Them Holler Boys (A Southern Outlaw Series Book 1)

by Girty Thompson

  “Hey, Deb. How’s the family?” JJ asked as the woman walked over and gave him a hug.

  “We’re doing fine,” she replied with a grin. “What can I get for ya? We have been altering the menus as you suggested.”

  “What do you have on the southern side? Did you add the fried potatoes like I asked?” JJ asked.

  “Yes, Sir, we did. We also added some fried okra, collard greens, pinto beans, and cornbread, and for the main dishes, we have the smoked mesquite bar-b-que, the fried chicken, and meatloaf,” Deb replied.

  “Excellent. I will have the fried chicken with fried potatoes, collards, and cornbread,” JJ answered. “What would you like, Lynne?” he asked.

  “That sounds good. I’ll have the same,” Lynne replied with a smile.

  “Order coming up,” Deb replied with a smile. “Drinks?”

  “Two sweet teas please,” JJ asked.

  Deb nodded and walked off to get their order made. Lynne huffed a laugh.

  “How do you know I like sweet tea?” she asked, all indignant.

  “You are basically the closest thing to a mountain woman as any person can get. What mountain woman don’t like sweet tea?” JJ asked in reply with a chuckle.

  “I am a mountain woman. Get it right, redneck,” Lynne chided back. “How do you know about this place? I wouldn’t imagine you travel all the way out here just because you stumbled upon it while driving to Cali.”

  Deb set their sweet teas onto the table. “Your food will be ready in just a bit. We had to drop some fresh chicken in to fry.”

  “Thank you, Deb,” JJ said with a smile as Deb walked off back behind the counter. “Actually, that is exactly what happened,” JJ laughed, returning his attention back to the conversation with Lynne. “I was driving long haul to my first semester of freshman year and stopped in to get a bite to eat. The food was good, but the menu needed an update. The owner didn’t want to update it. So, I bought the place.”

  Lynne nearly choked on the drink of her tea. “You bought it?” she asked incredulously. “Why on earth would you buy it?

  “So, it could be mine,” JJ replied. “Something my dad didn’t have his hands in before he died. I bought it at an overpriced price, of course. I did what the owner refused to do and updated the menu. I quadrupled the profit margin off of the purchase price in the first year.”

  “How often do you update the menu?” Lynne asked.

  “Every six months, we cycle new additions onto the menu with the inclusion that previous menus can be special ordered for reservation meals,” JJ replied.

  “Here’s your food. Nice and fresh,” Deb interrupted as she sat their plates down.

  “Thank you, Deb. This looks spectacular,” JJ complimented, smiling.

  “So, how often do you come here to eat?” Lynne asked as she took a bite of her chicken.

  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she chewed slowly. “This is amazing. Whose recipe is this? It’s some of the best chicken I have had,” she said as she took another bite of her chicken.

  “It’s my mama’s recipe,” JJ replied with a quiet smile. “I’m glad you enjoy the recipe. Make sure you leave a review on Yelp. Those things help,” JJ laughed as he popped fried okra into his mouth.

  “I never got to meet your mama. Where does she live?” Lynne asked as she took a bite of the fried potatoes. “Oh, my Gawd, this tastes better than my mama’s fried potatoes,” she proclaimed.

  “My mama died when I was nine years old,” JJ replied quietly.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Daddy never spoke much about your family except to curse your daddy. I didn’t know,” Lynne apologized.

  “It’s ok. Not many people know about my mother’s death, and we worked hard to keep it that way,” JJ replied, taking a bite of his fried potatoes.

  “How did she die?” Lynne asked.

  JJ sucked in a deep breath and took a drink of his sweet tea. “She was a hired kill. They were trying to find my dad and thought his family would know best where he was,” JJ declared.

  Lynne covered her mouth. She took her hand down from her mouth and placed it on JJ’s hand. “JJ… I mean, Jackson. Oh, my goodness. That must have been awful losing your mama so young and so brutal.”

  “That’s not the best part. They left me tied up next to her as she died while they ransacked our house. I spent hours trying to free myself from the ropes. And then my father blamed me for her death,” JJ replied with gritted teeth.

