The brother was grinning at Dalton as if he could take him down anytime.
“Old man, you should run while you still have the chance.”
Dalton didn’t reply to the goad, letting his fists do the fighting for him. His fist smashed into Pike’s mouth. T.A. grew worried when Pike spit out a glob of blood before giving an infuriated yell. She knew he had no problem dealing with the thieves at the grocery store, but the brothers were used to fighting to relieve the boredom and wouldn’t pull their punches just because of Dalton being older and famous. No, they would get their rocks off handing him his ass on a platter.
Furious that Dalton landed the first strike, Pike barreled into him, his heavy weight forcing him back a step. T.A. grabbed Sex Piston’s hand when she saw he was getting close to the drop-off of the parking lot. Anyone who went over the edge of the eight-foot embankment would find themselves in a world of hurt and land in the ice-cold water of the creek.
When Stud had taken over the club, his ex-wife had nearly gone over the side while holding his daughter, Star. The day after getting her back, he placed a steel barricade across the front and side but not the back because he’d run out of money. Since most of the brothers parked out front and were always complaining about wanting more booze, he had gone around to doing the rear of the building first.
Terrified, she thought Dalton was about to go over the side, which was two feet higher, T.A. blinked when a brother went sailing by Dalton.
“Holy cow!” she breathed out. “Who—”
“Gavin,” Sex Piston told her.
T.A. was tempted to look and see who he was fighting next but couldn’t take her eyes off Dalton struggling with Pike. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to choose which fight to watch when a new recruit ran to the edge to help the one Gavin had thrown down. Gavin’s booted foot helped him over the edge, so the fucker could see for himself if his friend made it okay to the bottom.
Gavin didn’t interrupt the fight taking place between Dalton and Pike, waiting to see if he needed to help. He didn’t. Dalton grabbed Pike into a bear hug and, using brute strength, turned until Pike was the one on the end of the embankment.
Looney, seeing that Gavin was distracted, made his move on him. Gavin had Looney in a headlock that his flailing arms didn’t have a prayer of getting him out of.
“Dumbass,” Sex Piston snorted.
“I don’t think he can breathe,” T.A. said, biting her lip harder. She liked the usually easy-going brother.
“He’s not gonna kill him…” Her friend’s voice trailed off at the expression on Gavin’s face. “At least I don’t think he will.”
T.A. quit biting her lip to put a hand to her mouth when Gavin released Looney, and before the brother could run, lifted him up over his head and threw him off the side at the same time Dalton gave a hard push that sent Pike over the edge.
Both men looked to where Stud was fighting Rooster, Rolo, and Warrick. That all three brothers had ganged up on their president disgusted T.A. Several of the brothers hadn’t been happy since Bear’s disappearance. Stud had told Sex Piston he suspected more brothers had helped Bear sell drugs.
T.A. felt disappointed when Dalton walked away leaving Gavin to be the one to help Stud, until she saw where he was headed. Calder was fighting Gator and was losing because Rabbit was jabbing him with a snow shovel.
Dalton walked up behind him. Grabbing Rabbit, he took the shovel away from him.
“Let me show you how to use the fucking thing.” With one whack to Rabbit’s head, he planted the fucker into the ground. Uncaring that he had just knocked the man out, he brought the shovel down on each of Rabbit’s kneecaps.
“Motherfucker won’t be hopping anywhere anytime soon.”
“That was a little unnecessary,” T.A. reprimanded her. “Rabbit wasn’t trying to hurt Calder; he just wanted him to let Gator go.”
“He deserved more than two broken kneecaps. He should have chosen to help Calder, not Gator.”
“You’re right. Never mind.”
Her stomach started churning at the sound of the sickening thuds of Dalton using the shovel on two other brothers. He was using it on a brother who tried to get away, stopping his escape by twisting the handle in his hand, turning the head of shovel sideways and thrusting it between Z’s running legs, then twisting the handle again and yanking Z backward.
“I bet that hurt,” T.A. said objectivity.
“He’ll be lucky if they’ll be able to insert a catheter for him to piss through.” Snidely, Sex Piston took her phone and started recording the fights, shrugging at her with a questioning glance.
“I don’t want Fat Louise to miss the whole fight. Where is she anyway?”