by Sarah Stodola

Originally written 1998-2000. Edited/reposted March 2005

Author’s note (updated): This story is a sequel to my fic “Cousins”. It’s set a couple of years after that one, and is really quite a ride (buckle up, khee-khee! 🙂 ). It took a very long time and much effort to write, so I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks especially go to Margaret, who helped me figure out several times where the story was going to go next, and Rose, who helped me fine-tune it. Both these lovely authors have now left the online Hazzard community, but may blessings follow them wherever they may now be.

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“Hey Bo! Bo Duke!”

Huh? Oh. The blond eighteen-year-old lying on his stomach along a wide, near-horizontal tree branch shut his book and shoved it in a sharp V where two branches grew together, and gripping the branch with his legs and hands, agilely swung himself partly out of the oak tree to hang upside down. He glanced over, and grinned and freed one hand to wave at the lady who’d been calling his name. “Hey Anna.”

Anna Darren shook her head, her fists on her hips. “Where’ve you been?”

“Right here. Why?”

“Luke’s been looking for you.”

“Luke?” He perked up, eyes widening in delight, and gripping the branch firmly with both hands, swung his legs down out of the leaves and finally dropped to the ground. He stood, brushing dirt off himself. “He’s home?!”

The brunette chuckled. “Yep. Got home about half an hour ago, but nobody could find you. I almost started to worry, but he said you were probably fine.” Anna shrugged. “He’d like to see you.”

“I wanna see him too!” Bo finished brushing off his jeans and straightened to his full height, an impressive but lean six-foot-four, fighting to keep the bubbling jubilation he felt locked inside. He’d learned how to better hide more of his emotions, like a normal person, over the past couple of years, but he was still himself inside — the boy-man who was ever friendly and energetic, could charm the leaves right off the trees with his smile, could pull any stunt thought of with a car and come out in one piece, could think fast enough to get himself out of almost any jam… and was all child inside.

Bo had been somewhat spooked, and confused, when he’d found out on his sixteenth birthday the truth Luke had always known and never told him about his form of emotional handicap, but soon after he’d started to learn to counteract some of the more little-kid impulses, at least while he was around other people. But when he was alone with Luke, or even Anna or Cooter, he let himself go all-out.

Right now he couldn’t wait to greet his older cousin after his several-day absence. “Anna,” he asked as he forced himself to walk beside her rather than run ahead, “did he say anything special?” Luke had been hoping to get a contract to race for a month or so this summer. School was almost out, and it’d be fun to travel around and see the sights a bit. Even travel outside the states of Georgia and Tennessee, the only places he’d ever been. Luke, on the other hand, had been all over the world. But he didn’t talk about it much. When he did, he sometimes had nightmares afterwards, and Bo would have to wake him up. Luke had been in a war.

“Special?” Anna frowned. “Not really.” Then she brightened. “Oh yeah. He did have something he wanted to tell you.”

Bo bit his lower lip excitedly. “Can I go ahead?” He knew it wasn’t polite to leave her behind, but…

Luke’s girlfriend quirked a half-smile, green eyes twinkling slightly. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t. Scat, you.”

“Thanks!” With barely a glance back, the blond teenager burst into a sprint across the field for the farmhouse he saw in the distance. He saw a flash of orange in the front yard, too. General Lee. Luke had taken the big powercar on his weekend trip to Atlanta. Bo had slowed to a jog by the time he got there, but when he saw the young man standing on the front porch looking out in another direction, he summoned more energy up and ran for him. “Lukas!”

Luke turned, and his face broke open into a wide grin as he caught his flying cousin in his arms and hugged him roughly. “Hey there. Missed me, huh? I thought you’d be glad not to have me bossin’ you around for a while.”

Bo stepped back and lightly punched him in the arm, shooting him a reproachful look out of the corner of his eye. “You know me better ’n that! Course I missed you! I always miss you when you’re gone!” He was old enough to take care of himself, alone, but that didn’t mean he liked to.

The older Duke’s grin softened slightly. “You,” he simply said, returning the playful, complaining punch. “Settle down, huh? I’m tired.”

“I am settled down. Honest!” Bo stomped down the urge to jump into the air, but couldn’t resist shifting his weight from one foot to the other and back again, the adrenaline from his run still pumping through his system.

Luke noticed, and finally shook his head, reaching out and snagging an arm around his energetic cousin’s waist. “C’mere, you fireball. Look, can you stay still and let me rest on the couch if you sit next to me?”

Bo frowned slightly, wanting to give an honest answer. “Yeah,” he finally answered. “I think so.” He just wanted to be near Luke after being separated from him for three days. It was strange, he knew, how he craved contact with this person, the one he respected and loved more than anyone in the whole world, even more than food sometimes. But he didn’t care. He already knew he wasn’t ‘normal’. So? What was normal? He’d come to the decision some time ago that he was happiest just being himself.

He followed close behind Luke as they went into the house, but went into the kitchen as his older cousin collapsed on the couch. Bo got a glass out of the cupboard, then reached into the icebox and pulled out the pitcher of lemonade he’d made yesterday. He poured it into the glass and took the cold drink back out into the living room.

“Luke? Here.” He held out the drink.

Tired light blue eyes opened, and Luke blinked, then smiled as he reached out to take the unexpected offering. “Thanks, cuz.”

Bo sat down beside his cousin. “Did you get the racing contract?”

“Sure did. Here…” He fumbled around in his shirt pocket, then handed a several-times folded piece of paper to the blond teenager, taking a good swallow of lemonade and sighing at the relief from the June heat. “Everything’s fine. We head out next week after your graduation.”

“Wow.” Bo read over the contract. “We’re going all the way to Texas! For two months!”

“Yup. We’re on a racing team that’s gonna travel over a good half of the state.” Luke half-grinned. “I think we’ll beat ’em all, Bo.”

He pretended insult. “With the General? How could we not?”

The dark-haired Duke chuckled. “Yeah. But he’s not the one we’ll be racin’; as part of the team, we’ll be driving regulated cars. You know, I took him the long way home, and we flew over everything that came by and got back in record time anyway. That car amazes me again every time I get behind the wheel.”

“That’s how come nobody in Hazzard will race us anymore.” Bo was still studying the contract. “Gee. They’ll even help us with the rent on our motel rooms.”

“Well, we are racing under the Brandon colors and name,” Luke reminded him, setting his empty glass down on the coffee table and then leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “We give ’em about half the take, they provide us with somewhere to live.”

Half. Well, that was okay, Bo decided. They weren’t racing because they needed the money anyway, just for the fun of the travel, and to keep in practice. Their lives often seemed like one big race nowadays, one with high stakes — their freedoms. The farm had once been in trouble financially, but not anymore. The two young Dukes were too good at what they did. And what they did wasn’t all that legal. They were farmers, yes, and had a great love and pride for their land and what they grew on it with their own hands, but they also had quite a career going as “professional” ridge-runners. The Duke family had once made their own moonshine, but since their Uncle Jesse had died they now smuggled shine across county and state borders for others, men who had great recipes and hidden still sites but not the greatest driving skills. The Duke boys had earned quite a reputation among local underground circles for being as impossible for the authorities to catch as the wind, and they could get paid very well for a single night’s work. It was all thanks to General Lee, too; the orange modified Charger was a racer by day and a runner by night. They repaid him by keeping him running better than any other car in the county, constantly tinkering and improving upon his performance and speed. Both boys loved their car, and they loved each other too. They were a near-inseparable threesome.

Bo refolded the paper and set it down on the coffee table next to the cup, then pulled off his boots, folded his legs up under him, and leaned against his older cousin’s shoulder. Luke’s eyes fluttered open slightly, and he half-smiled, then closed his eyes again. Bo smiled, feeling secure and content here. He sighed and let himself go, let down all the barriers, and happily simply snuggled close.

“Bo? Luke?” The voice was quiet, soft. Bo opened his eyes and put a finger to his lips, then pointed at Luke, already asleep and breathing deeply. Anna smiled, standing in the doorway with her hands lightly on her hips. “You two look so cute.”

The younger boy giggled slightly, then shrugged.

She glanced toward the door. “I’m invited for dinner, but I guess I’d better come back later, huh? Let the poor guy sleep.” Her smile softened. Bo knew that she loved Luke. The same was true the other way around, too. He’d once asked his cousin if he’d ever ask Anna to marry him. Luke had replied only after a few long seconds of thought that he just might, someday. But not any time soon. The two Duke boys needed freedom for the racing and ridge-running they did, and besides, even if the relationship was already rather serious, a wife didn’t really fit into their lifestyle at the moment. Bo had to agree with that. But he liked Anna, too.

