Owned (21 page)

Teddy shrugged and smiled a half-smile.

“How we gonna do this?” Teddy asked.

“Play it by ear?” I answered as I rolled my shoulders and popped my neck.

“You got it, Doc.
There’s four of them. Pick two, I got the rest,” Teddy chuckled.

I nodded and smiled.

The list of people that I would just as soon
not
fight, if it came right down to it, is a pretty short list. Teddy would certainly be on the top of that list. He was huge. His arms were about as big as most men’s legs. His chest was massive. And he was the real
nice
kind of mean. The type of guy that would laugh and joke all day, even as he was whipping your ass. Drinking beer, riding, or fighting, Teddy didn’t care either way. He enjoyed them all the same. And he had fun doing each and every one of them. Equally.

As they walked onto the patio, I looked them over. Two were about my size, and the other two were average at best. The two smaller men of the four were about five foot ten, and 170 pounds. Both had their hair buzz-cut. The bigger two were each about six foot two and two hundred pounds. One of the bigger two was walking faster than the others. He had what looked like a skate boarder haircut, only extremely dirty.

He’s the one that’s in charge of this show.

“You must be
Doc
,” fast walker said as he approached.

“Yep,” I answered.
As I focused alternately between his hands and his shoulders.

“Nervous?” he asked.

“About what?” I answered.

“What you staring at my hands for?” he asked.

He just revealed his lack of experience in fighting. Good.

“Make you nervous?” I asked.

“Nope,” he answered.

“What’s this all about?
You fellas hustlin’ up here like this?” Teddy asked as he walked around the group to my side of the table.

“Nobody’s talking to you, Bear,” the small one in
sneakers said.

“You ain’t big enough to talk to
me
that way,” Teddy paused and looked him from head to toe and back up to his head, “I’ll whip your little ass
on my way
to whip these other three fellas.”

Teddy motioned with his hand in a wide sweeping circle, pointing to everyone.

“This ain’t got to do with you, Bear,” fast walker said, looking over his shoulder toward Teddy.

It was pretty clear now that this must be a personal beef between fast walker and
I. These guys weren’t about to make this much of anything more than that. If they were, they would have already done so. Their club was about ten members deep at best. We, in two chapters, had about 110 members. I shrugged my shoulders and stepped to the right a little. Crash looked at me and winked. I winked back.

“He just winked,
Prez,” the little one said, pointing to me.

“I think you’re cute,” I said.

“Oh, you’re about half a smart-ass too, huh?” fast walker said as he turned back to face me.

“What’s this about?” I asked.

“Well, you blind-sided my nephew the other night. He had a concussion. He ended up losing three teeth. Any man can get his ass kicked, but blind-siding someone is chicken-shit,” he said.

“Never blind-sided any man in my life, boss,” I responded as I rotated a half step to my right.

“Well, you did the other night,” he said.

“I’m going to guess, considering I’ve been in one fight
recently
, that you must be talking about that guy that I fought in here about two weeks ago?” I asked.

“Wasn’t two weeks ago, but yeah, that’s the one. Tommy Jones,” he responded.

“Tommy. Yeah, sounds about right. Let me ask you something, this between you and I? Seeing it’s your nephew, and all? If it isn’t about our clubs, tell the fellas to step back and take a breather. Teddy, step back,” I said, and nodded to Teddy.

“Step back fellas,” he said over his shoulder.

“Yeah this is between you and I. You blind-sided my nephew, and that ain’t right, Doc,” he repeated.

“I told you once, I
didn’t
blind-side him. He just didn’t see it coming,” I said in a stern voice.

“He
said
you blind-sided him,” he repeated.

“He’s mistaken,” I said sternly.

“What are you saying?” he asked.

“I just said it,” I sighed.

I looked at Teddy. Teddy smiled at me and raised his eyebrows as he took a sip of beer. The other three guys were sitting with Teddy at the table behind the table where we had been earlier. Teddy was drinking his beer. The other three were chatting softly.

“He
said
you blind-sided him,” he repeated.

“Look, we can do
this
all God damned night. He said I blindsided him. He’s clearly mistaken. He was facing me, with is back to the bar, and we were talking. I had provided him with a few options. I told him he could apologize for calling my girl a
dog
, or suffer the consequences. He opted to not apologize. Additionally, when he made that decision, he also decided to try to shove me. Instinctively, in defense of myself and my girls honor, I hit him several times. He fell back into the bar and split his head open. It’s all on film. They have camera’s here,” I inhaled, out of breath from the speech.

“So, you’re saying he didn’t see it coming,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“I’m sure trying to,” I responded.

“Well, he’s a tough little fucker. If he didn’t see it coming, that’d mean you’re pretty damned quick with those hands of yours,” he said, looking down at my hands.

“One would suspect,” I responded.

“You
are
a smart-ass, aren’t ya?” he said.

“I do my best,” I responded.

This guy clearly didn’t want to fight. I really didn’t either. I never have cared too much for fighting, regardless of my ability to do so. I was sick and tired of this little dance between him and I, so I decided to try to find a way to end it.

“I ain’t sure I like your tone,” he said.

