Allies

Chapter 1

Jack stepped out of his truck and looked around the parking lot of the small diner.

As he took a second to survey his surroundings, the passenger side door opened and Rance stepped out.

Rance’s light brown hair and almost pretty boy good looks belied the beast that lived inside him.

He’d always walked with an air of danger surrounding him, but now he radiated ‘I-wish-a-bitch-would attitude’.

Jack was about the only person, other than Rance’s brother, that actually sought him out anymore.

His entire demeanor was provocative. He lived in a constant state of daring anybody to cross him.

Rance lifted his own face into the night air, his nose twitching as he took in all the scents lingering nearby.

“Anything?” Jack asked.

“Recently, but not here at the moment,” Rance said.

“Same.”

“Shame. I could fuck somebody up about now,” Rance said.

“Can we wait until we find out the details? Then you can focus on who really deserves it?” Jack asked sarcastically.

“I suppose,” Rance answered.

“Let’s go meet Squeegee’s compadres,” Jack said, shaking his head at Rance hoping for yet another confrontation.

Together they walked toward the diner.

Rance pulled open the door, pausing as he stepped into the doorway, using his own body to shield Jack before determining the place safe to enter and continuing through.

Jack followed closely behind. “I don’t need a bodyguard,” he said under his breath as he moved past the door that Rance still held with an outstretched arm.

“You might,” Rance answered, his eyes scanning the diner.

It was an old establishment. The white tiles on the floor long worn by the thousands of footsteps across them that removed any shine and instilled a dinginess that couldn’t be mopped away.

Decades of cooking on the grill top resulted in a grease-stained wall and hood vent above the grill.

The counters were worn, as were the vinyl stools at the bar, and the ‘pleather’ covered chairs at the tables and booths around the outer edges of the diner.

The tables looked like something out of the 50’s, and probably were.

They’d been wiped clean so many times there were permanent swirls on their Formica tops.

Despite its age and dinginess, it was clear that there was no spec of dust on the floors or window sills.

There was no crumb of food left behind on now empty tables, and if you didn’t know there were windows, you’d think it was an open air diner because the windows were so clean they were almost invisible. It was old, well worn, but spotless.

Near the back of the diner, a tall man stood and lifted his chin to them in a silent greeting.

Jack quickly took the measure of each of the five men. The one standing, as well as the other four who remained seated — one of which was excitedly waving at them. Jack started toward them, with Rance keeping close to him. As they approached the table, the man standing extended his hand.

Jack shook his hand.

“I’m Connor. Thanks for coming.”

“Connor. I’m Jack. This is my second, Rance.”

Connor gave a quick half-smile and shook his head. “Forgive me, but, it’s kind of spooky talking to you.”

“Yeah, Jared and I had a strong resemblance,” Jack said.

“He was a good man. We miss him,” Connor said.

Jack nodded, then shifted his attention to the other man who was so excited to see them, he couldn’t help but fidget in his seat. “Squeegee, good to see you, my friend.”

Squeegee grinned. “I'm so glad to see you here, Jack. You just don’t know.”

“We’re glad to be here,” Jack said. “We have a lot of questions, but we’re also anxious to help out any way we can.”

“Why don’t you both have a seat, we’ll spend a little time getting to know each other,” Connor said, gesturing to the two tables they’d pulled together.

Jack took a seat with his back to the wall, and Rance took one at the end of the table, his back to the corner of the room.

“These are some of my guys. Pauly, Justin, Shan — short for Shanahan, and of course, Squeegee,” Connor said.

“Good to meet y’all,” Jack said.

“So, Squeegee tells me he talked to Kassidy. Said she looks great, she’s happy. We were really glad to hear that,” Connor said. “We spent a lot of time looking for her before we set the blaze.”

“Oh, so you set the fire,” Jack said.

Connor nodded. “We had to keep our promise to Jared, but also had to make sure that Kassidy wasn’t there to be caught in it.”

“Thank you for keeping your word to Jared. Kassidy would have died had you not called.”

Connor’s head didn’t move, but his eyes shifted to Squeegee.

“I called. Was part of my promise to him,” Squeegee said somewhere between defensive and proud.

Connor stared Squeegee down for a few seconds, as he remembered Squeegee destroying his phone outside their clubhouse the night Jared had died. “Dropped your phone, huh?”