“Thanks, Anna,” he whispered. “See ya later.”

“See you too.” The girl from Kansas still hadn’t completely lost that non-Southern way of pronouncing words clearly, though she’d picked up quickly on the slang and shortened sentences. Bo had still never heard her say ‘ain’t’, though. “With Cooter?”

He nodded. “I think he’s comin’, yeah.”

“Okay. Bye.” Anna turned, and silently was gone. The sound of her car’s engine, much more quiet than the General’s challenging snarl, started up, and then moved away toward the road.

Bo put thoughts of past and future aside, yawning and dropping his head to Luke’s shoulder again. He closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

**

“We’re going to be racin’ under David Brandon’s colors. Pass the potatoes, Bo… thanks. He seemed interested in us, but I don’t think he believed that we’ve outdriven most everything in Georgia.”

Cooter Davenport, mechanic and best friend to both Dukes, snorted and stabbed his fork into a bite of meatloaf. “Anybody in Hazzard could’ve told him that.”

“Well,” Luke shrugged. “I really wouldn’t expect him to believe us. After all, we are just ‘a couple of hicks from the back side of nowhere’.”

Bo laughed. “Did he really call us that?”

“He didn’t. But his aide did when he thought I couldn’t hear. I was hangin’ around just outside the door, though. I wanted to know what they had to say.” He shrugged again and reached for his glass of milk. “I was curious.”

“I would’ve been too.” Bo eyed the bowl of cheese-swirled mashed potatoes in the center of the table, the first serving already gone from his plate. Luke sighed inwardly in fond amusement. The younger Duke had stopped growing, finally, about six months ago, but he hadn’t stopped eating like he was half-starved.

“Go ahead if you want seconds.” He waved a hand at the food and then at his cousin, then turned his attention to the others again. “Anyway, Brandon decided he’d take us on. I could see he wasn’t quite so impressed with the General Lee, though. Probably a good thing he won’t be the one we drive on the track, officially anyway. It just might be a good idea to boost some people’s opinions of muscle cars while we’re there.”

Anna frowned. “They laughed? Why, because of his colors?”

“Well, that and the fact that he’s not a newer model.”

“Actually,” Cooter pointed out, “he sorta is, in a way.”

“Yeah.” He nodded thoughtfully. “He kind of is.” The General Lee’s original form had been that of a 1969 Dodge Charger. The outer body, the frame and chassis, still was, but nearly the entire interior had been gutted and replaced, and the engine had been originally custom-built by Cooter himself, though it had also been modified slightly since by the Duke cousins. “But I wasn’t about to go into all that.”

“Too complicated,” Bo agreed. “So, when’re we leaving again?”

“About a week.” Luke frowned slightly, thoughtful. “You still have to finish school, and we have to get things all squared away here, like who’s gonna take care of the animals, and all that.”

“I’ll help,” Anna offered.

Cooter swallowed before answering. “Yeah, me too.”

“Thanks.” Luke flashed them both a smile. “Actually, I was gonna ask.”

“That’s why I volunteered first,” the mechanic explained, grinning. Anna just chuckled.

Cooter, Bo, and Anna talked on, about what Texas might be like and about Bo’s upcoming graduation from high school, but Luke went quiet, lost in his own thoughts. He was thinking about the month ahead. It would be the first time they’d raced as part of a team, under someone else’s name and colors. Normally it was just them and the General Lee, in non-NASCAR races. It would be very different from anything they’d known. Yet, they were Dukes, from Hazzard County, and that alone would give them a great advantage. He glanced over at Bo, who was laughing with Cooter about a joke, and wondered what all this would be like through his eyes. His younger cousin’s point of view on the world was sometimes surprisingly different.

Others had looked at Bo at times, in the past, and seen someone different, strange, somewhat outcast among others his own age because of his emotional immaturity. But Luke, as he had told his cousin the night they had become blood brothers, only saw someone who was very special. Bo meant the world to him.

Over the last three years, the blond teenager had learned to act more normal most of the time, though he was always himself alone with Luke, and now he was well-known and quite popular among his classmates, especially the girls. Something that Bo didn’t mind at all; the younger Duke could be quite the flirt. He was also very energetic and inquisitive, and had explored nearly every corner of the county.

Yet, he had never been traveling all that much. Luke had seen more countries than he cared to think about in the Marines, but Bo had only ever been in Georgia and Tennessee. Texas… now that was far away. It would be a good two-day journey if they drove all day. But it would be fun, seeing cowboy country. Luke smiled to himself. Both cousins loved those western movies. He wasn’t child enough to think that it would really be anything like that anymore, and he didn’t think Bo was either, but it would still have a bit of magic about it.

The friends finished eating, and Cooter excused himself from the gathering when the CB on the counter squawked about a job. A tow truck was always on call. Anna helped with the dishes, then prepared to leave herself. Luke followed her outside onto the front porch with the jacket she’d left behind, glad of the chance to talk briefly in private.

He handed over the article, then leaned on a post and played with a piece of wood in his fingers. Anna draped her jacket over her arm and waited for him to start. “You know,” he finally said, “I’ll miss Hazzard. Cooter, and the farm… And you.”

She smiled, understanding what he had trouble saying. Luke sometimes depended on Bo to help him open up as much as his blond cousin depended on him for stability. It wasn’t always easy for him to say what he was feeling. “I’ll miss you boys too. Have fun, huh, and don’t forget to call.” Her tone was light.

He couldn’t help but smile. “We ain’t leavin’ yet, Anna.”

She shrugged. “Well, you’re talking like it.”

“Yeah. I guess I am.”

Quick green eyes assessed his stance. “Come on. Out with it. What’s bothering you?”

Luke shrugged, frowning to himself. “I’m not really sure anything should be bothering me. I just wanted to talk to you for a bit. I… I guess I’m a little nervous,” he confessed quietly. He would never let Bo know that; he was supposed to be the confident one of the pair. But Anna would understand. She’d been his sounding board for the past two and a half years.

Finally, Anna sat down on the steps. Luke sat beside her, stretching his legs out and leaning back at an angle to rest his back against the same post he’d been standing by. “I’m pretty sure it’s not the traveling. You’ve done enough of that.”

“No… It’s not that.” He sighed, explosively, finally meeting her gaze. “I guess… it’s the big city… and Bo. He ain’t even been to Atlanta very often, and Houston, our first stop, is a big place. Dallas too, and San Antonio, and those are two other cities we’ll be travelin’ through. And, I also doubt the people we’ll be working around will be all that patient with a teenager. He’s young to be on a real track.”

“But very good,” she pointed out. “Remember that first race?”

Luke grinned. That had made history; the first time an unlicensed just-barely-sixteen boy had driven a car to victory on the rough course of a county race. Such local events were actually known for being rougher in many ways than an official NASCAR race. “Anna, I couldn’t forget that if I had to. I was there ridin’ with him.”

“Luke, if he came through with flying colors there, even with being shot at, and has won almost everything he’s entered since, I think he can handle a big-city track.” She’d cut right through to the heart of the matter, in that way she had of seeing almost exactly what he was thinking even when he tried to evade the subject. She could do that with Bo, too. “He’s tough. Tougher than you give him credit for sometimes.”

“I know.” He sighed, and shrugged, looking away. “I just tend to have a hard time letting go. I guess I never will, totally.”

“If you did, I doubt he’d know what to do,” Anna agreed. “He depends on you to be there.”

“Yeah.” Bo got into trouble, of some kind or another, on a regular basis, and usually had the ability to work it out on his own, but always he came running home to Luke anyway, looking for someone else to help solve the problem. “Sometimes he seems to want more freedom, though.”

“You give him about as much freedom as he really wants.” Anna put a hand on his arm gently, and he looked back over at her. “He’s testing the ropes, seeing how far he can go because he’s hoping the walls are still there to protect him. All teenagers do that. He’s just older than most when they start becoming a handful.”

“Bo’s not really a handful,” Luke defended. He paused, thinking. “You sure about the testing thing and all? I mean, I don’t want to be holding him back if he really wants to strike out on his own a bit.” He didn’t know that much about being a parent, though he sort of was one to Bo. He’d only just turned twenty-three himself. Anna, on the other hand, though no older than he, had come out of a psychologist background. As much as Luke resented most mind-doctors for trying to mess with Bo, Anna had always let the younger Duke be himself, and Luke therefore trusted her enough to every once in a while turn to her for advice.

