Everyone stared at Jesse as he kept smiling.
“Well, did you join the circus or some shit?” Kevin asked, laughing. “What’s with that goofy grin.”
“I got my letter back from state,” Jesse began. He looked around at all of the confused faces. “The football scholarship. I won it. I’m going to WVU to play ball!”
All at once, everyone whooped and hollered, patting him on the bag, tousling his hair, and someone even shook a beer up and sprayed it on him.
“Let’s get this party started right! Yeeeeeeeehoooo!” Mike yawed and cranked his radio on and up. “Yeet-yeet!”
It wasn’t until then that JJ noticed that on the backs of all of the trucks that drove up here were four-wheelers and dirt bikes strapped on. They all grabbed ramps and began removing the ATV’s from the trucks to race and mud. JJ was all about some racing. Fast cars and freedom was the one thing he and Lynne shared. However, this scene here, drugs, alcohol, racing, that wasn’t something he wished to be a part of. As they all moved the party to the other side of the mines with their vehicles and ATV’s, JJ began to walk down the gravel drive back toward the road.
“Where are you going, cowboy?” Lynne yelled, running up behind him and jumping onto his back. “We haven’t even gotten to sneak off from the group yet and cause rumors,” she whispered into JJ’s ear.
“I’ma go on home,” JJ replied as she slid down off his back.
“Why?” Lynne asked, unaware of his reasons for not liking this kind of scene. “If it’s JR, I can handle…”
“No, that ain’t it,” JJ replied, cutting her off quickly. “I’m just not about what y’all are about. I’m not into drinking and drugs. Plus, y’all are all cozy as friends, and I am the outsider. They don’t like me. They will never like me. I’m not one of them, and they made that pretty clear.”
“JJ,” Lynne began.
“I’ll see you later, Lynne,” JJ said firmly and walked off down the road.
JJ hit the paved road and made his way back towards Whitesville and then Route 1 to Sycamore. He had been walking for about five minutes when a vehicle rumbled up behind him.
“Hop in,” Lynne yelled as he turned to see what vehicle it was.
“You don’t have to leave them on my account. Go on back to your friends, Lynne. I’m fine,” JJ replied, steadily walking down the road.
The passenger door popped open, and JJ looked inside the cab.
“I won’t tell you again, Jackson Jay. Get in,” Lynne said sternly.
“Well, yes, ma’am,” JJ replied with a smile hopping into her truck. “Where we off to?” he asked.
“You will see when we get there,” Lynne replied.
Lynne drove down Harper Road, and JJ thought she was going to turn down Clear Fork Rd, Route 1, but she drove right by it. She pulled off on Harper Park Dr. and brought her truck to a stop in front of a storage unit. She hopped out of the truck, and JJ followed suit.
“So, you showing me all of your skeletons you have in your closet… or in storage, I should say,” JJ laughed, walking over to where she stood. “I always knew there were secrets buried and hidden away.”
Lynne gave him a punch to his shoulder. “You’re such a dick,” she laughed back. “No. I am showing you something much better.”
“A prostitution ring?” JJ joked as she took a key from her pocket, looking for her unit number.
She turned to hit him again when he moved out of the way, so she just punched the air.
“You’re going to get it one day, Jackson Jay. You mark my words, boy,” Lynne said, nodding her head and squinting her eyes at JJ.
“You’re like 90 pounds wet,” JJ laughed. “I’m so skeered,” he chuckled sarcastically.
“You will be when my foot goes up your ass,” she hissed. “Now, stop distracting me. I’m trying to find my number.”
As she walked unit to unit, her eyes skimmed over the numbers until she found hers. Number 220. She put her key in the padlock and unlocked it, slid it off the hook, and popped the unit door open. She flipped a light on the wall and walked in. Underneath a dust cover sat a vehicle.
“What’s that?” JJ asked as he followed her inside.
“That’s my other baby,” Lynne cooed. “This is my pride and joy.”
