Jack: The Rann Brothers Trilogy Book One: Social Rejects Syndicate

by AM Cosgrove

  “Jack, are you alright?” she whispered against him.

  “Yes, my darling. I am.”

  “Why—”

  “Shhh. You should be resting.” He stroked her hair soft dark hair with his free hand, settling her down.

  They laid there together in silence. Jack stroking her hair, listening to the sound of her breathing as Gloria puttered around in the kitchen talking to one of the guards. He hoped that they weren’t giving the old woman any trouble, not that he thought that she wouldn’t be able to handle them all on her own. For being a tiny, stout, older broad, she didn’t seem to be willing to tolerate anyone’s bullshit.

  “Jack?”

  “Hmm?” he responded, snapping out of his daze.

  “You’re not going after them, are you?” she asked quietly after a moment as if she was trying to find the words.

  Jack said nothing. He didn’t want her to worry. He wanted her to focus on getting better, but at the same time, he also didn’t want to lie to her, either. He wanted to be truthful with her always.

  “Yes.”

  She pulled away from him and in the faint light, he could see the worry in her eyes.

  “You can’t.”

  “It has to be done, Mirry. There is no other way for this to end.”

  “You can’t,” she said again. “They will kill you.”

  “They can try, but I don’t think they will find that to be a very easy job anymore.” Jack smiled down at her, wishing he could wipe the worry off her face. He found himself wishing for anything but the life he had. He wanted nothing but to be able to lift her out of this bed and walk away from it all. That was what he truly wanted, but that wasn’t going to be the case and all he could do for the time being was end the Adams short reign of terror on his family, and hopefully restore the modicum of peace they all once shared. Then he would find a way to make sure that no one else would ever be able to hurt Mirabelle again.

  “Jack, please be careful,” she whispered.

  “I’m always careful, love.” He pulled her closer, and he felt her melt into his chest.

  “I need you to come home to me.”

  “I will always come home to you,” he sighed. “I promise.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Jack

  Jack’s phone rang, waking him up from his sleep and jolting him into consciousness.

  “Jack, they know.” It was John.

  “What the hell—” Jack said, sliding out of the bed beside Mirabelle where they had fallen asleep a few hours before.

  “I don’t know who it was that ratted us out, but they know.”

  “How do we know?”

  “There have been at least four separate attacks in the last two hours. It seems that while we all went home to figure out each of our pieces and put them into play, someone went home and called Ethan.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Jack tried to clear the sleep from his head and grasp the words that his brother was saying.

  “I wish I was, Jack, I wish I was. But apparently, this thing is going exactly the direction that we don’t want it to go. And for the moment, every time we send help to one place, another is hit.”

  “Why wasn’t I told about this before?”

  “I have been trying to get a hold of you and your brother for the last hour at least. As soon as I realized what was going on, but my phone has literally not stopped ringing.”

  “Jack, what’s going on?” Mirabelle whispered and he waved her away, leaving the room.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m at my house at the moment, but I am going to head down to Lucian’s. He hasn’t been hit yet, but the rest are starting to gather there, in the hopes we can find a way to put an end to this before Ethan burns London to the ground.”

  He hurried through the flat, grabbing his jacket as he put his shoes on, startling Gloria who had once again nodded off on the couch in the living room.

  “I am on my way,” Jack said, hanging up the phone. “Gloria, take care of Mirabelle. I will be back as soon as I can.”

  He motioned to the two guards who had picked up on his sudden change of demeanor.

  “No one is to go in or out of this flat until I get back. If you have to shoot to kill. Under no circumstances is anything to happen to Mirabelle. Understood?”

  The two men said nothing but nodded.

  Jack left the flat, waiting outside the door until he heard the door lock and the deadbolt engage.

  He hoped like hell Ethan wouldn’t be stupid enough to send his good squad to Jack’s door, but at the same time, he wouldn’t put it past him. The man was a maniac. Taking on all the families at once was something that no one had ever had the guts to do, but then again, this was Ethan Adams. And the man had proven, by simply challenging the Rann Family, that he was not above a power play.

  If Ethan won this skirmish, then he would believe himself unstoppable. There would be no end. And while no one in their world was a stranger to violence, all it did nowadays was to bring unwanted attention to their businesses. With that would come the collapse of long-standing empires, leaving a void—a void Ethan or someone far worse would be happy to fill.

  While most Londoners went on about their daily lives, more than likely aware that there was a dark underbelly to their city, but were blissfully blind to how much of what they didn’t see depended on the careful balance between the innocent and not so. Even the politicians with their agendas knew better than to try to disrupt the balance, lest there be a war that started that the innocent would fall victim to.

  Jack got into his car again and prayed that they would be able to find a way to bring this to an end before it got way out of control.

  His phone rang the second he came out of the underground.

  “Jack.”

  “Yeah, I am on my way.”

  “Have you tried calling Will?”

  “No, I thought you were trying to get a hold of him.”