She nodded. “Yep. Take my word for it, Luke, if you let him go completely, he’d flounder like a drowning man.” She took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “Quit worrying, huh? You fellows are going to love showing up all those city drivers.”

Luke quirked a little smile at that. “Yeah. We probably will at that.”

She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss, then stood. “I’ve got to be going. See you two tomorrow?”

He nodded, also standing and stretching. “Why don’t you come on a picnic or something with us after school lets out for the day?”

“I’d like that. Bye. Love you.”

“You too. Bye.” He stood there and watched her red sedan drive away, then raised both eyebrows, sighed and shrugged, and went inside to get a good night’s sleep for once.

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

The wind was with General Lee as the racer made his way west, following the setting sun to put it poetically. Luke was driving, and Bo was having a ball talking to passing truck drivers that commented on the General’s proud colors on the CB. The younger Duke didn’t seem to have a care in the world. His dark blue eyes were shining, and he kept talking excitedly about what they were going to do while they were in Texas. He’d already figured out something of a list. He wanted to go to a rodeo while they were in Dallas, he wanted to see the beach down near Houston, and he wanted to meet a real live cowboy. As well as, somewhere along the way, go horseback riding (as if he didn’t do enough of that already back home), try Mexican food, and a list of several other things. Luke just sighed inwardly, smiled and nodded, leaned his elbow on the open window frame and his head on his fist, and wondered where in the world they were going to get the time to do all that.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sign posted on the side of the road that pronounced that they were almost there. Bo pointed out the green freeway marker, grinning. “Houston, twelve miles.” He turned to look at his older cousin again. “Where are we going first, the motel or the track?”

“Motel first, then a restaurant for dinner.” Luke fought back a yawn. Bo had driven the day before, but today he had, and they’d been on the road since six. It was almost six in the evening now, and they’d only had about half an hour’s break for lunch. He was tired, to put it mildly. “Track can wait till tomorrow. Your cousin needs some sleep, buddy.”

Bo had the grace at least to not look too disappointed. “Oh… Okay.” He eyed the police car that passed them in the next lane warily. “Luke, are we gonna get chased here? We don’t know the terrain.”

Luke sighed. It was hard to keep patience when you were nearly exhausted. “No, I doubt it. Only if we really speed or somethin’ like that. They won’t know about our shine-running. Even Rosco’s got no proof.”

“Good.” Bo pretended he wasn’t trying not to yawn himself. “When will we leave for the track in the morning?”

“We’ll figure that out in the morning. What’s that exit number again?”

The blond Duke opened the glovebox and pulled out the card that had the directions to the motel and to the track written on it. “For the motel? Exit 88.”

“88… we just passed 87.” He spotted the sign ahead. “There’s our exit. Hold on, we gotta change lanes.” Luke signaled, checked the mirrors, grumbled inwardly to himself about the traffic not seeming inclined to let him through, and sped up suddenly to fit himself in between two other cars heading for the off-ramp. The racy red sportster behind him honked indignantly, but Luke relaxed. They’d made it.

“Gee, people don’t have much manners,” Bo commented.

“Yeah, city drivers tend to be pushy. You’ve just got to kinda shove your way in.” He pulled to a gentle stop at the bottom of the ramp, and waited for the green light. “What’s the address?”

Bo rattled off street names and numbers from the map as they made their way through the thickening traffic in the direction of the racetrack. “Must be a big race tonight,” he commented. “Look at all these people!”

“Yep, must be. There.” Luke spotted the small driveway and turned off the street into the parking lot of the motel they’d be staying in, within walking distance of the racetrack. Brandon had warned him about the crime in this area, and the General Lee would be living for the most part within the well-guarded track grounds with the team racecars. But for tonight, they’d take a chance. Luke didn’t feel like driving over to the track and walking back to the motel tonight. For one evening, the car would stay with them.

He parked and leaned back in his seat, sighing deeply. That had been a little hairy there at the end. Then he pocketed the keys — no leaving them in the car in a city like this — and slid out through the window. He hid his thoughts from echoing onto his face, but he was worried a little about the General Lee being stolen tonight because of having no windows to roll up. With the doors welded, they couldn’t lock up. He decided that he’d park right outside their room and leave the window partly open. He’d hear the racer’s distinctive loud growl even in his sleep if some lowlife hotwired him. Hopefully.

Luke sighed again. “Look, why don’t you wait here, and I’ll go find out what room we got.” With a single backwards glance and a quick smile, he headed for the door marked ‘Lobby’. “Hi,” he smiled at the receptionist who answered when he tapped the small bell on the counter. “I’m here to check on a reservation.”

“Name, please?” she replied, checking a list.

“Duke. At least, it should be under that… if not, try Brandon. That’s the guy who made the reservation.”

“David Brandon?” Her blonde eyebrows slid up. “The racing team owner?”

“Yeah. We’re with him on the circuit for a while, me and my cousin.”

“Hmm.” She ran her finger down the list. “Yeah, you’re here. Duke. May I see your driver’s license to check?”

“Sure thing.” He handed over the card and leaned on the counter, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Well, everything seems to check out fine,” the receptionist finally said, sliding a piece of paper across the counter with a pen. “Sign in, please. So, you’re from Georgia.”

“Yep. Northern Georgia, Hazzard County.” He managed a smile, scribbling his signature on the bottom of the sheet of paper after thoroughly reading it over. Working around Boss Hogg and his tricky deals had made any smart Hazzard citizen wary of small print. But this looked fine.

“Hazzard? Never heard of that one,” the girl chuckled, taking the paper back. “Here’s your room key. Room 136.”

“Thanks.” He tossed the key in his hand and headed for the door. “You probably wouldn’t have heard of Hazzard. It’s pretty small. Well, good night.”

“Bye, Mr. Duke,” she smiled back. Luke could feel her eyes on his back as he left. He shook his head. City people always seemed to have this strange infatuation with country folk.

“Hey Bo!” he called out. The younger boy turned from where he’d been studying the swimming pool.

“Hey, Luke, come look at this. That’s one small pool.”

“Yeah, it is. Normal for a little place like this, though. I’ll tell you one thing,” Luke smiled, “you won’t find any big ponds to swim in in the city.” That was what both the young Dukes were used to. Bo had never actually been in a swimming pool before, though he’d seen them in pictures and in the different motels they’d stayed at sometimes while racing in Georgia and Tennessee the last couple of years. Not every place they’d stayed in had had a pool, though; actually, in the out-of-the-way places they’d chosen, it had been rare.

“I know. I don’t think I could handle something this small, anyway.” Bo wandered back toward his cousin and the General Lee. “Where’s our room?”

“136.” He handed the key over. “Go find it, will ya, and I’ll follow.”

“Okay.” The blond teenager peered at the number on the nearest door and started down the row. Luke slid back into the General and pulled out to follow him. About halfway around the courtyard, Bo finally stopped in front of a door, checked the number on the key, and waved. The older Duke nodded, then eyed the place he was given to park, pulled the big racer around in a wide turn, and managed, somehow, to fit him in the small space by pulling straight in with no angle.

“They sure don’t give you much room,” he grumbled as he swung himself out of the car, again being careful to take the keys with him. “Well, let’s get our stuff and settle in.”

The two boys took their suitcases inside the room, checked out the bathroom and had a brief argument over who got what bed, ignored the television, as they weren’t used to having one anyway, and headed back out on a food hunt. The traffic on the streets was incredible this evening, so they walked. They’d gone several blocks before Luke finally spotted a small diner and headed for it. Dinner didn’t turn out to be too expensive, something he was glad for even though they’d been saving up shine money for a trip like this for a while, but it was filling, and even Bo was yawning by the time they walked out and headed back for the motel.

Bo took over the bathroom for a shower, and Luke sat down to unpack their suitcases into the single dresser they were given. There was more than enough room for their clothes, though, and he finally got dressed for bed and lay down, deciding he was too tired to wait for his cousin. He’d take his shower in the morning.

He half-woke when the younger boy came out, briefly flicking on the light and then flicking it off again, and got into his own bed. He woke again sometime around midnight when he felt Bo crawl in beside him, mumbling something about the city and strange noises. But after that, nothing disturbed the two tired Dukes, not even the police sirens going by.

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

The General Lee made quite an impression when he came onto the track grounds around ten the next morning. Bo was driving, slowly, and Luke was sitting casually on the hood giving directions. Both boys had changed into their customary racing coveralls, white with red and blue stripes down the sleeves and Rebel flag shoulder patches, before they’d left the motel. Luke wasn’t sure what colors they were going to be wearing as a part of the Brandon team, but he figured they’d find out soon enough. He finally found the garage number he’d been assigned when he’d signed them on and waved a hand back at his cousin to signal a stop, jumping off the hood to open the doors.