She pulled the dust cover back to reveal a blacked-out 1969 Chevy Nova. It had a pretty chrome, decent sized shaker scoop sticking out of the top of the hood. It had a set of rally wheels with beautiful beauty rings and center caps. JJ walked around it, eyeing its flawless paint job and glorious parts. Across the ass of the car, in bright white letters, it said Shine Runners.
“So, what do you do with this?” JJ asked. “Race it. Store it. Look at it?”
“I race it typically. I also run shine from here through Kentucky and Tennessee in it, but you already knew that part. You just ain’t no what car I used,” Lynne replied, running her hand lightly across the door she stood beside. “They can try, but they never catch me.”
“454 big block?” JJ asked, walking around the car to stand near her.
Lynne nodded.
JJ smiled. “It’s nice, Lynne. You do all the modifications yourself?” he asked.
Lynne smiled and nodded again while stroking the door lightly. “Yea, when daddy doesn’t have me running the roads for him, or I’m not in school or gettin’ into trouble, I am in here tinkering with it.”
“Take me for a ride?” JJ asked.
“Where do you want to go?” she replied.
“Anywhere with you,” JJ answered softly, stepping up to her and staring down into her eyes.
Lynne took a deep breath, took a step back, and produced a huge grin. “Well then, Mr. Jay, get in.”
Just as they opened the doors and were about to climb into the car, Lynne’s phone beeped with a text message. She opened the message and groaned loudly.
“Ughhhh, we have to get back to the holler,” Lynne huffed.
“Why?” JJ asked. “What’s going on?”
“The Robinson boys pulled a gun on Jesse, and now all them mother fuckers are planning to fight,” Lynne replied.
“Why does that matter?” JJ asked, taking Lynne’s face in his hands. “We can leave that all behind right now, Lynne. We can get in that car and just drive, never looking back. No one to tell us we have to come back home. No one telling us we need to come fix this problem and that one. Just you and me and the horizon.”
“You can’t mean that?” Lynne protested, slamming her car door shut. “Them boys would never make it without me.”
JJ quietly closed his door and walked out to the truck. He climbed in and shut his door without a word. Lynne looked down at her phone and then at JJ, biting her lower lip. She covered her car back up, turned the lights off in the unit, rolled the door back down, and locked it up. She climbed into the truck behind the steering wheel, glancing over at JJ that just stared out the window. She hesitated before she started the truck and pulled out of the unit. She got back on Harper Road and then turned at Clear Fork Road to get back to the holler.
As they pulled into the holler, they saw the gang standing at the train tracks with the Robinson boys’ gang on the other side. Neither of them had crossed the line to initiate the fight. Lynne parked the truck and went to hop out when JJ grabbed her arm.
“Don’t,” she hissed.
JJ stared her in the eyes, released her arm, and jumped out of the truck. He was pissed off and needed to release his anger, and those boys were his number one target.
“What we got here,” he bellowed, walking up behind the Robinson’s gang.
They all turned to stare at him, looking past him to Lynne.
“There’s the bitch we were looking for,” the taller one said.
“Shut up, Jed. Your bone is with me,” Jesse replied.
“Naw, Jesse. You may have peddled it, but it’s her stepped on shit that was sold,” Jed fired back. “So, my quarrel is with her.”
JJ walked straight up to the tall
one that stood eye level with him and stared him down, bucking into his chest.
“You want to get to her?” JJ asked. “You have to fucking go through me,” he seethed.
“Who is this pretty boy?” Jed asked, giving a hearty laugh. “I didn’t know the Backstreet Boys were in town.”
As he went to swing on JJ, JJ beat him to the punch. He balled his fist up and landed a hit squarely into Jed’s right side of his rib cage. He could feel the rib cage give under his jab. Jed let out a hiss of breath before he dropped to the ground gasping for air. One of the others tried to jump JJ from the side when he swung around and caught the guy in his mouth, shattering his teeth. As they each popped up on JJ, he dealt a blow they couldn’t snap back from. One got a broken nose. One got a snapped wrist. The final one got his head rocked as JJ dealt a roundhouse kick to the side of his face. Each one of the boys went down on the ground, and when they got back up, they backed down from him like whipped dogs.