  “I haven’t been able to.”

  “Ok? Maybe he is asleep? He seems like the thing you do at night, you know?”

  “Jack, don’t be a fucking smartass. His phone was ringing now it is going straight to voicemail.”

  Jack paused for a moment. That didn’t seem like Will at all. He never turned his phone off. And going straight to voicemail meant it was off.

  “Hang on, Jack, I think that’s Will trying to call through, I’ll connect us all.” Jack heard a click on the line.

  “Hello?” John said.

  “Good evening, John.” A voice that was not his younger brother’s, came through the phone.

  “Ethan Adams,” John growled.

  “Good guess, John. How have you been keeping? It’s been a while since we last spoke; I didn’t think you would remember me.”

  “Where the hell is my brother?”

  “Do you mean Jacky Boy or Wee Willy?” Ethan laughed. “What a man you are, can’t even keep track of your brothers. Tisk tisk.”

  “I’m right here, Ethan,” Jack replied. “Where the fuck is William?”

  “Oh goodie, I have both of you on the line at the same time. What a pleasure.”

  “Enough of the games, where is our brother,” John roared.

  “William and I are having a nice conversation here at your favorite pub.” Jack cranked the wheel and pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road, blazing a trail straight for the pub.

  “If you hurt one hair on his head—” John started.

  “You’ll what, John? Strike up an army to thwart me and my goals? Give me a break. You’ve already tried that and failed miserably. Never trust a wolf in sheep’s clothing, John.”

  “I swear to God I’ll—”

  “Don’t bother with God, John, he already abandoned the Rann family a long time ago.”

 
The line went dead.

  “Jack, you still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. On my way to the pub now,” Jack said as he negotiated the streets, running as many red lights as he dared without getting caught.

  “Don’t do anything until I get there.”

  When Jack rolled up the pub, no more than ten minutes after hanging up with John, it was on fire. Giant flames shot out of the roof. Sirens wailed in the distance. It wouldn’t be long before the local fire department, and then the coppers would be here.

  He threw his car in park and jumped out of it, racing straight into the building. If Will was still in there, Jack didn’t have time to wait for John to get there to get him back out.

  “William!” Jack yelled as he choked on the smoke billowing around him. The heat was intense.

  He pushed against the feeling in the pit of his stomach. Will had to be alive.

  “Will!” he screamed as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and tied it over his nose and mouth. The arid air burned his lungs as he yelled.

  “Jack!” his brother’s voice was barely audible over the roar of the fire.

  He hurried into the back room and saw Will tied to a chair in the middle of a ring of flames.

  How Will was still alive, Jack didn’t know, but he knew he had to work quickly or he wouldn’t be able to get to Will at all?

  “Jack, don’t come near me. Get out while you still can.”

  “Not a chance, Little Brother. I’m not leaving you in here.”

  “There’s no time. They used petrol and doused it everywhere. It’s only a matter of minutes before the whole thing collapses. I don’t want you to die.”

  “If anyone dies, we die together. I am not leaving you here.”

  Jack ducked over to the bar and grabbed a bucket, plunging it into the melted water of the icebox before racing across the room, putting out flames as he went, trying to clear a path to William that they could use to get back out.

  “You’re crazy!” Will shouted at him over the deafening sound.

  A loud crack above their heads made them both look up.

  “I told you to get out of here. The roof is about to collapse,” Will screamed before he started coughing uncontrollably.

  Jack said nothing but went to work on the ropes that bound will to the chair. He looked around for something small he could use and found a piece of wood from the rafters that he brought close enough to the back of the chair to burn through the ropes.

  “C’mon, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Jack said, pulling William to his feet and dragging him across the floor.

  There was another loud crack and groan as the beam, right above where they had just been moments before, gave way and crashed down into the chair.

  “Fuck, that was too close,” Jack coughed. His lungs felt like they were on fire as he helped William out of the room and across the pub.

  The cool night air was welcome as they stumbled out the door. Jack lost his footing, and they both went to the ground. Will laid there on his back gasping for air.

  “Well, I see you do still believe in family there, Jacky boy,” a now too familiar voice spoke up from just a few feet away.

  Jack looked up to find Ethan Adams standing alone in the middle of the parking lot, staring down at them.

  “You won’t get away with this, Ethan.”

  “Oh, but I think I will. I don’t think there is anyone in this city that will dare stand up to me after this is over. John won’t be able to find enough people to come to your funerals, let alone rise up against me.”

  “You, power-hungry son of a bitch! You have no idea what we will do to you,” Jack said through gritted teeth, trying to get to his feet. Will stumbled up to his feet beside him.

  “I don’t know why the two of you don’t just give up. It’s over. The Rann Empire has fallen, and the first two casualties will be the both of you.”

  A gun cocked and Ethan Adams’ hands slowly rose up to his head.

  “They won’t back down because they are Ranns, and because they know that their older brother will always have their back.”

  Jack had been so focused on Ethan that he hadn’t seen John creeping across the parking lot.