  “Did they ever catch the guys that did it?” Lynne asked.

  “No, they didn’t catch them,” JJ said.

  Lynne’s face fell, and she was about to say something empathetic of the situation when JJ continued speaking.

  “But I caught them.”

  Silence fell between the two of them. Lynne knew exactly what that meant. JJ hunted them down and killed them himself. They finished their plates in awkward silence as neither one of them knew how to follow that story without seeming insensitive to the emotions tied to what happened.

  “Did you enjoy your meals?” Deb asked as she cleared the plates from the table.

  “It was the best chicken I have had like ever,” Lynne gushed. “My compliments to the chef.”

  “Oh, it has nothing to do with the cook and everything to do with the special recipe used to make it,” Deb replied with a wink. “Would you two like refills on your drinks?”

  “No, thank you, Deb,” JJ replied, smiling. “We are about to skedaddle.”

  “Ok, Boss. Don’t be a stranger and stop back in here from time to time,” Deb declared as she gave JJ a hug.

  Deb walked off, carrying the dirty dishes to the sink while JJ pulled his wallet from his pocket. He pulled out five one hundred-dollar bills and laid them down on the table for the tip.

  “I’m the best tipper in the land,” JJ said with a grin as he walked Lynne to the door.

  “I can see that,” Lynne grinned as they walked outside. “Ugh, it must have jumped twenty degrees out here.”

  “It does that over here,” JJ laughed.

  “Ass,” Lynne grunted as she climbed in her seat. “Where to next?”

  “We’re going to make Utah and almost Colorado by nightfall,” JJ explained. “And then we are getting a motel room and crashing because I need to sleep, and I damn sure ain’t trusting you behind the wheel of my baby.”

  “And why the hell not?” Lynne demanded. “I’m a good driver.”

  “Because that thing costs more than a family of five does a year, ok,” JJ replied, bobbing his head. “And I know how you like to drive. A family of raccoons never saw it coming until you ran smack dab over the whole damn family.”

  “That happened one time,” Lynne protested laughing. “Ugh! Fiiine,” Lynne huffed.

  JJ got the car back on the road and turned the music on for the first time since he started the trip.

  “Finally, something you did right,” Lynne joked.

  “Don’t make me put on some classical music,” JJ warned.

  “You wouldn’t!!” Lynne protested.

  “Don’t test my patience, Barbie,” JJ replied through a burst of laughter.

  Lynne started chewing her jaw, which meant she didn’t like that comment.

  “Awwwwwww, did that make you mad? I’m sorry, Barbie,” JJ cooed. “I won’t do it again.”

  Lynne socked him in the arm, and he pretended he was mortally wounded.

  “You hit like a girl!” he cackled. “What’s wrong with Barbies? They ain’t all hoity-toity. You can have a mechanic Barbie.”

  “Uh-huh. Keep on, Jackson Jay. That mouth will get mashed eventually,” Lynne warned.

  ***

  JJ hit the Colorado border by nine and drove until he got to Grand Junction, then took an exit to the nearest lodging he could find. He walked into the office and returned in ten minutes back to the car with a key.

  “Um, where is my room key?” Lynne demanded.

  “What?” JJ defended. “I got a double bed roo
m.”

  “You better take your ass back in ‘ere and get me a damn room of my own,” Lynne proclaimed, stomping her foot.

  “I figured you would say that,” JJ replied, rolling his eyes and pulling a second key from his pocket. “Here you go, Princess.”

  “Stop calling me that,” Lynne demanded. “I don’t like that either.”

  “Yes, Margaret,” JJ replied, holding back the laugh with a suppressed grin.

  “Ha ha, ha ha, I forgot to laugh,” Lynne droned sarcastically. “Always with the jokes,” she complained as she stalked off from JJ to her room. “Are our rooms at least side by side? I mean, I know I want my own room, but if someone tries to kidnap me, I want to at least be able to yell to you, and you hear me.”

  “Oh, trust me, if they kidnapped you, they’d bring you back,” JJ joked, slapping his leg.

  Lynne pinched her mouth into an unamused face. “What are you? Five?”

