Page 37 of Taming the Demon

Who knew.

There was tension, worry, fear, doubt, and a shit ton of anger. And sometimes you just need to fight someone to release it all.

Darrow didn’t appreciate Linc’s judgmental bullshit attitude and Linc hated the fact that Darrow fucked another table members wife. Yeah, Fitz was a filthy fucking rat, but Darrow fucked up big time. The club could have kidnapped Mara and tortured the shit out of her for information. Her death would have been some sense of relief for a second.

But nope. Darrow got involved…

And for that matter, Linc knew something was going on. Even a fucking blind person could see the way Darrow and Mara had been looking at each other.

“Go for it,VP,” Darrow said to Linc with a nod.

Showing respect for the order of command in the club, Darrow knew there was no chance of him throwing the firstpunch. Linc didn’t mind that at all. He tossed a quick punch, hitting Darrow on his upper lip, splitting it open. Darrow shook his head and growled loudly. He spit some blood on the ground.

“Now we’re talking,VP!” Darrow screamed. “Fuck yeah!”

Darrow returned the punch with one of his own, breaking open Linc’s nose with ease. The two outlaws then went punch for punch, as though it were some wildly choreographed stunt for an action movie. But it was far from it.

Each punch landed with a hard thud. Blood squirted and sprayed all round. From Darrow’s lip. His mouth. A cut under his left eye. From Linc’s nose. His right cheek. Both outlaws’ knuckles were torn up, raw and obviously bloody. Darrow’s white shirt was stained a red wine color from his blood and Linc’s.

“Come on!” Cyrus called out. “This isn’t some boxing match! Go for it! Get it out of your system!”

“Rip him apart, asshole!” Warren said, cupping his hands around his ancient mouth.

Darrow dropped his shoulder and went for Linc, picking him up and driving him into one of the benches. Linc reached to his left, grabbed a hammer and smashed it against Darrow’s right shoulder blade. For a second, Darrow couldn’t breathe and dropped down to one knee.

Linc swung his foot, hitting Darrow in the jaw. Stars appeared from nowhere as Darrow hit the ground. He blinked a few times and saw Linc standing over him with a hammer in his hand.

Linc swung and Darrow rolled out of the way. The hammer hit the concrete floor with a spark and a loudpingsound. Darrow jumped up and grabbed a chair and spun around, swinging it, hitting the front of Linc’s body.

“Prez,” Slade said. “Come on, brother. We don’t fight like this.”

“Today, we do.”

“Someone is going to get really hurt. Do we need another empty spot at the table right now?”

Darrow ran toward Linc and clotheslined theVPofSOFRAWto the hard, concrete floor. He then thrust his hand out and nodded at Linc to take it. Darrow pulled Linc back up to his feet and the two outlaws held up bloody fists.

They went back to throwing punches. Going punch for punch once again. All Darrow could taste was the iron flavor of his own blood. He returned each punch from Linc with one of his own, feeling his knuckles throbbing more and more.

Finally, both men threw a punch at the same time, hitting each other at the same time. They both froze in place for a second. Then they stumbled toward one another and collided, looking like two drunk dudes trying to hug. Their arms tangled up, Linc punching Darrow in the ribs, Darrow throwing his right shoulder up into Linc’s jaw.

“Okay, now they’re just dry humping each other,” Monte said.

“Stop the goddamn fight,” Cyrus said.

“Come on, brother,” Deed said to Linc, patting his back.

Monte pushed between Linc and Darrow and kept a hand at Darrow’s chest, making sure he backed off. The two outlaws stared each other down. Bloodied. Tired. Sweaty. Their hearts pounding inside their chests. It wasn’t like in some movie or TV show where the guys were clean-cut and ready to lift weights. Fighting drained a person. Every ounce of energy used up to stay alive.

Cyrus stepped forward and now stood between hisVPand the guy who handled all the tech stuff for the club.

“That’s the end of it,” Cyrus said. “Got it? No more fucking around with this shit. This club needs everyone as one. We have a bigger picture here, brothers. You good, Linc?”

“Yeah,” Linc said. “I’m good.”

“Darrow?” Cyrus asked.

“Yeah,” Darrow said.

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