“Wow,” a girl in jeans and a blue t-shirt, probably about twelve or thirteen, commented from the side. Her blonde pigtails made her look even younger. “Nice car.”

Luke declined to answer except with a brief nod and smile, heading in to check out the interior of the garage, to make sure all the necessary tools were there and ready for use. Bo slid out of the General and walked over to his older cousin, giving the girl still watching them from the doorway a curious glance. Luke shared a little of that sentiment himself. She was young to be hanging around the garages. “Where’re we gonna meet Brandon and his team?”

Luke shrugged. “On the track was what he said. He probably has some sort of test drive in mind.”

“What’s your car painted like that for?” the girl in the doorway spoke up again, obviously determined to push her way into the conversation. “Sure noticeable.”

Bo glanced at her and grinned proudly. “His colors ain’t the only thing noticeable about him. Wait’ll you see him run!”

“Bo…” Luke sighed. “No boasting yet, huh? They might have some pretty hot cars here, you know.”

“Ah, the General could whip the pack of ’em,” the blond teenager insisted. Luke had a sneaking suspicion he was trying to impress their audience, young as it might be. The younger Duke could be quite a show-off when he had somebody, anybody, to watch him.

“Well, we’ll see. You might like the car they give you, too.” Ignoring his cousin’s disbelieving snort, he nodded, satisfied at the garage. “Let’s check the engine and take him out for a quick run. Stretch his legs a bit and show off.”

“Okay.” Bo moved to pop the hood.

“You call your car the General?” The girl was still there.

“Yeah,” Luke sighed, deciding that she wasn’t going to leave after all and so he might as well answer her. “General Lee.”

“Most the cars around here are smaller and lighter than that,” she pointed out. “Do you think you have a chance, even just playing around?”

“Look, kid,” Bo scowled, “General ’n me can handle anything thrown at us.” Unfortunately, the scowl didn’t seem to dampen the young visitor’s curiosity much.

“Where’re you from?” was the next question. Luke looked at the ceiling very briefly in a prayer for patience. He’d always had an unending supply of it when dealing with Bo, but other people could sometimes rub him the wrong way.

“Bo…” He waved a hand at the girl, who’d come in past the doorway now. “You talk to her. I’m gonna go find Brandon; meet me on the track, okay?” He sighed and left the garage.

 

Bo watched his older cousin leave and fought down a feeling of abandonment fiercely. He’d be fine. Besides, he had to tune the General. He turned his full, or near-full, anyway, attention to that task.

“Well, where are you from?” the girl asked again, coming up to stand beside the open hood.

“Georgia,” he answered. He had a feeling he knew why Luke had left. Kids, except for himself, and Luke didn’t always get along too well. “A little place called Hazzard.”

“Hazzard?” She giggled. “Funny name. Is it as dangerous as it sounds?”

“Sometimes.” Bo reached for a wrench, eyed the size number, and frowned, reaching for a different one. “Depends on what you’re doin’. What’s your name, anyways?”

“Candy. What’s yours?”

“Bo. Bo Duke.”

“You driving for David Brandon?”

“Yep, for a while.”

“He’s my Daddy.”

“Oh, really?” Bo grinned at her briefly. So that was why she was allowed in the garages. “Cool.”

Candy gave him a critical look. “You’re gonna drive? How old are you, anyway?”

Bo scowled slightly. “I’m eighteen. So? I’m the best driver in Hazzard County.” Why was he explaining himself to this kid, anyway?

The girl hitched herself up to sit on the workbench. “You’re tall.”

That was sometimes a sore point with him. He didn’t always enjoy being taller than his older cousin. “So what? You’re small, and what… thirteen?”

She grinned. “Almost thirteen. Good answer. Not many people around here talk back to me like that. They just tell me to shut up and go away. They’re all too,” she made a face, “grown up.”

Bo shrugged wordlessly, looking over the steel-threaded fuel line with a mini flashlight for any possible cracks. Checking everything, no matter how slight, had become a matter of habit in Hazzard, where a competitor might try to do something to your car.

“So… how’d your car get painted like this and named General Lee?”

That was a safe subject. “Well, if you’re gonna stick around here, you might as well help…” He pulled his head out from under the hood. “Go get that jack in the corner, will ya?” She nodded and moved away, and Bo slammed the hood shut. “He got colored orange cause that’s the only paint we had at the time, and the flag on the roof is cause we’re Southern Rebel folk and proud of it, and the number one is cause there’s nothing else like him. Thanks.” He took the jack and started lifting the front end of the car a little so he could get underneath.

“Why’d you call him a general?”

“Well, General Lee was a Southern calvary leader, and our General jumps as well as or better ’n any horse and is as stubborn as Lee himself was. He don’t give up, and neither do me and Luke.”

Candy leaned against the workbench again. “Luke the other guy who walked out?”

“Yeah. He’s my cousin.” Bo slid underneath the General’s engine.

Silence for a few seconds, then, “Why are you looking everything over like that? Were you in a wreck?”

Bo rolled his eyes. He could see why Luke had left — he’d seen the barrage of questions coming. He sighed. “No. But we’ve been sabotaged before, and it’s habit to make sure everything’s perfect before we head out to a race, or even just a test run.”

“Sabotaged?” Candy sounded surprised, and a little disdainful. “You really think my dad would let something like that go on around here?”

Bo narrowed his eyes, as long as he was down where she couldn’t see. “I don’t trust nobody except Luke and our best friends.”

“You got any other family?”

“No!” He knew that came out too sharp the moment he said it, and slid out, biting his lip. “No. They died years ago. Me ’n Luke are the only Dukes left.”

“Out of your whole family?” Candy’s eyes widened. Bo was a little surprised to note that they were the same color as his, an unusually dark blue. He’d never met anyone else, other than Jesse and Daisy, who’d had that color eyes. “Wow… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He had his emotions under control, and felt pride swell up inside of him for that. “It wasn’t nobody’s fault. They died in an epidemic.” He pushed himself to his feet and wiped the grease on his hands off on a rag. He eyed his young companion. “I’m gonna meet Luke on the track to see your dad. Wanna ride out with me?”

Candy looked unsure, hesitating before giving an answer. Bo frowned, then realized with a mix of startlement and amusement why she didn’t say yes right away. He couldn’t help but laugh a bit.

“Candy, I don’t eat little girls. I’m just gonna go out to the track. You can come, or you can walk. All the same to me.” He shrugged.

The girl’s chin came up, and she scowled. “I’m not a little girl!”

“Whatever.” Pulling the jack out from under the car, he set it aside and slid through the driver’s side window. “See ya later then.”

“Wait.” Candy jumped up onto the other window and slid in with the ease of experience. “You’re gonna get lost if you don’t know how to get around in here. It’s a maze. Go out to the south and take the first left.”

Bo eyed her, then shrugged again. Would he ever figure this kid out? “Right.”

“No, left.”

“I meant…” He sighed. “Okay. Left.” He backed the General out of the garage and made the first couple of turns Candy had told him, moving slowly as the rules of the garage area and pits dictated. “So, do you have any family besides your dad?”

“Yeah. I have an older sister and brother. They’re twins.” She gave him an assessing glance. “About your age.” Bo’s beginning interest was dampened when she went on, “They’re off at summer camp right now, though, so they’re not around. They don’t pay a whole lot of attention to me anyway, even when they are here. They treat me like a baby.”

“Well, you sure ain’t that. What about your mom?”

Candy looked away, twisting the end of a pigtail in her fingers. “She died almost two years ago. Turn right here.”

Bo complied, nibbling his thumbnail lightly in thought. “So like me and Luke, you’ve lost family.”

“Only my mom!”

The teenager heard the pain in that short sentence, but only because he was used to discerning Luke’s hidden emotions. Candy held back what she was feeling well. Too well for a kid. Strange, he thought. “Okay. Sorry. Only your mom.” He paused for a beat. “You’re lucky though, you know that? I lost both my parents when I was a baby, and my Uncle Jesse who raised me about six years ago.”

“Was he Luke’s dad?”

“No. Jesse never had kids of his own. But me and Luke and our other cousin, Daisy, were all orphaned when we were real little, and we became his kids.”

“Oh… Here we are. This way.” Candy pointed through a cement archway to the left, but Bo had already seen the track beyond. He pulled through the opening, then halted gently before he actually got onto the track, watching the cars already there zoom past.

