You're a Duke

Chapter Ten

Meanwhile…

The first thing Bo did once he arrived back in town was drop the General off at Cooter's like he told Luke he would, then entered his room after settling his payment with the clerk in the office downstairs and made his way to the bed, tossed his wallet onto the nightstand beside it, then finally sat down dejectedly as he ran his hand through his hair. Without thinking, the youngest Duke swiftly picked up the single pillow from behind him and threw it across the room. It certainly didn't appease his anger any, but it didn't stop him from doing so again, only with his shoes after he pulled them off.

After sitting with his legs hanging over the side of the bed for several minutes while he struggled to think about anything other than everything that happened between him and his family, he laid back across the bed and tossed his arm over his eyes as he finally allowed himself to cry openly. Bo discovered that his own birth killed his mother, learned that his father was still alive after all these years and that the man hated him, and he might have just lost the rest of his family because of his own stubborn pride and anger, all within one afternoon. It was overwhelming, as he had no idea what he was going to do from there on out.

Eventually he calmed down, then stood and moved to the window to pull the curtains closed, but before he could do so, he stopped upon seeing his father as he and another stranger were walking toward another room on the lower level of the hotel. Bo watched them when they were suddenly attacked by three other men, forced around to face them and held at gunpoint, then pushed inside the room as two other men walked in after them. Jeff Duke wasn't much of a father, but he was a man in trouble and Bo couldn't help, but feel obligated to at least find out what was going on and try to help him if he could. He and his family have helped worse. Bo wished then that Luke was there with him to help him come up with a plan, but he was on his own.

Bo quickly picked up his wallet and put it back into his pants pocket, cautiously made his way down the outside stairwell, walked slowly toward the room he saw them enter, then crouched down beneath the window and peaked inside as he listened carefully, hoping to be able to hear part of the conversation going on between the armed men and their hostages. As the window was cracked open slightly and it was clear that these men were angry, their voices grew more elevated the longer they talked.

The first thing he heard was his father's associate as he said harshly, "I already told you when you called us two days ago, we didn't kill your friend. We don't know who did. And we didn't steal your money."

The man appearing to be in charge scoffed and then responded, "I warned you, Sam. I warned you and Geoffrey what would happen if you ever lied to me and tried to double cross me. And I happen to know that you've done both."

"But we didn't… please Blake, don't… No!" Sam begged when all of a sudden, one of the other men raised his gun and fired two rounds into his associate's chest, using a suppressor to muffle the sounds of the shots so that no one else would hear what was going on.

Bo quickly ducked down and remained that way for over a minute, feeling shocked by what he just witnessed, then he waited, expecting to hear at least one more shot that would end his father's life too. However, he simply heard their voices as the conversation continued. Bo finally got up his courage to push himself back up to look inside again, but was interrupted when he suddenly heard the sound of a gun's hammer being cocked behind him. When he turned his head to look, Bo saw another man holding a gun aimed directly at his back until he slowly raised himself to his feet to face him as he raised his hands as well, the weapon now being aimed at his heart. The criminal motioned for Bo to move, pointing his gun toward the door, then kept it trained on the kid as they both walked inside and closed the door behind them.

"So, who is this now?" Blake asked curiously as he looked from the young blond haired man to the man who used to be his lawyer. "Is he a friend of yours, Geoffrey? He's a little young, ain't he?"

Jeff replied coldly, "He's no one. Just some local busybody is all. I don't know who he is and I don't know why he'd be snooping around here. He's got nothing better to do I suppose."

Another of the men raised his gun, sliding it up under Bo's chin to get him to look at him, then spoke to his ex colleague saying smugly, "Something tells me that he's not just someone here to snoop. Who is this kid to you really, Geoffrey?"

"It's like your associate said, I ain't nobody to him," Bo answered coolly, trying not to appear scared in front of the criminals before him. "He wouldn't blink twice if you killed me, but if you do, I can promise you, you will regret it. And you'll regret killing him too. We locals don't take kindly to anyone getting killed here in Hazzard, especially if our sheriff and police commissioner are actually forced to work. They like to make our lives miserable you see."

