Them Holler Boys (A Southern Outlaw Series Book 1)

by Girty Thompson

  Lynne didn’t reply.

  “Who all the fuck knows, Lynne?” JJ demanded.

  “Knows what?” she shot back.

  “About what he did to you! What do you think I mean?” JJ shouted in agitation.

  Lynne licked her lips and chewed on the bottom one.

  “Lynne,” JJ started calmly. “Who did you tell what happened with Daryl?”

  “No one,” Lynne replied. “Jesse doesn’t even know the whole story. He just thinks Daryl and I were roughhousing,” she whispered.

  JJ bent over and ran his hands through his hair as he stood back up.

  “Where is he?” JJ asked sternly.

  “Who?” Lynne asked numbly.

  “Who?! Fucking who?? Daryl, that’s who! Where is he!” JJ yelled.

  “He’s leaving from Jesse’s house for Louisville tonight,” Lynne responded. “He’s probably already gone.”

  JJ started walking toward the holler.

  “JJ, no, please,” Lynne cried out. “They’ll hurt you.”

  JJ didn’t falter with his steps or hesitate to push forward. “They’re the ones that you should be worried about getting hurt,” he muttered.

  JJ walked up to Jesse’s house as Jesse and Daryl stepped out on the front porch. Jesse bopped fists with Daryl saying goodbye as JJ continued his stride on up to the house.

  “Hey, JJ, What’re ya doin’ here, man?” Jesse asked with a smile.

  JJ didn’t answer and walked straight up to Daryl and socked him in the mouth. Daryl spat out two teeth along with a mouthful of spit and blood.

  “What the fuck, man!” Jesse shouted as he ran to Daryl. “The fuck is yer problem?”

  JJ threw another punch catching Daryl in the ribs. He bent over, gasping for air as JJ brought his knee up into his face, knocking him backward onto the ground. He kicked Daryl in the stomach several times.

  “He’s my problem!” JJ shouted. “Don’t you ever come back to my fucking holler, you understand, mother fucker?”

  Jesse grabbed his gun from his waist and pointed it at JJ as Lynne ran up behind him and jumped in front of him.

  “No, Jesse!” Lynne screamed. “No!”

  “What the fuck’re ya doin’ hangin’ out around him for, Lynne! Yer daddy told ya to stay the fuck away from that boy!” Jesse yelled.

  “I know. But, he’s my friend,” Lynne cried.

  “Well, yer friend just punched Daryl in the mouth and then started beatin’ the shit out him,” Jesse replied, holding the gun carefully pointed at Lynne and JJ. “Ya know my family comes before any of this holler runnin’ bullshit.”

  “He did it for me,” Lynne blurted out.

  Jesse glanced from Lynne to JJ. “What do ya mean he did it fer you? Why the fuck would you want Daryl fucked up or worse, possibly dead?” Jesse demanded to know. “‘Cuz I know had I not stopped the mother fucker, he would have beat him to death.”

  “It’s all good, man,” Daryl interjected, breathing heavily as he stood to his feet. “It’s just a couple of teeth. My jaw ain’t made of glass. I’m alright. I’m gonna get on outta here.”

  “Hold the fuck up ri’ght now!” Jesse exclaimed, pointing the gun at Daryl. “The fuck did ya do to the boss man’s daughter, Daryl?”

  “I ain’t do anything to ‘er! Ask ‘er! She’ll tell ya!” Daryl said, staring straight at Lynne. “Tell ‘em, Lynne. I ain’t do anythin’ to ya.”

  JJ went to pounce on Daryl when Jesse whipped his gun around and pointed it back at JJ.

  “Ain’t nobody moving a muscle until someone tells me what the fuck is going on,” Jesse hollered. “And if I need it, you know I can have twenty mother fuckers ‘ere running out them screen doors dressed ‘er not.”

  “Oh, yea, you’re so big and bad with that gun of yours,” JJ shot at Jesse. “Lynne,” JJ said, turning her to look him in the eye. “You don’t have to tell Jesse if you don’t want to. I know your daddy will kill Daryl if it gets back to him, and the chances of you ever leaving his sight will be over. So, that is your choice right now. I can fuck him up, and he will never come back. Hell, I’ll even fucking kill him if I need to you. Or you can make sure he never does it to someone else like you by telling Jesse what happened. Either way, I see it, he’s a dead mother fucker. The question is who do you want him answering to.”