“Well, I tell you what. You’ve been standing here bumping your gums for about ten minutes or more. I
know
I don’t like your tone. If you want to try your luck at whipping me in a show of defense in honor of your nephew, let’s get started. If you think you don’t like my tone, or that I’m a smart-ass and you want to teach me a lesson, take a swing. Other than that, how about you fellas get back on your bikes and go back to riding. This is a fine evening for doing just that,” I inhaled slowly.

And he took a swing.

He swung his right arm, and when he did so, he telegraphed his punch with his shoulder. His shoulder moved about two full seconds before his fist started. It was as if the punch was thrown in slow motion. Naturally, I moved my head to the right, twisted my shoulder, and caught his fist in my left hand.

Most people, humiliated in this fashion, would stop. Most would realize that they had been beaten, or certainly would be if they continued. His pride or possibly the fact that he was defending the honor of his nephew made his decision making ability a little cloudy.

He took another swing with his left. It was a little faster than the previous attempt.

I had hoped that it wouldn’t come to this.

I lowered my shoulders, and leaned back and left. His swing went over my head. Instinctively, I pushed on his right hand as his body rotated to his right. As his face twisted with his body, the left side was fully exposed.

As he twisted, I punched him in the jaw three times with my right hand as hard and as fast as I could. Immediately, he collapsed to his knees on the concrete floor.

Out of the corner of my right eye, I noticed big boy number two quickly stand.

“Sit down, Doc ain’t gonna hurt him,” Teddy said in a gruff tone.

Big boy number two sat back down.

“Let me help you up,” I said as I placed my hands under his arm pits, pulling him up to his feet.

Normally, I wouldn’t have said a thing. I probably would have helped anyone else up quietly, and without any form of humiliation. I wanted him to know I was helping him up, remember it, and hear me say it.

And I was just in a damned good mood.

“God damn,” he said as he rubbed his jaw.

“Didn’t see it coming, did ya?” I asked as I continued to hold him up.

He shook his head slowly from side to side as he rubbed his jaw.

“Neither did your nephew. Believe me now?” I asked, rubbing it in just a little more.

He nodded.

I shifted his body toward one of the stools at the side of the table where we were sitting earlier and lowered him into the seat. He relaxed and rubbed his jaw with his left hand as he sat.

“Baby girl, go inside and get this man a mug of beer,” I said over my shoulder.

Kelli stood behind with Heather.  Her hand was over her mouth. She wasn’t covering a face of surprise, she was laughing. Heather followed her inside the restaurant.

“Come over and sit down, we’re done,” I said toward the table where Teddy and the others were sitting.

“So, what’s your name?” I asked, looking down at his now swollen jaw.

“Brick, call me Brick,” he said as he looked up.

“Alright Brick, I’m Doc, you know…and that’s Crash. We don’t call him Bear anymore, it’s Crash,” I said politely.

He nodded, holding his jaw.

The girls stepped onto the patio, each with their hands full of beer mugs.

As they handed beers to everyone, Brick looked up and shook his head.

“You didn’t blind-side him, did ya?” he asked.

“No sir,” I responded.

He nodded his head and took a sip of his beer.

“Grab a seat,” I said to Kelli, motioning beside me.

“You wanna guess what Doc did for the thirteen years he went to school to stay in shape?” Teddy laughed.

Everyone looked in Teddy’s direction.

“He boxed,” Teddy laughed as he took a sip of his beer.

Brick looked up at me as he rubbed his jaw with his fingers.

I nodded slowly and placed my hand on Kelli’s shoulder.

“Put that mug on your jaw, boss. That’s one cold sum bitch. It’ll keep the swelling down. Like a god damned big ice cube,” Teddy said as he held his beer mug in the air.

I looked around at the group. Everyone was sitting and drinking beer. The remaining three Great Plains riders were all talking.

“Look, there’s no value whatsoever in saying anything about this to anyone, you agree?” I said, addressing the entire group.

Brick looked up, “Seriously?”

“Didn’t happen,” I said.

“Didn’t happen,” Teddy repeated.

“What about them?” Brick asked, motioning to the girls.

“We should be able to trust them,” I said.

I’m got a good feeling about one of them, anyway.

KELLI.
Sometimes, life offers us difficult decisions. Really, really tough ones. Not the decisions that may just be a challenge to make, but decisions that may have an effect on us for the rest of our lives. If the outcome associated with the decision is favorable, the end result is a celebration. If the outcome isn’t, the rest of your life may take an alternate course.

When we’re presented with a decision like this, most people turn and walk away, or take the easy route.
The path of least resistance. My father always told me to stand up for what I believed in, regardless of the potential cost. There were two things that he told me about character, and about making difficult decisions:

“The decisions that we make in su
pport of our character or moral fiber should never consider the potential
outcome
associated with the decision. We should only consider the amount of
support
that making the decision provides
to
our character or moral fiber.”

“When it comes time to make a
difficult
decision, we are defined by the decisions that we make. When the collective wisdom of the universe says to
shut up
, yet you believe that it is time to
stand up
, stand up. The pride that you gain will fuel you for a lifetime, and your character will never again be in question.”

“So will you do it?” I asked
, my hands clasped into a prayer position in front of me.

“Kelli, you realize what you’re asking me? What could happen?” Daddy asked.