over to the piano in the room. He sat down and began pushing keys, as if warming up.
Alaric finished his food just as more people started to meander into the bar. As more people came in, the man at the piano began to play for real. He was actually pretty good considering the state of the bar. While sitting there, Alaric had the chance to look around the bar. He found that it didn't seem to get cleaned very often. Some of the wallpaper was torn, and there were a couple of bullet holes near the doorway. This was obviously a rough place, or at least had been at one point. Alaric was glad that Alex was in the bar with him, though the number of drinks he had already downed concerned Alaric. Alex might not be in the best of shape to help should something go wrong.
Alaric also had no idea what Todd looked like. He was going to have to just ask around as the place got more crowded. He decided that it might be a good idea in the future to pay for a photo to be taken of every employee, just in case situations such as this arose again. Photography was a long, generally expensive process, but for Alaric it would be worth having the extra security and peace of mind. After a little while in his own thoughts, Alaric noticed a group of rough looking men come into the bar. There were three of them, and they had a scared looking man following behind them. The men sat down at a table on the other side of the room from Alaric. He could see one of the men gesture for the scared man to go to the bar. A few minutes later, the man was taking a bottle and three glasses to the table. The bartender gave a concerned look for a moment, before going back to serving other people.
Alaric decided it would be a good idea to go and speak with the bartender. Perhaps he knew something about those men. He approached the bar and the bartender nodded to him, “What can I get ya?”
“I was wondering what you knew about that scared looking man over there.”
“Oh him? He's owes those men a lot of money. He has a gambling problem and when he couldn't pay them, they turned him into their own personal slave.”
“How much does he owe them?”
“Not quite sure anymore, but anything he makes he spends on drinks for them. He does pretty much whatever they tell him to.”
“What about those men, what can you tell me about them?”
“Well they're part of a large group here in town. Supposedly, they have people in most of the states. No one likes to cross them, at least not if they want to live that is.”
“That's quite a bit of power they hold over people. What's the poor man's name?”
“That's Todd.”
Alaric sighed and nodded. “Thanks for the information, excuse me.” With that he began walking towards the group. The bartender's eyes widened in shock. “You don't want to be doing that boy. You don't know what you're getting into.” Alaric turned and smiled to the bartender, before continuing to walk towards the group. He caught Alex's eye as he made his way over. Alex had an eyebrow raised before putting his hands behind his head, as if looking forward to seeing what happened. As Alaric got closer, one of the men tripped Todd and they all laughed. They looked up as they saw Alaric arrive at their table.
“What do you want kid?”
“Saw this guy doing whatever you told him to. I wanted to know how you find someone to do that.” The men laughed and pulled out a seat for Alaric to sit with them. “Well I'll tell ya, this guy here likes to gamble. He's absolutely terrible at it though and always loses. So, he owes us a lot of money, see?” Alaric nodded slowly and smiled, “And he's too spineless to tell you no?” The men all laughed again, one of them put his arm around Alaric's shoulder. “You're new here ain't ya? I'll let you in on a public secret. Everyone is too spineless to tell us no. You best remember that.” Alaric nodded again, and grabbed the man's arm, moving it off of his shoulder. These men made Alaric uncomfortable. They smelled of smoke and alcohol and were very arrogant. “How much does he owe you?”
“Well with the currency change, I couldn't rightly tell you for sure.” The man looked at his companions as he continued, “I'd have to say he probably owes us a thousand, right boys?” The other men nodded, “Why? You thinkin about payin his debt?” Alaric shook his head, “I might have been, but that's way too much.” The men laughed. One of them poured something from the bottle into a glass and slid it to Alaric. “Have a drink and spend some time with us.” Alaric sighed, but decided to go along with it for the time being. He was technically too young to be drinking, but he didn't think anyone was going to stop him at that point in time. Alaric took a sip and grimaced. It was terrible. The men laughed at the face he made. One of the men next to him put his hand on the bottom of the glass, “drink up kid.” Alaric tried to keep up with the flow of liquid coming from the glass, but the man had it tipped too much and some of it spilled onto the table and onto Alaric's clothing. “Look what you did boy!, You just wasted good whiskey. Clean it up!” The man put his hand on the back of Alaric's head, pushing it towards the table. Alaric had had enough, He drew his revolver and pointed it at the man's face.
“That's enough I think. You've had your fun. Now get lost.” The man took his hand from Alaric and moved backwards slightly. “Who do you think you are boy? Put that gun away before someone gets hurt.”
The room went silent. Some people stared at them, while others slowly made their way towards the door, not wanting to be around if bullets started flying. The other two men at the table reached for their guns, at which point Alaric pulled the hammer back. “If you want your friend to live, take your hands away from those guns.” The men hesitated long enough for Alex to get behind them without them noticing. He bashed the one in the head with a bottle and took the man's revolver off his belt. The second man drew his gun, only to get shot by Alex. The man, who had Alaric's gun in his face, put his hands up slowly. “Hold on now. There's no need to be so reckless. We'll get going. Get up Bobby; let's go.” The men got up and left quickly, leaving their dead companion on the floor. As they exited, one man called back in, “You just started something kid! You'll be seein' us soon.”
Todd stood there shaking. “W-why would you do that?” Alaric holstered his revolver and stood up, “Because Todd, you owe me some money.” Todd stared at Alaric, dumbfounded. “W-what?”
“I'm the new owner of the old Beggley store; the store that you stole from.”
“Oh, you don't understand, I-...”
“I know. You owed these men money and probably tried to use the store's money to pay them back. Either that or you used it just before you got into this mess.” Todd nodded slowly, still in shock over what had happened. Alaric inspected the dead man's revolver, it was just cap and ball like Alaric's had been. The bartender walked over to them shaking his head. “You gents just got yourselves into a world of trouble. You better take the back door when you leave and I'd like you to leave now, before I have more bullets flying in my bar.” Alex nodded and guided Todd out the back. Alaric reached into the dead man's pocket and pulled out fifty dollars, ten of which he pocketed and then handed the rest to the bartender, “Sorry for the trouble.” He followed Alex and Todd out the back and they made their way back to the store. They took a convoluted path, trying not to be followed. A few people did still see them and if any of them knew or were part of that group, then Alaric knew that they would be meeting with some rather angry people, fairly soon.
They walked into the store, where Ned was sitting on a stool waiting for them. Alaric explained what had happened as Alex had Todd sit in the back. Ned only shook his head before getting up and grabbing his gun. “I guess we should be ready then, shouldn't we?” Alex walked back out with his Maitland carbine, the taken revolver stuffed in his belt. “Let's get some tables moved and be sure we're ready. They might not hit us tonight, but its better we be safe than sorry.” Alaric nodded and they got to work preparing for a possible attack on the store.
Chapter 7
That night Alaric and his employees sat up waiting, the darkness of the store settling in around them. It was relatively quiet, except for the occasional creak of the building or Alex moving his legs to get more comfortable. Alaric sat behind the main counter, his revolver in his lap. Alex was behind