“Candy, you prob’ly oughta get out now,” he said, gauging the speed of the other cars and how fast he would need to move to get out there without getting in the way. “This is gonna be a fast takeoff.” He saw the protest coming and added, “Your dad wouldn’t like it if you came with me, I don’t think. I don’t wanna get in trouble my first day here.”

Candy made a face, but pulled herself out of the General. Sticking her head back through the window, she told him, “Daddy’s over by Pit number three.”

Luke was probably there too. “Okay. Thanks. You’d better walk around; I’ll meet you.” Flashing the youngster a smile, he then turned his full attention to the track ahead, set his jaw, revved the powerful engine a couple of times, and floored the accelerator at what he gauged to be exactly the right moment. The General Lee leapt out onto the track as though he were about to take flight right off the ground, coming up on a slower-moving car ahead and diverting around it agilely. Once he was free and clear, Bo slowed a little and moved to the outside, letting the practicers zip past, and circled the track until he found Pit 3 and pulled in.

Luke turned to see him, and smiled and waved. Bo grinned back and climbed out, fighting an urge to run over and hug his older cousin, to tell him all about Candy and her family. That would wait for later. There were others around, older people, veterans of the track that he had to impress. And he could only do it by acting adult, not like a kid.

But he did jog over to where the others were, rather than walking. “Hey, Luke,” he greeted. “General’s runnin’ great, and, when do we start?”

The other man standing there, David Brandon, Bo guessed, smiled and held out a hand for the teenager to shake. “Well, hello there, Bo. Your cousin here’s been telling me a lot about you. Tell me, is he exaggerating, or do you really jump rivers in this thing?” He gestured to the General. Bo took one look at the guy and decided he liked him. He was about Luke’s height, but lightly built, with dark eyes and hair and a well-trimmed beard. The eyes held a quiet twinkle.

“Yes, sir,” he replied with a grin. “We do jump things. As for a whole river, that depends on how wide it is. But we fly over creeks all the time.”

“Really?” Brandon smiled again. “Must be one powerful machine. I can’t wait to see it in action, and especially you behind the wheel.”

“Well, you’re going to see both,” Luke cut in, with a quick smile directed Bo’s way that let him know that one, he knew that the younger boy had held himself back, and two, he was proud of him for it. “Now’s as good a time as any, don’t you think?” He waved a hand toward the track. “Go show ’em what you and the General Lee have got, cuz.”

Bo grinned, flipped a quick little salute Brandon’s way, and ran back to the General. He slid in fast and gunned the engine instantly, imagining that Rosco was on his tail and letting the adrenaline that thought caused course through him, bringing him to full alertness. He watched for an opening on the track, but also watched Luke out of the corner of his eye for the signal to move.

And there it was, the slash of a hand down that meant ‘race!’. Bo floored the gas and took the slight incline like the hill before a gulley back in Hazzard, hitting the top and taking off. They were flying, then came down on the inside curve of the track. Some other cars were coming up on him fast, and he put the pedal back down from where he’d let it up during the flight. The General’s tires caught the asphalt underneath, and the orange Charger took off.

Bo narrowed his eyes, narrowing his mind with them, and concentrated, the track ahead becoming the sole thing in the form of tunnel vision his mind slipped easily into. Time seemed to slow. Cars went past him, speeding ahead or falling back. Then he hit the backstretch, and snapped himself out of the concentration to see Luke and Mr. Brandon, joined now by Candy, waiting at the finish line. There were two cars ahead. “Go, boy, go!” he told his car, keeping his foot mashed to the floor as he rounded a turn, only the General’s weight and his driver’s smooth handling of the wheel keeping him from skidding out into the outside wall. They were past one of those racers, now. Coming up on the other…

The other guy, a blue and white car, seemed to notice only now the orange powercar eating at his bumper. The smaller car pulled away, but the finish line was coming up, and Bo threw his whole heart and soul into the last turn, pulling the wheel to the side and speeding toward the racer ahead. The other driver saw him coming and tried to cut him off at the last moment, but Bo caught the rise in the center of the track ahead where the ground went over a slight hill, and seconds later, the racecar’s driver was craning his neck to see the General Lee flying overhead to land on the track in front of him. “Yee-haaa!” Bo yelled in exhilaration, then whooped briefly, giggling to himself as he moved out of the way. Now that he was slowing for his exit from the track, the other driver passed him, one hand up and tilting him a grudging salute as he went.

Bo pulled the General to an easy stop in front of Luke, Candy, and Mr. Brandon. After a moment to catch his breath, he climbed out to sit on the door. “Well?”

His grin slowly faded as Brandon gave Luke a meaningful glance. Luke looked serious. Too serious.

“What did I do wrong?” He scrambled out and jogged up to stand right in front of his cousin, his eyes begging the older Duke to tell him. Luke smiled slightly, and just shook his head, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Later, Bo.”

“I think you did great!” Candy broke the near-silence with defiance in her voice. The girl trotted over to sit on the General’s hood. “That jump…” She described an arc with her hand. “Wow!” Bo grinned back, nodding thanks.

“Come on, Candy,” her father beckoned. “We’d better go talk to Frank and cool him down.”

“Oh… yeah.” She jumped off and sighed. “See ya later, Bo.”

The teenager quirked a smile. “See ya, Candy-girl.” He snatched lightly at one of her pigtails, and she jumped away, laughing. He waved as she followed Brandon over to another pit, then turned to his older cousin, letting his true confusion show clear. “What did I do wrong, Lukas?”

The dark-haired Duke sat down on the hood and patted the place beside him, then when the younger boy settled there, put an arm around his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Bo, you drove great. Real great. Rosco would never have caught you in a million years.”

“But..?” Bo could hear that there was more.

Luke sighed deeply. “But you broke track etiquette.”

“Track what?”

“The manners, the unspoken courtesies, of the track. Bo, you’re not supposed to jump like that during a race. What if you had landed on top of that guy?”

“I wouldn’t have.” He was confident of that. “General had too much speed up. And I do that to Enos all the time. He don’t care-“

Luke shook his head, opening his mouth and putting up a hand to cut him off. “He’s Hazzard folk, Bo.” He sighed again. “He’s used to it. So’s Rosco. And anybody else who’s got ridge-runner blood, which is about everybody in the county. But most anywhere else, it not only ain’t expected, it’s downright scary. That fellow must have been about ready to crawl under the dashboard!”

“He did look pretty shaken,” Bo admitted.

“He was! Take my word for it.”

The teenager looked up slowly to meet Luke’s eyes. He was glad to see no anger there to harden the soft blue, only patience and a little exasperation. “I’m sorry. Did I ruin anything? Like…” He was scared to say it. “Like our chances here?”

Luke shook his head, smiling and patting Bo’s shoulder briefly, then looking down and away. “No. No, Brandon figured that since you were just a backwoods kid, you didn’t know what you’d done. Which ain’t too far from the truth. He told me to tell you not to do it again, and you wouldn’t be kicked off the track. He liked the way you handled the General when he was on all fours.”

“He did?”

Luke lifted his head. That trademark sideways smile of his was back. “Yep. He said you’ve got an instinct for driving. Shoot, I could’ve told him that!”

The cousin-brothers shared a laugh over that, then Luke slapped Bo on the shoulder. “I guess it don’t matter anyway; you couldn’t jump in a real race cause your car would never hold up to it. These racers are a lot lighter-built than the General. C’mon. We’d better go apologize to this Frank guy, especially since he’s apparently a teammate.”

The blond eighteen-year-old stood beside his cousin. “You sure he won’t be too mad?” He’d seen some brawls break out on the track, and he wasn’t much of a fighter.

“No, I ain’t.” Luke shook his head. “But you’ve gotta say you’re sorry. I’ll be right behind you, don’t worry, if he wants to turn it into a fight.” That made Bo relax. The older cousin was well-trained at hand-to-hand, and had protected the younger, more impetuous boy on numerous occasions.

“Well… okay.”

“Let’s go.”

They followed after the Brandons toward the next pit. Bo could hear men’s voices arguing, and swallowed. He really didn’t want to do this. But he was no sissy, and Luke and Uncle Jesse before him had taught him to always apologize when he was in the wrong, and to take whatever was coming to him. The Dukes walked together into the open area, and the stranger, who must be the guy Bo had jumped over from his coveralls that matched the blue-and-white colors of his car, closed his mouth mid-word and met the teenager’s eyes. Luke prodded him forward gently.