  Lynne’s eyes rimmed with tears that silently slid down her face as she pulled a gun from inside of her jeans. She turned around in a split second and put a bullet square in the middle of Daryl’s forehead.

  “It don’t matter what he did. He’s dead, now,” Lynne breathed with a trembling voice.

  She looked from Daryl’s body lying on the ground to Jesse that stood there with a look of terror on his face as he dropped his gun to his side.

  “Anyone asks, he fucked me over on a buy,” Lynne enforced. “And JJ was never here.” Lynne turned to JJ and said, “Go. Get out of here before the boys get here. That shot rang all around the holler, and e’erybody will be wondering what happened.”

  “I don’t care about none of that,” JJ replied, grabbing her face in his hands.

  “I… do,” Lynne replied emotionless. “Now, go,” she yelled, pointing her finger off toward his house.

  JJ could already hear the trucks leaving black marks down the road as they sped over to where they heard the gunshot echo from. JJ dropped his hands from her face and backed away from her, then turned and walked back to his house. JJ didn’t know what happened after that. He saw all the headlights. He heard all the screeching voices. But, not a word of what happened left that front porch that night. The Browns always covered their tracks, so there was never any noise in the holler when shit like that happened. Most of the time, it was Lynne filling him on the events that transpired.

  The next night JJ went to the creek to meet up with Lynne. Instead of finding her, he found a note tacked to the tree addressed to him from her.

  JJ,

  I know you care about me just as much as I care about you. But we have to face the fact that our families are fighting and are against one another on everything that happens in this holler. We won’t ever be able to be together, even if we ran away with one another. After last night, I know that you would do anything for me whether I asked you to or not. That is loyalty that even my dad’s men don’t give me. I even know if I ever fucked up, you’d forgive me out of the bottom of your heart. You’d be my ride or die forever. Hell, you already are my ride or die because when shit gets six-foot deep, you’re there backing me when none of these other boys are.

  When I am around you, I am so fucked up on the inside, and it feels worse than the bruises on the outside. I am built for that kind of treatment, you know. I am built for the abuse this lifestyle has to offer. We both got our secrets and family secrets, and we both have the secrets we share with one another.

  I feel like I am upside down, hanging from the ceiling by a thread all the time while a storm rips through my heart. You could take better care of me than any of these boys in this holler ever could. However, that cloud I am floating on is a long fall to fall from if it is yanked out from beneath my feet. And I’m not ready for no gangster love, no outlaw romance, and I sure as hell ain’t ready for no sweet country love. One day I might be, but that time ain’t now. We’re just kids, JJ. Mistakes need to be made. Bad choices need to be made. And you aren’t either of those.

  Love always,

  Lynne

  JJ folded the letter up and put it in his wallet as he walked back to the house. While he crossed the bridge to get to his drive, a voice called out from behind him.

  “Hey, man!”

  He didn’t even have to turn and see who the voice belonged to. He recognized Jesse’s voice from his previous engagements with him.

  “Hey!” Jesse called out as he jogged up to JJ.

  JJ stopped and turned to look at Jesse.

  “What?” JJ asked, irritated.

  “I need to ask you something,” Jesse began as he ran his hand t
hrough his head and fidgeted.

  Jesse took a pack of smokes from his back pocket and tapped one with his wrist out of the pack. He pulled a lighter from his pocket and held it to the cigarette until the cherry grew. He sucked in a long lungful of smoke and exhaled, placing the smokes and light back in his pocket. He took another drag off of the cigarette, blowing the smoke away from JJ.

  “What do you want to know?” JJ asked impatiently.

  “What happened last night?” Jesse asked. “Because I still don’t know what the fuck happened. I have a feelin’ you do, though.”

  “It’s none of my business,” JJ replied. “Ask Lynne if you want to know.”

  “I have, and she won’t tell me what happened! She blew my cousin’s brains out the back of his head, and I want to know why!” Jesse demanded.

  “It’s not my place to tell you her business,” JJ replied through gritted teeth.

