This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

fifty

CHAPTER FIFTY
[50]
song: call it fate, call it karma by the strokes

Cassie leaned back against the weathered bench on the fishing boat, the rhythm of the waves rocking beneath her. The soft lull of the water was almost enough to pull her into a daze, but her thoughts kept cutting through the calm, sharp and urgent. Twisting the amulet in her fingers, she looked ahead at Goat Island.

The heavy silence was broken by Pope's voice, his words blunt and curious. "If these people are willing to kill for this amulet, I wonder how much it's worth."

Cassie eyed the singular shiny red ruby that caught the sunlight through the rust.

"Okay, let's show 'em the piece, and then what—throw him a price?" John B's suggestion hung in the air, casual and unbothered, as if he were talking about bartering for fish.

JJ and Kiara were still at the hospital. The two of them had earned twelve hours in the tank to let their bodies adjust to the pressure.

Sarah, Pope, Cleo and Cassie all waited in the van until John B gave them the go-ahead. All while deciding that everything they'd just gone through to get that amulet was worth more than fifty thousand.

"A million dollars." Sarah says bluntly.

"That's reasonable." Cassie agrees.

"Go big." Sarah adds. "My dad taught me that."

Suddenly, Pope tensed. "Wait a minute." His eyes locked onto something ahead, and Cassie followed his gaze to the dock.

Shoupe stood there, his broad frame silhouetted against the rising sun, flanked by a handful of deputies. The sight of him made Cassie's blood run cold. Her chest tightened, and for a moment, the world around her seemed to narrow to the dock and the figures standing there.

Shoupe, who stood on the dock ahead alongside a few other deputies, turned from what he was previously doing to look at the oncoming boat.

"No. No, we're gonna turn around." John B's voice was a sharp command, but Cassie could barely hear it over the pounding in her ears.

Her pulse hammered, and her breath came faster. This is it. In her mind's eye, she saw herself jumping from the boat, her feet hitting the dock with a sickening finality, only for Shoupe to close in and slap handcuffs on her wrists, and announce to everyone that she was under arrest for homocide.

They'd found the body. He'd washed up in the river and they traced it back to her through the vomit she left in the bushes. Or maybe her DNA was on him. Or maybe Rafe's DNA was on him, and she was being considered an accessory.

"Don't." Pope states.

"Just turn it around," she urged, her voice almost a plea. She couldn't afford to be caught. Not like this.

"You don't voluntarily go towards cops." John B says.

Cassie's heart was pounding so loudly, she could hardly hear anything over the thudding in her ears. Her eyes flicked to Shoupe, who stood at the dock's edge, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. He didn't look like someone ready to cuff her, but then again, that never stopped him before.

"It's too risky." Cleo says.

Cassie nodded in agreement. "We can just say we were fishing, or something."