Page 126 of Fearless

Greg looked like it hurt to swallow. He set his banana nut down on the plate and brushed the crumbs off his fingers.

“No, you should eat,” Aidan said. “I can afford to buy you breakfast and you look hungry.”

Greg’s expression was tortured as he reached for the muffin again, broke a crumble off with thumb and forefinger and studied it in the steam-curled morning light. “You guys” – fast dart of his pale eyes between them from half-lowered lids – “were the coolest guys in that whole school.”

Tango snorted. “I’m not sure about that.”

“We did alright,” Aidan said with a shrug. “Never got to be homecoming king or anything, but we got by.”

Greg shook his head and set the muffin bite down, eyes coming straight up to Aidan’s. “No, not like that. That’s just popular. I meancool. Like, people were a little bit afraid, and you didn’t give a shit, and when Toby Smalls said you fucked Ms. Appleton in the teacher’s lounge, I believed him, because you were just…cool.”

Aidan chuckled. “I won’t confirm or deny that.”

“See?” Greg made a helpless gesture toward him. “You were just…arejust…”

“Cool?”

“And the thing was,” Greg continued, “it wasn’t an act like it is with some guys, you know? The Lean Dogs – you were a part of them. A part of something that I…” He glanced away and shook his head, throat working as he swallowed.

“Greg, is this you saying you always wanted to be a Dog?”

He picked up a rolled packet of silverware and withdrew the fork, used it to maim his banana nut muffin. Quietly, he said, “I always wondered what it would be like to be a part of something bigger than I was.”

Aidan felt a small tug of sympathy for the guy. Small, plain, meek, Greg had been the butt of a hundred jokes, the target of so much bullying. He’d had to wonder something that Aidan had always known as fact: what was it like to have a family of brothers who always had your back? What did it mean to have that guaranteed love and support, that fraternal bond?

“You could have become a hangaround,” Aidan said. “Useful hangarounds get to prospect, loyal prospects get to patch in.”

Greg was shaking his head.

“It’s not about being cool or being big or any of that. It’s a brotherhood. It’s about loyalty.”

But Greg looked miserable, and said, “I couldn’t afford that. I had to get a job, I had to…well, it doesn’t matter now, because the rec center closed.”

“Old Man Milford’s,” Aidan said, comprehension dawning. He shared a glance with Tango and got a nod. “You worked at the pool hall.”

Small nod from Greg.

“And when the Carpathians took it over, they offered to let you join–”

The defensiveness came back full-force, crackling through Greg’s small arms, jerking him upright and firing in his eyes. He aimed his fork at Aidan, muffin crumbs scattering across the table. “I earned my place in the club.”

“Of course you did,” Tango said, soothingly.

But Aidan said, “Did they prospect you?”

Silence, which meant no, they hadn’t.

“Greg, nobody with half a brain just drops a patch on somebody’s back and expects him to stick around unless he can be assured of his loyalty. And, smart guy like you, I’m thinking that if someone strong-armed you out of a job, you’d find another job, not join up with them.”

Greg’s jaw clenched tight.

Aidan leaned over the table, dropping his voice. “What sort of leverage does Larsen have on you? What did he threaten you with?”

He tried to leave the table. He surged awkwardly to his feet, thumping his knees and struggling to slide out of the booth. Tango caught his wrist in a grip Aidan knew to be stronger than it looked. Greg struggled a second, then seemed to remember they were in a crowded café, and stilled. His eyes rolled wildly.

“Let go,” he hissed through his teeth.

“I could help you, Greg,” Aidan said, and earned a sneer for it. “No, listen. Whatever Larsen’s told you about the Dogs, use your head. You know us” – gesture between himself and Tango – “you went to school with us. I pulled Billy Mayfield off you in the locker room once. So whatever Larsen said, it’s bullshit. We can help you, Greg, if you’re willing to come talk to my dad about what you know.”

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