"Shut up, kid," Blake responded in frustration as he swiftly struck Bo across the side of his face with the butt of his own gun in order to see what kind of reaction he'd get out of his old friend, causing him to fall back heavily against the men who held him, but not down to the floor as they held him and pulled him back up. "You talk too much. But it does appear that you're right. My friend didn't even flinch. However, you didn't really come here just to pry, did you? Or are you really that stupid? What's your name?"

When Bo turned his head away and remained quiet, despite wanting to lash out at the man, one of the men reached inside his back pocket for his wallet, then opened it up to read his name off of his license, "Bo Duke, a local farm boy by the looks of it."

It was then that the leader of these criminals turned back to Geoffrey and smiled, then replied smugly, "Well now, Duke is the name, is it? Is that not the name you once went by a long time ago? Jeff Duke, wasn't it? Did you really think that I wouldn't dig deeper into one of my men who kills one of my associates, then steals from me? This boy seems a bit young to be one of your brothers, so I'm guessing he's a nephew, or perhaps he's your son. Am I right?"

"All right, he's my son," Jeff answered coldly. "But I told you the truth when I told you he was no one to me. And I don't care what you do to him. I don't even know him."

"That's pretty cold, my old friend, and I actually do believe you," Blake responded as he patted the man on his shoulder, then motioned for one of his other associates to pull out something that he brought with them to help get the truth about the whereabouts of his money from his former lawyer. "Which is why I am going to have to use this on you like I planned. I know that Sam never knew about you killing our friend before you took off for down here and I also knew that you were too greedy to share with him, so you double crossed him. It's a pity he didn't live long enough to learn about that."

Both Jeff and Bo saw that what the criminal had pulled from his coat pocket was a syringe wrapped inside of a leather pouch and as he emptied some of the liquid out to make sure that it was set and moved toward him, Jeff tried to pull away only to be held tightly as one of the men held out his now bare arm for their colleague to inject the toxin into. As their focus was no longer on him, Bo suddenly, to everyone's surprise, stomped on his own captor's foot and kicked him in his shin, then elbowed him in his stomach once the man's hold loosened and quickly punched the man who held the needle in his face in order to try to help his father break free. Jeff tried to do so as he joined in on the fight.

Unfortunately, Bo's attempt to break them both free didn't do much good as the man didn't lose his hold on the syringe, only lost control over who he injected it into within the chaos, that ended as soon as Bo cried out when he felt the needle stab him in his neck, then the liquid as it burned its way into his bloodstream. The men quickly grabbed a hold of the lawyer as well as the young man again and held them tightly as they forced Bo down to his knees.

Jeff stared down at his son, who had just attempted to save him, in surprise, while Damien Blake also looked at the kid with surprise, but knelt down in front of him once he got his composure back, grabbed his chin to force Bo to look at him despite the pain that was slowly rising within him, and said cruelly, "That was incredibly brave of you to try to help a man who would never think about doing the same for you, boy. But it was also very stupid. God knows why you did it. Don't worry though, the drug won't kill you, at least I don't think so. It's only supposed to create a hell of a lot of pain as it makes you very, very sick. It always forces my enemies to tell me whatever I want to know within the first couple of hours."

"What are we going to do now, Sir?" the man who still held the now empty syringe in his hand asked as he looked over at the man that the drug was supposed to be for. "You said it yourself, Geoffrey doesn't care about what happens to this kid. He's not going to tell us anything without more."

"Then we bring him to where we have more," Blake replied as his men dragged him out the door and toward the car they had driven into town in, parked just out front. "Bring his kid too. Perhaps his suffering might make Geoffrey feel regret."

Two men pulled Bo back up to his feet and dragged him out to their car as well, then finally someone asked, "Are we going to leave Sam's body here for the locals to find?"

Blake looked down at the body and smiled, then answered casually, "I think it's safe to say that we'll be long gone before anyone around here finds him. New York is a long way to go with a sick man. We'll find a more suitable place to hide and if we can't get what we want from his daddy before he becomes too ill, we'll dump him, then continue on."