She remembered Johnny telling her that Lubin was his daddy’s oldest brother, father of the three Jean’s; Jean-Noel, Jean-Martin, and Johnny’s namesake, Jean-Bastienne, and she’d laughed out loud when he’d told her his uncle had given them all the same name so he could be sure at least one would come running if he ever needed a hand and yelled out “Hey Jean, git over here, boy!”
When she’d stepped out of the Blazer, Lubin had looked hard at her, his grin slowly freezing as his eyes flicked from her to Johnny and back again. He started to say something, but seemed to think better of it, instead shaking hands with both of them, while giving Johnny a meaningful look and a quick nod toward the barn. Justine caught the by-play and wondered if he’d caught-on to who she was, because he certainly seemed to recognize her.
However, Lubin’s wife, Johnny’s Aunt Maigrette, a sweet, motherly woman had shown no surprise or distaste, she’d just clucked sympathetically while gentle fingers explored her bruises. She led Justine into the house to make up some poultices and dressings from herbs and roots she guaranteed would take down the swelling and reduce the bruising; Justine fell in love with her almost at first sight, helped along by the obvious love and affection she had for Johnny. With the ladies out of the way, Lubin turned to Johnny.
“Li’l Jean, mebbe my eyes are getting’ kinda old an’ rheumy, but I gotta say, that there li’l gal sure look familiar; somethin’ you-all wanna tell me, boy?”
Johnny met his gaze squarely.
“Her name Justine, sir, she my girl, an’ she in trouble, that’s all I gotta say; you already know who she is, sir, otherwise why you askin’?”
Lubin grinned.
“Ever’ time you do that I see your daddy standin’ there; you only say what you need to say, when you need to say it, jes’ like him. Okay, yeah, I know who she is, so I gotta ask: why? There gotta be million girls in New York, why her? I mean, I got nothing agin her, I remember her mama a sweet gal, your daddy did well to find a gal like her, an’ she seems like she got the same nature as her mama, she certainly got her looks, but you gotta know there’s other, safer gals to take up with. Why her, Li’l Jean?”
Johnny grinned, looking the spitting image of his daddy, that same twist of his lips as his daddy, something Lubin couldn’t fail to see.
“Well sir, I don’ rightly know, an’ that’s the truth; one day it struck me; she an’ I, we got so much together, we fit together like we was supposed to be that way; we ain’t never had no angry words between us, I don’ know how to get mad at her, ‘cos everything she do seems like it’s the right thing to do, an’ she know I ain’t never gonna hurt her, mistreat her, or leave her regrettin’ a single minute with me; we ‘sposed to be together, I feel it deep down inside, an’ she feel the same. Now, you can call it what you like, but it don’ change the facts none; we together, an’ we stayin’ that way.”
Lubin nodded, a faint smile playing on his lips.
“Well said, boy. I kinda knew you was gonna say somethin’ like that, but I jes’ wanted to hear you say it. If you come out with somethin’ about how she no-one special, she hot so you goin’ for it, an’ she jus’ there until the real one come along, you’d be over that rail an’ I’d have whupped you with a plow-line! I dunno what you wanna call what you doin’, and I dunno where it goin’, but you seem certain in your mind, an’ set in your way, so I guess you got to do this your way. I’ll talk with Audhemar, he prolly see things the same way, so we talk with his boys an’ mine, an’ mebbe we work out somethin’… appropriate to entertain them fellers follerin’ you; Audhemar got a real inventive mean-streak, lessee if’n we can tempt him an’ his boys to get creative!”
*
Once dinner was out of the way, Justine and Maigrette chatted and did the washing up while Johnny and Lubin talked about what they were going to do next. Johnny was hopeful his contacts in the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Department could help him, but Lubin wasn’t so sure.
“Li’l Jean, I got call this mornin’ from Jacques Broussard over to Houma, telling me he got a slew o’ so-called tourists drivin’ rental cars with New York plates wanderin’ aroun’ town askin’ questions ’bout the bayou country, and particular ’bout you; coupla real obvious gunnies tried to put the arm on your tante Felice at the Stop ‘n’ Shop, tellin’ her they was ole friends an’ they wanna see you, asking ’bout where you are, where you live, who your frien’s an’ family is, and gettin’ real insistent about it; she hit the button, time he got there they gone, but there’s more, and seems like more arrivin’ every day.”
He paused to pour himself a glass of clear spirit, grinning when Johnny declined a glass; he knew what was in that glass alright, and he wanted to keep a clear head. Lubin threw back his drink, and continued.