Bo stepped away from his cousin, out toward the other driver. “I…” he started, then cleared his throat, lifted his chin, and stood straight. “I apologize, sir, for what I did on the track.” He faltered briefly, then rebolstered his courage and went on. “For jumping over you and all. I didn’t know that was against the rules. Actually,” he admitted, “I wasn’t much thinkin’ about rules anyway. I’m not much used to having ’em.”

The other driver, a lean but strongly built man of about Luke’s height, with gray peppering his straight dark hair and open gray eyes, nodded slightly, turning to Brandon. “Honest, open. I like that.” He turned back to Bo and held out his hand, an unexpected warm smile spreading across his weatherworn face. “I’m Frank Atkins, and who might you be?”

“Bo Duke, sir.” He hesitantly shook the offered hand. “I am sorry for scarin’ you.”

“I accept your apology, young man, and you are forgiven. If,” he held up one hand, forestalling Bo’s thanks and making him start to worry for a split second, “you teach me how to do that flying stunt. Not for the track. Just on the side. Would you?”

Braced for the worst, the younger Duke hadn’t been expecting this reaction at all. Breaking into a grin, he nodded vigorously. “Yessir! I’ll do that! It’s a whole lot of fun,” he confided.

“Looked like it. Scared my socks off at first, but then I realized from how you landed that you’d planned the whole thing and weren’t going to land on top of me after all. After that, I started envying you. That’s some car you got there. I’m glad I won’t be seein’ it on the track. Where did you say you were from again?”

“Hazzard County, Georgia,” Luke broke in, coming up beside his cousin and holding out his hand for the energetic, talkative driver to shake. He quirked another one of those little smiles. “About the backside of the backwoods, pardon the expression.”

“Not at all,” Frank waved it off. “Like this youngster, refreshingly honest. And who are you?”

“I’m Bo’s cousin. Luke Duke.”

“Ah. Luke. Hazzard… never heard of it.”

Luke grinned. Bo gladly stayed a little behind him, content to let his older cousin do most of the talking. “It’s a little county, up on the Tennessee border.”

“Ah. Northern Georgia.”

“About as northern as it gets!” Bo broke in, chuckling. He backed up and sat down on the low cement wall. Candy ran over and jumped up beside him.

“Things get pretty rough in Hazzard sometimes,” Luke confided with a mischievous glint to his eyes. “Backroads racin’, getting away from cops’ speed traps… You see why we kids learn to jump when we learn to drive.”

“Man,” Frank laughed, “you boys lead a life that sure walks the fence, now don’t you? I kinda understand that; I grew up in the Appalachians myself. I used to be quite a character. Ever do any moonshine running for a neighbor when you were a kid?”

Luke’s eyes flashed briefly with startlement at the casual comment, then, shooting Brandon a glance, nodded. “We’re runners, yeah.”

“Present tense? Now? That’s a dangerous life. You any good at it?”

Luke shrugged modestly. “Well… we ain’t been caught yet.”

“Really?” He grinned. “Maybe we could compare stories. Why don’t you two join me in the driver’s club for a beer?” He nodded at Bo. “That is, if…”

Luke nodded. “It’s okay. I always buy to stay legal, but he’s no stranger to the stuff.” He grinned at his younger cousin and Candy. “Hey Candy, c’mon with us and I’ll buy you an ice-cream soda, how ’bout that?”

Her eyes lit up, and the twelve-year-old turned to look at her father. “Daddy, can I?”

“Well…” he dithered.

“I’ll look out for her,” Bo offered.

Luke nodded. “We both will. And I’m pretty sure you trust Frank.”

Brandon half-smiled. “Frank’s almost Candy’s uncle, he’s been with us so long. All right,” he addressed his daughter, “you can go.”

“Thank you!” She jumped off the wall and ran to hug her dad, then grabbed Bo’s hand and yanked briefly, jogging away after Frank and Luke, who were talking ridge-running. “C’mon, lazypants!”

“Hey!” He got up and ran after the others, trying not to laugh too hard. It was fun to be around Candy, as cocky as she was. “Candy, didn’t your dad ever tell you not to call names?”

“Only to grown-ups,” she wrinkled her nose at him as he caught up. “And that you are not.”

“Say ‘ain’t’,” he suggested. “It comes off the tongue easier.”

“Okay, you ain’t.” She laughed. “You’re right.”

“Don’t corrupt her grammar too bad, Bo,” Luke chuckled. But he reached out an hand and grabbed his cousin’s elbow, pulling him forward until he could put an arm around his shoulders. “C’mon, everybody, to the land of cold drinks on a hot day!”

**

Brandon watched them go, his smile fading into a worried frown. Despite the cheerful facade he tried to always keep, he had troubles. Big troubles. The kind he didn’t want to think about, because now a man had disappeared. One of his best drivers, Greg Kenley. He hadn’t informed the rest of the team besides Frank, but he hadn’t seen Greg since yesterday morning, after the young driver had come to him about a note threatening him if he won last night’s race. He had won, and hadn’t been seen since. Brandon wasn’t sure what had happened. He didn’t want to think the worst — that Greg might be dead.

He’d been receiving notes himself, telling him to sell off his prize-winning team or he would lose it one man at a time. Brandon had hoped that meant that someone would try to talk the men into racing for someone else. But now he just didn’t know. He’d even called in the cops after a futile search last night. They’d found no clues in the racecar, and no body. Brandon just plain didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know who would be doing this or why. But he was scared. So very scared.

Because the last note had said that if he refused to listen, he would lose the one most dear to him — his youngest child. He watched Candy laughing and darting sideways at the tall blond boy’s snatch at her ribs, as though he were trying to tickle her, and had to smile. She was so full of life…

He started to walk away, then paused, and slowly his smile widened. “Moonshine runners…” he whispered to himself. They’d outrun and outhid the best lawmen their state could offer. He had to have freedom to hunt down the one or ones responsible for Greg’s disappearance and the threatening messages. That meant he had to have someone to protect Candy. And right now, he could think of no one better than those Duke boys.

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

“Hey, Lukas?”

“What?” Luke turned away from the sink in their motel room, where he’d been cleaning out plastic cups to reuse, to look at his younger cousin. Bo lay on his stomach on one of the beds, ankles crossed up in the air, flipping through a magazine he’d picked up at the track. He was dressed only in casual sweatpants, and his blond hair was still darkly damp and uncombed as he’d come out of the shower only twenty minutes ago. Luke’s hair was even damper because he’d showered after his cousin, and he was dressed similarly except that he wore jeans. They’d been out on the track for most of the day, checking out Bo’s racecar and getting fitted with Brandon team coveralls, and had both decided to clean up and relax after the sweat of the Texas day before the meeting scheduled for that evening with the entire team. Bo glanced up now, eyes wide and open in that way that meant he had no mental barriers up. He was being completely himself.

“What’d’ya think of Candy?”

“Candy?” Luke had to think about that one.

“Yeah.”

“What about her?”

Bo was looking thoughtful. “I think she sees who I am inside.”

That got his attention, and slight worry. “She say anything to you?” The younger Duke’s feelings could be easily hurt in this one respect, if someone made a crack about how he acted or something he said.

“Naw. Nothin’ like that.” He shrugged. “But she treats me like another kid. Like she sees that I kinda am. And another thing, she don’t show all her emotions like most girls do, especially young ones. Sometimes she acts like she’s tryin’ to hide something inside.”

Luke frowned slightly, finishing drying the last cup and hanging up the hand towel. “What do you think?”

“I’m not sure what to make of her. She’s just… unusual. But not the way I am, not mentally.” Bo smiled a tiny bit. He wasn’t ashamed of his differences. He just accepted life how it came. “She’s fun, once you get to know her. Sassy, but hey,” he shrugged again, “so’s any Duke. And she’s smart too.”

“Do I detect a slight note of interest here?” Luke teased.

Bo rolled up the magazine and threw it at his head. The older cousin barely deflected it with an arm in time. “Not that way! You know that, Luke! Candy’s too little! I like her, but like a little cousin or something. And I’m kinda worried about her.”

Luke sighed and picked up the projectile, smoothing the pages, and came over to sit beside his cousin. “I’m just teasin’; you should know that. Why would you worry about Candy?”

“Well, her mom died a couple years ago, and I think she might be still grievin’ inside. But I don’t think she’d take anyone tryin’ to help too well. It’s kinda like she has a problem, like me, ’xcept hers ain’t like mine. She’d be fine if she let herself.” He glanced over and up at Luke, eyes still quiet, serious. “I don’t much blame her. City people…” He bit his lip. “They might do something to her. Take her to a doctor or somethin’ when all she needs is just to talk to somebody. They’d hurt her worse than she already hurts.”

