Dix rolled into the parking lot overlooking the Siuslaw River minutes before nine, seven of his brothers at his back. Thad and Cale blocked the entrance to the parking lot with Thad’s truck, the rest of the Cutthroats stopping just inside to give Dix plenty of space.

 

“I said come alone,” Leo sneered as Dix stopped two-dozen paces away from Leo and the fifteen men backing him up.

 

“Seems I’m not the only one who can’t follow instructions.”

 

Leo didn’t like the fact Dix had crossed him. He’d planned on killing him as an example to Daisy and the rest of the Cutthroats, but with Dix’s crew backing him up, that didn’t seem like a good idea now. They may outnumber the Cutthroats two to one, but they had their backs to the river and no good way to retreat.

 

“Send them away and we’ll talk.”

 

“I’m here, you’re here,” Dix said, holding his arms out to his sides slightly to show he had no weapon, in his hand at least. “Come over here and let’s talk.”

 

Leo wiped his mouth, but decided if he didn’t, he’d look weak. Besides, what could Dix do with fifteen armed men watching?

 

“Did you like my present?” Leo sneered.

 

Dix seethed but kept his temper in check. Dying in a hail of gunfire wouldn’t do Daisy, or the Cutthroats, any good. “Why don’t we settle that issue just between the two of us?”

 

“Why don’t you give up? You know it’s only a matter of time before we push you out. How many more people have to be hurt? You’ve had two members of your club die in the last month. And Daisy.” He tsked. “Such a shame.”

 

“One. You’re not a very good shot. Roger is still alive. And only cowards like you beat up women.” Dix smiled as Leo went tense, realizing that Leo had thin skin.

 

“I have a deal for you. You run the race this time, we take fifty-percent of your cut, and we let you leave town. Nobody else has to get hurt. You just walk away.”

 

“Then what?”

 

“Then it’s none of your business.”

 

Dix nodded as he pretended to think about it. “I have a better idea. Why don’t you go fuck yourself? Or, better, have one of your butt buddies over there do it for you. You’d probably enjoy it because only pussies slap women around, and we both know what pussies are for.”

 

Leo started to reach under his coat when a red dot hit him in eyes, then dropped to his chest. He slowly brought his hand from under his coat and held it out so whoever had the laser sight on him could see it was empty.

 

“What’s the matter, big man? I thought you wanted to go.”

 

“You talk a good game when someone has a gun on me,” Leo snarled.

 

Dix raised his hand and the dot went away. “Fine. You and me, at the river. Everyone else leaves. You game?”

 

Leo licked his lips. This wasn’t going the way he imagined at all. “I haven’t got the time to waste fucking you up.”

 

Dix forced a laugh and shrugged out of his jacket and placed it over his bike, unclipping his holster and adding it to the pile. He held his hands out. “Come on, Leo,” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Are we going to dance or not? You want to send me a message, you want me out of the way, here’s your chance. Take me out and that’s ten percent of our club out of the fight. None of the Cutthroats will interfere. Or is the best you can do is kicking the shit out a defenseless woman?”

 

Leo started to sweat. “Not now,” he said loudly. “This is too public.”

 

“Fine. Name your place.”

 

Leo licked his lips again, then smiled. “No. I don’t think so. That’s too easy. I’m going to take Daisy away from you. Then we’ll know who has the bigger dick.”

 

Dix nodded. “I’m going to kill you, but if you touch her again, I’ll cut your dick off and fuck you with it before I do,” he said so softly only Leo could hear.

 

“You can’t win, Dix. Not against me. I have resources at my disposal you can’t imagine.”

 

Dix smiled then clipped on his weapon and shrugged into his colors. “You better go get them, then, because we’re not going down without a fight.” He mounted up and thumbed his bike to life, kicked it into gear, then circled around Leo as the rest of the Cutthroats’ mounts came to life.

 

***

 

“That’s a hell of a risk you took,” James said, his chair creaking softly.

