*Author's Note*

Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing.

This picks up right where the last chapter left off.

Shank, Shank, Shoot!

Novella POV:

"You fucking bailed those murderous scumbags out!" Was the rumbling deep wave of a reply shouting out of my phone and into my eardrum.

Oh shit! How'd he find out so fast?

I rolled my eyes at his oncoming hissy fit while pointing out, "I didn't bail them out, their legal them that I'm apart of did."

"Bullshit. Spike says ya signed the papers for the bail bonds." So wannabe Dog's name was Spike and he was on Cap's payroll, called him up and ratted out that the McCoys got freed. That's so nice to know.

"Since when do you got fat ass wannabe Dog the Bounty Hunter on speed dial?" I asked sarcastically as I drove thru Blackberry Creek.

"Ever since them bastard murderin' McCoys got their bail hearing." Cap bluntly told me with an edge to his roaring wave of a voice.

"You're absurd, William." I scoffed before going on to remark, "Really, you've been checking with the bondsmen since then?"

"Yea, cause I want them behind bars. Damnit, Novella, they're monsters."

"Stop calling them that. They're not monsters and they didn't mean to kill your uncle, it was self-defense."

"No, that's the fucking horse shit your uncle Perry Cline spoon fed you. It ain't self-defense when the victim gets stabs 26 times in the back and gut 'fore getting shot in the gut by a .45 Magnum." Cap spat out, his usually rough wave of a voice oozing with malice and rage.

"Wh-what?" I stuttered, shell shocked and not wanting to believe what Cap had just told me.

"You heard me, but if you want proof to believe my word then come by my office and I'll show you the fucking file I got on the case." He told me, his voice dead serious.

I felt my blood run cold. I could hear my brother's voice whispering in my ear to do it, find out what he has on the McCoy boys, while I could also hear my own inner voice warning me that it was a bad idea to entangle with Cap in any way, shape, or form since we were on opposite sides of the same case. In the end my brother's moronic ideas won. "Fine, I'm on my way there now."

"Good. Don't take too long getting here."

"I'll get there when I get there, Cap."

"A'ight. Bye, Nova." His voice flattened out before he hung up on me.

Oh boy, my day has just got even more awkward and stressful.

After roughly 30 minutes I pulled into the large parking lot of the justice building. It only took my a few minutes to get out of my car and cross the lot to enter the building. The wait for the elevator wasn't that bad either. I did have to ride up with some guy, but I stood in the corner white knuckling the rail-bar and staying as far away from him as I could. Whenever the doors dinged open I quickly walked out, feeling the eyes of the man still in the elevator boring onto my backside.

I was walking towards the hallway Cap's office was off of whenever I heard in the distance the elevator doors ding shut, indicating the man in there would be heading to the 4th floor. Good ridence, that tall and large man was a creep staring at me as I exited, I was glad that he was now gone as I walked over to Cap's office.

It still felt surreal to see the small gold-plated plaque on the door reading William 'Cap' Hatfield ADA in bold black letters. I never dreamt that he'd be the ADA I'd be dealing with on a defense case, but that was my reality and it was a very sobering one. I knew, from the horse's mouth, that Cap was very good at what he did. He never lost a case he was one. Maybe that's why I was here with my hand clutching the door knob, I wanted to know what he was working with when it came to the case. I mean he did offer to show me his file so…

Quickly I opened the door and walked inside of Cap's office. He was leaning back in his chair sitting behind his cherry wood desk. He didn't say a word as his mismatched eyes locked onto me, watching me make my way over to the leather chair in front of his desk. Sitting down I asked, "Where's the file, Cap?"

Cap shook his shaggy blonde head, an incredulous look on his face as he sighed, "Nova, you know damn well to ya I'm Will not Cap." Staring me down with a hard look in his one icy blue eye he ordered in a curt rumble, "Cut the bullshit and stop forcin' yourself to use the name for me." He picked up a folder off of his desk and held it out while saying, "Anyways, on another note, here's that file."

I leaned over in my seat and stretched my arm out. My hand quickly snatched the folder out of his hand, my manicured nails slightly grazing his rough fingertips. I pulled my arm into my side while leaning back in my chair. I noticed that Will had perked up in his seat, watching me intensely, as I opened the manila file marked State of WV vs. McCoys, Ellison Hatfield Murder.

