Chapter three already! This is a fast update for me…but heck, the chapter is finished…what good is it going to do if I just let it sit on my computer? As always, thanks to those who reviewed…I appreciate it. :)

- Flynne

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– Chapter Three –

"Calm Before the Storm"

"Hey, Cooter! You in here, buddy?"

"Right back here, Bo!" The mechanic's familiar, scruffy face popped up from underneath the hood of a car. He grinned as he came forward, adjusting his ball cap with grease-blackened fingers. "I bet I know what you boys are doin' here…I got what you're lookin' for out in the back lot." He led the way through the garage and pushed the back door open. "By the way, since when did y'all get a dog?"

Luke gave him a puzzled frown. "A dog? We don't have a dog."

"Yeah? Well then, whattaya call that?" Cooter pointed toward the General. The Duke boys were surprised to see a familiar, shaggy shape sitting in the back seat. The plumed tail waved gently at them.

Bo wrinkled his nose. "That ain't ours. That's the stupid mutt that run me off the road and got us into this whole mess."

"How come you brought him back, Cooter?" Luke asked.

Cooter shrugged. "Well, it was his idea. I got a call from Rosco tellin' me I needed to tow the General over to my place. When I got out there, the dog was already in the car. He looked like a stray so I tried to run him off, but every time I got him outta the car he just hopped back in. Seemed to think he belonged there, so I just let him ride on in." He crossed his arms and leaned against the car. "So now it's your turn. What's goin' on in the land of Hogg today?"

"Aw, you know Boss," Luke said, shaking his head. "He don't need a reason to try and nab me and Bo."

"Guess not," Cooter said with a smirk. Luke let out a sigh of relief when his friend didn't press the matter. "So what're you gonna do with that dog?"

"What do you mean, what are we gonna do?"

"He's in your car. Anyway, I got a dog already. You gonna take him home?"

Bo blinked in surprise. "Us?"

"No, I was talkin' to the other dudes standin' around." Cooter rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you. Y'all got that big ol' farm, ain't ya?"

"Yeah…"

Luke reached a hand through the window and held it in front of the dog's muzzle. The dog sniffed his hand with interest and gave it a quick swipe with his pink tongue. Luke looked up at Bo with a smile. "He seems nice enough." Bo stepped up to the car and leaned in, scratching behind the dusty ears. A smile crossed his face in spite of his annoyance as the dog leaned into his hand.

"Well…I guess we can at least get him cleaned up and fed," he said. "Besides, it ain't like a Duke to turn away someone who needed help."

"That's right. I knew I could count on you to take care of 'im," Cooter said. "Seemed too nice just to chase away. But speaking of helpin' out…" he held out his hand. "…that'll be five bucks for towin' your car in."

"Five bucks?"

"Gotta put gas in the tank somehow, Lucas."

Luke patted his pockets. "Well, I got nothin'. You, Bo?"

"Nope. Listen, Cooter, we'll bring you the money next time we're in town. That okay?"

"No prob, Bob. I know where I can find ya if ya forget."

"All right. Let's get outta here, cuz." Bo slid in the window, chuckling a little when the dog leaned forward and started nosing his hair. "Hey, I can't drive if you're blowin' in my ear the whole way."

That's funny…I ain't never known him to say that before. 'Course, I guess a pretty girl'd get away with more than a dog would.

Luke laughed, reaching into the back to push the dog's muzzle away from Bo's head. "Here, cut that out. You wanna come up here with me, big fella?" He hooked his hand behind one of the dog's forelegs and gave a gentle tug, coaxing the animal forward. The dog gave him a hesitant look, but allowed himself to be pulled up front. Luke settled the dog in the middle of the front seat, rubbing the half-pricked ears.

"There we go…you'll like it better up here. You can see out."

"Phew…somebody needs a bath," Bo remarked, wrinkling his nose as he started up the car. He waved to Cooter and the General Lee sped out of town.

xxxxx

Boss was waiting anxiously for the knock at his door, so when it finally came he bounced up from his desk and hurried across the room. He opened the door wide to admit the two men in the hallway, ushering them in with a smile.

"Jake and Marvin, how nice to see you again! Come on in and sit down."

Jake stepped in and settled into a chair while Marvin stood behind him. He folded his arms across his chest and looked at Boss expectantly. "What do you want from us this time, Mr. Hogg?"

I don't know about y'all, but I sure don't like the looks of those characters. They look meaner'n a tangle of rattlesnakes.

Boss sat behind his desk and leaned forward. "I need you to intercept a shipment for me tomorrow night. It'll be headed toward Badger Trail sometime between two and three AM. The car's a bright orange junk heap with a big zero one painted on the side. You can't miss it. All you gotta do is run that car off the road and take whatever you find in the trunk. Take it out to the coffin works. I'll have Sheriff Coltrane waitin' out there for you."

Jake narrowed his eyes. "Sounds pretty simple. What aren't you telling us?"