  “Look, you can either tell me, or I will go to Charlie with all of this,” Jesse threatened.

  “Fine, go to Charlie. I don’t care. There’s nothing to tell ‘cept that me and her were friends, and now we ain’t,” JJ replied nonchalantly. “You think I am afraid of her bastard daddy? Hell, I ain’t even afraid of my own damn daddy.”

  “I just want to know…” Jesse began. “That night… he said they were just wrastlin’. She didn’t deny it and just left. Did he...“ Jesse stopped before finishing. “Was it what I think it was.”

  JJ was silent for a moment. “Yes,” he replied. “And that’s why I would have killed him without any of you knowing about it.”

  “We take care of our own ‘round here,” Jesse said. “But I really appreciate ya bein’ there fer ‘er fer that fallout. I can tell yer better than yer old man. Yer more like us than most think.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter anymore,” JJ replied. “We won’t be hangin’ out no more. So, the holler can go back to how it used to be before I ever showed up.”

  JJ started to walk off.

  “Fer what it’s werth,” Jesse started. “I think yer the best person in this holler that she could e’ver have take c’re of ‘er. You proved that last night. You woulda let me shoot ya fer ‘er.”

  “Like I said,” JJ finished as he walked away, “it don’t matter no more.”

  JJ’s thoughts snapped back to focus when he heard the front door open and close. His dad walked into the living room as JJ bolted up to pick the broken figurine up off the floor.

  “Sorry, dad. My elbow caught it just now,” JJ said, picking the pieces of glass up.

  “It’s no skin off my teeth,” Paul replied.

  Paul walked over to where he kept his bourbon and poured him a glass, drinking it neat. He poured him another and slowly sipped on it while JJ finished cleaning the glass up by taking a broom and dustpan to get the tiny splinters left behind, then dumping it in the trash. Paul watched him as he maneuvered around the room and then took his seat back in front of the TV. JJ flipped through the channels until he found a show he knew his dad liked.

  “Sit and watch TV with me?” JJ asked.

  “No, I have to get back to work,” Paul replied.

  Paul went to walk back out of the house when he turned back to JJ. “You’ve been home a lot these past couple of days.”

  JJ nodded. “Yea, I’ve had some exams to study for.”

  “You’ve never needed to study before,” Paul prodded. “You sure there’s no other reason you’re staying home instead of hanging out with Jesse Putnam and his gang?”

  JJ didn’t flinch or miss a beat. “No, Pops. I just got behind a little with my studies working at the mine of the nights.”

  “I see,” Paul replied, finishing off his glass of bourbon and setting it down on the table at the door. “Take a few nights off from work then. The mine will always need some help, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be your help.”

  “Thanks, Pops. I’m good, though. I was thinking of picking some extra shifts up and working down…” JJ began.

  “No,” Paul said matter of factly. “I told you, you ain’t working down in the mine shafts. It’s too dangerous. All of these poor folk around here sacrifice enough of their family to them mines. I don’t need an example made out of you if you get killed down there.”

  “Yes, sir,” JJ replied quietly. “You hungry? I could make us some dinner.”

  Paul hesitated and thought things through. “Maybe another night. There’s no one running the graveyard shift tonight. I was just checking on you before you went to bed.”

  “Alright,” JJ replied. “Night, Pops. I’ll see you tomorrow after school.”

  “I’ll make you breakfast in the morning,” Paul promised, pointing his finger at JJ. “Bright and early.”

  Chapter Five

  It had been quiet around the holler since that day. So much had happened in just one small day that it felt like it should have been declared a national travesty. The Robinson boys steered clear of JJ at school, but so did everyone else, including Jesse Putnam and the rest of the gang. JJ’s dad refused to let him pick up more days at the mine, so instead, he spent his days tinkering with cars in his garage. Then at night, he would walk out to the creek, sit on the bankside, and watch the stars as he and Lynne had always done. He would hope that she would pop up, but she never did. It had only been a couple of weeks, but it still felt like a lifetime ago.

  As he walked home from the creek, he heard the pop-pop sound of a pistol and ran off toward the sound. He crossed the bridge at the Thompson’s old home place and veered to the right as another two pops echoed through the holler. It sounded as if it came from his house.