In an eerie silence I looked over the papers in the folder. The crime scene report made my eyes bulge out of my head, but the report on the victim made my heart stop beating. I read and reread:

Victim Ellison Hatfield stabbed 26 times and shot once at close distance on August 7th. Died August 9th at the Pikeville Medical Center due to internal bleeding from his injuries despite seeking medical attention right after his attack.

I quickly slapped the file shut and tossed it onto Cap's desk. Oh my god, I shouldn't have read that. How can this fist fight turned shank, shank, shoot ever get passed off as self-defense? Stabbing somebody 26 times and then shooting them point blank is a bit much for a simple self defense case. Dear lord, that's why Uncle Perry called me to come back here and to work the case. He knows we're fighting an uphill battle and that the odds are not in our favor.

"I can tell by the pale look on your face that your slimy uncle kept the details of the murder from you, just glossed over it. What you read is why I was keepin' tabs on all the bail bondsmen in the county, also why I'm pissed you bailed those fuckers out." Cap told me in a rough wave of a tone, his face a solid entity of chiseled stone as his mismatched eyes bore into mine.

"I don't know what to say, maybe they freaked and let fear take over and that's why it turn-" I began to rationalize, more so to myself then to him, before Will cut me off with a loud rumble of, "Don't try to make up fuckin' excuses for those murderous McCoys." His face slightly tensed up, causing his mustache to twitch above his upper lip, as he seethed like angrily like a crashing tidal wave, "They stabbed my uncle, my uncle who never quarreled with nobody, over and over 'gain 26 times 'fore blowin' a hole in his stomach so big ya could've read a newspaper thru it."

"I know it's bad, but there's two sides to everything and-" I once again tried to reason only to once again get cut off by Cap snapping, "Don't, just don't, Nova." He looked me dead in the eyes while asking, "We both know they're guilty as sin, so why're you defending them?"

"I told my uncle I would, plus I grew up with them so I don't want to see them die."

"They deserve to die for what they did, but I could for your sake offer a deal for life in prison. That way we can both move on and forward from this, perhaps salvage somethin' for ourselves."

I shook my head while declining, "No, I gave my word that I would defend them and I will do that. My Uncle Perry and Randall McCoy made it very clear that deals are off the table, I won't go behind their backs and strike one up either."

"Nova, baby…" He sighed out in a long drawl, his ice and milky eyes looking at me with just a slight hint of softness, before continuing his thoughts with a warning of, "You know I don't lose. I'll drag them thru the ringer, everything wrong on their records will get brought up for character formation." Cap leaned forward, placing his elbows on his desk, and looked at me intently before letting out the words of, "I don't want you getting hurt being messed up in this."

I shook my head before scoffing, "Yea, like you really care if I get my feelings hurt by this." I narrowed my eyes at him while telling him the harsh truth of, "You just want them to fry and get the death penalty cause you and your family are cold hearted bastards that don't understand what empathy and mercy is."

"Whether you believe it or not's up to you, but I do care 'bout ya." Cap had enough nerve to say while his face never fell to reveal any sort of emotion. Jerk.

"Will, don't call me again unless it's about Charlotte and Greg's wedding. Bother your whore from Logan if you're lonely." I snapped, bolting up from my seat so fast that I made a racecar look slow.

"Whore's not the same as you but guess I don't gotta choice and have to keep bothering her since you're so determined to defend a useless murder that never wanted you. If he wanted you then I wouldn't have been with you in Baltimore, babe." Cap rattled on while I marched over to his office door. Bastard cut deep, whether he knew that or not.

With my hand on the door knob I looked over my shoulder and shouted, "Go to hell, Cap Hatfield!" I meant it to. What he said wasn't called for. He was a cocky, stinging, jerk.

"Ooo, looks like I struck a nerve there." Cap lowly whistled as I slung the door open and marched out of his office faster then a lighting bolt striking an oak tree.

I pulled my car to a screeching stop in the parking lot behind my uncle's law firm, most likely burning rubber with how fast and hard I hit my brakes. In a flash I had my bag slung over my shoulder, speed walking up the alleyway and to the front of the building where the door was at. As soon as I flung the door open I walked in and turned to decrypted old Aunt Betty, she was the McCoy's aunt not mine, and asked, "Is my uncle in?"

