“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” a voice yelled out.
“I don’t have time for your holler bullshit, Jesse,” JJ seethed. “Some very dangerous men took Lynne, and I need to know where her lab is because that is where they took her.”
“What do you mean, her lab?” Jesse asked.
“The fucking lab! The meth lab! They have been watching you for a couple of days now. They know where it is. They have her. They will blow it fucking sky high with her in it. Where the fuck is it!?” JJ screamed.
Jesse’s eyes widened. “I’ll take you to it,” he replied, jumping into the driver’s seat of JJ’s ride.
JJ shuffled over to the passenger side door and climbed in.
“I want you to call every mother fucker that owes Lynne. Every mother fucker that pledged their loyalty to her. Every mother fucker who she calls family, and I want their asses there now! No questions asked. Y’all are them holler boys. And she needs you. She needs every one of you with a loaded gun at her side,” JJ said in a panic. “Start calling,” he said as he pointed his pistol at Jesse’s face.
Jesse nervously picked up his phone and began calling and sending messages to alert everyone to get to the lab. When Jesse and JJ arrived, there were at least thirty trucks parked around an empty field.
“Where the fuck is it?” JJ asked, pressing the gun into Jesse’s face. “Where is the fucking lab?!”
“It’s underground,” Jesse replied. “You fucking cocksucker. Get that damn thing out my face.”
JJ dropped the gun from Jesse’s face and ran his hand through his hair. He jumped from the car and walked in front of the trucks where everyone stood waiting for Jesse’s orders. JJ walked in front of them, and many of them started talking shit and spitting at him.
“Don’t you take a tone with me. This isn’t about me! This is about her!” JJ replied, pointing off into the empty field. “You prove to her that you are worth her calling you family.”
“She wouldn’t be in the mess if it weren’t for you,” Cameron yelled out.
“No, she wouldn’t be in this mess had she left with me seven fucking years ago, but instead, she chose your asses. So, you better not fucking make her regret her choice. She gave up so much for all of you, and you don’t even know it,” JJ spat.
Everyone stood around, dead quiet. JJ opened the duffel bag that he had and began tossing out weapons to each of them that stood around.
“Some of you might not make it out of that hole,” JJ stated solemnly as he looked up at them. “So, if you need to call anyone, now is the time. We roll in there in five minutes.”
A rumble began to shake the ground, and JJ watched as the ground began to sink in the middle of the field and then shot sky high with a billowing tower of flames sending all of those standing around to the ground. Everyone ducked and shielded themselves as best as they could as rocks, dirt rocks, and other earthly debris rained down, pelting everyone that lay there. A huge, gaping hole of fire was all that was left of the meth lab they had hidden beneath the field.
Chapter Fourteen
JJ crouched into a sitting position on the steps of Lynne’s bar, trying to wipe the dirt off of his hands. They couldn’t get the fire out, and it was still burning when Jesse hauled him away from the gaping fire pit. He stared down at his hands as they shook and gripped them in balls and alternated pressing them into his palms. He rocked back and forth and banged his head harder and harder into the side post of the stair railing.
“Hey, buddy, you ok?” a man asked as he walked up to the bar.
“Yea,” JJ mumbled. “I’m fine.”
“You look like you could use a drink,” the man replied. “Follow me in, and I will buy you one as you drown your tears and tell me what’s bothering ya.”
“Ain’t no point,” JJ murmured. “There’s no bartender tending this place now.”
“Well, there should be,” the guy chuckled. “My fiancé owns this place, and she texted me earlier she was back in town, and I could find her here.”
JJ looked up at the guy that claimed to be Lynne’s fiancé. He was an uppity person, cleaner than most of the people that lived in the holler. He had never seen his face before, so most likely, he wasn’t from around here.
“I didn’t catch your name, bud,” JJ said as he stood to his feet.
“Well, I am Joseph, Lynne’s boyfriend. The wedding is scheduled to pop off in May of next year,” Joseph replied with a grin.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Joseph, but there ain’t going to be no wedding next year,” JJ said solemnly.
“What do you mean,” Joseph replied with his stupid grin still plastered on his face.
Jesse and the boys pulled up into the parking lot and hopped out of their trucks.
“Hey, Joe,” Jesse called out with his head hanging.
“Hey, Jesse. What’s this punk ass mean there ain’t going to be no wedding next year? Where the fuck is Lynne?” he demanded.
“Lynne’s meth lab blew with her in it,” JJ replied. “She was murdered, and I intend to put every last one of the bastards that laid a hand on the hair of her head six feet in the fucking dirt.”
“She’s… dead?” Joseph breathed. “No, no , no…”
“I’m sorry, man,” JJ apologized.