Luke sighed, remembering back with a faint flash of anger. “They almost did that to you, Bo.”

“They did?” Startlement flashed in wide dark blue eyes, and Bo rolled onto his side to face him, propped up on an elbow. “You never told me that. When?”

“They tried, anyway. It was back while you were at Rialton, the first leave after I left you there. They wanted to send you to some psychiatrist. I told them to keep their paws off you or else.”

Bo jumped up and hugged his older cousin hard, resting his head on Luke’s shoulder. “I’m glad you did. I would have been so scared back then… Might still be now, if I’d never known. Never learned how to act normal around most people. I remember when I was little, and the kids would make fun of me. I never understood why, and it hurt. That’s why I always just played with you and Daisy and Enos.”

The dark-haired Duke returned the hug. “Oh, cousin.” He hadn’t called him ‘little cuz’ now for over a year. It hadn’t been so hard to stop once Bo had passed his own height by a couple of inches. But sometimes he still felt like Bo was his little cousin. Young, vulnerable, depending on him for so much. “I wouldn’t have ever let anything happen to you. I love you too much.”

Bo laughed softly, pulling back, eyes shining. “I trust you, Lukas. I’ll always trust you. I couldn’t stop if I had to. And I love you, too.”

Luke grinned in return and ruffled the younger boy’s messy thatch of damp blond hair lightly. He scooted himself backwards to lay back on the bed, closing his eyes and sighing. He was tired. He hadn’t slept well the past couple of nights, ever since they’d left Hazzard. Too many strange noises, strange beds, and strange surroundings that impacted his unconscious mind even if they missed his conscious one combined to make him extremely restless. Bo, on the other hand, slept like a rock no matter where he was; one definite plus to the younger boy’s childish side.

Bo yawned lightly himself, and curled up beside his older cousin. Luke smiled slightly and let him press close, accepting the blond Duke’s need for touch that he himself had a deep human desire for as well, though like most adults, he hid it for the most part. But like Bo was open with him, he was open with Bo. It was refreshing to be able to be so free with his thoughts and emotions sometimes.

Luke’s contemplation of the very inviting thought of taking a nap before the meeting was interrupted by a knock on the door. He cracked one eye open and groaned. “Go get that, would ya Bo?” It was probably a maid or something. He’d asked the receptionist not to send anyone to clean up each day, already! Hadn’t she listened? The Dukes would clean up after their own selves, like they always did. If this was going to be their home for even a week, he didn’t want some stranger coming in without permission all the time.

“Okay.” The teenager jumped off the bed, combing his hair with his fingers down into some semblance of neatness and padding barefoot over to the door. Luke heard the sound of it opening, and then Bo said, “Uh, Luke? We got company, and it ain’t room service.”

He opened both eyes and lifted his head to see David Brandon and his daughter standing in the doorway. Brandon was dressed in a neat dark blue blazer as though ready to travel, and Candy carried a small suitcase. Luke hurriedly rolled to his feet, curious as to what was going on. “Well, hi! C’mon in! We weren’t exactly expecting visitors!” he smiled, a little embarrassedly gesturing to both of the boys’ state of dress, or rather undress. At least they were both decent.

Brandon waved a hand dismissively and came through the door into the air-conditioned room. It was then that Luke noticed the tight lines of well-masked worry around his eyes. “That’s all right. I know you were relaxing on your own time.”

He hesitated, and Luke rested his hands on his hips and raised one eyebrow, prodding gently, “Well, so why are you here?”

The team owner took a deep breath, then let it out again, looking unsure but determined. “I have no call to ask you boys this, I know. But I don’t know anyone else I can turn to on such short notice.”

Bo flopped down on his stomach onto the other bed, smiling at Candy briefly, and shrugged. “What is it?”

Brandon put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. Luke noticed that the girl hadn’t said a word yet, and was surprised. She was quite talkative, normally. He’d figured that out after only knowing her one day. Something must be wrong. “I… need someone to look after Candy for a few days. I have to leave the team briefly on an unexpected business trip.”

“Why don’t you ask Frank or one of the other men?” Luke asked. That would certainly make more sense, and be easier on the Dukes. There was little place for a child in their lives, especially a girl.

The older man looked like he was hiding something, but the older Duke wasn’t sure what. “Well, for one thing, Candy gets along so well with you. And for another…” He hesitated. “She might possibly be in danger. I’m hoping that if you can outrun cops and revenuers, you can watch out for a little girl.”

“I’m not a little girl, Daddy!” Candy finally protested, making a face.

“Still,” her father said in a tone of voice that brooked no argument, “I want someone watching over you.”

Luke eyed their temporary employer, wondering just why Brandon had chosen them. “Sir…” he started carefully, “if there’s trouble, maybe you should call the police.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t. I can’t tell you or Candy what’s up either. I’m sorry, but I can’t take that chance.”

“So you ain’t goin’ on a business trip,” Bo cut in. “Where are you going?”

Brandon glanced at the blond teenager. “Please, don’t ask. I can’t tell you. I have to stop someone before he destroys something I’ve worked to build, that’s all. And I don’t need anybody underfoot. Even,” he smiled gently, looking down and giving his daughter a gentle sideways hug, “my Candy.” He returned his gaze to the boys. “Will you take her?”

The older Duke hesitated. He wasn’t completely sure that he really wanted to. But he didn’t want this child hurt, either… “Well…” He sighed, glancing at Bo. The eighteen-year-old shrugged and nodded; he didn’t mind the idea that much. Oh well. Luke would survive.

“Please, do this one thing for me, and don’t ask any more questions,” Brandon spoke up in the silence, almost pleading.

Luke met his cousin’s eyes again seriously, seeing what he was thinking reflected there too. “Well…” he said again slowly, still reluctant, “we can do the first, look out for Candy. But I can’t promise you the second.”

Brandon finally nodded. “All right. It’s the most I can expect, after all. Thank you.” He started for the door.

Candy dropped her suitcase and jumped for her father. “But Daddy! Why can’t you take me?”

“I just can’t, baby,” he smiled, hands on her shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. So will you. I’ll be back in a few days.”

Bo spoke up suddenly, drawing all attention toward him with his quiet, serious tone. “If you have to go, then God go with you, sir.”

“Yes…” Brandon nodded, a little uncomfortably. “Thank you. Goodbye, honey.” He kissed his daughter on the forehead, then turned and left. Through the door there came the sound of a car starting up and moving away, and then there was silence.

Luke looked over at Candy, standing looking a little uncertain near the door. He smiled, slightly amused yet understanding too. He felt much the same way. Okay… they were here together, so they’d have to get to know each other. He didn’t really know how to act around a child, except for how he acted around Bo, so he figured he should probably treat her much the same as he did his younger cousin. “Candy, the first thing you’ve got to figure out is that neither of us bite.”

The girl’s demeanor suddenly switched from worried to insulted. “I didn’t think you did.” But she’d relaxed a little bit, he noted.

“Well,” he fought back a yawn, “why don’t you talk with Bo or something, huh? Quietly. I’m gonna take a nap.” He lay down on his bed, closing his eyes and turning onto his side. “G’night.”

He heard Bo’s twinkling-eyed smile in his voice. “But it’s only five o’clock!”

“Good night anyway.” He tensed, suspecting somehow what would come next. A split-second later, his younger cousin landed on him and flipped him over onto his back, laughing.

“Gotcha!”

“Very funny,” he drawled, hiding a smile of his own. He was aware of Candy watching interestedly from the sidelines, and also that Bo was staging this to relax their young guest. He was willing to play along. “Get off me, will ya?”

Bo giggled and shook his head, sitting up on Luke’s chest. “You’re gonna have to get me off yourself!”

“Grr.” Luke grinned, bunched his muscles, and sat up abruptly, sweeping his younger cousin off him, off the bed, and onto the floor. He landed on top of the blond boy this time. “Well, I did. Now can I sleep?”

“No.” Bo reached up to tickle him. Luke jumped away, on his knees, and grabbed the younger Duke’s wrists to pin them to the floor, shaking his head and trying to laugh quietly.

“Not too much noise, cuz. We might have next-door neighbors. We ain’t back at the farm with nobody but the chickens, you know.”

“You live on a farm?” Candy broke in, coming over.

Luke nodded, still hanging onto his struggling cousin. “Yeah… We do. Bo, cut that out and I’ll let you go.”