  “Very good, John. Now I have all three of you right where I want you. I wasn’t sure if you would bother showing up. I mean, after all, Will doesn’t want anything to do with the family, and Jack is simply the world’s greatest fuck up there ever was.”

  “They are still my brothers, and I would die for them.”

  “Would you now? We should test that theory then.” Ethan smiled as the pub exploded and pieces of the building flew in every direction.

  Jack was thrown across the parking lot with the blast. He landed against some parked cars. He could see

  Will laying not far from where he had been standing moments before.

  He couldn’t see Ethan or John anywhere. He went to stand up to go to Will, when a second explosion rocked the building and slammed his head against the car, hard enough that the world spun as he tried to regain his feet. He had almost made it when the darkness took hold and he collapsed.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Mirabelle

  There was a loud banging at the door, followed by a flurry of loud voices and scuffling feet. She could hear John’s voice rising above it all.

  “Be careful with him. We don’t know how bad he is hurt.”

  Mirabelle wrapped a blanket around her shoulders as best she could and slipped down the hall. The scene that greeted her was something out of her worst nightmare. Jack was being laid out on the floor in the middle of the room. There was blood everywhere.

  “Jack,” she gasped as she tried to get to him.

  “Easy, Mirabelle,” Will said, pulling her back away from Jack’s broken body.

  “Gentlemen. Please move the hell out of the way so I can have a look at him,” Gloria bustled into the middle of the crowd. “Unless of course one of you has any sort of medical training that I don’t know about and want to take over.” Everyone parted and allowed her through.

  “Oh, Jack, what mess have you gotten into this time?” she muttered as she worked to try to find all of his injuries.

  Mirabelle watched in horror as Gloria wiped the blood off of Jack, peeling away layers of burnt clothing.

  “What happened?” Mirabelle asked John, who was standing on the other side of her.

  “The pub exploded and—”

  “What do you mean the pub exploded?” Her heart raced. Had Jack been in there? Had the building crashed down on him? Why did the room smell like someone had been on fire?

  “Come here, Mirabelle, let’s let Gloria do her thing and I will fill you in on what I know,” Will said, taking her hand and leading her over to the kitchen where he sat her carefully down in a chair as he sat in the one across the table from her. It was a tiny café table, barely big enough for two people to eat at. It appeased Jack’s minimalistic tastes, and one of the only furniture pieces they picked out together.

  Mirabelle looked at Will, his linen suit was blackened with ash. His hair was standing at weird angles and soot streaked his face.

  What the hell had happened?

  “I’m going to sum this up as much as I can because it’s too long of a story, and I can’t tell you more than what I know.”

  Mirabelle nodded and looked down at the white marble tabletop that separated them.

  “Ethan’s men jumped me shortly after I left the meeting. I had stopped at a gas station, and the next thing I remember I was in the middle of our pub, tied to a chair, with Ethan standing in front of me.” Will folded and unfolded his hands.

  “Ethan called John, from my phone and then he had lit the damned place on fire, Jack wasn’t too far behind at that point, and he came into the pub, hauling me out.”

 
; “Jack ran into a burning building?”

  “Yeah, we just made it out of the damned thing before the roof started coming down around us. I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for Jack.”

  Mirabelle looked over at Jack lying half-naked on the floor with Gloria fussing over him.

  “How did he…” she whispered, her voice trailing off as tears welled up in her eyes.

  “Would seem like Ethan had rigged the building to explode—not once, but twice. Jack hit a few cars pretty damned hard.” Will looked down at his hands. “I thought we had lost him for sure.”

  Mirabelle watched as Gloria laid a blanket over Jack and walked over to where she and Will sat. John followed close behind.

  “Well, I can’t find anything more wrong with him than what was already. I mean, I don’t have an x-ray machine or anything, but I suspect those ribs are going to take a long time to heal. But aside from some fresh cuts and bruises, there isn’t much more than a solid knock on the head. His breathing seems to be fine and his heart is beating strong.” Gloria shrugged and looked back over her shoulder at Jack, “Nothing more I can do for him until he wakes up and we see where it hurts.”

  “If he wakes up,” Mirabelle whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. Jack’s body had been through so much in the last few days, she wasn’t sure how much more it was going to be able to take.

  “There there love, he’s a tough one. He will be all right.” Gloria wrapped her arm around Mirabelle’s shoulders, “He’s going to be just fine, you’ll see.”

  Dawn was just starting to break, sunlight slowly creeping into the night sky, when Jack finally stirred.

  John and Will had both gone home hours ago, leaving extra guards behind to ensure they weren’t left with nothing. Not that the extra manpower had made Mirabelle feel even slightly better. Knowing what she did of Ethan Adams, nothing but his dead body would make her feel safe again.

  “Mirry?” Jack croaked.

  “I’m here, Jack.” she said, sitting down on the ground next to him.

  “What the hell happened? How did I get here?” he asked, trying to sit up.