“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 stumblingand 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 hadto 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.