“Had to stomp it so that nobody could trace it,” Squeegee said honestly.

“What’d you say?” Connor asked.

“Gave them the address of Jared’s bar, and said, just like your mom.”

“And that would mean?” Connor pressed.

“I don’t know. Just words Jared made me swear on my life to repeat to whoever answered the phone when I called,” Squeegee said.

Connor’s eyes moved back to Jack, who watched the whole interaction with a smirk.

Connor didn’t ask, but Jack decided to give Connor what he wanted anyway.

“Private message between my little brother and myself. Wouldn’t mean anything to anybody but me.

And it worked. I left my home within five minutes.

And thanks to Squeegee continuing to look for Kass, I’m here now.

I’ll help with your situation in any way that I can because you were Jared’s friends, but I want some answers, too.

Who’s responsible for what happened to him? Who did it? Why?”

Connor looked around the diner, then lowered his voice just in case anyone might be trying to listen.

“When we got there, the only person still standing was Trent. He was striding through the barroom with a hard-on, his pants unzipped. We’d already found Jared and the other two outside.

Squeegee here shot Trent with the same gun Trent used to kill Jared and the other two.

We searched for Kassidy for hours and hours.

Once we were sure she wasn’t inside, we moved the bodies inside and lit it up.

That’s exactly what Jared asked us to do if anything ever happened to him.

” Connor’s gaze strayed over toward Squeegee again.

“Other than the phone call we didn’t know about. ”

“I thought Trent was one of his Pride,” Jack said.

“He was. Trent was the one he trusted the most. The other two, they were his Pride, too, but not like Trent. He and Trent had a special bond,” Connor said.

“So he betrayed him,” Jack said.

“He did more than that. He came into this whole thing with a plan to win Jared over and take him down. In my opinion, anyway.”

“You know Trent’s last name?”

“Can’t say I ever heard it,” Connor said. He looked around at his men, as each of them shook their heads.

“No,” Connor said, confirming that none of them knew.

“If it’s the same Trent I’m aware of, he was a member of the Falwell Pride. His father is Alpha. We’ve been picking up on whisperings of the old man looking for his son. I tend to believe he was sent by his father to befriend Jared, then take him down, just like you said,” Jack said.

“I’d like to dig up what’s left and tear him apart,” Rance growled.

All eyes swept to Rance, except Jack’s. “Stick a pin in it. We might,” Jack said.

Rance grinned coldly.

“Not that it changes the outcome, but he didn’t plan on us. We took care of him,” Connor said.

“I shot him in the chest with a shotgun three times. Then again in the dick when I walked by his body. From the look of him when we walked in, he’d already raped Kassidy, or was planning to,” Squeegee said.

Jack nodded slowly as he looked at Squeegee. “Shame you can’t kill ‘em, then wake ‘em up and kill them again.”

“I’m real sorry about your brother. He was a good friend and a good man. But what went down has brought us some negative attention,” Connor said.

“Yeah, I hear the Falwell Pride is trying to run you out of town.”

“Us and anybody else that won’t bow to them.

” Connor leaned forward and lowered his voice.

“We’re only human. And most of those in this town won’t stand up to threats of violence.

We’ve made it clear that we’re not going anywhere and any type of force used on anybody in this town will be seen as an affront on us personally.

But they don’t care. Seems like every day there’s a few more of them arriving.

They bought the place that used to be Jared’s bar and leveled the little bit of charred remnants.

They’re approaching town folk and demanding that they sell their homes to them.

It’s inevitable that it’s going to come to a head.

We’re prepared to fight, but a helping hand would be much appreciated.

Normally, I wouldn’t ask. But we have something in common.

We both respected and cared about Jared.

I know what you are.” Connor gave a half-laugh.

“Hell, I’m jealous I’m not what you are.

And while we’re more than you see here, we’re nothing against an ambush of your kind.

What I’m asking for is help pushing them out of our territory. ”

Jack took a second to meet Rance’s gaze, and despite the lack of words, they seemed to be communicating before Jack nodded thoughtfully. He tapped his fingers on the tabletop three or four times before he finally lifted his gaze to Connor’s again.

“Give me a little insight to how they operate, we’ll see what we can do to help,” Jack said.

“Been a while. I’ll kill anybody. Just point at them,” Rance said.

Jack huffed a laugh and shook his head slowly.