Chapter 2 #2
He sends me upstairs to the nicest room I’ve ever slept in. Big four poster bed, my own bathroom. I’m almost asleep when I hear the door creak open. Bare feet pad on the floor. A little weight dips the bed. Then, familiar warmth crawls over my body. Holly kisses me, face wet with tears.
“I’m so sorry, Jen,” she whimpers.
“It’s not your fault Cherry found out,” I whisper.
She doesn’t answer but does yank the covers back. Her hand goes in my boxers, and she starts riding me, hand on my chest. She’s crying at the same time. I keep going soft because I don’t want to fuck her while she’s sobbing. She digs her claws into my chest as I push myself up on the pillows.
Then, out of the blue, she slaps me across the face.
I reel back. I’m stunned and suddenly rock hard.
Something mean clicks into place in that dark room.
We fuck, harder and dirtier than we’ve ever fucked.
Then, she falls asleep in tears while I sit against the headboard with my face in my hands.
It takes a while, but I must drift off, because I’m waking up to a bird singing outside my window and an empty bed.
There’s a stack of clothes by the door. I shower and put them on, lacing up a new pair of leather boots.
The front hallway is empty. I walk down it, looking everything over.
“Jen.”
Turning, I see him through the first door on the left. It’s a dining room with a big oval table and windows looking out over the horse barns. Brothers sits at the head.
“Come and get something to eat,” he says.
I sink down. Another nameless person appears, fills my plate, and melts away.
The coffee is good, strong enough to wake me up.
We start eating, and the silence is big and awkward.
There’s a steak on my plate next to the eggs.
It’s kind of freaking me out. I’ve never tasted steak before, unless I’m counting Salisbury.
Finally, Brothers clears his throat.
“So what did you want to be when you grew up?” he says.
Alive would be the correct answer. My mother wasn’t the best at keeping food on the table, so every day was a race against the empty space inside, but I still have a faint memory of the luxury of wanting something more. It sounds pretty silly when I think about it now.
“A cowboy,” I say. “But I was about five then.”
Brothers laughs, but it’s a nice one. “I like that, like it a lot.”
Silence. I hope I’m not embarrassing myself.
“When should I start work, sir?” I say finally.
“I’ll show you around this afternoon,” he says. “This morning, we’re going to church.”
“Church?” I stare.
“It’s Sunday.” He says it like that’s obvious. “Now, I don’t mean to tell you what to do with Miss Holly, but I know she was in your room last night. Do what you will any other day, but there is no fornication or drinking on the Lord’s day within these walls.”
He says all this casually, his drawl easy.
“But…you drank last night,” I say.
“That was yesterday.”
“Okay,” I say, deciding not to focus on figuring him out right now. “So you don’t…you know on Sunday.”
“Never,” he says.
Curious, I push it a little further. “What if I did?”
He lifts two fingers and puts them to his temple, miming pulling a trigger.
“You’d shoot me?” I say, jaw dropping.
“No,” he says. “Of course not.”
“Okay,” I say, relieved.
“I’ll shoot her,” he says.
“What?”
“Before Miss Holly, there was a woman very much like her. After Miss Holly, there will be another one. The same goes for you. Make yourself irreplaceable, Jen. Just don’t drink or fuck on Sundays in my home.”
He gets up, giving me a soft look. There’s something about his face, the way he holds himself, that makes me want to trust him. It’s weirdly paternalistic for his age.
“Stick with me, Jen, and I’ll make sure you’re always taken care of,” he says. “Oh, and there’s only one other thing. We don’t abide Caudills, so don’t consort with any of them.”
I know who the Caudills are; they’re one of the richest families in the state. They have businesses, but their real money is made at the track and on drug running through the eastern end of the state.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because we are compet-tit-tors.” He breaks up the syllables in that word, for emphasis.
Before I can answer, he walks out. I cut the steak, put it in my mouth, and damn—I think he’s got me.
That begins the most exciting year of my life.
I do odd jobs, set up meetings, and don’t ask questions.
In return, I get paid a thousand dollars a week, I stay in the Boyd Mansion, and I still get to fuck Miss Holly whenever she decides to appear in my bed.
Whether the last part is a good thing is up for debate.
It’s getting to be a more traumatic experience every time, but I can’t seem to stop.
I have bigger things to think about now—a real future. Brothers takes a liking to me. I’m smart, despite not having a great education. When it comes to hands-on stuff, I learn quick. He likes that all he has to do is give me instructions once, and I can carry them out to the letter.
The only contention between us is that I like Brothers and Brothers likes me, but Brothers does not like Holly and pretends she doesn’t exist when she talks in front of him. Me liking Holly feels like a vulnerable point in our growing relationship.
I ask him about it one day while we’re duck hunting. He’s tracking a bird, shotgun up, one eye shut.
“Money is money, Jen,” he murmurs. “Business is business. Fucking is fucking.”
I don’t know exactly what that means, but it sounds like he’s telling me who I fuck won’t negatively affect my standing with him.
So, I don’t break it off with Holly. By day, I’m Brothers Boyd’s best worker and closest friend. By night, I’m Jen, the guy who can’t make up his mind about what he wants.
Pretty soon, I become something of a right hand to Brothers, taking the place of his absent brother, Jem.
He was supposed to help run the business, but he rarely shows up for work anymore, not unless he’s forced.
At first, I like Jem, and we work together a lot, but then he starts to feel a lot like Kyle, just checked out all the time.
But me, I show up in all ways. Brothers starts trusting me with the more delicate parts of his business, the parts that could get him in trouble if we mess up. In turn, I trust he knows what he’s doing and follow his orders.
I like that trust. It makes me irreplaceable.
We’re all over the town, in the speakeasies, the pubs, the racetrack, rubbing elbows with what Brothers refers to as the seersucker bourgeoisie.
Not a day goes by where we rest—he’s building an empire and he’s building it fast. Brothers is always at Keeneland, shaking hands and leaving with his pockets heavier.
I go from being a boy from Harlan County with nothing to sitting at the tables of Lexington’s richest men.
Most importantly, for the first time in my life, I have something that feels like a real family. I never had a father or a brother, but Brothers Boyd comes so close. My life is good, beyond my wildest dreams.
Until it isn’t, and everything crumbles in a single night.
One mistake, and the whole thing is gone, leaving me standing in the rubble.
I have nothing but my very first dream and my unbreakable will to live.
On horseback, with only a revolver on my belt, I head west to cowboy country and never look back.
Fuck Holly.
Fuck Kentucky.
And most of all, fuck Brothers Boyd.