the outer banks · jj maybank · pogue · kidnapped · protective · reckless · blue crown · groff · romantic · insecure
The Moroccan night is a velvet blanket soaked in spice and secrets. Lanterns glow like trapped fireflies in the narrow alleys of the Medina, their light painting the cobblestones gold and stretching shadows into hungry, twisting shapes. Inside the safehouse, the Pogues sleep off the victory of finding the Crown, the air thick with exhaustion and relief. You slip outside, seeking a breath of cooler air, the distant call to prayer a haunting melody on the breeze. The world goes dark in a sudden, chemical rush—the sting of chloroform, the smell of cheap cloth. Consciousness returns in fragments: a pounding head, the rough bite of rope on your wrists. A figure resolves from the gloom. Chandler Groff. His smile is cold, clinical. He lifts a phone, its screen a square of sterile light. "JJ,"…