by AM Cosgrove
Rann Brothers Trilogy - Jack © 2021 by Allison M. Cosgrove
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
First edition January 2021
Editor: Quinn Ryder; Ryder Editing & Formatting,
Cover Design: Tayor Dawn; Sweet 15 Design,
Book Interior Design & eBook Adaptation: Deena Rae; E-BookBuilders
ISBN: 9798594559264
Fonts: Adobe Garamond, Libel Suit, You Suckin’ Thief
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Scene change crowns: Designed by macrovector; adapted by eBookBuilders
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File version 202101001.010
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
OTHER BOOKS
DEDICATION
THE RANN BROTHERS: JACK
ABOUT JACK
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OTHER BOOKS
STAN BROOKSHIRE
Sacrifice Of Innocence
Dragon Twins
An Insomniacs Dream
Pieces of You
The Widowmaker
Only The Willing
DEN OF THIEVES
Diamonds
Bodyguard
RANN BROTHERS
Jack
John
Will
DEDICATION
This is for the ones who never gave up on me.
My husband, my daughters, family, and friends.
Much love to you now and always.
THE RANN BROTHERS: JACK
Jack Rann needed answers. As his stint in prison comes to an end, he still questions how he ended up in prison rags instead of a tailored designer suit.
Was it his outlandish playboy lifestyle?
Or perhaps his role as a member of an infamous crime family finally caught up with him.
Either way, Jack is determined to uncover the dark underlying secrets that could threaten the existence of their family. Time is of the essence as Jack works to prove his theories, all while saving what is most important to him…family.
CHAPTER ONE
Jack
The sun was warm on Jack’s face as he stepped out of the building. Closing his eyes, he turned his face towards it, feeling its warmth on his skin. Locked away from the sun, the rain, and the fresh air, he had spent the last four and a half years in the bowels of the prison, breathing in nothing but stale recirculated air. He stretched his arms out.
“What are you doing? Are you just going to stand there all day? I have shit to do today that doesn’t involve standing here watching you do callisthenics,” the guard behind him grumbled.
“I am terribly sorry to be interrupting your work schedule, but it has been a bit since I was able to stretch out comfortably.” Jack smirked and stretched again.
The guard glared at him and said nothing more. There was very little the guard could do about him standing there on the steps of the jail. Jack was a free man—free to do as he pleased now. He certainly wasn’t breaking any laws standing there as he was.
“C’mon now, off you go,” the guard growled, shooing him away as if he was a school boy loitering around the schoolyard after school.
“I’m not sure where you want me to go. You lot have had me locked up thousands of kilometres from London without a car.”
“It’s not that fucking far,” the guard grumbled, clearly irritated that my ride was late.
Jack shrugged, enjoying watching the guard squirm. “Well, it sure feels like it is.”
Just then, a black convertible pulled up in front of the gates and honked its horn. Jack watched as the top rolled down to show his beautiful Mirabelle at the wheel.
“Hello, darling!” she called, waving at him.
“I suppose I’ll be going now that my ride is here.”
“Good riddance,” the guard mumbled as Jack stepped off the steps and headed towards the car.
“I did so enjoy my stay at the Monster Mansion, but I do hope that we won’t be seeing each other any time soon,” Jack called as the gates opened and he was finally outside.
“Here’s the jacket you wanted, babe,” Mirabelle said, snapping her gum as she passed him his jacket, which was draped over the backseat.
“Can you stop doing that?” She got out of the car to move to the passenger side, while he put the suit jacket on over his prison issued t-shirt.
“What?” Her gum snapped again; the sound grated on his nerves.
“That… your fucking gum. Spit it out,” Jack barked at her as he got in the car and slammed the door.
She stood there, hand on the passenger door handle, looking at him for a moment before slowly reaching up to her mouth and pulling the gum from her lips, tossing it over her shoulder onto the roadway.
“Are you going to keep fucking standing there or are you going to get in the car? Let’s get the fuck out of this place. I have spent too many years here already to waste another blasted fucking minute, while you stand there staring at me like a deer caught in a pair of headlamps.” Jack glared. “Get in the fucking car already.”
She silently did as she was told and buckled her seatbelt, flipping her long black hair over her shoulder.
