“Yeah. Probably,” Ains replied.
“They sure can fight,” Kaisa, our friend and one of the county commissioners said. She winced as Demo’s meaty fist caught one of the guys in the ribs.
I was pretty sure he’d just broken at least one of the bones, if not more. “Maybe I should-”
“Don’t even think about it,” Harlow said, tightening her hold on me. “Why do you think I grabbed you?” she asked. “I knew you’d try to do something to break it up.”
“You wanted them to fight?” I asked in surprise.
“No, I just knew they would and I didn’t want you in the middle of it. You think they’re unruly now? Add you to the mix and Pyre will probably kill someone.”
“What? No he won’t,” I told her.
Ramona, another one of our friends, and a reporter for the local newspaper, laughed. “No, she’s right, Rae. The guy watches you wherever you go.”
“Yup,” Maya, the second of three county commissioners, agreed. “The minute the cowboy there put his hand on you he signed up to be Pyre’s punching bag for the night.”
Sentinel wasn’t a large city. So we all knew pretty much everyone who lived here. Maybe not well, but we knew of them anyway.
Melody shook her head. “If anyone presses charges, they’re going to end up in front of me at court. This is definitely a conflict of interest.” Despite knowing that, she took a sip of her White Russian and watched the fight with interest. As the local judge I would’ve thought she’d be trying to help Ainsley break this up, but they both just stood there.
My friends knew it was a lost cause, so I took a page out of their book and stayed back. The move I pulled on the cowboy earlier wasn’t the only one I knew, but I wasn’t equipped to wade in and take on a bunch of brawling men. I was five-six and not exactly built like Wonder Woman. I was actually fairly petite, much to my dismay as I was growing up. My hulking brothers always used to make fun of me for it.
Meanwhile all these guys looked to be over six feet tall and stacked with muscle, well, the bikers were anyway. One of the cowboy's friends had an impressive beer gut, but the rest of them looked pretty fit.
Watching them in action was sort of an art form. Amazing how much carnage they were causing without too muchcollateral damage for the bar owner. And from what I could tell, no permanent damage to the cowboys. Though Pyre seemed to be trying his best to change that. Scythe seemed to be watching him, presumably to step in if Pyre got too out of control. They were teaching them a lesson, not altering their lives.
There was blood on the floor. I rubbed at my temple, trying to ease the stress that was causing me to get a migraine.
“Move! Get out of the-” Owen was shoving his way through the crowd that had formed around the fighting men. “Harold, I swear to God if you don’t move I’m going to arrest you.”
“Jeez, Owen. I was just trying to get a good view. That badge sure has gone to your head,” Harold grumbled, moving out of the way.
Owen and three of his deputies waded into the brawl.
I winced as one of the deputies took a fist to the solar plexus and fell back, gasping for air. “Well that’s not going to end well,” I said.
“That’s it, tase them all!” Owen yelled to his deputies, answering my prediction.
“Don’t worry,” Ainsley said, waving at Owen as he scowled at her. “They’ll just end up spending the night in jail. Owen won’t throw any charges their way.”
“That’s a relief,” Melody said, leaning back against the wall as she drank and watched.
Men started bellowing before locking up and falling over as they ‘rode the lightning’. I’d worked with enough law enforcement in the city to have picked up some of the lingo. It didn’t matter how big the guy, most couldn’t fight back against those tasers.
“We need to come out more often,” Ramona said.
“Mona,” I said, shock coloring my words. “This isn’t something to be impressed with. They’re acting like-”
“Men,” Mona said with a shrug. “Too bad their shirts are on.” She winked at me.
My mouth dropped open, then I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh. “You’re so bad.”
“She’s got a point,” Maya said. “This would be more fun with more skin showing.”
“And Jell-O,” Kaisa added. “Now I get the hype behind the girls in bikinis wrestling in it.”
They were trying to make me feel better. They figured I was blaming myself for this. I wasn’t, it had been the cowboy’s fault for starting it, but I was regretting the fact that the men standing up for me were going to end up in jail. And that I was mixed up in this at all.
