Chapter 1 #2
“Uh, maybe try to remember… friend,” Pauly said, pointing at himself, then those sitting around him. “All friends.”
Rance just looked at Pauly with no response at all.
“He’s dealing with some shit,” Jack said.
“But so you know, we’re here for vengeance for what was done to my brother.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, you and your people took out those directly responsible.
But, their Pride is still left, and I have no doubt their Alpha, Trent’s father, ordered Jared’s death.
And if he’s the same Alpha and same Pride threatening this town, consider us allies against it.
If so, the only demand I have is that the Alpha is mine.
Somebody other than me captures him, hold him and call me.
I have a bit of karma to deliver to him. ”
Connor sat back in his chair and grinned. “Welcome aboard. We appreciate you and anything you two can do.”
“Two? You think it’s just us?” Jack asked. “I got half my Pride in the woods around your club house. Another half a dozen or so staking out this diner. Squeegee said you needed help, I brought help.”
~~~
Jack backed his truck out of the parking space, and drove away from the diner. “It’s exactly like Squeegee said. They killed those directly responsible.”
“True. Doesn’t mean there’s nobody else to be killed, though,” Rance said.
“Exactly. With Trent’s father being first on that list,” Jack said.
“Yep. And once they see that we’ve arrived, it won’t be long until they start something. I plan to be here to finish it,” Rance said.
“Same. I’m looking for Falwell myself,” Jack said.
“Let’s kill him slowly,” Rance said.
“I got a better idea.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rance asked.
“I’m going to beat him to a pulp. But I’m not killing him.”
“Why not?” Rance asked.
“Ever heard the saying, ‘Some things are worse than death’? I plan on making sure he knows that before he eventually takes his last breath.”
~~~
Inside the diner, Connor and his men watched from their table as Jack and Rance drove away.
“And just like that, we have a fighting chance,” Connor said.
“That Rance guy is nuts,” Shan said.
“You can look into his eyes and know something ain’t right there,” Pauly said.
“Good. It’ll come in handy,” Connor said.
“You think we can trust them?” Pauly asked.
“I do. Jared was honorable first and foremost. I believe his brother is, too. And at this point, what choice do we have? Alone we can’t take on all the shifters infiltrating town. But with their help we can,” Connor said. He looked over at Squeegee, wordlessly inviting him to comment.
“They’re good people. Just like Jared,” Squeegee declared.
“Alright. Let’s get back to the clubhouse and let everybody know,” Connor said.
~~~
Later that night, Jack stood in the shadows of an old cinder block building that housed a hardware store.
From the looks of the old faded blue and white sign still hanging from an iron sign post, it probably always had.
He made eye contact with Connor on the other side of the building, and waited for the signal.
Connor watched the back of the store for a few seconds, then looked at his watch, before pointing at Jack.
Moments later the front door was thrown open, and two of Connor’s men were partially thrown, and partially running out of the door and into the parking lot.
They’d clearly been fighting, and appeared to be making a quick getaway between stumbling and falling, as they coughed and spit blood while they tried to get away.
A handful of males, all Lion shifters, crowded the doorway, laughing at them. “This is too fucking easy for us. When are you just going to give up and walk away? This is our town. We’ve decided we like it here,” one of them said.
“It’s not yours. This is our town, our people. We’ve lived here all our lives. We won’t let you take everything these people have worked for,” one of Connor’s men said, as he wiped a hand across his split lip and the blood dribbling down his chin.
“We can. We have. And we don’t fucking care. Just ask old man Clausen. He signed this place over to us after just a couple of hours negotiating.”
“We felt kind of bad for the old bastard, huh, Brady? You’d think his kid would have had more regard for the old man, than to just up and disappear without a word. Probably why he was so anxious to agree, you know, before another one disappeared,” a third male said as he squawked with laughter.
Brady stood in the doorway, surrounded by his friends as they all laughed at Connor’s men, daring them to defy them. “Take a hint assholes. Tell your little motorcycle friends that we’re about out of patience with this bullshit. Get the fuck out of our town, or you might be the next to disappear.”
Jack, Rance and Niko stepped into the murky light of the old sign out by the edge of the parking lot, declaring the building ‘Clausen’s Hardware’.
“Well, well, well. It’s been a while. What a coincidence that we find you here in our new favorite town, Brady,” Jack said, his stance giving the impression that he was completely relaxed and talking with an old friend.
The laughter stopped and Brady went from laughing carelessly with his friends, to a very stiff, on edge posture. “Get out of this town, Laighin.”