 

“Nah,” Dix countered as he took another sip of his beer. “You haven’t seen Thad shoot. That guy…” he shook his head admiringly. Thaddeus Lymongood was by far the best shot in the Cutthroats. An avid small arms collector, he bought, sold and restored antique weapons. He had several trophies on his shelf from shooting competitions and he could carve the ten ring out of a target at twenty-five feet as fast as he could pull the trigger. At twenty-five yards he could make a fist size group the same way, and Dix once lost a case of beer to him when Thad put eight out of ten shots on a sixteen-inch steel target at two hundred yards with his Glock 26 pistol. You did not want Thad shooting at you.

 

James continued rocking slowly. It was a beautiful night, clear and cool with a bright moon that made the hulks of cars into sculptures of light and shadow. He and Dix had spent a lot of time just like they are now, the lights off, James slowly rocking while Dix sat on the steps with his back against the post supporting the porch roof. In the last two weeks, Daisy has been joining them, sitting with Dix.

 

He smiled, rocking slowly in companionable silence. There was something definitely going on with those two. It may not be love, but it was certainly more than just friends. They were far too cozy together for it to be just them working together for a mutual goal.

 

It’s too bad what had happened to her. Dix had asked him to watch her while he and the rest of the club went to the meet, and she was inside, in Dix’s old room, sleeping off her aches and pains.

 

“You just need to be careful,” James said after a moment.

 

“That’s why I had my brothers with me.”

 

“Just the same.”

 

“Yes, Dad,” Dix said then chuckled.

 

James chuckled, too. “You don’t live as long as I have by being stupid.” James saw Dix’s head whip to the side as he stared out into the yard.

 

“Did you hear that?” Dix asked softly.

 

“Hear what?”

 

Dix held up his hand for silence. He listened intently a moment then relaxed. “Nothing, I guess. I could have sworn I heard something, though. Like something fell over.” He shrugged. “It was probably nothing.”

 

“You want another beer?” James asked as he rose. “One more for me then I’m done.”

 

Dix drained the last of his bottle. “Sure, thanks,” he said as he handed the bottle up to James.

 

James stepped inside then returned with two more, handing one down to Dix before returning to his chair. “You going to let Daisy sleep here tonight?”

 

Dix grinned. “Yeah, if you don’t mind. She’s grouchy as a bear if I wake her up.”

 

“Mind? Hell, I’m taking a picture to prove she slept with me, otherwise nobody will believe me.”

 

Dix chuckled then went silent. “Go inside,” he whispered. “Tell me you’re tired and going to bed or something, then go inside.”

 

“What?” James whispered in return.

 

“I saw someone moving in the yard.”

 

James rocked a moment longer. “I think I’m going to turn in,” he said in his normal voice.

 

“Okay. I’m right behind you,” Dix replied, rising to his feet to follow.

 

“There’s at least one man out there,” Dix muttered the moment the door shut behind him.

 

“It’s probably vandals,” James said as he picked up his shotgun.

 

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

“I’m going to try to get behind him.”

 

“Take the shotgun,” James said, holding it out.

 

“No. You keep it. I need you to protect Daisy. There may be more than one. If I don’t see anybody, I’ll yell before I open the door. If anyone comes through the door without yelling, it isn’t me, so you kill them.”

 

James nodded and Dix heard the safety click off as James took up station in the doorway to the kitchen where he could guard both the front and rear door.

 

Without another word, Dix moved into the kitchen and paused at the back door, opening it slowly and peeking out. The house and warehouse backed up to the fence, and James kept his lot tidy, so there was no place to hide. He slipped out the door and closed it quietly.

 

He didn’t have his weapon with him, so he was going to have to improvise. As much as he’d like to have his pistol, he didn’t want to risk entering his trailer and getting trapped inside. If the men were armed, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

He had no trouble sneaking across the one hundred fifty feet between James’s house and the warehouse and shop. He entered the shop through the warehouse, not flipping on the lights, and quickly moved down the first aisle into the shop. He knew the areas like the inside of his trailer, and moved with ease with only the light from the moon through the windows in the shop. Staying low, he moved to the huge toolbox where he and James kept their tools. He quietly opened the third drawer from the top and, after a bit of feeling, pulled out the thirty-six inch, half-inch drive breaker bar. Solid steel, the bar would be a devastating weapon.

