Just sayin'."

I was already on board with them, but it took us a while to convince Pope, John B persuading him everywhere we went.

At the dock, while Pope was fishing, "All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?"

Pope sighed, "Prostitution."

John B shook his head, "Square groupers, bro. Okay, flying under the radar, no aerial surveillance. They don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ?"

"They were straight smugglin'."

John turned back to Pope, "Smugglin'. And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck."

JJ nodded, "Hell, yeah."

It wasn't until we were, for some reason, chilling in my room, that Pope agreed.

"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it... it probably belongs to someone else-"

"Minor details." Kie cut in.

Pope continued, "They could come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid."

JJ shrugged, "Right. Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time. All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we just lay low. Just act normal."

Pope sighed, "Right. And how exactly do we do that?"

"We're Pogues, Pope." I reminded him, "We're always in the low."

They agreed and Kie began smiling, "Kegger?"

A kegger was a party down on the beach.

I groaned, "A party? Really?"

JJ slung an arm around my shoulder, "Oh, come on, Jules. Let's go."

Reluctantly, I agreed. Guess we're partying.

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