JJ bent down to where Jed still lay, trying to get a deep breath of air, failing from his cracked ribs. He grabbed Jed by the head and pulled him up to his face to speak to him.
“This is my fucking holler, pretty boy. Or no, I should say, you have a face only a mama could love, but I doubt even she loves that inbred face you got,” JJ said, as he lightly smacked his cheek and dropped his head back to the ground. “Now, all of you, get your asses back to the hole in the wall you crawled out of like the fucking cockroaches you are.”
All of the guys that laid around on the ground scrambled to their feet and took off running down the road while some of them dragged Jed along howling in pain. JJ looked back at Lynne that just stood and stared at him without saying a word. He turned back around and started to walk across the train tracks, brushing past all of the boys he had just left at their party in the mines. The boys that had asked him had he ever killed anyone and then just watched him beat the shit out of at least ten boys at once. They all watched silently as he walked by each one of them, stepping to the side to let him through as he got close to each of them.
Lynne looked at Jesse and threw him her keys. “Take my truck to my house,” she demanded as she took off running after JJ.
She caught up with him a few moments later as he walked quietly home with his fists balled.
“Do you mind telling me what that was back there?” she asked, panting out of breath.
“It was nothing,” JJ replied. “It was something you should have never seen. Damn sure what they shouldn’t have seen.”
“You just beat the shit out of all of them boys!” she hissed. “Why?”
“I took care of a problem,” JJ replied, jerking to face her. “What the fuck is with the third degree you’re giving me? You should be glad I dealt with them.”
“You can’t swoop in with your Superman skills whenever you think you need to protect me,” Lynne protested. “I can take care of my own, JJ. I don’t need no man to handle my problems for me. My daddy taught me to throw a right hook, and I have my boys. They got my back whenever I need ‘em.”
“Why do you want a gang of guys to run with you when you have all you need with me?” JJ demanded. “Why?! Am I not good enough for you? Am I not good enough for your way of life? Because from the looks of things, you’re going to end up dead before you’re fucking thirty fucking off with all them deadbeat holler brats.”
“They are far from being deadbeats and far from being brats. They worked hard for everything they own,” Lynne yelled back.
“Selling dope is not working hard, Lynne. Having a real job in the real world is what is working hard. They haven’t worked a day in their life. They sell beans, ice, weed, dope, anything to sell so they don’t have to go work them mines like the rest of the folks around here do,” JJ spat back. “If you want that life, then go ahead and live it. If you don’t want to live that kind of life, if you want to live that dream life you told me about, then come with me. Leave with me when I leave.”
“I can’t just leave,” Lynne cried. “I just can’t.”
JJ nodded his head, swallowed hard while gritting his teeth, and turned and walked away.
“JJ!” Lynne called.
He turned around and caught her eyes full of questions, doubts, and emotions.
“Meet me at the creek tonight, please,” Lynne asked.
No matter how angry she made him, he couldn’t help but to soften, smile, and nod at her requests after.
“I’ll see you there at dusk,” JJ called back as he turned back around and walked home.
As he came into the house, his father was waiting for him at the front door. JJ closed the door slowly as he looked around to see if anyone else was in the room. It was empty.
“What’s up, Pops?” JJ asked as he kicked his shoes off and started for the kitchen to make him something to eat.
“Where you been?” Paul asked.
“Just hanging out with the guys,” JJ replied.
“You mean hanging out with Lynne Brown?” he asked.
“Yea, so what. She hangs out with those guys too. Eventually, we’re going to cross paths. It’s a small holler, Pops,” JJ replied as he grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured himself a glass of water.
“That better be all there is to it,” Paul hissed. “You are not to have anything to do with her other than her being around them pill pushers you call friends. I have eyes and ears in this holler. They tell me there’s more to it between you and that girl, but I will leave it alone. But if one more person comes to me over this, your ass is grass, boy. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” JJ asked, rolling his eyes when his dad turned around to walk out of the room.