  “Yes, our rooms are side by side,” JJ said, holding his hand up, showing her his room number and her room number. “Now, go to bed, you little mouthy thing.”

  “I will show you mouthy,” Lynne started stepping up to JJ.

  “That was not a challenge, bobcat,” JJ said, throwing his hands up in defense. “Go to fucking bed. Geezus.”

  As Lynne opened, stepped through the door, and went to close it, she replied, “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, Jackson.”

  “Eat me, Lynne,” JJ replied as she shut the door.

  JJ cracked his door open to his room and flipped the room light on to the right. He glanced around the room to make sure everything was good before he closed the door. He slid the safety metal over the hook and closed his curtains. He walked to the thermostat on the wall and flipped the air conditioning on in the room. The cool air began to blow from the mounted a.c., and he stood in front of it stripping down to his boxers, letting the air hit his body.

  JJ fell backward onto the bed and lay there, staring up at the ceiling as the room began to cool off. After a few minutes, he jumped up from the bed and walked over to where the minibar was situated against the fridge. As he twisted the cap off of a small bottle of Jack Daniels from the minibar, a knock came to his door. He threw his head back in exasperation as he stalked over to the door to see who it was knocking at his door.

  “What?” JJ yelled as he jerked the door open.

  Lynne stood there wide-eyed, not expecting that as a reaction to her knock. Her eyes trailed his body, running over every muscle that bulged from his perfectly fit abdomen all the way to wear his boxers nestled against his happy trail.

  “I… you see…” Lynne stammered as she swallowed hard and pointed over to her room. “My room didn’t have a minibar, and I was just going to snag a bottle of vodka or something. But never mind. I’m just…”

  “Get in here,” JJ motioned with his hand as she hesitated. “Do you mind? I don’t want all of Colorado seeing the goody package down there.”

  He stalked over to where his clothes laid in a heap on the floor and slipped his jeans back on. Red-cheeked, Lynne stepped through the door and closed it behind her. She quickly made a beeline for the mini fridge, so she didn’t catch JJ shirtless. She grabbed a bottle of liquor and held it up, shaking it for him to see.

  “Thanks,” she said as she hustled back to the door to get out of the room.

  “How about you have a drink with me?” JJ asked, motioning to the chair at his table.

  “Not tonight,” Lynne replied sheepishly.

  “I promise I don’t bite,” JJ assured. “It’s just a couple of drinks, and then we both go to sleep in our own rooms. Nothing more.”

  Lynne chewed on her lip as she debated before nodding her head to agree to his terms. She took a chair at the table while he took a seat adjacent to her.

  “Do you have any ice?” she asked as she stood to go grab an ice bucket.

  “These rooms come stocked with everything you could need. Ice is in the freezer in the fridge,” he replied, pointing over to the fridge.

  Lynne made her way over to the minibar and grabbed two glasses from the top. She filled one with ice and brought the other over empty, handing it to JJ.

  “You drink yours neat, right?” she asked.

  “How did you know that?” he asked.

  “I had been waiting to go into the room for a while before they told you I was there to see you. I heard everything you said in there,” Lynne replied.

  “Oh, so you heard me with the server girl then, right? The one that quit,” he asked.

  She nodded as she poured her drink into her glass of ice and kicked back in her chair, propping her feet up on the table. She wasn’t wearing any shoes, and JJ’s eyes lingered on the bottoms of her soft skin.

  “Just so you know, her severance package was mighty hefty since my mouth caused her to quit. Every girl that quits because they can’t tolerate my piggish ways gets enough money to carry them over to their next job,” JJ said as he poured his drink into his glass. “I’m not a heartless bastard or even a pig, really. I just hate people that do drugs, and about every single girl that works them poles is a crack whore.”

  “If you don’t like drugs, then why do you peddle them?” Lynne asked, knocking her glass back and taking a swig. “And if you don’t like crack whores, then why keep them hired and working them as crack whores? Why not get them help?”

  “The same reason you don’t like drugs and peddle them. The best thing to sell is something you don’t even like. I won’t ever dip into my own supply,” he replied, swirling his own drink around in his glass. “And you can’t help someone as deep into drugs as they are unless they want to be helped.”