  JJ pushed himself harder, running to his house as a few more people popped out their screen doors with them slamming shut behind them. He turned down his drive and took his front porch steps two at a time until he bounded through the front door, busting it open and nearly taking it completely off its hinges.

  “Dad?” he called out frantically.

  The living room was dark. He went room to room looking for his dad but couldn’t find him. He checked upstairs, downstairs, and even in the basement. He ran out the back door and saw that the light was on in his garage. He bolted for the door as others watched him bust the door down and crowded around the open door to peer in and see what was going on.

  Charlie Brown had Paul held at gunpoint tied up in a chair. Paul had a wound on his bicep that was bleeding from apparently being shot. JJ stopped short when he saw that Charlie still had the gun in his hand. He looked around and saw all of the holes Charlie had fired into the walls as warning shots before shooting his dad in the arm.

  “What’s going on, Pops?” JJ asked hesitantly.

  “JJ, you need to leave now,” Paul demanded.

  “Oh!” Charlie yelled as he turned to face JJ, pointing the gun at him now. “Just the boy I was looking for. You see, I was talking to your daddy here asking where you were, and he wouldn’t tell me no matter how I tried to skeer him into telling.”

  “Well, I am here now,” JJ replied, uneasy. “What do you need, Mr. Brown?”

  “Come sit down,” Charlie said, motioning to the chair beside Paul. “Let’s have us a nice little chit chat, you and me.”

  “JJ, just go!” Paul hollered.

  “You shut up, or the next time I won’t miss a lethal shot at you,” Charlie warned.

  JJ walked over and sat down in the chair beside his dad as eyes silently watched from the door, wondering what had Charlie all riled up against the Jays.

  “So, the other night, more like a couple weeks ago actually,” Charlie began as he loaded more bullets into his .45 snub-nose revolver, “my daughter came home and had a bruise on her face. I sat quietly as she told her mama this extravagant story where she was hunting squirrels, and the butt of her gun slipped from her shoulder when she took her shot and popped her in the eye.” Charlie flipped the revolver piece closed on the gun and crossed his arms. “You care to enlighten me to what really happened?” Ch
arlie prodded, tapping his gun against his arm as he watched JJ’s expression.

  “How am I supposed to know? Lynne and I are not friends,” JJ claimed, keeping a stone-cold poker face.

  “Listen, boy,” Charlie began as he started to pace, “I know all about you and Lynne sneaking off and meeting up. I know about everything that goes on in this holler. Your daddy knows too. We just didn’t make it into a bigger deal than what it was because we can’t expect y’all kids to feud just because we don’t see eye to eye on how things should work ‘round ‘ere.”

  JJ glanced to his dad through his peripheral. His dad didn’t move a muscle, twitch, or act like it was news to him. So, Charlie spoke the truth. His dad knew about him and Lynne.

  “Yea, so?” JJ bucked back. “What does that have anything to do with her bruised eye?”

  “You tell me, boy,” Charlie said. “One night, my baby girl comes home with a black eye, and you two stop talking to one another. I put the pieces together. I am sure your guilty conscience knows ‘xactly what I am referring to.”

  “I think you got the wrong idea of what happened that night,” JJ replied. “That’s what I am thinking.”

  Charlie fired a shot off to the side of JJ’s head. JJ sat there, staring unflinchingly at him.

  “Don’t fucking lie to me, boy!” Charlie seethed, kicking a gas can across the room. “I will burn this mother fucking garage to the ground with you locked inside. Don’t fucking test me!”

  “What happened to Lynne?” Paul asked JJ.

  “If Lynne wanted them to know what happened, she would have told them what happened. If she said a gun popped her, then that must be what happened,” JJ answered.

  Charlie whipped his gun across JJ’s face and then pointed it at his forehead.

  “You have one last chance to tell me what you did to my daughter before I put a bullet in your brain,” Charlie spoke calmly. “My daughter ain’t ever fucked around and been popped in the eye with a .22 and it bruise the fuck out of her face. They don’t even kick that hard. Since that night, she hasn’t left the house other than to go to school and come home. She sits in her room. That ain’t my daughter. There’s no light to her, no life. So, for the last time, what fuck did you do to her?”