"Oh, it ain't that you'll have trouble," Boss hastened to assure them. "But you're gonna need two cars for this job and once you stop 'em, you'll need to take out at least two tires to make sure they ain't gonna follow you."

"Don't you worry about that, Mr. Hogg," Jake said. "Marvin and I can handle a simple knock-over job like this. But before we agree to it, what're you going to pay us?"

"Five hundred each. Providin' that you finish the job, of course."

The two men exchanged a brief glance before Jake nodded. "Sounds fair."

"Well, that's just great!" Boss stepped forward to shake their hands and led them to the door. "I surely do appreciate you fellas workin' for me again. Remember: two o'clock, Badger Trail, orange car. You got that?"

Marvin tapped the side of his head. "Locked away."

"Excellent. You gentlemen take care now, all right? And don't let nobody see you leave here!" Boss shut his office door and two-stepped back to his desk, stopping halfway there to glance at his reflection in the glass door to his cabinet. "Oh, Jefferson Davis Hogg, you are a genius!" he congratulated himself. He gave a self-satisfied chuckle. "Poor ol' Duke boys. They ain't gonna know what hit 'em."

xxxxx

Daisy smiled and waved as she heard the familiar sound of "Dixie" drifting on the breeze. She reached into her basket of wet laundry and draped another freshly washed shirt on the line as the General Lee rumbled to a stop beside the house. She pinned it in place and glanced over her shoulder to see Luke lifting something out of the car.

"Hey, fellas, whatcha got there?" she asked, abandoning her laundry and walking to meet her cousins.

"He sorta followed us home," Bo answered.

"Oh, isn't he cute?" Daisy cooed, watching the dog sniff the air curiously as he surveyed his new surroundings. She knelt and snapped her fingers. "Come on over here, boy." The dog looked at her for a minute before trotting shyly over to lick her hand. "The poor thing, he's got cockleburs all over him," she said, gently feeling the dog's feathered legs and tail.

"Yeah, we know," Luke said. "He don't smell so good, neither. We were hopin' to clean him up some. Can we use your wash tub to give him a bath?"

Daisy looked doubtfully at the dirty dog. "You better scrub it out good when you're done with it."

"You got it, sweetheart!" Luke promised. He stepped over to the porch where she had left the oblong metal tub and snatched it up to carry around to the other side of the house.

"Come here, dog." Bo bent and lifted the dog from the ground, pausing for a moment to shift the animal's weight in his arms. The dog felt thin and underfed, but Bo guessed he still weighed between forty and fifty pounds. "Hey, Daisy, we need somethin' to get all these cockleburs outta his fur. Do you think—"

Daisy put her hands on her hips. "Bo Duke, if you're about to ask me for my hairbrush, you got another thing coming!"

"Well…you got another idea?"

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Just go give him a bath. I'll see if I can find something that'll work."

"Thanks." Bo turned and followed Luke around the corner of the house, leaving Daisy shaking her head and laughing at him.

Luke had already half-filled the tub when Bo caught up to him. The dog squirmed and splashed when Bo put him in the water, but after a few minutes he settled down and stood still, tail waving gently as he was doused with water and lathered with shampoo.

"There we go," Luke said encouragingly. "This ain't so bad, is it?" The dog responded with a vigorous shake that sent a thick spray of water and bubbles in a wide radius around the tub.

"Whoo!" Bo shook his head and blinked soap out of his eyes. "Something tells me he ain't gonna be the only one gettin' a bath today!"

"Well, you needed one anyway," Luke said with a smirk. He unbuttoned his now-damp shirt and tossed it on the grass. Bo slipped out of his shirt as well, plunging his arms back into the water to scrub the mud out of the dog's fur. The cousins worked in silence for a while, interrupted only by splashing and spluttering as the dog periodically sprayed them with an enthusiastic shake. It was Bo who finally broke the silence.

"Hey, Luke? I was wondering…what are we gonna tell Uncle Jesse about this whole mess?"

Luke gave him a troubled frown. "I was thinkin' about that, too."

Bo saw the look in his cousin's eyes and understood. "You don't think we should tell him either."

"I don't know." Luke picked up the shampoo bottle and gave the dog another squirt, working the suds through the tangled fur. "I don't like the idea of keeping something from him, but…he ain't gonna like it if he finds out what we're doing."

"No…but …he can't really stop us, though, right? I mean, there ain't nothin' else we can do, is there?"

Luke shook his head unhappily. "Not that I can see."

"Well, if you can't figure somethin' out, I know we're sunk." Bo glanced back at the house. "So I guess the question is: do we want to make him worried now, or mad later?"

"I don't like the thought of either one. But I know if we don't tell him and he finds out from someone else, he ain't just gonna be mad…he'll be hurt, and he might feel like he can't trust us."

Bo furrowed his brow as he picked up an old brush Daisy had found and started working the cockleburs out of the dog's fur. "I don't like the sound of that. He's always had faith in us…I don't want this to be the one time somethin' goes wrong and he thinks we failed him."