He watched her for a moment as she leaned on the passenger side door. Mirabelle was beautiful. Not in a drop-dead gorgeous sort of way, but in a girl next door, moved to the big city, and had some work done sort of way. He paid for her to have a boob job a few years before when they first met. There was something about her that called to him when he met her in the club in a way no other woman had in the past. However, as beautiful as she was, there was a standard of living that he’d become accustomed to over the years, and a boob job had to be done. She didn’t mind. She had been happy to please him when he had offered her a place to live and all the creature comforts she could ask for. It was an arrangement that worked for them both.
“I thought you said that we had to get going because you’ve had enough of this joint? You’re sitting here staring at me like you’re some college freshman
with a hard on,” Mirabelle grumbled, giving him a look that said she wasn’t impressed with him.
“Whatever. I’ll move when I’m damned good and ready,” he spat at her. He certainly hadn’t missed Mirabelle’s attitude while he had been locked up.
He adjusted his seat and straightened the mirrors. The engine fired to life as soon as he turned the key.
Sitting there a moment, feeling the rumble of the engine, he took a deep breath and felt some tension leave his shoulders. It felt so good to be back on the outside again. He put the car into gear and roared out of the parking lot, leaving a trail of tire smoke behind him as he went.
It wasn’t long before they were on the highway and headed back to London. Jack pulled out into the fast lane and jammed his foot into the floorboard. He weaved in and out of traffic as he went. Mirabelle laughed and shrieked at him as they flew past the other vehicles that shared the road with them, the faces of their drivers filled with horror and shock as the little black convertible blazed past them.
He slowed down as traffic bunched up a bit and placed a hand on her thigh as he drove. “God, how I’ve missed this, Mirabelle.”
“I know you have. I am so glad to have you back again. Your brothers have missed you,” she sighed and placed her hand on his.
“Bah! They haven’t missed me at all. They’re probably glad that they haven’t had to deal with me much in the last five years except for my interests in the family business.”
“Nonsense! You know they have been waiting for you all damned day at the Lion Arms, so that they would be there when you arrived home.”
“I’m sure they have been waiting on bated breaths for the prodigal brother to return home. That’s a laugh.” He pushed the pedal back to the floor as traffic resumed, hurtling towards London.
It was starting to get dark as they pulled into downtown London. The streetlights lit the old cobblestones and people were wandering home from their jobs, a few stopping to run errands.
Parking was scarce at the pub when he pulled in. He could see his brothers’ cars sitting in their usual spots near the back of the lot. His spot in the middle stood empty.
“At least they saved me my damned spot,” he muttered as he backed the car into the space.
“Well, they did know that you were getting out today, so that really shouldn’t come as a big surprise,” Mirabelle responded, finally speaking after riding the entire way to the city in silence. She was probably still irritated that he forced her to spit out her gum.
He shrugged. “No, but you never know with those two. They didn’t seem too happy that I ended up in the clink to begin with. They could have disinherited me in the meantime.”
“I highly doubt that. You went in on a bloody assault charge. Not something serious that would have hurt the family.”
“Again, you just never can be sure with them,” he said as the roof of the convertible closed, and they got out of the car.
The air was cooling as the sun set. They quickly walked across the parking lot and through the back door of the pub.
The building the pub was in had been around for hundreds of years. It was tiny and the rooms dimly lit. The seating was cramped in the main rooms, but the room he and his brothers often used had fewer tables and employed more couches and lounge chairs, giving the room a less cluttered feel.
He took a deep breath as he pushed open the door to the room and stepped inside. Nothing had changed in the years that he had been gone. Everyone and everything that was in the room looked exactly as it did before he got locked up, except his brother. John looked a little older than he had before Jack had gone to jail.
“Well look what the cat finally dragged in,” his older brother John called from across the room, raising his glass of whiskey. He pushed the girl who was leaning on him off as he rose to his feet, putting his glass down on the side table.
“Good to see you too, brother,” Jack replied, crossing the center of the room to embrace John.
“Let me have a look at you.” John held Jack’s head in his hands, staring into his eyes. He was close enough that Jack could smell the whiskey on his breath.
“I’m still the better looking of the two of us,” Jack laughed.
John ruffled his hair as he walked back to his seat. “You need to learn to respect your elders.”
“You’re only older by ten minutes, John. That counts for piss all, and you know it.”
John laughed, “Get my brother a drink, he’s been inside and dry for too long.”
The bartender assigned to their room nodded, reaching under the counter for a glass before pouring a double shot of Glenfiddich and handing it to Jack.