  “Things would be a whole lot different if your mama was alive, wouldn’t they?” Lynne asked softly, changing the subject abruptly and sipping her drink.

  JJ was silent for a moment. “Yea,” he replied, knocking his glass back and downing it all. “I suppose so.”

  Lynne pulled her feet down from the table and leaned over, placing her hand on top of JJ’s, rubbing it slightly with her thumb. She chewed on her bottom lip as JJ stared into her eyes.

  JJ's cellphone rang, breaking the growing tension between the two of them. JJ reached into his pocket and pulled the ringing phone from within it, hitting the silence button to cut the ringtone off.

  "Muddiggers, eh?" Lynne asked, cocking her eyebrow up in amusement.

  "Shut up," JJ scowled.

  Lynne threw her hands slightly up, rendering a truce. JJ looked at the screen of his phone to see who it was calling him at this time of night. The phone started ringing again, flashing Tony's name across the screen.

  "I have to take this," JJ announced as he stood up to walk outside of the room.

  "I can go," Lynne began standing to her feet.

  "No, it'll just be a moment. Sit. Stay," JJ demanded.

  "Roll over. Play dead?" Lynne finished with a growl.

  "Shut up!" JJ huffed as he closed the motel room behind him.

  He hit the answer button and brought the phone up to his ear.

  "Tony, my man. What can I do for you?" JJ asked, leaning against the rail of the balcony.

  "Where the fuck are you?" Tony demanded.

  "Headed to West Virginia," JJ replied. "I have business to take care of and will be back next week."

  "Did your hillbilly dumbass forget that you were supposed to meet with the Martinez family tomorrow? Or did that piece of ass riding shotgun suck your brains out through your dick?" Tony demanded.

  "Pardon my lapse in remembering the meeting. That's my bad. But who the fuck do you think yer talking to?!" JJ spat into the phone.

  "I see you've been drinking. Your accent always gets thicker, the more liquor you drink. Makes you look cute," Tony shot back.

  JJ gripped his hands into fists. "You have about five minutes to right yourself, or all they will find of you floating in the harbor is your toupee. Now speak mother fucker and get to the issue at hand because I don't see o
ne. Just fucking reschedule," JJ seethed into the phone receiver.

  "Yes, Sir," Tony replied, changing his cocky tone. "I will let their courier know."

  "Good boy," JJ cooed. "Anything else?"

  "No, Sir, that was it," Tony replied nervously.

  "Hey, Tony, before you go," JJ began. "How did you know I had a girl with me?"

  "Who doesn't?" Tony answered. "The rumors started at the club, and then you disappeared without a trace. Some woman comes in stirring shit it in your club, and you up and leave. Everybody is thinking what I said. Big man bosses everyone except his woman in his bed."

  "First of all, and I want you to tell every mother fucker you hear running their mouth, what I do with personal affiliations is no one's God damned business. If they want to say shit, they best say it to my face before they get threaded up by their feet for fish food," JJ hollered and hung the phone up.

  JJ slid his key card in the door and popped the door open to his room. Lynne had already poured herself another drink and was quietly sitting and sipping on her drink. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, thinking back to the holler days. Stargazing was their past time that he missed the most. Nobody even knew those moments existed and, most likely, never will. His eyes started at her face and trailed down her body, stopping briefly at her legs before returning back to her eyes that blazed from the liquor she was downing.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” she said, lifting her glass up.

  She shifted in her seat and switched which foot was on top of the other. JJ licked his lips and swallowed. His heart began to pound in his chest as dozens of thoughts raced through his mind about how tonight could turn out. Even though they had gotten quite close in the holler, they never moved beyond the emotional energy they exchanged. The whole time he had been in California, he hadn’t even initiated a steady relationship with any woman. The most he had done was get his dick wet with one-night stands.

  “Just business,” JJ spoke quietly as he shut the door to the room.

  JJ thought back to the note that was neatly tucked away into his wallet before he made his next move.

  “It’s getting late, Lynne,” JJ started. “I’m ready to turn in and get some sleep. I have been up for almost forty-eight hours.”