Concealed Force

Chapter 22

"Switch get out here!" There was a bellow from the courtyard. "Get your ass out here. Now."

Laura jumped and rushed to the door of the laundry room, seeing a man with a massive diamond stud in each ear standing in the middle of the sea of bikes. His face was red and he looked like he was going to spontaneously combust. Alyssa ran over and hugged Laura from behind.

"Oh, hell yes. This is it." She sounded like this was a centenary performance she'd queued for days to see.

Switch stepped out of a room on the third floor, and leaned over the walkway railing. "What d'you want, Hammer?" he called, slightly sleepy. He was in boxers and nothing else.

"You touched my bike. I told you what would happen if you touched my fucking bike."

"I haven't touched it, man. Keep your panties on, Sugar."

That made Hammer even redder. "Switch, you motherfucker. I know it was you. Get down here, before I come up there." He was spitting as he shouted, and the dogs at the gate had begun to bark in excitement.

"Okay okay. Give me a sec." Switch didn't seem worried as he went back into his room, and some other men began drifting out to look at Hammer's bike. Most of them laughed, which didn't help Hammer's mood. Some of them looked annoyed though, and shook their heads. There was some muttering Laura couldn't catch.

Alyssa was chuckling quietly behind her. "Look at the bike," she said, and Laura peered through the gathering crowd.

She could just make out the word Sugar, painted in pink sparkles on the fuel tank cover. It looked like it might have been done in nail polish.

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh is right."

Finally Switch was loping down the steps, buckling his belt as he went. "What's all the fuss, Sugar?" he asked, still cocky as ever, not realizing the extent of Hammer's anger.

The sun glinted off all the bikes, the smell of gasoline and oil and rubber rising in the heat. Before he'd crossed the courtyard Hammer had rushed at him.

"Woah, woah, what the fuck?" Switch had narrowly avoided being punched and now put a row of bikes between him and Hammer.

"You vandalized my ride."

"Nah, man, not me."

"Don't fucking lie about it." Hammer sounded almost despairing.

"I ain't lying. I ain't touched your ride. I ain't..." he saw the word painted over the shiny black fuel tank, and stopped, his eyes going wide. "Hammer," he said. But he didn't manage another word, because Hammer had caught up with him.

Switch went down with the first punch, but got back up straightway, he'd only been caught on the shoulder. He swore loudly and returned the punch, hitting Hammer in the stomach. There was a tussle, some other guys tried to break it up, but things got out of hand and suddenly they were joining in instead. There was shouting and spitting, it was a mess of leather and dust, swearing, barking and the cracking, slapping sounds of punches landing.

Alyssa, pulled Laura back a little, making sure there was a clear delineation between the brawlers and them, and then pointed to Lonnie, making his way up from the bar. "Pity. It'll all be over soon," she said.

Lonnie walked into the scrum, trying to yell at the men to stop, to get back, but no one was listening. Laura spotted Reid, going in after his president, looking like his bodyguard. She lost sight of Lonnie for a moment, focused on Switch, who was crawling out from under the legs of another man, and then finally there was a roar above it all.