Bo lay still for a few seconds, panting, thinking that over, then nodded. “Okay, okay. No more pouncing. For today.”

“No more tickling.”

“No more tickling.”

“Ridge-runner’s honor.”

“Ridge-runner’s honor! Lemme up, Luke!”

Candy frowned as the older Duke got back up to sit on his bed. “What’s ridge-runner’s honor mean?”

Luke slowed his breathing consciously from the short burst of exercise. “It’s about the highest oath besides blood or a good family name that you can give. We’re ridge-runners, so we can use that saying. You can’t if you aren’t.”

“Oh… You were talking about ridge-runners with Frank earlier. What is a ridge-runner?”

Luke smiled slightly. Frank, from a mountain background himself, had understood. Brandon hadn’t really, he didn’t think, though he hadn’t made a big deal out of it. He wasn’t sure anyone else would understand either. He might want to tell Bo not to talk much about it anymore; he didn’t want trouble. But telling Candy shouldn’t hurt. “We’re ridge-runners.”

“That doesn’t help much.”

Bo chuckled, still lying on the floor but now on his side, with his head propped up on one hand. “A ridge-runner smuggles moonshine, Candy-girl.”

Dark blue eyes, startlingly like Bo’s, widened. “Moonshine? Isn’t that illegal whiskey?”

The eighteen-year-old shrugged. “So? General Lee’s the fastest thing in the state, so why not make some money with him?”

“…Wow.” Candy looked suitably awed, eyes flicking back and forth between the cousins. “You’re kinda crooks, then. Then what do you mean by honor?”

“Naw,” Luke shook his head. “We’re good guys. And ridge-runners have a very strict code of honor. We just don’t always obey all the little laws, that’s all.”

“Little?” Bo snorted laughter, finally getting up off the floor to sit down next to Luke. “Oh yeah, little laws. Like the speed ones we Dukes break on a daily basis.”

Candy shook her head, but now she was smiling, hands on her hips. “You guys are somethin’ else.”

“Yeah,” Luke admitted, finding himself grinning as shamelessly as his younger cousin. Telling Candy about running shine might actually help, if she felt less threatened by them because they weren’t all that perfect in her eyes. “Just, uh… don’t tell anybody ’bout us bein’ runners, huh? Can you keep a secret? This is a big one.”

The girl thought about that for a little while, then nodded. “Yeah. Okay. I won’t tell.” She turned away finally and picked up her suitcase. “I’m gonna be hanging around here for a week or so, I guess.” She scowled. “In the same room with two guys? I don’t know what Dad was thinking.”

Luke stood and twisted to stretch the tense muscles in his back, serious now. “He’s tryin’ to make sure you stay safe. I promise, we’re harmless, the both of us. Ignore how silly we get sometimes, we ain’t crazy or anything. Look, you can have that bed,” he gestured over to the other, “and me ’n Bo will share this one. Okay?”

Candy nodded slowly, but she still didn’t look quite sure. She put her suitcase down in a corner, out of the way. “Will you two fit?”

He shrugged. “Sure. We’ve had to before.” He took a breath, feeling a little out of his depth here. “Candy, I promised I’d look out for you while you’re with us, but I don’t know how to act around kids except Bo, so put up with me, huh? I’ll try to give you both some freedom, and you tell me when I get annoying. I’ll do my best to be fair and not give orders. Let’s just all be friends, okay?”

Candy seemed to ponder over that. Finally she looked up and nodded. “That’ll be okay… I guess.”

Bo grinned openly, all barriers down again. The simple happiness of having friends and family near radiated from him. He flopped down on his back on the bed, but was instantly upright again. “You ain’t scared of us, are ya?”

“Course not. You especially.” The girl came over and slapped his shoulder lightly, disdainfully. “You’re just a puppy dog, aren’t you, Bo?”

“Yeah. That’s a good way to put it,” Luke smiled. It was. His younger cousin was a puppy dog. Gentle, heart on his sleeve, wildly playful, yet he had fangs that he would readily use if he or those he loved were attacked.

“Guess I am.” Bo stood suddenly, grabbing Candy around the middle and lifting her a little ways into the air to toss her onto the other bed, where she lay trying to get her breath back and giggling. He stood with his hands on his hips, grinning. Luke just shook his head.

“Okay, you two, settle down. Candy,” he turned his full attention to the twelve-year-old, “I don’t know about you, but it was mighty hot and sweaty out there today. We already cleaned up, so why don’t you go take a shower, and then we’ll all head over to the club again to meet the team.”

She frowned, then nodded. “Okay.” She sat up, crosslegged, in the middle of the bed. “Just so I know, what’re the rules around here? There’s gotta be some. There always are at other people’s houses and stuff.”

Luke had to think briefly. Many of the ones he and Bo lived by were unspoken, just accepted, and it took a few seconds to word them. “Well, there ain’t that many. We live pretty free and easy, mostly. I won’t hold you to any rules we don’t live by, I promise. Let’s see…” he raised his eyebrows, “you don’t stay in the shower any more than fifteen minutes, cause there’s others waitin’ in line too. You don’t just take off, cause it is the city, without tellin’ someone else where you’re going, and you don’t go far alone. Oh, and leave the TV off, please.”

Candy made a slightly unhappy face at the last, and nodded. “Any more?”

“Well…” He smiled to himself slightly. “No leaving clothes on the floor or in the bathroom.” He looked pointedly at Bo during this set, aimed directly at the younger Duke. “Make your own bed in the mornin’, cause we’re not gonna get room service. And behave yourself around the opposite sex, please.”

This time Bo made the face. Candy giggled. “That’s silly. Most boys are dumb anyway. Not you guys,” she hurriedly added, “but most of ’em.”

“It ain’t silly when you’re talkin’ to Bo,” Luke informed her. “Oh, and cousin? Please at least try to keep the rules.”

“You didn’t tell me about the last one,” Bo mock-complained. But there was laughter in his eyes.

“You like girls or something?” Candy accused, grinning teasingly.

“Well…” Bo scowled, flushing and shooting Luke an embarrassed glare for bringing up the subject in the first place.

Candy shook her head and stood up, visibly trying not to laugh. “Well, I guess you said I’ve gotta take a shower, right?”

“It would be nice,” Luke nodded, gesturing to the bathroom and standing. She nodded, and after gathering her things made her way to the door on the far end of the room. But as she reached the threshold, she stopped.

“Luke?” she asked without turning around. The older cousin couldn’t see her expression, but he immediately noticed the change in the tone of her voice. The playful, inquisitive nature was suddenly gone, replaced by an uncharacteristically sad and worried tone. The Dukes’ eyes met, and Bo sighed silently, his gaze speaking that he understood.

Luke understood too. “What’s wrong, Candy?” he asked, the gentle concern he’d learned working with Bo filtering into his words.

Candy finally turned around, biting her lip tightly before asking the question. “Do… do you think my Dad will be all right?”

He sighed. He knew what was going through her head. Bo had told him earlier that this girl had lost her mother a couple of years ago. Her brother and sister were away at camp. And now her father was taking off on some dangerous trip. She was alone here, and in danger of losing her second and last parent to an enemy that she could neither see nor understand. “Your dad is a smart man,” Luke tried to reassure her. “He knows how to take care of himself, and me and Bo are gonna take care of you.” It was a statement of confidence that he didn’t really feel, and his words echoed his feelings; they sort of lay flat in the air.

Candy nodded and went into the bathroom, her troubles heavy on her shoulders. Luke watched as Bo’s eyes followed the twelve-year-old’s path. In a moment, the hum of running water came on. Luke saw the flicker of worry enter his younger cousin’s eyes. It was a look he knew well, and a look he knew he had to do something about.

“Bo, why don’t you get some ice and fill up the cooler in the corner there?” he spoke up to get his younger cousin’s mind off the suddenly uneasy air in the room. “I think it’d be cheaper in the long run if I go down to the corner store and buy some stuff for sandwiches, and Cokes maybe too, and we keep ’em in the room for lunches instead of going out.”

“Okay,” Bo easily fell for the change of subject. After Candy had grabbed her stuff and shut the bathroom door behind her, the eighteen-year-old shucked off the sweatpants and redressed in jeans and a cream-and-brown plaid shirt. At the same time, Luke grabbed himself a solid blue shirt. “Hurry back, huh Lukas? And be careful… it’s the city.”

Luke smiled and squeezed his cousin’s shoulder. “I’ll be okay, Bo,” he assured him. “I can handle myself.” He made sure he had money and went out the door, smiling to himself. Life was certainly going to be interesting with Candy around.