Chapter Four
JJ sat watching TV before he tried to go to sleep. He aimlessly flipped through channels as he thought of the few hours he had shared with Lynne out at the creek a couple of days ago and everything that followed after. Thinking about everything that had happened that day made his adrenaline course along with anxiety, and he just wanted to lay punches into something. He couldn’t help for his anger to flare, and he knocked the whatnot off of the end table beside him. Now he knew who his dad was speaking of earlier in the week when he mentioned talk around the holler. At least it was settled now. He didn’t have to worry about people running back and telling his dad this or telling him that or running off to Charlie. There was nothing left to tell anymore.
The night started off different than most nights already considering he had just beaten the hell out of the Robinson boys followed by him and Lynne having a tiff. However, even for the awkwardness of the situation, Lynne was still unusually quiet most of the night as they lay in the back of her pickup as usual. She had shown up after dusk had settled, which was the first indication something had gone wrong. She usually beats him to the creek and would be sitting on her hood, waiting for him to pop up.
“Penny for your thoughts?” JJ asked, rolling over on his side and propping up on his elbow.
Lynne remained silent, and in the moonlight, he caught a small tear trail down the side of her face as she stifled her crying.
“Lynne, what’s wrong?” JJ asked, concerned, and turning her face to his.
It was in the dark that he saw the bruise forming underneath her eye. JJ sat up quickly and raised Lynne up into a sitting position as well.
“Who hit you?!” JJ demanded. “Who the fuck hit you?!”
“It’s nothing,” Lynne sobbed.
“The fuck it is,” JJ hissed. “You're the boss of the holler. Who put their hands on you? Was it your daddy?!” he demanded. “One of them punks you call your family?”
Lynne shook her head as she suppressed the sobs that wanted to escape her lips.
“What happened?” JJ asked.
Lynne dropped her head. “You know we ain’t supposed to be friends, right?” Lynne asked.
“Yea, my daddy had something to say about us earlier, and I brushed it off. But so, what?” JJ replied. “What does that have to do with this?�
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“Jesse… Jesse had his cousin, Daryl, over from Louisville. His whole family has been celebrating his acceptance into WVU. Even though he announced it to us today, it was just because he signed the paperwork. He’s been knowing all week. Daryl saw us last night sneaking back from the creek together,” she replied with her eyes still averted from his.
“And? What did he say? What did he do?” JJ demanded.
“Daryl threatened to go to my daddy if I didn’t hook him up with some merchandise,” Lynne began and stopped.
“And? What else? What happened, Lynne?” JJ prodded.
“I agreed to hook him up with some shit. He wanted some crank and some beans as well as an AK-47 that was modified from semi to fully automatic,” she explained. “I got the shit he wanted. I delivered the shit he wanted. He wanted more.” She cleared her throat and looked up at JJ.
“What do you mean he wanted more?” JJ asked, squinting his eyes at her. “What the fuck else did he want?”
Her face fell apart, and she raised her hand to her mouth as she cried into it. She sniffed her runny nose, wiping it off on the sleeve of her shirt.
“It doesn’t matter what else he wants. He can go run and tell for all I care. I ain’t afraid of my daddy, and I sure the hell ain’t worried about your daddy. They both can suck a dick for all I care. But, you’re going to tell me what the fuck this Daryl guy did,” JJ spat.
She cried harder into her hands, and the dam of emotions she had been holding back flooded to the top.
“Me,” she croaked through muffled breaths and fingers.
“What?” JJ asked for clarification as his temper flared.
She cleared her throat and swiped her shirt across the tears under her eyes. “He wanted me,” she annunciated. “I said no. And Jesse walked in at just the time that he hit me and had me down on the ground.”
Rage bubbled to the surface like a nuclear plume rising into the sky from an airstrike. JJ jumped down from the truck bed and paced back and forth.
“Who knows?” JJ asked, biting his thumbnail.
Them Holler Boys (A Southern Outlaw Series Book 1) Page 5