Ace stayed with Laura the whole afternoon and only left when she had to go to dinner. He jumped out of the window and headed into town. He hadn't been to The Two Hills for a while, he couldn't say he missed the place but there was nothing else he felt like doing so he wandered in.
He ordered and started drinking, he was getting into a rhythm when he noticed a man he had never seemed before seemed to be trying to catch his eye.
"You gotta problem," he asked, surely as usual.
"You're Ace, you gotta be," the man said as he sat down next to him, "I know your uncle."
Ace looked at the guy. He didn't seem like he would bother with someone as crude as his uncle. For starters he seemed like he knew what a shower was, his hair was neatly clipped and he was dressed pretty well for someone in Castle Rock.
"Congratulations," Ace said as he took another swig of his beer.
"Names Logan, Greg Logan. I'm interested in hiring you."
Ace perked up a little, he had figured things were through with his uncle and he would be lying if he said he wasn't going to miss the cash.
"What for?" he asked bluntly.
The guy smiled, "Your uncle has been moving into my territory. I want this to stop. I want you to help me make this stop."
"What makes you think I'm interested," Ace said lighting up a cigarette.
"I know the guy you're working with, he used to work for me. He's a real pain in the ass. I know you know this because I heard about what happened this afternoon," he hooted with laughter. "What I would have given to see that sack of shit shifting his ass down miles of road all the way back home."
Ace wasn't so sure he liked the fact that his afternoon activities were suddenly public news.
"One of my boys is friendly with him, he told him what happened," Logan explained.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just meet me tomorrow morning, here if you like. I'll introduce you to some of my boys, you can give me your answer then if you'd like to join us or not."
He nodded his head and left the bar.
Ace ordered another beer, he was still a little floored by the whole conversation. He chugged the beer and headed home.
When the morning rolled around Ace got ready and made his way over to the bar. Logan was already there with two other men. When Ace approached them he realised that they couldn't have been much older than he was.
"Ace," Logan said stepping forward, "I'd like you to meet Wallace," he said gesturing to a tall boy with dark hair, "and Phillips," he finished, gesturing to the smaller red haired boy.
They shook their heads solemnly.
"These boys have only just started working for me but they're doing good work, I think you'll get along fine. Now just one question, what weapon are you using at the moment?"
"Blade," Ace answered.
"Good," Logan said, "I don't like guns, too easy for someone to get killed. We aren't out to kill anyone are we boys."
"No Logan," they both replied.
"So do you want in, I can promise to pay you more than that cheapskate too. No disrespect I know he's your Uncle but he is one tight bastard."
"Alright," Ace said barely even registering the comments about his Uncle.
Over at the high school Laura and Connie were just arriving. Connie had picked Laura up again as promised and dismissed her worries that she had felt unwelcome the previous afternoon.
"Don't give it a second thought," she said waving her hand. "I know you two haven't seen each other much lately and besides it wasn't like I was alone anyway."
She then explained about Billy coming to pick her up from her house.
"So are you back together again?" Laura asked. These two were difficult to keep up with.
"For now," Connie said shrewdly.
Logan had left to let the three get better acquainted and it was then Ace learned they had a job this afternoon. Ace had to admire the guys confidence that he would take the job.
As the afternoon passed Ace came to realise just how shoddy his Uncle's operation had been. Logan had supplied the crew with an actual truck, small but with decent storage. He also didn't want them to hit any old truck but had specific ones in mind. The most impressive thing however was that Wallace and Phillips actually seemed focused on the job, unlike Bear who just seemed to fumble his way through.
They parked their truck over both lanes of the bypass and watched as the truck slowed down in front of them. The driver immediately started up a never ending stream of curse words.
Ace jumped up to the cabin with his blade in one hand and held a lit cigarette an inch from the man's face.
"If you don't shut up, I'm sticking this in your eye," he said coolly.
The other two meanwhile had broken open the back and started unloading specifically marked boxes.
"Why'd you only take those?" Ace asked on the ride back.
"That's all we were told to," Wallace replied.
Ace sat back as they zoomed back towards Castle Rock. That was another thing he was appreciating. Phillips seemed to drive about 10 miles faster than Bear ever had.