 

He exited the shop through the warehouse again, squeezing between the back of the warehouse and the fence, and came up behind his trailer, the bar out and at the ready. Seeing no one, he continued along the fence, crouching low, until he could dash across the road they used to get to the cars sitting in the yard, forlornly waiting for someone to come and pull parts from them.

 

He knew all the hiding holes and shortcuts, and the moon provided him plenty of light to move silently among the cars. He circled around, coming up behind where he saw the man. As he moved he saw two men crouching behind the last row of cars before entering the big open lot that fronted the shop, his trailer, and James’s house.

 

He didn’t know who they were, but they shouldn’t be on the property, and they were carrying weapons, so there would be no warning. He worked his way long, keeping out of sight until he was crouching between the cars on the other side of the road, behind the closer of the two men. With another quick check of his surroundings, he dashed from his hiding place. The man heard him coming at the last moment but it was too late. As he began to turn, Dix brought the bar around in a two-handed batter’s swing, the tool making a sickening crunch as it contacted the man’s skull. He went down with a soft thud.

 

Dix ducked in between the cars, picking up the man’s pistol as he did. Now the odds were a little more even. Keeping as low as possible, he began to work his way along to the second man. As he moved, he noticed motion to his right as three men moved across the lot in a crouch. It had taken him at least fifteen minutes to get the bar and circle around to come up behind the men, so they probably thought he and James were settled in for the night.

 

His quarry was focused so intently on the other three men he never heard Dix step up behind him. Dix picked up the man’s pistol and put it silently on the car, then took up the man’s position. The two men he’d killed were obviously there to protect the rear of the attackers. He took the man’s position and drew a bead on the men but didn’t pull the trigger. He wasn’t Thad and if he missed, which was likely in the dark and at this distance, he’d be shooting into the house. He didn’t want to risk hitting James or Daisy.

 

As he watched, one of the men signaled for a man to go around back, while the other two crept up to the front door. He shifted his aim to the man going to the rear of the house. There was much less risk of hitting James or Daisy, but still didn’t fire, not confident in his ability at this distance and not wanting to warn the men.

 

He saw the man reach for the door and slowly push it open. The night was split with the roar of shotgun. The man stumbled back and went down hard. There was the briefest of pauses, then the gun roared again and the other man fell. There was another pause and the gun bellowed a third time, an instant before the man at the rear of the house sprinted around the corner of the house, running hard.

 

Dix let him come, every step increasing his chance of hitting him and pulling his aim farther and farther away from the house. When he’d closed two-thirds of the distance, he popped up and fired four, five, then six times, the man twitching with the last two shots before falling to the ground. The gunman shrieked in pain, but struggled to his feet, before Dix squeezed the trigger once more. The man fell to the ground and didn’t move again.

 

***

 

Dix, James and Daisy watched as the five bodies were loaded into ambulances. Daisy had positively identified the two men whose skulls Dix had caved in as Henry Gauge and the man she only knew as Blade. She’d also been able identify a third man, Jerry Hunt, the first victim of James’s shotgun. The other two were unknown to her, but she assumed they were Firechrome, as well.

 

“I think that’s everything,” Officer Whipple said.

 

“It’s about damn time,” Dix growled. He and James had been going over the story for the last three hours. It was nearly two in the morning and he’d had enough.

 

“Cut me some slack, Dix,” Whipple said. “We just had more people killed in the last three hours than in the past five years.”

 

“We told you the Firechrome were trying to move into town. Maybe now you’ll listen.”

 

“Yes, well, we put out a watch for them. If we locate them, we’ll have a friendly discussion about how we don’t want their kind in town.”

 

“And my son?” Daisy asked.

 

“If we find him, we’ll take him into custody and arrest Leonard Watson for kidnapping and battery.”

 

Daisy sighed. Finally! “Thank you.”

 

Whipple nodded and turned toward his cruiser.

 

“Let’s go to bed,” James said, turning toward his house. “I’m not opening until ten this morning. Seven is just too damned early after tonight.”

 

Dix took Daisy by the hip, being careful to avoid sore spots, and turned her toward his trailer. “I agree. And James?”

 

“What?”

 

“Thank you.”

 

James gave him a crooked grin and a nod, but said nothing.