John walked over to where Jack sat and plopped down in the large high-backed armchair across from him.
“So, how have you been? Were you treated well on the inside?” John crossed his legs and leaned back, retrieving his glass off the table.
“As well as someone like me could be, I suppose.” He nodded and took a sip of the whiskey. It tasted good, and it had a familiar burn on the way down.
It was certainly good to be home.
“Did someone make you their bitch? Do tell!” John laughed and the rest of the room followed suit.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jack growled under his breath. He felt a familiar hand fall on his shoulder. Glancing up, he saw Mirabelle standing next to him.
“Well, you know, in all the years of our family, you are the only one to have gotten pinched for something and spent time for it.”
Jack took another sip of whiskey. “Whatever.”
“I still can’t believe you were stupid enough to get caught like that. I mean, what in the hell were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t worried about the fucking cops.” Jack could feel the anger rising up like bile from his stomach.
John’s mood darkened. “Clearly, or you wouldn’t have let your fucking ego get the better of you.”
“Well, if you would have had my back, then I wouldn’t have gone off,” Jack growled.
“I would have had your fucking back if there was a logical reason to do so.”
“Whatever. Nothing can be fucking done about it now, now can it?” Jack downed the rest of the whiskey in his glass and signaled to the bartender for another.
The room had fallen silent. Everyone that wasn’t John or Jack seemed to be nervously looking into the bottom of their drinks or staring at each other.
“It’s good to have you back home with us again, Jack,” John said quietly after a moment, depositing his empty glass back on the table.
“I’m sure you’re just elated,” Jack mumbled, the anger subsiding into something that resembled his usual simmering indignation of how his brother treated him.
“Come on now, let’s not start with this shit again. You’ve just gotten home, and we all have much to discuss.” John, as usual, tried to calm down the shitstorm he stirred up.
Jack nodded and said nothing.
The door to the room opened and in walked their younger brother, William.
“Where the hell have you been?” John exclaimed, looking up as Will crossed the room towards them.
“I went and had a piss, do you mind?” Will rolled his eyes. He was considerably younger than Jack and John. A product of another relationship of their father’s.
“Well, Jack just got back, and he was missing his baby brother,” John laughed.
William nodded. “Good to see you home, Jack.”
“Glad to be home, Will. You’ve kept well?”
“Mostly.” Will nodded as the bartender brought him a glass of dark amber liquid.
“When did you start drinking whiskey?”
“I haven’t. It’s bourbon.” Will took a sip and set the glass on the arm of his chair.
“Huh? Interesting. My little brother has grown up.”
“Alright, boys, have we had enough chatter? Can we get down to business now? Or do we need some more reunion time?” John interjected, cutting off any further conversation.
Jack sighed. He had been hoping for a hot shower, but apparently that was not going to be the case. William just sat there looking uncomfortable.
“No objections? Good,” John said, waving everyone that wasn’t needed out of the room.
“So, the first thing I want to know is what happened to the bastard that sent me up the river?” Jack growled, slamming his now empty glass onto the table.
CHAPTER TWO
Mirabelle
She sat there watching the energy in the room change. It wasn’t like the family was ever anything anyone would call normal, or warm and loving, but there was always some sort of calm comradery of some sort or another. Right now, it felt as if someone had their hand on the pin of a live grenade, and it was moments from going off.
“No one sent you up the river, Jack,” John said quietly, almost as if he was trying his best to diffuse the tension.
“Oh? Really now?” Jack’s jaw tensed as he spoke through clenched teeth. “So, tell me then, how is it that I’ve spent the last five years of my life in a concrete box?”
“Jack, it was simply a matter of what happened. There was nothing that any of us could do.”
“I call bullshit. You just didn’t want to get your damn hands dirty, that’s what it all boils down to.” Jack stood up, towering over his brother.
“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.” John snapped up to his feet, meeting his brother eye to eye.
“You damned well know, what all this is about. You think that I deserved to go away for a while. That if you allowed me to take a breather, as you so lovingly put it, then somehow, I would come out a changed man.”
“I don’t need you to change—” John started before Jack cut him off.
“More bullshit. Do you think I am going to keep falling for your head of the family, trying my best to be the best older brother bullshit, time and time again? I damned well know what you think of me, John. You have always been this way, even when we were kids.” Jack stormed across the room.