Jack shook his head. “It’s Alpha Laighin. But you know that, don’t you? You know what? In recognition of the fact that we’re old friends, I’ll allow you to call me Jack. All my best friends do.”
“You got no reason to be here. Nothing happening here concerns you, Laighin. Get out of here before we force you out,” Brady threatened.
“You hear that?” Jack asked, looking to his left where Niko stood beside him.
“You’d think if an Alpha invites someone to be their best friend, especially someone he allowed to live when he should have killed his ungrateful ass, that they’d appreciate it. But not this fuck wad,” Niko said.
Jack shook his head. “You insulted me, Brady.”
“Fuck you,” Brady laughed, looking to his friends who’d been surrounding him for support. But nobody laughed. In fact, two of them had moved back into the store itself, leaving only three to stand with Brady.
Rance sighed and took two long strides forward.
“Rance!” Jack said sharply.
Rance sighed exaggeratedly and looked back at Jack. “Come on! I’ve waited and waited and waited. And you promised I could kill somebody when we got here. We’re here! And that motherfucker shouldn’t have been allowed to leave our mountain at all. Let me kill him!”
“I have the authority of the Falwell Pride behind me! I’m informing you that you are trespassing! Trespassing on Falwell territory is a death sentence. You have one chance! Leave now!” Brady yelled, but his voice didn’t hold the confidence it had when they were taunting Connor’s men earlier.
Jack laughed as he looked at Niko, who’d started chuckling.
Then he looked behind himself to see what Connor’s men were doing, but they weren’t there anymore — as was planned. “Oh! I guess they had something else to do. They must have had to go get into position or something,” Jack said, lifting his hands into the air with a shrug.
“Oh, come on!” Rance said. “You know he should be dead by now.”
“But then we’ll have to clean up all the blood in there. Maybe just wait until they come out here.”
“You promised,” Rance said.
“Yeah,” Jack said, nodding resignedly. “I did. But I didn’t know we’d run into an old friend.”
“He’s a fucking piece of shit! He stood against you when you took Alpha from your father.”
Jack nodded resignedly. “Yeah, I know. I just always try to give everybody a chance to get right with God before they die, you know? You hear that, Brady? Make your peace with whatever God you believe in. It’s Rance’s turn, now.”
Rance lifted his lip and allowed a snarl to carry up out of his throat.
“Go ahead,” Jack said to Rance.
Rance’s grin turned positively chilling as he turned back to the building and started running toward the door.
Brady slammed the glass door and locked it as his males ran for the back of the store, with him following suit.
Rance lifted one booted foot as he reached the door, shattering it on impact, and did not even break stride as he went through it, roaring as he reached out and grabbed one of the only Lions inside brave enough to try to hold him off.
“I’m going in with him to flush the rest out of the back,” Jack said as he started toward the store.
“I’m holding out here with Tate and Zev in case they come back this direction. Then we’ll join you out back,” Niko said, as roars and gunfire erupted from behind the old store.
Jack started running.
“Remember, don’t shift! They’re only shooting Lions!” Niko shouted.
It didn’t take long, fifteen minutes at best, and Jack and a dozen of his males were standing with Connor and his men, looking at the bodies of seven Lion shifters.
Five had been shot, one had been beaten and shot, the last, Brady, had been beaten to death by Rance, who still stalked back and forth several feet away, huffing and snarling, in his human form.
“He alright?” Connor asked doubtfully as he cast a glance toward Rance.
“Yep. It’s just a lot of adrenalin for the human sides of us to dissipate when the aggression of the Lion takes over.
And this particular one really pissed him off.
He was one of ours under my father’s reign.
We let him walk away alive when I killed my father.
Rance wanted to kill him then. He’ll be alright, though,” Jack said.
“You killed your father?” Connor asked.
Jack nodded as he looked down at the seven bodies lying in the dark behind the store. “Had to. He was a psychotic motherfucker who enjoyed torturing his own Pride.” Jack looked up at Connor with a friendly smile. “We’re all much happier now.”
Connor nodded slowly. “Okay, then.”
“So, what’s next?” Slade asked, already looking for a real fight he could get his hands dirty in.
“Next we tear up the bullshit agreement between those fuckers and the man this place belonged to and put him back in his store, with the understanding that he doesn’t come back in here for a little while. Give us a chance to clean this town up before he reopens,” Connor said.
“Sounds like a plan to me. Let’s go see if we can find any more fun tonight,” Jack said.