Chapter 11 - Teaser

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and to thank my wonderful readers, I am letting you get an advance peek at Chapter 11.  This is the rough draft of the first couple of pages, it will be tweaked many many times before it is submitted.

Thank you again,

PBL


Chapter 11 - That tiara looks fabulous with your outfit

Frank drove to Joe’s house and walked around the garage to the pool house where Joe was waiting, he dropped his duffle inside the door and without saying a word they started running, following a path they had worn down over the last twenty years.  When they were halfway through their ten mile run, Joe said, “I was up most of the night trying to sort things out.  I know Charles has to be a part of it, but I feel like there is someone else involved, so who is it?”

“I could feel your agitation and was thinking the same thing.  Aldo said something we need to clarify…,” Frank was saying as he was interrupted.

“That the feeling was one of revenge and it had been festering for years,” finished Joe as he looked at his brother for confirmation.

Frank stopped running and said, “Exactly.  I was going over who the Pack has had issues with since Carlo became Alpha and I couldn’t come up with anybody.  There were some small things, getting contracts for business deals, but in others they got the contracts.  Personally, we’ve had to fire some employees, but they were human.  The only Pack I could think we’ve had a problem with was Matt and Phil’s, but is that enough to wage war?  I don’t think so.”

“So the question remains, who hates our Pack enough to wage war against us and try to kidnap our females, and more personally come after our daughters?” asked Joe as his eyes started to turn amber again.  “Who would be that fucking stupid?” 

Frank looked at the sky and said quietly, “Let’s finish our run; we need to be at The School House by 6, and we need to stop by The Diner and pick up breakfast for everyone.”  The brothers continued their run, lost in their thoughts.  Twenty minutes later they were in the shower room and they picked up their conversation as if they had never stopped.

“I think the answer lies with the elders.  We need to talk to them after the meeting tonight, even though we are taught Pack history, they know the true stories behind the official story,” said Joe with a frown on his face.

Frank started laughing and said, “Okay Paul Harvey, we’ll talk to the elders.  Now hurry up or we’ll be late.”  They hurried through their shower and got dressed in light silvery-gray polo shirts with a navy blue embroidered Triple C logo on the left breast and their favorite Lands End Chino shorts in navy.  Without speaking they put on construction boots and gray with navy embroidery Triple C baseball hats, as they were putting on their watches Frank looked down and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” asked Joe as he grabbed his dirty clothes and threw them in the hamper as Frank put his into the duffle before zipping it closed.

“I realized how often we dress alike.  We hated when Mom would dress us alike, now we do it all the time,” said Frank as he waited at the door for Joe.

“Blame our mates, they buy most of our clothes, and you can’t count dressing for work since we work together,” said Joe making sure everything was turned off.  “And Annie and Rose picked out the work uniforms, including the color and logos.”

“It’s been two years since we changed the uniforms, and I have to admit it does make us stand out from other construction companies.  Having everyone dressed in gray t’s with a small logo on the left front and a larger logo on the back, navy cargo shorts or pants, the baseball hats, and the silver trucks with the blue Triple C logo.  They did a good job,” said Frank with a smile as they walked to his work truck.   

“You forgot the windbreakers, winter jackets, hoodies and crew-neck sweatshirts,” Joe said as he started laughing.  “To think all of that started because we mentioned we were thinking of getting new t-shirts for the work crew.”

Frank looked at his brother before pulling out of his driveway and said, “I’m not sure who was more surprised when a week later they called a meeting and handed out the new uniforms, you, me or the work crew.”

“One thing for sure, they never do anything little,” said Joe with a smile and leaned forward turning up the volume as ‘Don’t fear the Reaper’, one of their favorite songs came on the classic rock station.  As soon as the song ended the brothers looked at each other and laughed as Joe said, “Every time I hear that song, it reminds me of the night our parents forced us to take Annie and Rose to the movies.  Remember, we’d just gotten our licenses and they said we couldn’t use Dad’s car the following weekend unless we took the girls to the movies while they went to a Pack meeting.”

Frank was laughing so hard he could hardly talk, “And we agreed as long as we could pick the movie.  The girls had no idea what ‘Halloween’ was about and you told them it was a movie about a small town with a really cool Halloween tradition.  I can still see them sitting there, with their mouths hanging open, hands covering their eyes and screaming so loud I thought my eardrums would shatter.”

“And we knew Carlo was in the parking lot waiting on us after the movie, and you told him to hide to scare the girls, they wouldn’t get in the car until we checked the trunk and looked under it to make sure nobody was going to get us, and you told Carlo to sneak under the car, and when you got on your hands and knees to look he pulled you under the car and you screamed ‘Run girls run, he’s got me’, and all they could see was your legs twitching and you kept screaming, then you stopped and Carlo dumped his coke so it looked like a pool of blood coming from under the car,” said Joe laughing so hard he was gasping for breath.

Frank took off his Oakley sunglasses and wiped his eyes as he remembered looking from under the car seeing Rose and Annie’s feet as they ran through the parking lot screaming as loud as they could.  After Joe got him and Carlo out from under the car, the three of them were laughing so hard they had to sit down.  “Remember where we found them?  They were hiding in the women’s bathroom in the Montgomery Wards next to the theater,” said Frank laughing.  “It took us fifteen minutes to calm them down so they would get in the car, and they didn’t talk to us the whole way home.”

“They got us back though,” said Joe with a smile.  “They told their parents and ours we would take them to Longmeadow drive-in the following weekend to see ‘Grease’ since it wasn’t playing in the theaters anymore.  Annie was glaring at me saying ‘Isn’t that right, Giuseppe, since we had such a good time tonight.’  She considers ‘Grease’ our first real date, even though we didn’t talk to them the whole night.” 