"Okay. We can talk to him after supper." Luke picked up the hose and turned it on, playing the stream of water over the dog's body to wash away the last of the soapy, dirty water. The dog hopped out of the tub and gave one last shake before he dropped to the grass and started to roll.

Bo laughed as he shook water droplets from his hair. "Look at him! He sure seems happier."

"I would be, too." Luke snapped his fingers and whistled. "Hey, come on, dog! Let's see if we can find you somethin' to eat." The dog bounced up at once, trotting along behind the dark-haired young man as he headed for the house.

They rounded the corner of the house to see Daisy standing next to Jesse with her empty laundry basket.

"Well, so this is the new arrival Daisy was tellin' me about," Jesse said, looking at the animal with interest.

Daisy giggled as she saw her cousins and the dog approaching, all three of them still damp and dripping. "Would you look at that, Uncle Jesse? The dog is a perfect match with Bo!"

Jesse started to chuckle as he compared his nephew's tousled blond hair with the dog's coat. Now that the mud and cockleburs had been scrubbed and brushed away, the silky fur was nearly the same color. "I guess he is at that. Let's hope he don't drive like Bo does."

"He already proved he don't get along with cars too good," Bo said ruefully.

Daisy tipped her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"I nearly hit him, is all," Bo explained. "That's how we found him."

"We were gonna try and get this guy somethin' to eat," Luke put in. "And we were also wondering…well, he don't have nowhere to go, and Cooter reminded us that we had a lot of room out here at the farm, so…"

"That's a great idea!" Daisy interrupted enthusiastically. "Uncle Jesse, what do you think? Is it okay if he sticks around?"

Jesse shrugged indifferently. "Well, I don't see the harm of keepin' him. A farm oughta have a dog, I guess. We'll let him stay on for a while, anyway, and see how it goes." He turned and headed toward the house. "You boys hurry an' get cleaned up. I got crawdad bisque on the stove whenever you're ready."

"We'll be there in two shakes!" Bo grabbed Luke by the arm and hauled him back around the side of the house to put away the hose and wash out Daisy's laundry tub. They joined their uncle and cousin at the table in no time, eating hungrily and laughing over Daisy's stories from work that day.

When Jesse finally pushed his plate back and stood up to put the coffee on, Bo nudged Luke and nodded that he should go ahead. Luke cleared his throat nervously and leaned his elbows on the table.

"Um…Uncle Jesse? Me and Bo got somethin' to tell you."

Jesse's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Well, we had a bit of a run-in with Rosco today and he arrested us. We didn't have to pay bail or nothin'…"

The old man looked at his nephews apprehensively. "But…?"

"But…well, we don't wanna worry you none, but we kinda got a problem now."

And so Luke told Jesse and Daisy all about the day's events, tellin' 'em all about Boss Hoggs threats and the agreement he an' Bo had been forced into. You can probably tell from that deep frown on Jesse's face that he ain't none too pleased. And sweet Daisy looks mad enough to spit barbed wire.

"That lying bully!" Daisy exclaimed when Luke had finished. "I can't believe he's making you do something like that! Uncle Jesse, can't we stop this?"

"Dang right, we can!" Jesse snapped. His hands were clenched tightly into fists as he stood. "I'm goin' over there right now and I'm gonna beat sense into J.D.'s fat head if I have to! Ain't no way he's gonna get away with pushin' my boys around like that."

"Uncle Jesse, don't you see? We can't get outta this," Luke said, standing up as well. "Boss said he'd get us tossed in jail for moonshinin' again if we didn't do this. An' he's got that picture with him…there ain't no revenuer in the state that wouldn't believe me and Bo were guilty."

"No chance of us gettin' that picture, either," Bo said sullenly. "He stuffed it in his money belt, and I don't think even Lulu gets that close to him."

"Now, Bo…" Jesse gave his nephew a warning look.

Bo ducked his head. "Sorry."

"That still don't change the fact that what J.D. is doin' is wrong. He can't strong-arm you boys like that, so never you mind him. A fertilizer truck ain't as full of it as he is. I'm gonna shake that tub of lard 'til his brains start workin' or his teeth fall out."

"Jesse…you can't say anything to him." Luke spoke quietly but firmly. "You do, and that picture goes straight to Atlanta." The old man paced agitatedly around the table before dropping into his chair with an air of defeat. Daisy reached out and put a hand on his arm.

"It's just one night," Bo said. "One run." He did his best to give his uncle one of his disarming smiles. "You don't think we've lost our touch, do ya?"

Jesse snorted. "Anyone who sees you drive knows you ain't lost your touch. But we made a deal with the government that we wasn't gonna run shine no more. What happens if you get caught?" His eyes filled with worry. "I can't lose you."

The two young men exchanged an uneasy glance. "You won't, Uncle Jesse," Luke vowed solemnly, hoping fervently it was a promise he could keep.