“What am I going to do?” Joseph blurted out. “I have bids to fucking pay, and I can’t even get into her damned safe!”
Jesse and the boys stepped back away from Joseph as JJ balled his fists.
“You want to run that by me again?” he asked, squinting and glaring at Joseph.
“I need to sit down,” Joseph replied as he walked into the bar.
He maneuvered his way over to behind the counter and pulled a bottle down from the shelf. He popped the lid and began to drink it straight from the bottle as JJ slowly made his way over to the counter. Jesse and the gang followed him in one by one.
“She was all I had,” Joseph cried. “And now… I have nothing.”
“Do you want to go with me? Get even?” JJ offered.
“No, no…” Joseph blurted out. “I just… I have… I can’t.”
JJ turned around to the guys that hung back and looked at them, remembering each face from when he was a teenager. Jesse, Kevin, Cameron, JR, Nick, Kyle, Tuck, Mike, Richie, and Zeke all stood there watching and waiting for him to say something. He remembered them standing there looking to Lynne for the same thing. They needed to be told what to do. They needed him to tell them what was going to happen. JJ walked by them and out of the bar as they followed behind him.
“There’s going to be blood,” JJ said, breaking the silence.
“We know,” Cameron replied.
“And if you get caught, there ain’t no holler sheriff that can get you out of the shit you are about to get into,” JJ warned.
“We knew that the moment the lab blew,” Tuck replied.
“It’s going to be messy and chaotic,” JJ said, digging through the trunk of the car Thomas had brought to him.
“We are ready for anything, boss,” Zeke replied, spitting a wad of chew on the ground.
JJ pulled out his guns and started to load them with ammunition.
“Once you pull the trigger, that’s it. You have blood on your hands,” JJ reiterated.
“Where do we sign up?” Nick asked, stepping forward with his hand held out.
“Right here,” JJ replied, slapping a gun in it.
Mike stepped forward and took another gun, JJ loaded and handed off, followed by Richie and Kyle. The last person to step forward was JR. JR and JJ stood staring each other down.
“I gave you a lot of shit when we were kids,” JR spoke. “I didn’t think you could be one of us with your prep school learning and your prissy rich pants.”
“Go on,” JJ said as he loaded the pistol.
“I was wrong, rich boy,” JR replied. “We all were. You ain’t no prep school kid. You’re one of us. You’re a holler boy.”
JJ glance
d up from the gun as JR leaned in and tossed his arm around JJ’s back. JJ patted his back, and they each took turns walking up to him and hugging him until it got to Jesse.
“I watched Lynne go to shit over you. I watched you go to shit over her,” Jesse replied. “She was my little sister, and I would go to war for that girl.”
“Then join me in this war, brother,” JJ said, handing over a gun to Jesse.
Jesse took it from his hand, cocked the pistol, and fired a round off into the sky.
“Let’s get ‘er done,” he yawled.
All the boys whooped and hollered and yawled at once.
“What’s the plan, boss man?” JR asked as JJ shut the trunk to his car.
“Well, the first thing is getting you all clean,” JJ stated flatly as he looked at all of them. “It’s no judgements whatsoever. It’s just people on drugs lose reality and make mistakes. I need you in the moment while we do this. Everything has to be executed professionally. Plus, I need the time you all are getting clean to do so recon on these mother fuckers. Find out where they have businesses, warehouses. Find where they have their shipments received and sent. All the fun stuff.”
“And then what?” Jesse asked, lighting his cigarette and taking a long draw from it like he had all those years ago while talking to JJ asking about Lynne.
"We're going to burn their money one city at a time and take as many of their men as we go," JJ said as he walked off from the bar, followed by the boys that were never his to claim as family.
It took him until this very moment to realize Lynne was right... blood ain't always thicker than water, and sometimes that water is moonshine.
About the Author
Girty Thompson was born and raised in the mountains of West Virginia. A writer that branches across the entire Romance genre, including dark erotica, country love romance, outlaw/mafia romance, and BDSM, she made her first debut as a poet on the scene in the poetry anthology A Lovely Darkness: A Poetry Collection through Jaded Books Publishing (discontinued) followed by A Raven's Heart: An Anthology of Love (poetry). Growing up a pure southern belle, she now enjoys the outdoors as she hikes and fishes. Published by Dark Moon Rising Publications with her first Paranormal BDSM piece DOMbie: A Love Story, she is raising the bar in erotic horror and taking strides as a romance writer with her new Southern Outlaw series debuting with book 1, Them Holler Boys.
Them Holler Boys (A Southern Outlaw Series Book 1) Page 19