“We talked to them,” said Frank with a smile.  “I distinctly remember telling them to shut up several times when they started singing and when Rose said she was hungry; I said ‘Tough luck’ and kept eating my popcorn.  When Annie said she was thirsty and wanted some of your Big Gulp, you told her ‘No’, and drank the whole thing and threw the cup on the seat.”  He glanced at his brother before he continued, “And when Annie said she had to use the restroom, you got the cup off the seat and handed it to her and said, ‘Use this’.”

“Damn, we were dicks, weren’t we?  It’s a wonder the girls accepted us when we made our declarations,” said Joe with a laugh.  “I remember JR came over with his sister and took them to the restroom and I got irritated when he put his hand on Annie’s arm when she tripped.  I didn’t realize it was the start of the mating pull and a little over two years later, I would want to kill any male that put their hands on her.”

They got quiet as they thought of their mates and Frank cleared his throat and said, “By the way, I talked to Sal last night and asked him what is going on with him and Gabby.  He said he has no clue but feels protective of her and kinda likes her.  I told him to respect her and remember he is only fifteen years old.”

“Does he know Gabby’s planning on studying in Italy for two years to get her degree?” asked Joe as they pulled into the side parking lot of The Diner and he began to smile.  For some reason his brother hated to go in reverse, so he always drove around the parking lot so he could pull through, parking hood out and wouldn’t have to reverse out of a spot.

Frank sighed loudly and said, “I didn’t mention it.  Gabby still has two years of high school, then a year of college before she would leave.  If they are mates, and I’m thinking they are, then they are going to have enough trials to get through and I don’t want to start worrying Sal from now.  I’ll be right back; Carlo already called the order in.”  He opened the door and walked around the truck and stopped next to Joe’s window and said, “The question will be, will he love her enough to let her go?  I don’t mean let her go to Italy since that would be her choice.  But will he love her enough to put aside his need to be with her so she can fulfill her lifelong dream?  Sal would be eighteen when Gabby would leave, and I know at that age my need for Rose was overwhelming…I don’t think I could’ve done it.”

Joe watched as his brother walked into The Diner and thought of his own need to be with Annie after he felt the mating pull.  He closed his eyes thinking back to that time; how possessive he was, how she would sit for hours on his lap reading a book while he scented her neck, and he remembered several nights when he slept outside her bedroom window because he couldn’t stand to be apart from her and he knew without a doubt he wouldn’t have been able to let Annie go.

Frank opened the rear door of the truck and placed the box inside before getting behind the wheel of his work truck.  As Frank pulled out of the parking lot, Joe said quietly, “I wouldn’t have been able to let Annie go either.”  He glanced once more at his older brother before turning his head to look at the buildings they were passing without really seeing them.  He cleared his throat before he murmured, “We need to talk to Anthony and Alberto and tell them we were wrong, we shouldn’t have told them the way we did.  They’re our daughter’s mates and we should’ve respected them enough to tell them in private.  If Pop told me he was taking Annie away from me, I would’ve ripped his fucking head off.”

“There for a minute, I thought they were going to, or at least try,” said Frank nodding his head as he thought back to Anthony and Alberto’s reaction.  “I agree with you, we need to apologize.  Do you think we should pull them to the side at The School House or maybe take them out to dinner before the meeting tonight?”

“We’ll talk to Carlo, I’m not sure what he has planned or what time Dante is getting here and he wants us to go with him to pick them up,” said Joe.  “Either way, we’ll apologize this morning and arrange to go out to dinner with them and talk things through a little more.”

Frank got quiet and asked, “Are you having trouble separating little Alberto Moretti who grew up with our sons and the grown Alberto Moretti who is your daughters mate?  When I see Anthony with Sophia, I still see the four year old little boy who cried when Carlo told him he couldn’t train with the older boys.”

“But he proved Carlo wrong didn’t he?  The following week he came to training with Carlo like he usually did and stood up challenging the older boys and when he beat several of them Carlo had to give in and start training him,” said Joe with a smile.  “He was a determined boy and stood up to his father, just like he did yesterday.”

“It surprised me how forceful he was with Carlo, and the power that was coming off of him was almost overwhelming,” Frank said in amazement.  “Have you really looked at Anthony lately?  Damn, the boy is only seventeen, but physically looks years older.  I think he’s even taller then Vincent and Dominic now, he weighs more and his muscle definition is unreal.  The way he picked up Scott and threw him surprised me and Scott weighs like 260.”

“Since we’re talking about him, I want to bring something up,” said Joe as Frank glanced at him.  “I think Anthony, Vincent and Dominic should be moved up to the men’s training classes.  They can only practice on each other and I think by keeping them in the boys training class, we’re holding them back.”

“I was thinking the same thing, but I think we’ll test all the boys next week for new placements.  We’ll have to increase their training anyway and testing them will give us a better look at their strengths and weaknesses.  I have a feeling a few of the boys will surprise us,” Frank said as he rubbed his neck.  “We’ll talk it over with Carlo, he has the final say.  We’re almost there, anything else you want to talk about?”

“Well...yeah…Annie and Rose seemed awfully calm yesterday, almost too calm.  Do you think they’re planning something?” Joe asked turning to look at his brother. 

“I don’t think they’re planning something, I know they’re planning something,” said Frank with a laugh.  “The problem is, we’ll only know about it when they are ready to tell us.  Those two are more sneaky, stubborn and hard-headed then any two women I’ve ever met.”

Joe started laughing as he said, “I guess they have to be since they’ve put up with us for the last twenty-three years, almost twenty-four.”

“Speak for yourself baby brother,” said Frank as he braked to a stop in front of the gates of The School House.  “You may be hard to get along with, but I’m not.”