Page 70 of Iron Hearts

“Alright! I can handle that; line ‘em up boys! We got a wager – hardest hitter gets a kiss from the fair Rarity!”

I led Rarity over to the corner of the bar nearest the arcade game, and lifted her up to sit her on the edge where she could see and more importantly, where any of the guys that wanted to test their mettle could seeher.

“You sure you’re good?” I asked her, and she smiled and nodded once happily.

“All in good fun,” she said. “Are you okay with it?”

I grinned and winked back and said, “All in good fun, and I’m gonna win it – so what do I have to worry about?”

She threw back her head and laughed, and it was a good sound. It was also pretty fucking boastful of me when there were guys like Skull and Renegade lining up, who were easily more built than me. Not to mention guys from the other chapters who’d come up this way to party.

There was a mix of Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Ocala and the mood was good, the vibe riding on the wind light and full of good fun. If it had been anything else, I wouldn’t have let my baby girl be the prize for this dipshittery – but things were good, and we’d play fair, and I meant it about doing my best to win this.

I fell in line; we’d done this before. Each man got three shots, and their average went on the scoreboard. Shadow went first, then manned the chalkboard between the billiard tables and the Sock ‘em setup, his phone out, calculator going strong to average out everyone else.

After Shadow was a guy from Jacksonville, one I wasn’t too familiar with, but seemed cool enough. He didn’t do much of a good showing. Not with Renegade up next. Only hope I had against Ren is that he was tipsy or toasty enough to not be swinging too hard.

No luck there. He hit it and hit ithardon the first punch he threw. The second one was a little less, and the third was even less than that, but it was still averaged out to a number that made me sweat more than a little.

Next up was Ultra Violent, or UV from Ocala, and shitfire, motherfucker! I didn’t know if I was going to beat his ass. JesusfuckingChrist!

I was next, and I loosened up, rotating my neck on my shoulders and giving a few stretches while Renegade ribbed me hard over if I fucked this up, he was gonna enjoy kissing my girl, if not watching UV or somebody else do it.

We went back and forth, trading jibes, and I appreciated his effort – he knew what he was doing, getting me worked up.

It wasn’t a question of hitting the target on the bag square – I could do that shit in my sleep. It was about the follow through and hitting it fuckinghard enough.

I socked it with everything that I had, muscles screaming in a bit of protest with residual stiffness from the throwdown at the Iron Horse and just because fuck, I was forty-two not twenty-four anymore! Fuck!

I wound up, and fared actuallybetteron the second punch, which gave me some hope.

Now don’t fuck this up,I thought to myself, and I fucking let rip and socked it a third time to a round of rowdy cheering.

I took the top spot, but fuckin’barely, yo.

I shook out my hand and looked to Rarity who was cheering and dancing in her seat, but the fun wasn’t over yet – there was still a bit of a lineup after me.

I wandered over to her and put my arm around her waist, leaning back against the bar and massaging her hip while we took in the rest of the guys and their efforts.

A couple edged out Renegade in second place, and one came only a single fuckin’ point behind me, and just when I thought I had it in the bag? Skull stepped up.

I was feeling pretty good; Skull wasn’t a super big guy. Five foot eight, so certainly not the tallest of us, but hedidfighta lot,and he wrestled alligators for a living – so there was that.

His first punch knocked everyone else’s out of the running, but he had two more to go. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sweating, hoping that his second or even third would drop him enough that it wouldn’t matter, but he brought thefire, and his next two punches edged out his first by a touch, and the thirdstillout ranked my best, but wasn’t quite up to the first two.

Guys were going,‘whoa’and laughing their asses off in disbelief, and I admit – I was duly impressed, even as I was straight up nervous as to why Skull was so hard pressed to win this. It wasn’t like him.

Unless it was really Bones that wanted the kiss. I could totally see Skull doing it for his brother.

Of course, Skull was declared the winner and reigning champion in short order, and I was both surprised and not when he stepped up to claim his prize.

It was all in good fun, after all… wasn’t it?

Skull gave me an inscrutable look and a quick nod before he stepped in front of Rarity, and I waited impassively, to see what the fuckin’ weirdo I called a brother would do.

He went to Rarity and took her hand, said a bunch of shit in his native tongue that only he and Bones would understand, and bent gallantly over her hand and kissed the back with a brush of lips and an intense look in her direction.

Rarity blushed prettily, and he backed off and walked away, to a bunch of incredulous scoffs and a smattering of laughter at his expense, but he didn’t pay it no mind. He walked up to Bones and said something to him and Bones replied, but again – wasn’t like a one of us could fuckin’ understand them.

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