"Yes. He and your brother's in the breakroom eatin' lunch." She answered me in her raspy cackle of a voice.

I just nodded my head before quickly rushing off to the break room. "Uncle Perry, you should've told me the McCoy boys shot Ellison Hatfield after shanking him 26 damn times. This case's hopeless."

"How'd you find out about that?" My uncle asked me, not skipping a beat as he ate his takeout from, of all cliché places, Kentucky Fried Chicken aka KFC.

"Cap Hatfield called me once he found out from the bondsman on his speed dial that I signed and paid for the bail. He requested that I meet him at his office to read his case file, as a curtesy." I answered my uncle while walking into the room and taking a seat opposite him and my brother at the small, round, table in the office breakroom.

"I was going to tell you once we started working on our defensive plan." Slipped off of my uncle's silver tongue. I wasn't sure if I believed it or not. He should've told me how bad it was from the beginning, all the details instead of spinning me a half-truth.

"Well, since we know he likes ya enough to share his private case file, maybe you can bang his brains out to make him get sloppy on the case or offer a kick ass deal." Moses suggested between eating his coleslaw that came with his $5 Fill-up from KFC.

Uncle Perry's face fell, the man looked mortified by my brother's remark. His usually slick and confident tone sounded startled and scandalized as he berated my brother firmly with, "Moses, even though that idea could very well work your sister can not and will not lower herself by acting like a whore to win a case. We'll win this case the right and proper way, using our wit, words, and the law."

"We're fucked, dude never loses or at least that's what I heard." I sighed, snatching a potato wedge from Mo's box.

"Novella, dear, don't let the facts you read on that Hatfield ADA's paperwork worm into your mind. The unfortunate events of the stabbing and shooting came as a result of Ellison Hatfield tossing the McCoy boys around like a sack of flour along with striking them and even breaking one's arm. It was a situation where flight verse fight instincts took over; they did what they felt in the moment they had to do to survive." My uncle told me in an attempt to calm my nerves as he ate his chicken tenders from KFC.

Before I could say anything, the tone used for my phone's text notifications sounded off. "Think that's Cap?" Moses asked me while I dug my iPhone out of my bag.

"Lordy, I hope not." I remarked while unlocking my phone.

"Is it the Hatfield ADA?" Uncle Perry inquired before taking a long sip of his sweet tea.

"No, its Nancy." I answered while at the same time reading Nancy McCoy-Phillips text message of:

Hey Novella, it's Nancy. Since your birthday's tomorrow and Tolbert's out now we're going to celebrate. Drinks tomorrow night at the Barn with me, you, my Frank, Tolbert, my brother Jefferson, and his girl Sarah. Sound good? Oh, since I got to drop off my kids with Roseanna I'll bring over somethings and help you get ready. You'll ride with me and Frank to the bar too.

Uncle Perry nodded his head while placing his cup on the table. "Ah, yes, Roseanna said she gave her your number."

"She wanna make birthday plans with you?" My brother asked, more or less figuring out the reason behind her text.

"Yep. She wants to hang out at the Barn. Do a thing with her, her husband, her brother, his girl, Tolbert, and me." I answered my brother while snatching another potato wedge from his meal, taking a bite out of it.

"That's good." Uncle Perry smiled at me before advising me in his slick voice, "You need to revive your friendships now that you're in town for an unforeseen amount of time."

I was only in town for a case, once it was over I was out. Shit, the McCoys' case was going to be hard too. Pike County was small, as in the entire population of Baltimore was at least ten times bigger then the population of Pike. Pikeville, the largest town in the county, had maybe 5 or 6 thousand people while the other towns fluctuated anywhere from 100 to a thousand people in them. Pulling a fair jury from those numbers, numbers that had heard from gossip or a news outlet about the brutal stabbing and shooting of Ellison, was going to be harding then squeezing blood from a turnip. Things looked pretty bleak for Tolbert, Pharmer, and Bud. I felt bad for Tolbert's daughter, Sally Elle, since essentially her childhood was looming on the verdict her daddy got.

Damnit, I would agree to help Uncle Perry and be on the McCoy boys' defense team. Cap was right, the case was a dead-end one, but I had to see it through. I didn't want Tolbert's daughter to become an orphan being raised by her kin, I wanted to keep a little girl from getting dealt the same shitty hand that me and Moses got dealt by fate.