“Jacques an’ me had a think about where these New York boys gittin’ their information, an’ how they find out so quick that you from the Atchafalaya, an’ mebbe you headin’ back this way, ‘cos accordin’ to you it only been a few days, a week, give or take, since you blew outta New York, and yet they already here in the parish. How they get onto you so quick? Jacques think they got someone, maybe more’n one, in the Orleans Parish sheriff’s department. That bein’ so, I reckon contactin’ anyone up there, even yo’ oldes’ frien’, might be a real bad idea.”
Johnny chewed his lip, thinking about what they were going to do next.
“Noncle Lubin, way I see it, it’s time to take the fight to them; this my home, everyone hereabouts my kin, Justine my girl, an’ I’m damned if I gonna let bunch a hired guns an’ no-good druggie button-men come down here an’ take any o’ that away. They wanna dance, let’s give them a prom-night they ain’t never gonna forget!”
Lubin grinned wolfishly.
“Damn, boy, I jes’ knew you was my kin! You took the words right out of my mouth! How you wanna do this?”
Johnny looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned.
“My original plan was to take them down to Ghost Lake, no-one lives permanent-like down there, so they be easy to spot an’ trail, an’ kinda pick them off as they stick their heads up; it be like playin’ ‘Whack-A-Mole’ at the fair, only this time we whack ’em, they go down permanently; all them swamps and sloughs ’round there, places no-one ever been before, a body could get lost real permanent, real quick. Ain’t no-one gonna come lookin’ for ’em, not in that country, so with any luck we gonna sack ’em an’ rack ’em, an’ the ‘gators an’ catfish gonna think Thanksgivin’ come early!”
Lubin’s eyes gleamed happily.
“That just the kind a thing your daddy woulda said; he warn’t one to take stuff like this lyin’ down neither. I’m takin’ Maigrette over to Audhemar’s place with me tonight, things bein’ what they are, I’d feel a lot better if she was with me tonight, but them two young hellions is out there someplace close-by, they spends mos’ their lives livin’ wild in the boonies, so they be jes’ fine campin’ out, it a fine night, an’ mebbe you and your gal c’n sleep easy tonight knowin’ they keepin’ a eye on your back-trail.”
*
Justine stretched luxuriously, grinning happily all the while.
“You weren’t lying about the air-con, baby; it’s wonderful!” she smiled. “I’d just about forgotten what ‘cool’ meant, but this is so great!”
She let the bathrobe slip from her shoulders and fall in a soft heap around her feet, posing artfully in all her nakedness for him.
“‘Course, now I’m feeling a little chilled; can you think of a way to warm me up again, Big Bear?”
Johnny licked his lips; no-matter how many times he saw her naked, each time was like the first; her clear, creamy-pale skin seemed to glow with an inner light, making her jet-black hair seem almost blue-black against her white shoulders and her small, perfect breasts tipped with pert, stiff brown nipples danced enticingly, giving him a delicious tightness in his groin. Justine winked at him and pirouetted, turning through a complete 360, showing him the rest of her tight body.
Johnny’s mouth watered at the quiver of her taut, globular little bottom, each cheek calling out to him to cup and squeeze them as his drank her ruby lips and feasted on her beautiful little breasts. Justine had habitually kept herself waxed, but now her pubes were beginning to grow-out again, a sexy delta of soft, silky little hairs, dark like the hair on her head, pointing to her secret place, and Johnny wondered what it would be like, how it would feel to part those fine silken threads and probe her hidden lusciousness with his tongue.
“You getting any ideas yet, Johnny-Bear?” she murmured, smiling happily as he reached for her and gently pulled her closer by clamping his hands around her bottom. Justine gasped softly as he carefully nipped her tense nipple with his lips even as he squeezed, lifted, and separated her buttocks, momentarily stretching her little balloon-knot open.
“That’s fine and all, but you can do better, Big Bear; show me!” she whispered, brushing her nipples against his face, enjoying the feel of the taut little nubs dragging across his faint stubble. As she teased him, her hands fumbled with the waistband of his shorts, but finally she hooked her thumbs in the sides and slid them down. His erect cock swung upright, smacking in the palm of her hand. Justine smiled and licked her lips as she slowly began to fist him.
“This looks interesting, Johnny-Bear; can you think of anything I could do with it?” she drawled, grinning at his agonized expression. With that teasing expression still on her face, Justine dropped to her knees, to gently kiss the side of his tumescent shaft.