Page 80 of Baiting Kong

“Yeah, unless you wanna write yourself up for slacking off.”

“Funny,” Creature remarked, chuckling as he headed into the shop.

Sinn knelt beside a frame, running his hands over it while conferring with Jake, who held a notepad as he jotted down Sinn’s instructions. Creature waited for them to finish before waving Jake over.

“Need you to go pick up this bike and unload it into bay three,” Creature told him before passing over the address. “Take the flatbed and get Bruce to help you. Pretty sure you’re gonna need the extra muscle. Stop off at Hammer’s when you’re out that way and make sure he and Gini are good. If they need help with anything, you can leave Bruce behind to take care of it, and someone will pick him up when he’s through. Between the busted leg and the new baby, I’m sure there’s something they could use a hand with.”

“Got it,” he replied. “Need me to pick anything up on the way back?”

“How’s the fridge looking?”

“Another case of water wouldn’t hurt.”

“Get two and a couple more boxes of freezer pops; it’s gonna be hot as hell this week even with the bay doors open,” Creature said and passed him a twenty-dollar bill. “Check and make sure no one else needs anything before you go. The vending machine is almost empty, which means you fuckers aren’t eating right if all you’re doing is eating chips and chocolate all afternoon.”

Creature said that last part loud enough that the rest of the crew could hear him even over a burst of noise from a power drill.

“You’re going to fuck around and make me tell the vendor to restock that shit with jerky and granola bars,” Creature threatened.

Several grumbles met Creature’s words, while a few of his mechanics just looked sheepish, giving him a good idea of who was responsible for the rapidly depleted snacks in the machine.

“Listen up, I’m only gonna say this once,” Creature declared once he had everyone’s attention. “If you can’t bring your lunch in for whatever reason, let me know. I don’t need to know why you can’t pack one; I just need to know who needs me to put in an order at the diner so someone can run food over at lunchtime. You know Mark would tell you the same thing. You can’t do your best work on an empty stomach, so if there are issues, let us handle them. Mark and I will make it right with the diner until you’re able to bring your lunches again. Period. I don’t wanna hear any arguments, and I don’t wanna find out someone is working all day with only a Snickers bar and a bag of chips to fuel them. Am I clear?”

“Crystal,” everyone replied back.

Creature left it at that and returned to the ’49 Indian Silver Arrow he’d been working on. It was a beautiful restoration, and one Scout had helped a great deal with arranging the parts for. Creature should have expected Sinn to amble over and pull upa milk crate to work on the other side of the machine. He was constantly drawn to it too.

“If you’re out here, who’s manning the office?” Sinn asked as he began tinkering with the dual pin cranks, one of the few things they had yet to tweak before they could test drive it.

“Scout,” Creature explained. “He’s not cleared to work in the garage until next week, but that office situation was getting out of hand.”

“Tell me about it,” he replied. “From the way the shadows were listing, it looked like my blind ass had tried my hand at organizing it.”

Chuckling, Creature let himself get lost in a machine for the first time in weeks, the Metallica Black album blaring from the radio while they worked. Time melted, and he skinned his knuckles more than a few times on a stubborn crankcase, but between him and Sinn, they were able to make real headway on the machine and get the project back on schedule.

Creature was just making an adjustment to the rear blinker when Scout tapped him on the shoulder, notebook in hand and a scowl on his face.

“Duggan is on the phone,” Scout declared. “He said someone just sideswiped him and Rainy out on Old Mill Road. Rainy went completely off the road. He and his bike rolled down the embankment."

Scout paused briefly and checked his notepad.

"No damage done aside from some ripped leathers, but they wanted you to send the flatbed out. I hadn’t seen Jake come back, so I called him, and he’s on the way, but Duggan was worried about the guy who sideswiped them coming back. He said it seemed deliberate, so he let Mark know to send some guys out until Jake could get to them. Wanted you to know in case…”

Creature cut him off with a shrill whistle, and someone killed the sound on the DVD player in the middle of an old Aerosmith classic.

“Kickstands up, guys; we’ve got some brothers in trouble,” Creature said, straightening up and clasping Scout’s shoulder. “Are you good to lock up?”

“Absolutely.”

“Spare keys are in the middle desk drawer. Go ahead and shut the bay doors after we leave and lock ‘em. Office door too and turn the closed sign so no one knocks. You can keep working until we get back. I’ll let you know if we get in any trouble.”

“Got it,” Scout said, as Creature hurried out to his bike, the rest of the crew already mounted up.

Sinn rode behind Pike, hell-bent on being a part of whatever was going on despite his vision issues. He’d more than proved that he could handle himself, and Creature knew Sinn would give him an earful, and then some, if Creature tried to hold him back. He was as doggedly stubborn as Creature’s boys, and having met the people who raised him, Creature understood why. As they roared away, he saw Scout pull the bay doors down and knew he’d have everything secured before they reached the edge of town. Sucked having to worry about being pulled over, though. He’d have preferred to ride down to Old Mill Road like a bat out of hell, but they wouldn’t be any help to anyone if they got popped for speeding.

The roar of several bike engines caught Creature’s attention as they reached the light, and he looked right and saw Mark at the head of a pack of bikes looking to turn onto the road in front of them. Flashing his lights, Creature let them take the lead, even after the light had changed. Creature loved that Scout had been swift enough about giving him the message to allow them to catch up with the rest of the Jokers. And he’d only had to glance down once. Creature was proud of him for knowing, rightfrom the jump, that he’d need to take notes in order to convey messages correctly. The last thing anyone needed in a situation like this was someone sending them in the wrong direction.

The moment they hit the city limits, they opened the throttles and tore off, wind in their hair, furious scowls on every face Creature saw. Old Mill Road was a half hour out of town; they made it in less than twenty. Five curves in, Creature spotted Duggan with a length of chain wrapped around his fist, squared off with a heavyset man in stained jeans and a white tank top. In the distance, Creature saw the flatbed approaching, the bike Jake had been sent to pick up on the back, with Bruce riding shotgun, literally. Creature could see the barrel of the sawed-off sticking out the window, which Bruce immediately withdrew when he saw reinforcements had arrived.

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